Everybody was wide awake. Everybody wanted to know what the matter was. And everybody was looking at the helmsman who was peering out at sea.
It was Gilliland. He turned a strange, scared face to the others in the cutter, and:—"The long-boat's not in sight!" said he.
Somebody let out an oath. And every eye stared wildly over the sea. It was quite true. Not a speck, not a streak we saw upon the ocean—the long-boat had disappeared!
"God in heaven!" ejaculated the first mate. "She must have capsized in the night!"
"And if we don't capsize, we'll starve," said the doctor, "for she had all our provisions on board!"
There was an awful silence for just three minutes. Then the man who had sworn before shot out another oath. Hookway began to rave like a madman. Evans burst into sobs. Davis began to swear horribly, and cursed Gilliland for putting the provisions in the other boat.
It was terrible.
Suddenly Sylvia's voice rose trembling above the babel, quaveringly she struck up the refrain of the sailor's hymn:
"O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea."
"God bless you, miss!" cried Gilliland. And taking up the tune, he dashed into the first verse: