"I should have thought you could do with one now, especially after the hard night we have gone through. Perhaps you are a believer in the French system, and prefer a light breakfast."
Brand finished the last morsel of biscuit and drank the cup dry.
"It's a first-rate proposition—when you are accustomed to it," said Pyne. "But talking about eating when there's little to eat is a poor business, anyway. Don't you find that?"
"I do indeed."
Brand rose and tapped the barometer, adjusting the sliding scale to read the tenths.
"Slightly better," he announced. "If only the wind would go down, or even change to the norrard!"
"What good would a change of wind do?" inquired Pyne, greatly relieved himself by the change of topic.
"It would beat down the sea to some extent and then they might be able to drift a buoy, with a rope attached, close enough to the rock at low tide to enable us to reach it with a cast of a grappling iron."
"Do you mean that we could be ferried to the steamer by that means?"
"That is absolutely out of the question until the weather moderates to a far greater extent than I dare hope at present. But, once we had the line, we could rig up a running tackle and obtain some stores."