When the fog lifted after midnight the people in the long-boat
saw the quarter-boat half a mile to starboard of them.

"Can you see the dinghy?" asked Lestrange of the captain, who
was standing up searching the horizon.

"Not a speck," answered Le Farge. "DAMN that Irishman! but for
him I'd have got the boats away properly victualled and all; as it
is I don't know what we've got aboard. You, Jenkins, what have
you got forward there?"

"Two bags of bread and a breaker of water," answered the
steward.

"A breaker of water be sugared!" came another voice; "a breaker
half full, you mean."

Then the steward's voice: "So it is; there's not more than a couple
of gallons in her."

"My God!" said Le Farge. "DAMN that Irishman!"

"There's not more than'll give us two half pannikins apiece all
round," said the steward.

"Maybe," said Le Farge, "the quarter-boat's better stocked; pull
for her."

"She's pulling for us," said the stroke oar.