ALL ADRIFT
"What is it?" Polly screamed against the wind. "What are you saying, Larry?"
Larry jerked his head backward and shouted again.
"I can't hear a word he says," protested Polly, as the three girls huddled closer together in the bottom of the boat.
"It's something about Blackberry Island," Jess said, as loudly as she could.
"Oh!" and Polly seemed to understand. "Perhaps the wind is blowing us toward the island," she added hopefully.
But when fifteen minutes later a huge wave broke over the boat and Larry set the boys to bailing with heavy tin cans, Polly learned that they were not blowing toward the island.
"That was Blackberry Island we passed back there, a little after the wind came up," Larry shouted, leaning across Fred to make them hear. "We're miles beyond it now, and no telling where we'll end up."
Margy was frightened and Polly was worried because she did not see how they were to get home if they were blowing farther off the coast all the time. To Jess, it was something of a daring adventure. None of them was really aware of the seriousness of the situation. It did not occur to them that a disabled motor boat might easily be blown out to sea and either be wrecked in the storm or drift beyond the reach of help. The supply of food and water—especially water—on board was not large, and many thoughts were racing through Larry's mind of which he made no mention.