They paused at
the top and looked back; Stone-pen Quay was still laughing.

Moved by a common idea of their personal safety, they struck inland,
preferring an additional mile or two to encountering Dick. Conversation
was at a discount, and they plodded on sulkily along the dusty road,
their lips parched and their legs aching.

They got back to the _Seamew_ at seven o'clock, and greeting Henry, who
was in sole charge, with fair words and soothing compliments, persuaded
him to make them some tea.

"Where's Dick?" inquired Sam casually as he sat drinking it.

"Ain't seen 'im since dinner," said the boy. "I thought he was with you
p'raps."

Sam shook his head, and finishing his tea went on deck with the cook,
and gave himself up to all the delights of a quiet sprawl. Fatigued with
their exertions, neither of them moved until nine o'clock, and then,
with a farewell glance in the direction in which Dick might be expected
to come, went below and turned in.

They left the lamp burning, to the great satisfaction of Henry, who was
reading, and, as ten o'clock struck somewhere in the town, exchanged
anxious glances across the foc'sle concerning Dick's safety. Safe and
warm in their bunks, it struck both of them that they had been perhaps
a little bit selfish. Half an hour later Henry looked up suddenly as
something soft leaped on to the deck above and came pattering towards
the foc'sle. The next moment his surprise gave way to indignation, and
he raised his voice in tones of expostulation which Mrs. Grundy herself
would have envied.

"Dick!" he cried shrilly. "Dick!"

"Shut up!" said Dick fiercely as he flung himself panting on a locker.
"O my Lord, I have had a time!"

"I'm surprised at you," said Henry severely, as he dragged some blankets
from the bunks and threw them over the exhausted seaman. "Where's your
modesty, Dick?"

"If you say another word I'll knock yer ugly little head off!" said
Dick wrathfully. "If I hadn't been modest I should have come home by
daylight. Oh, I have had a time! I have had a time!"

"Where's your clothes?" inquired Henry.

"How the devil should I know?" snapped the other. "I left 'em on the
beach while I went for a swim, and when I comeback they'd gone. I've
been sittin' on that damned cold shingle since three o'clock this
arternoon, and not a soul come near me! It's the first time I've been
lookin' for Cap'n Gething, and it'll be the last."

"Oh, you've been at it, 'ave yer!" sai