"Let us thank Providence he is saved."
It was the professor who spoke. His words made a deep impression upon Jack. After all, it might only have been his fancy. It seemed like a wild dream to imagine that Dampier and Walstein could have——
A sudden deluge of brilliant light encompassed those on the bridge of the tossing Sea Ranger. It was the searchlight from the hitherto lightless tug. For an instant the brilliant effulgence bathed them, and then it vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.
While they were still wondering what could have been the reason of the sudden illumination, there was a crash right above Jack's head, and a shower of glass fell about him. At the same instant, above the screaming of the storm, could be heard the sharp report of a firearm of some kind.
The men on the tug, for some inscrutable reason, had seen fit to shiver the Sea Ranger's searchlight with a bullet.
"It wasn't any mistake of mine," flashed out Jack; "nobody but Dampier or Walstein would have been guilty of such a trick."
Evidently those on the tug were not anxious to be observed. The mere fact that they risked being abroad without lights on such a night showed that. The shivering of the Sea Ranger's searchlight only added emphasis to the mysterious character of the craft.
"Let us pursue them," urged the professor.
"Yes, let's get after them," echoed Sandy. "Puir Tom is in bad hands, I'm thinking."
"How on earth are we going to pursue them?" gasped out Jack, whose pulses were throbbing with indignation, "even if we could sight them in the darkness, they are faster than we."