What happened was this: The two natives in the dory were unable to
understand English, and of course the three boys knew nothing of the
native language. Yet from the hasty instruction of the pilot, Pete, the
natives had gathered that "the boss gentleman"--that is to say, Uncle
Dick--wanted to go to the revenue-cutter _Bennington_. Accordingly they
concluded that the boys also were bound directly for the cutter, and so
instead of heading to the channel which led to the town, they proposed
to take a cut-off behind Wood Island, best known to themselves. Thus
they rowed on for more than half an hour before any of the boys
suspected anything wrong. Rob made signs to them to stop rowing. All the
boys looked about them in the fog. They were still in the roll of the
open sea, and the dory pitched wildly on the long swell, but, listen
intently as they might, they could hear no sound from any quarter.
"We ought to have stayed with Uncle Dick," suggested Jesse.
"That's right!" admitted Rob. "But the question is, what ought we to do
now? They pointed out town that way from the _Nora_, and I know we're
not going the right direction."
To all inquiries and commands the natives did nothing but shake their
heads and smile pleasantly. At last they resumed their oars and began to
row steadily on their course. The sea now came tumbling in astern in
long black rolls, broken now and again by whitecaps. Like a cork the
dory swung up and down on the long swells, and all the boys now grew
serious, for they had never been in so wild a water as this in all their
lives.
They progressed this way a little while, until Rob bethought himself of
the plan employed by the captains when skirting the shore in fog. He put
his hands to his mouth and gave a loud, drawn-out shout, and then
listened for an echo. Sure enough it came, faint and far off, but
unmistakable.
"We're running down the coast, or else the channel is wide here," said
Rob, "because the echo is only on one side."
From time to time they renewed these tactics, and for mile after mile
kept in touch of the shore, on which now and then they could hear the
waves breaking wildly. At last Rob set his jaw tight in decision.
"I tell you what," said he; "we're going the wrong way. We ought to have
been at the town long before this. I'm for going ashore and waiting till
the fog lifts."
Both Jesse and John agreed to this, for now they were thoroughly
alarmed. Rob made motions to the two native oarsmen that they should
head the dory inshore. They, always disposed to be obedient to the white
race, agreed and swung the dory shoreward. "_Karosha_," said the older
of the two men; by which they later learned he meant to say, "All
right."
The two natives were well used to making a landing through the surf.
Arrived off shore, they waited till a big wave came directly at the
stern, then with a shout gave way and rode in on its crest, jumping out
into the water and pulling the dory high up on what proved to be a
shingle beach backed by a high rock wall a hundred yards or so inland.
All the boys now scrambled out, glad enough to set foot on shore. But
they found their surroundings cheerless rather. The soft blanket of the
fog shut in, white and fleecy, all about them. Now and again they heard
a wandering sea-bird call, but they could see neither the sea nor any
part of the shore beyond the rock wall near at hand. They no longer
heard the whistle of the _Nora_ lying at anchor at the mouth of the
channel.
Both the natives now pulled out pipes and began to smoke silently. One
produced from his pocket an object deeply wrapped in a bundle of rags
and hide, which finally proved to be an old brass watch, which he
consulted anxiously.
"Him sleep," he remarked, shaking the watch and putting it to his ear.
By this Rob knew that he meant that the watch had stopped.
"I knew he could talk," said John. "Ask him where we can get something
to eat. I'm getting awful hungry."
"You're always hungry, John," said Rob. "The most important thing for us
is to find where we are. Here, you!" He addressed the natives. "You can
talk English. Which way is town? How far? Why don't we get there at
once?"
The wrinkled native smiled amiably again, and remarked "By-'n-by"; but
that seemed to be the extent of his English, for after that he only
shook his head and smiled.
"This is a fine thing, isn't it?" said Rob. "I wonder what your uncle
Dick will think of us. Anyway, we've got our guns and blankets, and
there's a box of crackers and some canned tomatoes under the boat seat."
At last the two natives began to jabber together excitedly. They turned
and said something to the boys which the latter could not understand,
and then, without further ado, made off inland and disappeared in the
fog. Some moments elapsed before the boys understood what had happened,
and indeed they had no means of knowing the truth, which was that the
two natives, who were perfectly friendly, had started across to the
Mission House of Wood Island, some two miles or more, in search of
something to eat, and possibly in the wish of getting further
instructions about these young men they found in their charge.
"Why don't they come back?" asked Jesse, in the course of half an hour
or so, during which all were growing more anxious than they cared to
admit.
"Who knows how long 'by-'n-by' may mean? I'd like to get out of here,"
added John.
"I'll tell you what we'll do," said Rob, after they had waited for
perhaps another half-hour. "These men have left us, and now we'll leave
them in turn. The sea is pretty rough, but this is a good boat and we
can run her. We can go back that way, and get to the mouth of the
channel, because I noticed which way the wind was blowing. Town must be
off to the left, and we can keep track of the shore by the echo. I'm for
pulling out right away."
"So am I," assented John. And Jesse, although he looked rather sober at
the sight of the white-topped waves, agreed.
By great good-luck they were able to push the dory out with the receding
crest of a big wave, and the first thing they knew they were pitching up
and down in the white water. By hard pulling they got the boat offshore,
and being there outside the more broken water made fairly good headway,
although they found the boat heavy and hard to pull.
"We can't make it," said Rob, at last. "She's too big for us to pull
against the wind, and that's the way we must go if we go toward town.
I'm afraid we'll have to go ashore again."
"Look, look there!" cried John, suddenly.
They all stopped rowing for a moment and gazed ahead.
A towering ridge of white, foamy waves arose directly in front of them,
higher than their heads had they stood upright in the boat. Swirling
and breaking, it seemed to advance and march down upon them. The surface
of the water was agitated as though some great creature were lashing it
into foam. But soon they saw that this was something worse than any
creature of the deep.
"It's the tide-rips!" cried Rob, anxiously. "The tide-bore is going out
the channel--I've heard them tell of that before. Look out, now! Give
way, and put her into it quartering, or it'll swamp us, sure!"