The beam started again. "First Lieutenant to Lieutenant Ching (full stop). Captain has——" They were repeating the signal, but then the beam disappeared entirely, and we could see a white wall of fog creeping along the ground, and even swallowing up the trees underneath us.
"They ought to be here soon," Mr. Ching said, "if only they can find their way."
He sent a man round with the news, and we could hear his bluejackets making a funny cheering noise.
I felt ever so much better, and simply being able to take in that signal, and be of a little use, cheered me up wonderfully. It was so grand to know that the Captain had landed with so many men and was coming to our rescue. I knew he would come just as quickly as he ever could, and oh! I did so long to see him, whether he was angry or not, and to tell him that it wasn’t the Commander’s fault—not in the least, and to know that Sally and all of us should be safe.
"Does Mr. Hoffman know?" I asked Miller. Mr. Ching had sent me down again, and had come down too, see how his men were going on.
"He’s been dead this last hour, sir." He was dead when we had to come back to the house, and we dragged him in after us.
I did feel so sorry, because we should never have found where Sally was but for him, and he had done so magnificently; and I knew that the Captain would be so sorry too, especially as Mr. Hoffman had beaten him at weight lifting.
"You go and get some more sleep," Mr. Ching told me; but I felt so much better, that I implored him to let me stay with him, and he did.
"We are doing all right, aren’t we, sir?"
"So far; but this fog makes it difficult for us to see them, and I fear they may try and rush us. We have not much ammunition left."
We went all round the house, and he spoke very cheerfully to all his men. They were at all the windows with their rifles pointing out, and peering into the fog. One or two men were wounded, and sitting with their backs to the wall.
"I am going to tell the news to Hobbs and his daughter," Mr. Ching said, when we had come to that end of the house. I had been going to ask him if I could do this, but he said it so curtly, that I thought he wanted to do it by himself, so didn’t go with him.
"You have a lot of blood on your face, sir," I told him. "I hope you aren’t hurt much."