"But what did your commander do?" cried the old sailor, interrupting.

"Tell me that!"

"Why, sir, he sent word round to all our stations and down to the Dockyard, and he's telegraphed likewise to the h'island so as how there'll be a strict look-out kep' all round the coast for the poor lads."

"I am very much obliged to you, h.e.l.lyer, and to the commander as well,"

said the Captain as he and Mr Strong turned away mournfully, retracing their steps back to "the Moorings." "I'm afraid we can do nothing more now."

No, nothing more could be done then.

The morning brought no news to gladden their hearts or brighten their hopes.

Matters, indeed, looked worse than had been expected.

For, as the day wore on, reports reached the Dockyard from the different coastguard-stations along the eastern and western coast of the mainland and from the Isle of Wight, whence a strict look-out had been kept on the approaches to Spithead and the adjacent waters of the Channel.

These reports were all to the same effect.

Not a trace had been seen of the missing boat; nor anything heard of Bob and d.i.c.k.

It was the same the following day, nothing likewise being then reported; although the search had been redoubled and one of the Government tugs sent out from the harbour to scour the offing.

Hope now gave way to despair before the certainty that stared them in the face, putting possibility beyond doubt.

Everybody believed the boat had been swamped, or run down in the fog, and that Bob and d.i.c.k were drowned!

Poor boys!

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

A SEA-FOG.

"Now," said Bob to himself, when he got down to the beach after a sharp run across the common, "I must be as spry as possible with my swim, or else I shall be too late for the boat, as dad said I would be, for I really haven't got much time to spare!"

Unfortunately, however, at the very outset, poor Bob met with obstacles that prevented this praiseworthy intention being effectively carried out. In the first place, d.i.c.k, with whom he had always bathed in company since their first involuntary dip together off the castle rampart on the first evening of their arrival at Southsea, was not at their usual trysting-place. Not only that, he was nowhere to be seen in the neighbourhood of the sh.o.r.e.

"I wonder where he can be?" said Bob, continuing his soliloquy in a very disjointed frame of mind, after looking in every direction fruitlessly, and calling out d.i.c.k's name in vain. "I wonder where he can be? The Captain did not say he wasn't to come with us this morning!"

At last, after wasting some precious minutes thus waiting, he began undressing very slowly, instead of in the usual brisk manner in which he was in the habit of peeling off his clothes, running a race with d.i.c.k to see who would get into the water first.

Then, at length, he plunged in to take his swim in a very half-hearted fashion, going in reluctantly and coming out in the same undecided way; while, to make matters worse and further protract his loitering, just as he was beginning to dress again, a nasty spiteful bloodhound, which was prowling by the sh.o.r.e, made a most unprovoked attack on Rover, necessitating his going to his rescue with a big stone--Master Bob hopping up to the scene of action "with one shoe off and one shoe on,"

like the celebrated "John" the hero of the nursery rhyme!

Rover was not quite a match for the brute that a.s.sailed him; but with Bob's help, not omitting the big stone, the two "routed the enemy with great slaughter," the bloodhound fleeing away ignominiously with his tail between his legs, and Rover raising a paean of victory in the shape of a defiant bark as he retreated.

Still, the episode consumed a few more minutes of valuable time; so when Bob had hopped back again to where he had left his clothes to complete his toilet, and then raced down to the pier, it was not only past the hour fixed for the Southampton steamer to start, but she was already well on her way.

In fact, she was just then rounding Gillkicker Point, which juts out from Stokes Bay, bearing away on board her, his father and mother and Nell, besides the Captain and Mrs Gilmour; and not only that, leaving him behind!

Bob did not know how to contain himself.

He was too manly to cry; although he felt a big lump in his throat which made him take several short swallows without gulping anything down; while, strangely enough, something seemed to get in his eyes, for a moment preventing him from seeing anything seaward but a.s.sort of hazy mist as he stood listlessly by the head of the pier, trying vainly to discern the excursion-boat, now fast disappearing in the distance!

Presently, however, after remaining there awhile, staring at nothing, the Captain's favourite maxim occurred to his mind-- "What's done can't be helped"; and coming to the conclusion that there was no use in his stopping on the pier any longer, since the steamer had left, and there was no possibility of his being able to join the others, he determined to bend his steps in the direction of the coastguard-station, with the hope of finding h.e.l.lyer there to cheer his drooping spirits.

Bob's fates, though, appeared singularly unpropitious for him this morning; for on his arriving anon at the little cabin beyond the castle, which was the Captain's regular trysting-place, lo, and behold, a strange man was there, who told him that h.e.l.lyer was "off duty," and it would not be his turn "on" again until late in the afternoon. Here was another misfortune!

But there was "balm in Gilead" in store for Bob; for, hardly had the long face that he pulled on learning the unwelcome news of h.e.l.lyer's absence merged again into the ordinary round contour with which his friends were familiar, than, whom should he see coming along the beach, only a little way off, but--who should you think? Why, d.i.c.k!

Yes, he had been into Portsmouth, he explained, to take a letter to the Dockyard for the Captain; and now, also in pursuance of the old sailor's orders, he was about going off to the cutter, which lay at her moorings abreast of the coastguard-station, and only about a cable's length out, so as to be within easy reach, so that they could haul her up on the shingle in the event of any sudden shifting wind rendering her anchorage unsafe.

Bob at once flew to him with open arms, so to speak; and so did Rover too, the sagacious animal always reflecting his young master's moods, and having turned as woebegone as a naturally cheerful dog could be since he noticed Bob's being mopey, he had now resumed his proper tone of bark and mien, wagging his tail at the sight of d.i.c.k and thus reciprocating Bob's feelings.

"Hullo, d.i.c.k!" said the latter, when the young yachtsman had approached near enough for them to speak without getting to each other. "What are you going to do aboard?"

"To clean out the yacht ready for another trip, Master Bob. The Cap'en told me to get her done afore he come back."

"That's jolly!" exclaimed Bob, brightening up at the prospect of some sort or any sort of expedition in lieu of the one he had missed. "May I come with you?"

"Ees, sure-ly, Master Bob," returned d.i.c.k. "But how comes it you bain't a-gone wi' the Cap'en and t'others?"

Bob did not like any allusion to this delicate subject.

"I was too late," he said abruptly, changing the conversation at once.

"How are you going off to the cutter, I see she has got the dinghy towing behind, eh?"

"P'r'aps I'm a-going to swim out to her," replied d.i.c.k, with a grin.

"What say you to that, Master Bob, hey?"

"If you do, I will too," retorted Bob; "although I've had my dip already, and very lonesome it was. Why didn't you come down this morning?"

"I sang out to you jist now, sir, as how I had to take a letter for the Cap'en, who told me as he didn't think you'd have time to bathe afore starting for the steamer."

"I thought I had--and missed it!" said Bob ruefully. "But you're not going really to swim out to the cutter now, d.i.c.k, eh?"

"No, no, Master Bob," cried d.i.c.k, his grin expanding into a laugh. "I were only a-joking. There's a waterman just shoving down his wherry as will put us off to her. Hi, ahoy, there!"

"Hi, hullo!" also shouted out Bob; but the two only succeeded in ultimately attracting the attention of old Barney the boatman, who was rather deaf, and required a deal of hallooing before noticing any one, by setting on Rover with a "Hi, catch him, sir!"

This rather exasperated old Barney at first. However, after some violent explanations they were grudgingly given a pa.s.sage out to the anch.o.r.ed yacht, Barney grumbling at doing it for nothing!

Rover was not included in the bargain; for, he disdained adventuring his valuable person in a small row-boat, no inducement being ever strong enough to persuade him so to do. He was quite satisfied to swim out after the boys had started off in the wherry, being lugged subsequently on board the cutter by his legs and tail as soon as they fetched alongside.

For some little time after Bob and d.i.c.k got on board, both were very busy, Bob dipping overboard a bucket that had a "becket" of rope for a handle, and a longer rope bent on to this with which he proceeded to haul the bucket up again, full of sea-water, wherewith he sluiced the decks fore and aft thoroughly; while d.i.c.k, on his part, scrubbed the planks with a piece of "holystone," then adroitly drying them with a mop, which he could twirl now, after a little experience, with all the dexterity of an old salt!

When the little cutter was thus presently made "a-taunto" by their mutual exertions, they sat down to rest for awhile, d.i.c.k sharing his luncheon of bread-and-cheese with Bob, who, of course, had long since consumed the slices of bread-and-b.u.t.ter he had brought out with him for his breakfast.