The next half-hour passed more slowly than any that had gone before.

Gradually their range of vision enlarged, and Steve, peering into the greyness, drew Bert's attention to a darker hulk that lay a few hundred yards up the harbour.
They watched it anxiously as the light increased.

That it was a boat of about the size of the _Follow Me_ and that is was painted dark became more and more apparent.

Then, quite suddenly, a ray of rosy light shot up beyond Eastern Point and the neighbouring motor-boat lay revealed.
Steve sighed his disappointment.

She was not the _Follow Me_ after all, but a battered, black-hulled power-boat used for gill-netting.
One by one, as the light strengthened, the others stumbled on deck, yawning and rubbing their sleepy eyes.