Dan's hand dropped to his side she looked at him with a quivering smile.

"I am going to be brave. I am not going to cry. Captain, tell me, is
my father safe, and my aunt--and the rest?"

"There is not the slightest question about that," replied Dan. "They
got overboard smartly. The lifeboats were steel, well manned and
supplied with provisions for a week. If they weren't picked up last
night by some steamship attracted by the fire, they will be within a
short time." The girl regarded him closely, as though trying to
determine whether he was speaking from conviction or merely to
dissipate her fears. Interpreting her expression, Dan shook his head
impatiently.

"I am sincere, Miss Howland. I have no more doubt of the safety of
your father and the others than I have that I am alive. The sea has
been comparatively smooth, the weather clear. Our situation is the one
to bother about."

"But some steamship will surely see us."

"I hope so, but remember we are on a derelict. Where we are, or where
we are going heaven only knows. Sometimes--there is no sense in trying
to avoid the truth--derelicts go for weeks and even months without
being sighted. Still, I don't think we shall. At night we'll have our
distress lights. We shall come out all right. In the meantime we may
not even have to be uncomfortable. Usually when men desert these
schooners they go in a hurry, leaving almost everything behind. I am
going to investigate affairs. Will you come? You may never have
another opportunity of this sort."

Dan's voice, at first grave, had gradually assumed a lighter tone, and
at the humorous allusion in the last sentence she smiled. Virginia was
a sensible girl, but it must be confessed that her position alone with
a man on a derelict in the middle of nowhere would have dazed a woman
who held even broader views of the ordinary conventions than she did.

As for the Captain, he evidently intended to accept the inevitable in a
matter-of-fact, common-sense way. There was nothing for her but to do
likewise. That he would be tactful and considerate in every way she
knew. And he would save her too, in the end. Something seemed to tell
her that. She smiled at him bravely.

"I think it will be fun, Captain! Lead on."

Their course aft was attended with difficulty. All along the deck was
a thick mass of wreckage, broken casks, boxes, sections of spars,
tattered canvas, and enough wire rope and other gear, i