For an hour the _Adventurer_ and the _Follow Me_ had been climbing up the slopes of grey-green swells and sliding down into swirling troughs, and for a minute Steve couldn't find the dark speck at which Phil was pointing.

When he did at last sight it over the tumbled mounds of water he stared in puzzlement a moment before he took the binoculars from their place and fitted them to his eyes.

He looked long and then silently handed the glasses through the window to Phil, punched two shrill blasts on the whistle and swung the wheel to port.
"Looks like a wreck," said Phil, after an inspection of the distant object.

"Going to see ?" Steve nodded.

"Might be someone aboard," he answered.