Then the dim figure is seen going up the shrouds; but he is not quite up at the cross-trees, when the voice of John of Skye is heard again.
"Mr. Sutherland!
"All right, John!" and the dusky figure comes stumbling down and across the loose sheets on deck.
"If ye please, sir," says John of Skye; and the well-known formula means that Angus Sutherland is to take the helm. Captain John goes forward to the bow: the only sound around us is the surging of the unseen waves.
"I hope you are not frightened, Miss Avon," says Mr. Smith, quite cheerfully; though he is probably listening, like the rest of us, for the sullen roaring of breakers in the dark.
"No—I am bewildered—I don't know what it is all about."
"You need not be afraid," Angus Sutherland says to her, abruptly, for he will not have the Youth interfere in such matters, "with Captain John on board. He sees better in a fog than most men in daylight."
"We are in the safe keeping of one greater than any Captain John," says the Laird, simply and gravely: he is not in any alarm.
Then a call from the bow.
"Helm hard down, sir!"