'I can't rightly say, but seeing as the two gentlemen be asleep, I can't help thinking 'tis the Dutchman's.'
Grinson got up.
'If so be he was a landsman,' he said, 'he might be doing a beat like a bobby; but a seaman ought to know better.'
He walked to the left, then to the right, followed by Meek.
'Can't see the chap, nor hear him. What d' you make of it, Ephraim?'
'He can't have fell overboard--must have strayed. Give him a hail with your powerful voice, Mr. Grinson. Save us all! I forgot the cannibals! Don't holler, for mercy's sake!'
'I nearly did, but you 're right, Ephraim. I 'll report to the skipper, which I mean Mr. Trentham.'
'Eh--what? The Dutchman absent from his post?' said Trentham sleepily, when Grinson had roused him. 'Hoole, wake up!'
'Sure I haven't been asleep forty minutes yet,' said Hoole. 'And I gave Haan five minutes extra.'
'Where is Haan?'