CHAPTER VI.
A STARTLING ADVENTURE.
During the conversation recorded none of the party had given muchthought to conditions outside. Now, when he stepped to the door of thecabin, the ensign uttered a sharp cry of consternation.
"What's the matter?" asked Rob, as he approached.
"Matter enough. Look there!" was the rejoinder.
A dense white fog had come softly rolling up, and now the derelict _GoodHope_ lay enwrapped in fleecy white clouds, thick and impenetrable.
"Well, we'll have to wait here in the boat till this clears off,"declared Bob; "we could never find the _Seneca_ in this mess."
"That's the worst of it," rejoined the lieutenant, "there is no boat."
"No boat," echoed Rob uncomprehendingly; "but we came in one. It will bewaiting for us."
"No. I gave orders for the men to return to the _Seneca_ and bring overa destructive mine, for I had determined to blow up this dangerousmenace to navigation. They have not returned, that is evident, or Iwould have been notified. Boys, we are in a bad fix. I don't know howfast this old hulk is drifting; but I imagine that if this keeps up muchlonger, we shall fetch up a long way from the _Seneca's_ whereabouts."
"Can't they cruise about and find us?" asked Merritt rather piteously.He was not a lad to underestimate the real seriousness of their positionon board the old hulk in the impenetrable fog that hung in blanket-likewreaths everywhere about them.
In reply to the boy's question the ensign declared that it would beimpossible for the _Seneca_ to pick them up until the weather cleared,if then.
"It would be risking the vessel to cruise about in this smother," hesaid; "why, she'd be as likely to strike the _Good Hope_ as not!"
Rob's face grew long, though he did his best to make light of thesituation.
"Then we've got to picnic here till the fog clears off," he said.
"That's the case exactly, Rob," was the officer's rejoinder.
"But what are we going to picnic on?" inquired Tubby anxiously. "There'sno food or water on board, and we haven't brought any."
"There you go again. Always thinking of that precious tummy of yours,"cried Hiram. "A little starving won't hurt you."
"Huh, just because you look like a human bean pole, you don't thinkanyone has a right to be fat. You're jealous, that's what you are," wasthe indignant reply of the fat youth.
Under other conditions there might have ensued a rough and tumblebattle; but just at this instant, through the fog, there came thebooming sound of a vessel's whistle.
"Waugh-gh-gh-gh!"
The long bellow sounded through the white, all-enveloping mistsurrounding the old hulk and its young company of castaways.
"That's the _Seneca's_ whistle," exclaimed the ensign anxiously. "She'scalling for us."
"Gee! She must know that we can't come to her," exclaimed Paul Perkins.
"I guess she's 'standing by' till the fog lifts," rejoined the officer."We'll release the bell. That may help to locate us."
But instead of standing by, it became apparent, before long, that the_Seneca_ was cruising about. The reason for supposing this was that thenext time they heard the hoot of the siren it sounded much further off.
The boys exchanged glances.
"How long do these fogs last, as a rule?" enquired Merritt.
"Impossible to say!" was the quick reply, with an anxious look about."If only we could get a slant of wind!"
But there was not a breath stirring. Only the _Good Hope_ swung to thesoft swells, lifting and falling with a hopeless, helpless sort ofmotion. In fact, an experienced seaman could have told her waterloggedcondition by the very "heft and heave" of her, which was sluggish to adegree.
"Well, I suppose we must make up our minds to spend some time here,"said Rob, with another attempt to treat the matter lightly. "Goodness,our adventures are surely beginning early this trip!"
The others could not help but agree with the young leader of the Eagles,although they could hardly foresee the still more thrilling experiencesthat lay just ahead of them.
"I would suggest," began the ensign presently, "I would suggest that wesearch for some trace of food."
"Humph; mouldy ship's biscuits!" grunted Tubby half under his breath."Even if there are any on board, they must be rotten by this time. Thisis a fine fix! Maybe we won't get any supper at all," and the fat boylooked positively tragic over the dire prospect.
But although Tubby had spoken in a low tone, more to himself than toanybody else, the ensign's sharp ears had overheard him.
"Young man," he said somewhat sternly, "if you want to be a good BoyScout you must learn to take hardships as they come."
"Even missing meals?" asked Tubby, in an injured voice.
"Yes, even that," repeated the young officer with a smile, which in theEagles' case was a perfect roar of laughter at Tubby's keen distress.The fat boy strode off sullenly by himself, gazing at the fog as he wentin a very knowing way.
They searched the ship over for something that it would be possible toeat; but not so much as a crumb of edible supplies did they find. In onehold was discovered a number of barrels of "salt horse and pork," butthey were all dried up and unfit for human food. The same thing appliedto the biscuit kegs, and all the other supplies. It was out of thequestion to think of touching any of them.
"Whatever are we going to do?" gasped Rob, a note of real alarm in hisvoice for the first time.
The ensign's calmness served to steady all the boys a bit.
"Don't worry; everything will come out all right," he said; "we are inthe track of ships, and----"
"But in this dense fog, that fact make it all the more dangerous,"declared Rob, and the young officer could not but answer him with a nodin the affirmative.
"I can't help admitting that, my boy," was his further rejoinder; "allwe can do is to trust to Providence and hope that the fog will disappearbefore long."
"Let's whistle for a wind," suggested Rob, who had heard of sailorsdoing such a thing.
"Better than doing nothing. It will fill the time in, anyway," agreedthe ensign.
The boys squatted in a circle.
"What will we whistle?" asked Merritt.
"'Wait Till the Clouds Roll By,' of course," rejoined Rob.
As the plaintive notes came from the whistlers' puckered lips, Tubbysauntered up, his hands in his tunic pockets.
"What are you doing?" he asked, staring at them, "gone crazy with theheat, or what?"
"We're whistling for a wind," answered Merritt.
"Huh; why don't you whistle for grub?" demanded Tubby, turning on hisheel, and striding gloomily off once more.