gasped Manners. "It cannot be that--and yet it looks
like it--is it possible, Tom, that the skipper has not returned--that he
is at sea on the raft in this awful gale?"

"I'm blest if it don't look uncommon like it, sir," is Nicholls' reply,
uttered in a tone of desperate conviction. "Tell ye what 'tis, sir," he
continued, as he hastily proceeds to don a garment or two, slipping his
bare feet into his shoes as he does so, "I'm off down to the creek to
see if the punt is there. If she ain't, you may depend on't she's
ridin' at the raft's moorin's--if she ain't swamped--and that the raft's
at sea, with the poor skipper aboard of her. The Lord have mercy on him
if it is so, that's all I says."

"Stop a moment; I will go with you," says Manners, also hastily
dressing; "but before we go we had perhaps better inquire of Mr Gaunt
or the doctor whether they know anything about him; they are certain to
be awake."

A minute later the two men are groping their way along the wall of the
court-yard toward the door of Gaunt's room, in which they can perceive a
light. Manners knocks, and instantly receives the response:

"Yes. Who is there?"

"Manners and Nicholls, sir. Do you know anything about the captain, Mr
Gaunt? He is not with us, and his bunk has not been slept in to-night."

"Stay where you are, I will be out in a moment," is the reply. And
almost in the short space of time named Gaunt emerges.

"Now, then," he demands, somewhat sternly, "what is it you say about the
captain? Surely I cannot have heard you aright?"

"Indeed I am afraid, sir, you did," answers Manners, by this time in a
state of deep distress as the conviction forces itself upon him that the
skipper really is missing.

"I said, sir, that the captain is not with us, and that his bunk has not
been slept in to-night."

"Then God help him, for I fear he is beyond all human aid!" ejaculates
the engineer hoarsely. "Have you been down to the creek yet?" he
continues.

"No, sir," says Manners; "we were about to go down there, but I thought
it best to speak to you first."

"Quite right," assents Gaunt; "I will go with you."

The engineer re-enters his room, hastily explains the situation to Mrs
Gaunt, and then, returning, leads the way up the staircase to the roof;
that, it will be remembered, being the only mode of exit from the
building.

It is not until the trio reach this comparatively exposed situation that
they at all realise the stre