“You right, you right! Hurray! Hiko boto, cli jara. You see ship after all. Hurray! You bully boy. No sleep, but see ship all the time. You are great peach. Hurray!”
“I knew he was right all the time,” exclaimed Toggles.
“So did I,” chimed in little Nanny.
“The first luff was evidently of a different opinion,” said Clif, grimly. “But what can be the matter aboard that ship, and what is she?”
“There is something wrong on board,” spoke up Joy. “Those screams were horrible. My blood is running cold. Yet—look! there she is again!”
He pointed excitedly to leeward, where, dimly visible through the lightening mist, was the peculiar craft with which the Monongahela had just been in collision.
She lurched and pitched and rolled with the wild irresponsible motion of a vessel at the mercy of the waves. The dawn was not far enough advanced to enable those on board the practice ship to distinguish more than vague outlines.
Every glass on board was directed toward the strange craft as soon as it was ascertained that little damage had been done the Monongahela by the collision, but nothing indicating the presence of human beings on board could be seen.
Clif and his friends were wild with curiosity, but not more so than their shipmates. The peculiar experiences of the night, the sighting and sudden disappearance of the stranger, the collision, and above all those weird, half-human cries, had created intense interest.
The captain, Lieutenant Watson and other officers were gathered in the gangway near where the carpenter and his assistants were making hasty repairs.