"He's still talking. I wish he'd
run away smiling."
He did finally. That is, he went off, but whether he was smiling they
couldn't say. They fancied, however, that he was not, for the _Catspaw_
would have made a nice prize for the tug's owners.
The tug plunged off the way she had come and was soon only a speck in
the gathering twilight. It seemed a bit more lonesome after she had
gone, and more than one of the quintette aboard the _Catspaw_ wondered
whether, after all, it might not have been the part of wisdom to have
accepted assistance. Darkness came early that evening, and by six the
lights on the _Adventurer_ and _Follow Me_ showed wanly across the
surly, shadowy sea. Han and Perry had already prepared the two lanterns
they had found on board and as soon as the cruisers set the fashion they
placed them fore and aft, one where it could be plainly seen from the
boats ahead and the other on the roof of the deck-house. While they were
at that task the darkness settled down rapidly, and by the time they had
finished the cruisers were only blotches against which shone the white
lights placed at the sterns for the guidance of the _Catspaw's_
navigators.
The boys ate their suppers in relays about half-past six.
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