Anon, the singular and most unwonted silence that reigned around her, the absence of all sounds in the cabin, roused her at last to external objects.
She looked out of the little state-room in which her father lay; the cabin was empty; Morley, Bartelot, Captain Phillips, and all were gone!
She looked at her watch; the time was a quarter to twelve. Midnight was at hand.
New and vague terrors seized her; she ran to her own cabin, and found Rose still asleep beside their old nurse.
"Morley!" cried Ethel, in great alarm; "Morley! where are you?"
But the cabin was dark; she received no answer, and heard no sound but the regulated clatter of the rudder in its case, and the wind whistling drearily through the mizzentop.
Ere this a great change had taken place on board the Hermione; but the relation of what had occurred deserves a chapter to itself.
CHAPTER IX.
THE QUARTER-BOAT AND ITS FREIGHT.
The silence below was caused simply by the circumstance—a somewhat unusual one now—of all her friends being on deck.