And then they both stared at each other in silence.
But the silence was soon broken. Footsteps were heard, and soon one after another heads appeared, and then bodies, and then the new comers stood by the side of Captain Corbet, staring over the stern at Phil in mute astonishment.
And Phil stared back at them all in astonishment fully equal to their own.
It was Bruce Bawdon!
And Arthur!
And Tom!
As for Phil, he could not utter a word. Nor could the others on board the schooner.
But Pat, the excited watcher on the shore—Pat had seen it all, and he was anything but mute. Mute? He howled. He yelled. He vociferated unintelligible volleys of frantic exclamations, addressed to each by turns. Then words failed, and he began to dance.
At length Phil pulled the boat up, and scrambled on board the schooner, and was seized by all the boys in turn, and overwhelmed with questions; while he, on his part, overwhelmed them with questions quite as eager and quite as numerous.
Their story was soon told. They had left at the time mentioned by Bruce in his letter to Bart, and had been cruising along the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They had arrived here the day before, and as they were in no hurry, they had anchored for the night, with the intention of doing a little fishing. Their place of rendezvous was Shippegan, which was not far away, and they had a week to spare as yet. They had no idea that Bart would leave so much before the time, and could not understand how Phil had found them.