darkness, from where the pier should be, voices were calling to him.

He turned on his back, floated, and listened.

"All right! All right!" he could distinguish from the babel. "No pay
now; pay bime by! Come back! Come back now; pay bime by!"

"No, thank you," he called back. "No pay at all. Good night."

Then he faced about in order to locate the _Annie Mine_. She was
fully a mile away, and in the darkness it was no easy task to get her
bearings. First, he settled upon a blaze of lights which he knew nothing
but a man-of-war could make. That must be the United States war-ship
_Lancaster_. Somewhere to the left and beyond should be the
_Annie Mine._ But to the left he made out three lights close
together. That could not be the schooner. For the moment he was
confused. He rolled over on his back and shut his eyes, striving to
construct a mental picture of the harbor as he had seen it in daytime.
With a snort of satisfaction he rolled back again. The three lights
evidently belonged to the big English tramp steamer. Therefore the
schooner must lie somewhere between the three lights and the
_Lancaster_. He gazed long and steadily, and there, very dim and
low, but at the point he expected, burned a single light--the
anchor-light of the _Annie Mine_.

And it was a fine swim under the starshine. The air was warm as the
water, and the water as warm as tepid milk. The good salt taste of it
was in his mouth, the tingling of it along his limbs; and the steady
beat of his heart, heavy and strong, made him glad for living.