Part 15 (2/2)
”Let ratulate you,” she cried, her cheekswith exciteh all those awful reefs and things! No; youNext to Providence, Captain Courtenay, e our lives to you”
Courtenay felt it would hurt her were he to smile at her earnestness
But he did say:
”Surely it is not so very reuard the shi+p and such of her passengers and crew as survive last night's ordeal”
”I know that quite well Even I would have striven to help whenis that you should have guessed an unknown track in the dark; that you should actually be able to guide a helpless shi+p through waters so full of dangers that it would be folly to venture in their ht and with full steam-power”
Then Courtenay took off his sou'wester, and bowed
”I had no idea I had such expert critics on board Is it you, Christobal, who has followed the shi+p's course so closely?”
”Not I,what I feel, indeed, but could not have expressed as admirably Our silent friend, Tollemache, is the man who observes I was so aht his So I took the liberty of arousing Miss Maxwell froht it best not to disturb you by appearing on the bridge until you had done everything you had planned”
”I shall never understand how I ca very tired; I sat down for aI heard was a rapping onme hurry if I would see the entrance to the harbor”
The two hed, so pleasantly that it was good to hear
”Yet there was I up aloft,the shi+p in the firalley,” said he
”Ah, we have news for you,” cried Elsie ”One of the poor felloas knocked on the head during that terrible fight for the boats was the master cook himself He is better now, and breakfast can be ready in five o and tell him”
She ran off, and Joey scampered by her side, for he knew quite here the kitchen lay
”Bro Elsie until she had disappeared Then he turned to Courtenay
”I suppose you have seen nothing of the boats?”
”No sign whatever And I could hardly have missed them if they were here They h for a time, and the _Kansas_ scraped past so many reefs that it was almost impossible for each of the three boats to have done the same”
”Even if one or more of them reached land, there is small likelihood that they would turn up in this particular bay?”
”That is true, especially if they used their sails The Chileans who got away in the life-boats would know sufficient of the coast to endeavor toinstructions to Malcolm were to keep to the north all the ti and the others had not left us,”
said Christobal sadly
Courtenay was about to say so, but checked himself He was not blind to the aspect of affairs which Tolleht yet be that those who remained had more to endure
Then Elsie summoned them to breakfast, which was served on deck, as the saloon had been te down, Courtenay paid a brief visit to Mr Boyle
Christobal told him not to allow the woundedessential But Boyle's pallid face lit up so brightly when the captain stood by his side that it was hard not to indulge hi as ever ”Christobal was not huht Where are we?”
”In a small bay on the east of Hanover Island I have not taken any observations yet, and there is no hurry, old chap You 'll be out and about long before we ain”