The Wiggle had run out from the mouth of the river and was at sea. There was no sign of land of any description. The low-lying shores of the territory had long since gone under the horizon.
Bones laid his hand on the shoulder of the sleeping girl, and she woke with a start.
"Dear old shipmate," he said, and his voice trembled, "we're alone on this jolly old ocean! Lost the steersman!"
She realized the seriousness of the situation in a moment.
The dozing engineer, now wide awake, came aft at Bones's call, and accepted the disappearance of the steersman without astonishment.
"We'll have to go back," said Bones, as he swung the wheel round. "I don't think I'm wrong in sayin' that the east is opposite to the west, an', if that's true, we ought to be home in time for dinner."
"Sar," said Boosoobi, who, being a coast boy, elected to speak English, "dem wood she no lib."
"Hey?" gasped Bones, turning pale.
"Dem wood she be done. I look um. I see um. I no find um."
Bones sat down heavily on the rail.