"Can you see ?" Rufus Dawes, impelled, it would seem, by some strong impulse of curiosity, stood erect, and shaded his eyes with his hand.
"Well--can't you speak?
What is it ?" "The Hydaspes!" Frere gasped.
The Hydaspes! The ship in which his cousin Richard Devine had sailed! The ship for which those in England might now look in vain! The Hydaspes which--something he had heard during the speculations as to this missing cousin flashed across him.
"Back water, men! Round with her! Pull for your lives!" Best's boat glided alongside.
"Can you see her name ?" Frere, white with terror, shouted a reply.
"The Hydaspes! I know her.

She is bound for Calcutta, and she has five tons of powder aboard!" There was no need for more words.

The single sentence explained the whole mystery of her desertion.

The crew had taken to the boats on the first alarm, and had left their death-fraught vessel to her fate.

They were miles off by this time, and unluckily for themselves, perhaps, had steered away from the side where rescue lay.
The boats tore through the water.