"I thought so," he exclaimed, and turned a tap on a tube leading into the hood. In the instant darkness which ensued, the flare of another blue-light on the ridge above the ravine ashore produced a very weird and startling effect.
The engineer turned to Sallie.
"Gad!" said he, hurriedly, "but I'm glad to see you safe back on board. I was afraid that—Did you get your man?"
"Yes, we brought him off. He's here, behind," Sallie answered briefly, since there was so little time to explain anything. "But—what has gone wrong ashore, Mr. Brasse?"
"That second signal should mean that Captain Dove has been quite successful," said Brasse, a bitter note in his voice. "I expect he'll be back on board presently, too. So I'll get away below now and send some of my men on deck to help. I'll have to see your friend fixed up before the boats arrive. Have you explained to him—"
"Yes, he understands," she assured him, and, as the stranger followed the engineer silently from the bridge, she spoke to Yoxall again. He was leaning over the rail behind her, gazing over the side.
"What do you think has really happened, Rube?" she once more asked him. "It didn't look as if our men were winning."
"I wish I knew, lass," he repeated dully. "But—we'll know before very long, and—we can do nothing to help. So you'd better be off aft again, now, and seek some rest. I must see everything shipshape about the decks."
Sallie went slowly back to the poop, but she could not rest amid so many anxieties. It was not very long, however, before the regular plash of oars reached her ears where she was standing within the companion-hatch, under cover from the dew that the awning dripped. And in another minute Captain Dove's harsh voice hailed the ship.
"Show a light at the gangway, quick!" the old man shouted. "Muster all hands at the rails—and don't let a single son-of-a-gun on board you till I give the word."