"Stop that noise!" Darius whispered harshly. "You're not even to breathe loud from this out, an' walkin' across the deck will make trouble with me for the man or lad who does it."
Thus it was that each fellow felt obliged to remain wherever he stood when the order had been given. We could well understand the reason for such caution, and were not disposed to go contrary to the command.
I peered into the gloom intently, hoping I might distinguish the shadows of the trees ashore; but it was impossible, and from that moment I remained with my eyes shut, as one involuntarily does when the blackness is intense.
How slowly the time passed! I tried to get some idea of the minutes by counting up to sixty, allowing that number of seconds had gone by; but failed in so doing because my anxiety was so great that I did not keep the reckoning.
It seemed as if an hour had fled, although the current should have carried us among the fleet in less than half that time, when I was startled by hearing a voice close by my side, apparently.
"It's a bloomin' nasty night, matey."
"Right you are," was the reply. "It's jest my luck to be muckin' 'round here when the lads from the other ships are havin' high jinks in one of the Yankee cities."
Then it was that I realized we were within a few yards of a ship, and by some stroke of good fortune had missed fowling her.
It surely seemed as if they must see us, although I could not make out even a shadow of her, strain my eyes as I might, and in case we were discovered, the end would come very rapidly, as I then believed.
From that moment it was as if I did not breathe, so fearful was I of giving some alarm which would betray our whereabouts.