Then Captain Eph pulled vigorously and in silence, Sidney steering to the best of his ability with one of the heavy oars, and the little craft rose and fell with an uneasy motion on the rising sea.
"There's the wreck!" Sidney cried as he swung the dory around, and Captain Eph turned quickly to look, as he asked huskily:
"See anythin' of Sammy?"
"He must be under the forecastle deck working, and perhaps doesn't know that the boat went adrift," Sidney replied, as he searched in vain with his eyes for some sign of the first assistant.
There was an expression of deepest anxiety on Captain Eph's face as he labored yet more energetically at the oars; but not a word was spoken until the dory was as near the hulk as was safe while the waves were running so high.
Then it was the old keeper shouted again and again at the full strength of his lungs, Sidney growing pale with fear as the hail remained unanswered.
"He ain't there, Sonny, he ain't there!" Captain Eph cried in a tearful tone as he turned toward the lad.
"But where can he be?" Sidney cried in an agony of fear.
"The good Lord knows, an' we'll pray that He may guide us toward him!" the keeper said as he raised his sou'wester reverentially. "It's our business to find out what has happened, if so be we can. I reckon we'd best pull 'round to the other side of the hulk, an' if needs be I'll go aboard."
"Are you afraid he may have got hurt, an' can't answer the hail?" Sidney asked in a tremulous voice.