“Huh!” exclaimed the skipper. “A boat.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Empty?”
“It looks so,” replied Mr. Hollister, and passed him the glass.
“Ain’t wuth picking up,” decided Cap’n Si, after a long look at the drifting boat.
He closed the glass. Mr. Hollister waved me down and turned to order the watch to work, when the man in the tops hailed again. He was in a better position to see into the drifting boat than anybody else.
“I see something moving in that boat, sir!”
“What do you see?” bawled Cap’n Si.
“It’s something fluttering—a flag, or a rag. There it is!”
There were light airs stirring. Suddenly something upon the broken mast moved. A flaw of wind fluttered something fastened there. Was it a signal of distress? Was some poor creature adrift in the half wrecked boat?