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Yes, he had been into Portsmouth, he explained, to take a letter to the Dockyard for the Captain; and now, also in pursuance of the old sailor's orders, he was about going off to the cutter, which lay at her moorings abreast of the coastguard-station, and only about a cable's length out, so as to be within easy reach, so that they could haul her up on the shingle in the event of any sudden shifting wind rendering her anchorage unsafe.
But, in spite of her smallness of size, she appeared to have the making of a good sea boat in her, and gained many admirers amongst the Southsea watermen as they surveyed her at her new moorings; the little craft being anchored off the coastguard-station and placed now under the charge of Hellyer, when the Captain was not immediately looking after her himself.
At the coastguard-station they found Hellyer standing by the flagstaff, with his telescope under his left arm and evidently on duty. "Not much damage done to her hull yet, sir," said he, touching his hat, as he thus anticipated the Captain's inquiry. "She were all awash, though, sir, at high-water this morning!" "Indeed!" cried Captain Dresser.
"I've never set eyes on Master Bob since he went out to bathe before you did, mum, this morning!" "I wonder where the young rascal is?" sang out the Captain in a jovial sort of way, to allay the alarm of the others and hide his own uneasiness. "You'd better get inside out of the damp all of you while I go off to the coastguard-station.
We'll soon bring back our young truant!" So saying, he and the Captain, followed by Rover with drooping tail, started for the coastguard-station on the beach. However, on getting there, their fears, instead of being dispelled, were, on the contrary, alarmingly heightened!
Bob bent his steps towards the coastguard-station on the eastern side of the sea-wall, near the new pier, which was the regular meeting-place for him and Dick every morning for their bathe; and here, punctually at "six Bells," or seven o'clock, he found on the present occasion his fellow- swimmer along with the Captain.
Presently, however, after remaining there awhile, staring at nothing, the Captain's favourite maxim occurred to his mind "What's done can't be helped"; and coming to the conclusion that there was no use in his stopping on the pier any longer, since the steamer had left, and there was no possibility of his being able to join the others, he determined to bend his steps in the direction of the coastguard-station, with the hope of finding Hellyer there to cheer his drooping spirits.
After a bit, seeing that nothing further was to be gained by stopping out at sea, drifting with the tide alternately between the Nab and Warner light-ships, like Mahomet's coffin between heaven and earth, the Captain hauled up the trawl and bore away back homeward as well as he could with a foul wind, having to make several tacks before fetching the cutter's moorings off the coastguard-station.
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