And
so he did his best not to think about it, but he didn't always succeed.
On the whole it was a very miserable three hours that he spent on
lookout duty that night. Once Bert crawled forward and shared his
loneliness, but didn't remain very long, preferring the partial shelter
of the house. No one was ever much gladder to see the sky lighten in the
east than was Perry that morning. But even when a grey dawn had settled
over the ocean the surroundings were not much more cheerful. As Wink
said, it was a bit better to drown by daylight than to do it in the
dark, but, aside from the fact that the _Catspaw_ was still afloat,
there wasn't much to be thankful for.
One of the cruisers was barely visible off to the northward, but the
other was nowhere in sight. The grey-green waves looked mountain-high
when seen from the water-washed deck of the _Catspaw_, and the wind,
while seeming to have passed its wildest stage, still blew hard. There
was no sight of land in any direction and Joe pessimistically decided
that they were then some forty miles at sea and about off the Isles of
Shoals. Soon after the sun had come up, somewhere behind the leaden
clouds, they sighted a brig to the southward. She was hardly hull-up and
was making her way under almost bare yards toward the west.
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