"How are we to get ashore?" Harry asked. "The raft went adrift when the heaving-line parted."
"She didn't go very far. Look off the port bow an' you'll see her on the beach. It won't be much of a job for Jim to run another rope out, an' he'll be all the better for a bath."
The young fisherman was not averse to what was little less than sport, and if he did spend considerably more time in the water than was absolutely necessary, no one could say any had really been wasted.
When the raft was in working order once more Harry and Walter clambered on board, and soon the shores of the harbor resounded with the blows of their axes. Owing to the scarcity of tools it was only possible for two to work at a time, consequently each had a certain number of minutes in which to rest.
It was after they had been on shore about two hours that Walter, during his idle moments, wandered out from the thicket to see if there had by chance been any change in the steamer's position, and he had not left his companions more than five minutes when they heard him shout:
"Come here, fellows, and see if you can tell what Joe is doing. It looks to me as if there was a big lot of smoke from the galley."
Not thinking it possible there could be anything wrong on the steamer, neither Jim nor Harry obeyed the summons very quickly, and when five minutes more had elapsed they were yet in the thicket.
"Harry! I'm sure there's some trouble aboard!" he shouted, and this time it was the tone rather than the words which caused them to move quickly.
On arriving where a view of the steamer could be had, Joe and Bob were seen working industriously under the awning; but a thick, black smoke was flowing out of the companion-way. The light breeze carried it shoreward; consequently the laborers, from whom it was hidden by the deck-house, were wholly ignorant of what seemed to Walter very alarming.
It did not require many seconds for Jim to make up his mind as to the cause of this unusual vapor, and his face grew pale as he cried sharply: