“The pirate. Wait.”
“I’m waiting.”
“The fellow made his approach from behind, which would account for my not seeing him or his craft until he was right there, on the deck, so to speak, but I don’t think that would account for my not hearing him, do you?”
“You might have been dozing in your chair,” suggested Nick.
“Bosh! I was never wider awake in my life!”
“You were, doubtless, so absorbed in what you were thinking about that you paid no attention to your surroundings.”
“That’s all bosh, too. I was just as alert as I ever am. As I always am; and I’m not generally known as a sleeper, or a dreamer, either.”
“That’s quite true, Kane.”
“I was just as wide-awake as I am now. I was just as much on the alert as I am now. The night was so still, and the yacht and everything aboard of her was so silent, that I could have heard a tack drop, the whole length of the Goalong. But the fact remains, all the same, that I did not hear a sound.
“I was seated right here, in this position and in this same chair, looking off, as you observe, almost astern. The bow of the yacht was pointed toward the open Sound, for the tide was coming in.