Page:The Night Born (London,1913).djvu/187

For half an hour they maintained silence. Duncan, his head resting on the arm that was on the buoy, seemed asleep.

"Boyd?" Minnie said softly.

"Thought you were asleep," he growled.

"Boyd, if we don't come through this—"

"Stow that!" he broke in ungallantly. "Of course we 're coming through. There is n't a doubt of it. Somewhere on this ocean is a ship that 's heading right for us. You wait and see. Just the same I wish my brain were equipped with wireless. Now I 'm going to sleep, if you don't."

But for once, sleep baffled him. An hour later he heard Minnie stir and knew she was awake.

"Say, do you know what I 've been thinking?" she asked.

"No; what?"

"That I 'll wish you a Merry Christmas."

"By George, I never thought of it. Of course it 's Christmas Day. We 'll have many more of them, too. And do you know what I've been thinking? What a confounded shame we're done out of our Christmas dinner. Wait till I lay hands on Dettmar. I 'll take it out of him. And it won't be with an iron belaying pin either. Just two bunches of naked knuckles, that 's all."