"
"I agree with you, sir, that it is best as it is. 'Some loss' covers
everything--it means 'more or less.'"
"That was just my notion. I dare say there may have been twenty women in
the lugger."
"I can't answer for the number, sir; but I heard female singing as we
got near in the fire-ship, and think it likely there may have been that
number. The lugger was full-manned; for they were like bees swarming on
her forecastle when we were dropping foul. I saw Raoul Yvard by the
light of the fire as plainly as I now see you, and might have picked him
off with a musket; but that would hardly have been honorable."
To this Cuffe assented, and then he led the way on deck, having
previously ordered the boats manned. The two officers proceeded to the
spot where they supposed the Feu-Follet had been anchored, and rowed
round for near an hour, endeavoring to find some traces of her wreck on
the bottom. Griffin suggested that, when the magazine was drowned, in
the hurry and confusion of the moment, the cock may have been left
open--a circumstance that might very well have carried down the bottom
of so small a vessel in two or three hours; more especially after her
hull had burnt to the water's edge. The next thing was to find this
bottom, by no means a hopeless task, as the waters of the Mediterranean
are usually so clear that the eye can penetrate several fathoms, even
off the mouth of the Golo--a stream that brought more or less debris
from the mountains.
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