CHAPTER XI.
ADRIFT ON THE OCEAN.
The dory was a better sea boat than they had imagined. In a situationwhere a craft of another build would not have lived an instant, shesucceeded in riding the first onslaught of the tide-bore. In anotherinstant, Tom and Jack had her around with stern to the stampeding seasand were being borne swiftly along.
Alongside, a thousand angry, choppy waves reached up like hungryhands, as though determined to come on board and drag the craft to herdoom. The manner in which the boat handled surprised and delightedTom, and Jack was no less pleased. True their position was still ahighly precarious one, but at least the watery grave they had dreadedhad not yet engulfed them.
Sandy sat up in the bottom of the boat and looked about with wonderingeyes.
"We're all right the noo?" he asked.
"I won't say that," rejoined Tom, "but at least we have got over thefirst great danger."
"What are we doing?"
"Riding along on the top of the tide-rip, for that's what it must be,and now I remember hearing of such a thing on this coast."
"How long will it keep on, I wonder?" questioned Sandy.
"I don't know. I suppose till the tide is full or till we get out ofthe passage that we must be in."
The others looked at him silently.
"But this is a dandy boat," went on Tom cheerily, plying his steeringoar, for there was no need to row in that rushing current, "she rideslike a chip."
Even a powerful steamer, if caught where the boys were, could havedone little more than they were doing to meet the emergency. Her onlycourse would have been to run before the furious tide. The boys beganto be resigned to their fortune. The fog seemed to lift occasionallynow and then, shutting down, however, as densely as ever between theintervals of lighter weather.
Wild screams of sea birds that flew by like spirits of mist assailedtheir ears. Now and then the herculean splash of a great dolphinfeeding in the tide came close alongside and startled them smartly.
True it was that they were still afloat and now appeared likely toremain so, but each moment was carrying them rapidly further fromtheir friends and closer and closer to dangers whose nature they couldonly surmise.
As Sandy thought of all this, his fears began to return. His lipquivered.
"I wish we'd never left the ship," he said at last.
"That's a fine way to talk," spoke Tom sternly. "When you're in ascrape the only thing to do is to try to get out of it as best youcan."
"That's the stuff," assented Jack, "but if we only had something toeat, I'd feel a little better."
"Maybe there's something under that stern seat," suggested Tom,indicating the place he meant. Sandy raised the seat, which tiltedback disclosing a locker, and gave a cry of delight. Two tins of beef,some packages of crackers and a big pie reposed there. Evidently BillRainier, the pilot, believed in carrying lunch with him when he wentout in a fog.
"Jiminy crickets," roared Jack, as one after another Sandy held up theeatables, "just think, those have been there all this time! Let's eatand forget our troubles."
"Better go slow," admonished Tom, no less pleased, however, than theothers at this unexpected good fortune.
Jack cut open the meat tins with his knife and they fell to eating asthey discussed their situation. They made a good meal, not forgettingliberal portions of the pie. But the lack of water troubled them.Crackers and salt beef with dried raisin pie do not make a lunchcalculated to allay thirst. But they were in no mood to complain. Thefood alone heartened them wonderfully and put them in a mood to facetheir dilemma less despairingly.
Little by little the waves began to grow smaller. The current grewless swift.
"We must have reached some place where the channel widens and the tidecan spread out," observed Tom, noticing this. "Now if the fog wouldonly lift, maybe we could get ashore some place."
"Let's try the oars again," suggested Jack.
"That's a fine idea if we only knew where to row to," rejoined Tom."I'm afraid we'll have to drift till the fog lifts. I've no more ideawhich way our course lies than the man in the moon."
"Same here. I'm all twisted up like a ball of yarn," admitted Jack.
Although they had been afloat for such a long time, it was stilldaylight. At that time of year in those regions it is light almost allday long. This was a good thing, for if darkness had overtaken themthey would doubtless have become even more alarmed than they were. Forsome time they drifted on, when all at once a sudden shift of the windcame. The fog was whipped into white ropy wreaths that drifted offlike smoke. And there before them, not half a mile off, was a fairsized bay edged by rocky cliffs, but green and tree-grown close by thewater. The blue bay, smooth and calm compared to the open sea, ledback into the heart of a noble mountain panorama. Beyond the coasthills were snow-covered peaks and inaccessible valleys. Between thehills that formed the bay, the vegetation was plainly fresh andverdant.
"Hurray!" shouted Jack, carried away by enthusiasm at the sight ofland once more.
Tom checked him gently.
"Remember we have no idea where we are yet," he said. "This country issparsely settled and we may have stumbled on some desert part of it."
Jack's face fell, and Sandy, who had been about to share hisrejoicing, remained silent.
"Can't you figure out what land this is?" asked Jack.
"I've not the remotest idea. I'm like you, all twisted up as tolocality."
"That bore gave us such a shaking up, I couldn't tell east from west,"observed Sandy.
"At any rate, that land yonder is no illusion," declared Tom cheerily."Come on, boys, get busy with the oars and we'll be ashore in notime."
"I hope it is inhabited," said Jack.
"Same here; but that remains to be seen. At any rate, judging by thegreen trees and grass there's water there from the mountains beyond.We can stop some place ashore and make camp."