Then he began shouting orders to the men to row to and fro; and my heart sank as I vainly searched the lit-up water, for there was no sign of the unfortunate Chinaman. "What a horrible ending to a practical joke!" I thought, and a bitter feeling of disappointment assailed me, as I asked myself why I had not gone in the second boat to help save the poor fellow. Perhaps it was vanity, but in those exciting moments I felt that if I had been there I might have seen him, for it never occurred to me that I had a far better chance of seeing him from my post of vantage high up on that quarter-deck rail. "See him yet?" "No, sir!"--"No, sir!" The first hail loudly from close by, the other from far away where the blue-lights shone. "Bless my soul!" cried Mr Reardon, with an angry stamp. "I can't understand it. He must have come up again." "Unless his pockets were heavily laden," said the captain, going to where Mr Reardon stood. "These men carry a great deal about them under their long loose clothes. Some heavy copper money, perhaps. A very little would be enough to keep a struggling man down." "Ha!" ejaculated Mr Reardon, while I shivered at the idea of poor old Ching coming to so terrible an end. "A glass here!" cried Mr Reardon, and one was handed up to him. "Try the life-buoy," cried the captain. "Bless me, sir, I was going to," retorted the lieutenant irritably; "but the idiot who uses this glass ought to be turned out of the service for being short-sighted. I shall never get it to the right focus." The captain gave a dry cough, and I turned round sharply, expecting to hear some angry exclamation. "No," cried Mr Reardon, "he is not clinging to the life-buoy. I wouldn't for anything that it should have happened. Poor fellow! Poor fellow!" "Ay, poor fellow!" muttered Captain Thwaites. "Any use to lower another boat, Reardon?" "No, sir, no," cried the lieutenant, "or I would have had one down. Ahoy there!" he roared. "Light another blue!" "Ay, ay, sir!" came from far away, for the tide ran hissing by our sides in full rush for the sea, and the third blue-light which blazed out looked smaller and smaller, while those of the first boat and the life-buoy began to show faint, and then all at once that on the buoy seemed to go out. "That blue-light ought to have burned longer on the buoy," cried Mr Reardon. "They've picked up the buoy and laid it across the bows of the boat," said Mr Brooke, who was watching through his night-glass, and at that moment the light blazed out again like a star. And still the halos shed by the lights grew fainter and fainter. Then one light burned out, and the lieutenant stamped with anger, but there was no cause for his irritation. Another flashed out directly.