CHAPTER VIII
THE ALARM
It was still dark when the captain woke, and he struck a match to look at his watch. It was three o'clock.
"Is that you, captain?" said a voice from the next room. "Is it time for you to begin watch again?"
"Yes," said the captain, "it is about time. How do you happen to be awake, Miss Markham? Ralph! I believe the boy is snoring."
"Of course he is," said Edna, speaking in a low voice. "We cannot expect such a boy to keep awake, and so I have been on watch. It was easy enough for me to keep my eyes open."
"It is too bad," said the captain, and then, listening for a moment, he said: "I truly believe that Maka is snoring, too, and as for that black fellow over there, I suspect that he sleeps all the time. Miss Markham, you have been the only person awake."
"Why shouldn't I be?" said she. "I am sure that a woman is just as good as a man for keeping watch."
"If they should come," thought the captain, as he again sat in the dark, "I must not try to fight them in the passage. That would have been my best
63
