“Are you sure?� she asked.
“Certain! Get back to the game. Don’t excite any suspicion. Find out what you can and keep me posted. We’re pals! I’m not going to stand for a pinch—if I can help it. You can give out later that I jumped overboard. I’ll leave some clothes on the deck. MacKeenon is not going to get me back to London. My one chance is to hide until you get the information concerning the glasses from Harry Raymond. Then we can breathe easier.â€�
“Get into the boat,� she whispered. “Stay there till I come. I did see the captain and a steward looking around the Ladies’ Saloon.�
“You better not go back then.�
“Yes, I must; perhaps I’ll discover the secret of glasses,� said Saidee Isaacs.
Fay waited until she had vanished in the mist. He reached upward for a second time, grasped a block and sprang to the rail. He cut two strands of rope-yarn, unreaved it, and climbed within the outswung boat. He drew close the flap of canvas. There were a water-keg and a box of ship’s biscuits, crammed among a full set of oars and paddles. He moved about and found a reclining place. He pillowed his head on a cross-seat which was as hard as the shelf he slept on in Dartmoor.
Time passed—perhaps thirty minutes. He had no mark of the hour. He puzzled his brain for some way out of the situation. There seemed none. The captain was most certainly searching for him. The stewards and deck-stewards had been notified.
The wireless operator was undoubtedly in touch with the shore stations as well as with Great Britain.
The ship would touch at Stavanger for a brief period. It would be daylight or nearly so, unless the fog thickened. Fay saw scant chance of getting ashore. He had the silver greyhound, but this insignia might prove an identification mark instead of a passport.
The monotonous blare of the fog-horn, forward, and the occasional blast from the deep-throated siren held his nerves at the breaking strain. He was cramped, cold and bitter. Footsteps along the deck served to irritate him. He wanted to smoke and feared the consequences.