“But it’s too late to start to-day,” declared Joe.
“Yes, we’ll wait until to-morrow,” was the other’s decision. The boat was left in the same position it had been in before, and they settled down to pass another night on the derelict, waiting anxiously for the morning.
It was just getting dusk, and they were thinking of turning in, when Jackie, who had crawled upon the roof of the wooden shelter, called out:
“Oh, Tom! Look! See the smoke! Somebody must be starting a fire to cook supper!”
He pointed almost dead ahead, and, at the sight of a line of smoke on the horizon Joe cried:
“It’s a ship! A steamer! The first one we’ve seen! Oh, if we could only make her hear or see us!”
It was utterly out of the question to make themselves heard by shouting, but Tom, who was at the helm, swung it around until the derelict was headed as nearly as possible toward the telltale vapor.
“Wave something!” cried Abe. “Get up on the top of the shelter and wave something! They may have a man stationed up in the crow’s-nest on the lookout, and he might see us. Wave something!”
Mr. Skeel caught up a piece of the sailcloth, and, scrambling to the peak of the shelter waved the signal frantically. He kept this up for an hour, in which time the smoke gradually got below the horizon, showing that the steamer was moving away from the shipwrecked ones.
“No use,” said Tom sadly. “We’ve got to depend on ourselves.”