If they had, then there must have been some sort of an encounter, and Pomp and Hartley feared for the safety of their friends.
Pomp worked like a Trojan to get the boat into working order again, for he knew the importance of at once going to the rescue of the lost ones.
But of a sudden the Aurelian seemed to be pulling up anchor and getting ready to sail away.
The cause of this move was for a time a mystery to Pomp and Hartley.
But the captain chanced to glance at the horizon, and cried:
“On my word, mate, I see the reason for it. Look yonder!”
Up from the southern horizon great masses of yellow clouds were piling up.
The sky had a brassy look, and the sea was lead-like.
“A storm, sah!”
“Yes!” cried the captain; “it is a storm coming up, and they mean to shift their position. Probably they will run for the protection of some cay near here. There is one on the western sea line. It is, I think, Miller’s Cay.”