There was no way of telling how long their voyage lasted. Sometimes it seemed to Billy that it was only a few minutes since they had set out, and he strained his ears to hear if Appledore were calling still. Sometimes it seemed that they had been sailing for days and that they must go on forever, soaked, dazed, worn out to the utmost, but determined still.
A dim grey shape loomed up through the rain at their right hand.
“Andrew’s Point,” announced Johann tersely. Billy felt an almost imperceptible change, the wind struck them a shade less fiercely, the seas were not so heavy, their speed began to slacken. Johann spoke suddenly once more as a dark line showed vaguely before them.
“That’s Rockford breakwater,” he said. “We’re nearly in.” Then—“Here, take her, Billy; I’m done!”
He collapsed all at once, sinking to his knees, yet managing somehow to steady the tiller until Billy’s hand fell upon it. Then, with a queer, gentle sigh, he dropped upon his face and lay inert, thrown to and fro as the boat pitched, while the water they had shipped washed back and forth over him. Billy could do nothing to aid him, for all his attention and all of his strength were needed to handle the plunging boat. How had Johann ever stood it so long he wondered, out there in the gale where it seemed, now, that it was only by a miracle they had lived at all? Could he manage to round the breakwater unassisted? He felt that he could not possibly do it, but that he must.
It was accomplished at last and they were in nearly quiet water, speeding toward the wharf. Three members of the Life-Saving Crew, who had been watching from the pier, came rowing out to meet them and showed Billy where he could pick up a mooring and make the Echo fast.
“I thought it was boys!” ejaculated one when first they came alongside. “There’s no grown man would be fool enough to cross over from Appledore Island in such weather, and you didn’t get in one second too soon. The way the wind is now off Andrew’s Point, no boat like yours could last five minutes.”
They lifted Johann into their dory and brought the two boys ashore.
“He’ll be all right in a bit when he’s got dry and warm again,” said one of the men, “and as for you, young skipper, you are not in a much better state yourself.”
“I’m not the skipper,” explained Billy quickly. “It was he that sailed her all the way over, and only gave out when we got to the breakwater. I don’t think any one else on earth could have put us across. If you will take care of him a little I will be so thankful. I have to go on.”