“Yes,” replied Antony, “there is a grapnel in the bow of the boat.”
Larry looked in a small cuddy under the bow of the boat, and found there a sort of grapnel that was intended to be used as an anchor.
“Let us heave it over,” said Larry, “and then the boat will stop.”
“No,” replied Antony, “the rope is not long enough to reach the bottom; the water is too deep here. We are in the middle of the channel; but perhaps, by-and-by, the tide will carry us over upon the flats, and then we can anchor.”
“How shall we know when we get to the flats?” asked Larry.
“We can see the bottom then,” said Antony, “by looking over the side of the boat.”
“I mean to watch,” said Larry; and he began forthwith to look over the side of the boat.
They see the bottom.
It was not long before Antony’s expectations were fulfilled. The tide carried the boat over a place where the water was shallow, the bottom being formed there of broad and level tracts of sand and mud, called flats.