“Just now. They’re putting tarpaulins over it now. If we dropped it, we’d be in a bad fix, eh, Billy?”
“We’d have about coal enough left for two or three days,” rejoined Raynor.
“And after that——?”
“It would be a case of ‘merrily we drift along.’”
The door gave a sudden sharp slam. A puff of wind, sweeping suddenly over the hitherto breathless sea, had banged it shut.
Jack jumped up and swung it quickly open again.
“Here she comes,” he cried excitedly.
At the same instant the Sea Gypsy gave a sidelong lurch that sent both lads helter-skelter across the cabin. Outside came a sudden bawling of voices and a distant, disquieting roar that grew louder every second.