"What's the trouble?" asked the Lieutenant, as he reached the bridge.
Trent withdrew his head from the hood-screen on the port side, and pointed to a couple of vertical red lights some distance ahead.
"Steamer broken down," he said; "thought it might be your bogey ship."
Lawless picked up the night glasses and gazed through them for some moments.
"It's the Black Diamond, right enough," he said. "Queer she should have a mishap right in our course, though!"
Trent laughed scornfully.
"I don't suppose they're hanging about there for fun," he observed. "If they were really up to any games, they wouldn't show the warning lights."
"That's just it," replied Lawless. "They know it would at once excite suspicion if they didn't show them." And he again studied the vessel through his glasses.
"Trent," he exclaimed suddenly, "did you see anything?"
The junior officer, although he had been gazing in the same direction as Lawless, had seen nothing of a startling character.