The answer was a mournful negative, followed by the sufferer's more or less positive declaration that he was staring wide awake the whole damned night long.
Percival, unconvinced, boldly made his way to the lower deck and discovered that two life buoys were missing from their supports, a circumstance that put an end to the hope that he had dreamed it all.

His own affairs however now loomed large, taking precedence over the plight of the men who had deliberately abandoned the ship.

In any case, the ship's officers had done everything that could be done in the matter.
He was genuinely astonished to learn that the act of the two men was unknown to the Captain.
A hurried conference of the ship's officers and the commander of the gun-crew resulted in a single but definite conclusion.

The desperate, even suicidal manner in which the men left the ship signified but one thing: the absolute necessity of flight before an even more sinister peril confronted them.

Not a man on board doubted for an instant that they had taken their chance in the waters as a part of a preconceived plan, and they had taken it with all the devilish hardihood of fanatics.
The presence of the motor craft, so far out from port, lurking with silent engine in the path of the steamship, could have but one significance.