Surely it would be easy enough to obscure any faint impression thus acquired.

And the fellow had been heartlessly flung overboard; was believed to have sunk without a struggle, too drunk to save himself; was scarcely given another thought.

Yet no one knew positively that this was so, because no one cared.

The death of the lad had simply been taken for granted, when LeVere failed to see his body rise again to the surface.

Yet it was quite within the realm of possibility for the fellow to come up once more in that darkness, beyond LeVere's range of vision, and even to have remained afloat, buoyed up by clinging to the anchor hawser, until strong enough to return on board.