"No."
"Then how—"
"Better wait till you're a bit stronger, sir," Jack suggested as the captain hesitated.
"I'm all right now," he insisted as he raised his head from the boy's lap.
Seeing that he was determined to sit up Jack helped him to the seat on which he had been sitting.
"Now suppose you tell me about it," he said.
"Well, there isn't much to tell," Jack began. "When you didn't come back we went to find you and—and found you."
"But where were the two mates? Did they get back before you left?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, why didn't they go?"