The commander was impatient to hear the report of Captain Scott on his expedition, and the commander of the Maud was almost as impatient to learn what had delayed the ship; but fully an hour was spent at the table, for no one wished to break in upon the agreeable occasion. How he knew it he could not have told in detail; but the commander was satisfied, that something important had occurred in the experience of the young navigators, though not a word had yet been spoken, and he had failed to notice the ragged hole through the Maud's deck-house at the location of the galley.
He had expected to find the Fatimé near the little steamer; but though he had swept the bay with his spy-glass, he could not find her, for she was no longer visible. Probably she had fallen over on the rocky and irregular bottom, and that had carried even her short masts under water. As soon as the party rose from the table, Louis and Morris detached themselves from their mothers, and hastened to the commander's room, where they found Captain Scott and Felix.
"I don't see anything of the Fatimé in this bay," said Captain Ringgold, when he had closed and locked his doors.
"But she is there, sir," replied Scott mysteriously to the commander.
"Where? I looked the bay over with my glass, and I think if she were here I should have seen her," added Captain Ringgold.
"You could not see her where she is, Captain," replied Scott.
"Where is she, then?" demanded the commander.
"On the bottom, Captain Ringgold," said Captain Scott impressively.