“Why,” he exclaimed, “here is the cleat of the signal halliards come away with a piece of the taffrail, and we’ll have enough rope to form all the lashings we want. Isn’t that lucky?”
The young middy was handy enough in sailors’ ways through his two years’ experience of the sea; and—Jonathan aiding him under his direction—in a short time the loose timbers were lashed firmly together as a framework, with the roof of the wheelhouse fastened on the top, forming altogether a substantial platform, on which the two boys found themselves elevated a clear foot or more out of the water, and free from the cold wash of the waves, which was beginning to turn them blue.
“There,” exclaimed David, “now we’re comfortable, and can wait in patience till the ship overhauls us; she can’t be long now.”
Watching with eager eyes they saw the Sea Rover coming towards them, after a long, long while, as it seemed to them; but ere she had reached them, in spite of their shouts and hand-wavings, which they fancied must have been seen and heard on board, she went round on the other tack, and disappeared from their view, to their bitter disappointment and grief.
It was David now who was hopeful still. Jonathan seemed to have lost all that courage which had inspired him to leap into the sea to his friend’s rescue, and was trembling with fear and hopeless despair.
The next time the Sea Rover came in sight, she was further off, and appeared to be sailing away from them, although they could see her tack about in the distance several times, as if searching for them still.
Then it gradually got darker, and night came on, enveloping them in a curtain of hazy mist that seemed to rest on the water, through which they could see far off the blue lights that were burnt on board the ship to show their whereabouts, although they were useless to them, as they could not reach her.
Even David began to lose hope now, but he still encouraged his companion.
“They’ll not desert us, old fellow,” he said, with a heartiness which he by no means felt. “The captain will lie-to, and will pick us up in the morning.”
Jonathan was not attending to his words, however. He was shivering and shaking as if he had the ague, and David could hear his teeth chatter together with the cold, although the wind had gone down somewhat, and the sea no longer broke over them.