“Garry, we’ve been through a lot of close calls since we left the orphanage,” Patch was saying, “but this looks like it, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t know, Patch. I just don’t know,” his friend replied with a troubled sigh. “It sure doesn’t look good. I won’t ever really give up hope, though. There’s still a chance that a rescue ship will come—maybe during the night.”
“But what if it doesn’t?” Patch asked. “What if it doesn’t come tonight or tomorrow—or the next night? How will we feel when we finally know that we won’t be saved?”
“You shouldn’t think like that, Patch. It’ll make you miserable. You’ve got to keep hoping, even when it doesn’t make sense,” Garry said.
“It’s funny about Ben,” Patch went on. “I mean about what he did. He meant to save us, but it’s turned out that he’s made it worse for us. It would have been better if we had crashed along with the Carefree, because then it would have been over quickly.”
“You know the saying, Patch: ‘Where there’s life there’s hope.’ And I believe that.”
Patch said no more, and before long Garry heard him snoring softly. This made Garry feel better, and presently he too fell asleep.
Garry and Patch woke the next morning to the sound of subdued voices around them. For a brief moment Garry wondered if help had come during the night. He searched the faces he saw, and quickly his hopes were dashed. Instead of happy faces, they were haggard ones that showed the lack of sleep, and there were no new faces among them.
“No one came last night, did they?” Patch asked Captain Eaton.
The skipper shook his head and tugged at his beard that, by now, had become scraggly and untidy looking. The others moved in close, and Garry noticed all at once that he and Patch were the center of attention. He had a feeling then that something important was about to be said.