Everyone on the shore here likes Jim." "But if he was there, and he hasn't been taken prisoner--and I am sure the lieutenant would have told me if he was--why shouldn't he have got home ?" "We didn't know as he hadn't got home, did us, Bill ?" the fisherman appealed to one of his comrades.
"No," the other said.

"We thought likely he had got safely away with the rest.

It war a dark night, and I expect as everyone was too busy looking after himself to notice about others." "He may have been wounded," the old soldier said anxiously, "and may be in hiding in some house near the place." The fisherman was silent.

Such a thing was, of course, possible.
"He might that," one of the sailors said doubtfully, "and yet I don't think it.

The chase was a hot one, and I don't think anyone, wounded so bad as he couldn't make his way home, would have got away.