The boys were still at this when, a little later, Jack and Andy appeared.
“Looks to me like another storm,” said Jack, gazing eastward anxiously.
“Yes, and I’d say it was coming up pretty fast,” answered Andy.
Before the motor could be put into commission again the sky was overcast and the wind began to come in strong, irregular puffs. Then, of a sudden, it began to rain, the big drops splashing in every direction on the motor boat and the rolling waves.
“Gee, I don’t like this!” exclaimed Ralph, as he took the wheel from Fred. “Boys, I think we’re in for it.”
Soon the waves were running much higher than before, and the Fancy bobbed up and down like a cork. It was next to impossible to make headway in any direction.
“Let me help you at the wheel, Ralph,” suggested Jack. “This is going to be something awful—worse than that fog we ran into.”
“This is going to be a real storm, no mistaking that,” answered Ralph, and his face showed his anxiety. “We’ll be lucky if we don’t upset.”
The constant rolling of the Fancy soon aroused Ira Small, and once awake the lanky sailor came outside in a hurry.
“I was afraid of it,” he said, gazing anxiously at the sky. “I felt it in my bones yesterday, but I didn’t want to scare none of you lads. I was hopin’ we could git inshore before it come.”