"Well, if we don't we must run her ashore before it gets too dark, and wait till it is morning. We shall be all right if we keep quite cool and use our senses. If we had something to eat I shouldn't mind a bit, except that mother will be getting anxious about us. It's a regular adventure, and we shall have something to talk about for a long time. Look out, Bill, we must push her further off—she's getting aground!"
For an hour they sat and chatted.
"Hullo! what's that?" Bill exclaimed at last. "That's the rattle of a chain. I expect it's a barge anchoring somewhere near. Listen; I can hear voices. I vote we hollo."
George lifted up his voice in a lusty shout. The shout was repeated not very far off, and was followed by the shout of "Who are you?"
"We have drifted down from Gravesend and lost our way," George shouted back. "We will come on board if you will let us."
"All right!" the voice replied; "I will go on shouting and you row to my voice."
It was but a hundred yards, and then a voice close at hand said sharply:
"Row bow hard or you will be across the chain."
Bill rowed hard, and George, looking round, saw that they were close to the bows of a barge. Half a dozen more strokes and they were alongside. Bill seized a hand-rope and sprang onto the barge, and the boat was soon towing astern.
"Well, young men, however did you manage to get here?" one of the bargemen asked. "It's lucky for you you weren't taken out to sea with the tide."