The loss of Mark and Frank made Sam, Darry and Professor Strong feel much downcast and even Hockley went around looking very sober.
“I never dreamed that such a dreadful thing would happen,” said Darry, and there were tears in his eyes. “I declare, if they don’t turn up I’m going right back home.”
“And I am with you,” answered Sam. “To go sight-seeing without them would make me sick.”
“And think of their fathers being at St. Pierre ready to welcome them,” went on Darry. “That makes it ten times worse.”
And Sam agreed that it did. The loss of their chums cast a gloom over them impossible to dispel.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE LUMBER RAFT
Let us go back and find out what really did become of Mark and Frank at the time the Vendee was struck in the darkness of the storm by the Dutch lumber vessel.
As the French steamer listed to port the chums caught at the railing before them. But this was wet and slippery and in an instant Frank found himself over the side.
“Help!” he screamed, but the cry was drowned out in the roar of the elements around him. Mark made a clutch at him, but he, too, was carried overboard.
With clasped hands the two boys struck the water and went down and down, they knew not whither. The accident had occurred so quickly that both were completely bewildered, and it was purely by instinct that each closed his mouth to keep out the briny element. The waves leaped and foamed all around them, and Mark felt something scrape his shoulder, he could not tell what, although long after he concluded it must have been the side of the steamer.