The last sentence trailed off almost into an incoherent whisper. Willis was asleep again.
Hayes lay awake listening for quite another half-hour; then, dimly conscious once or twice that the intermittent gnawing was going on, he too fell into a deep sleep.
Suddenly the silence of the confined space was rent by a frenzied yell, followed by a heavy double crash. In an instant every Sea Scout was awake, and a scene of utter confusion followed as the lads barged into each other and tripped over the writhing bodies of their comrades on the floor.
Roused by the uproar the two Scoutmasters hastened from the after-cabin, Mr. Armitage going through the engine-room and by the sliding door leading to the fo'c'sle, while Mr. Graham gained the deck, went for'ard, and reached the hatchway to the Sea Scouts' sleeping quarters.
Simultaneously both Scoutmasters flashed their electric torches upon the scene.
"Pull yourselves together, lads!" exclaimed Mr. Armitage firmly, although he was quite at a loss to account for the chaotic state of the fo'c'sle. "Patrol, alert!"
The order had the desired effect. The Scouts' equivalent to the military "'Shun" was obeyed with an alacrity that would have earned the approbation of the strictest regimental sergeant-major. Promptly the lads "sorted themselves out" and stood still, blinking solemnly at the dazzling cross-rays of the two Scoutmasters' torches.
"Tell me what you know of this business, Woodleigh," continued Mr. Armitage, addressing the Patrol Leader.
"I hardly know anything, sir," replied Woodleigh, conscious of a steadily rising bump on his forehead and a pair of barked elbows. "Something disturbed me. I sat up and barged my head on the deck-beam. Then my hammock gave way and I cannoned off Desmond on top of somebody else."
"It was my fault, sir," declared Desmond. "Some of us were talking about rats before I went to sleep, and I must have dreamt that a rat was nibbling my toe. I remember sitting up and shouting out and bumping the under side of Woodleigh's cot with my head. Then Woodleigh's cot-lashings carried away, and he rolled out on top of me."