"How can we tell," rejoined his brother, "they will have found out we are gone by this time and will naturally conclude that we fell overboard and were drowned or eaten by sharks."
Both agreed that such was probably likely to be the fact and that if the coast on which they were cast away proved to be uninhabited their situation might be very serious.
"On the other hand, the ship may have gone down after the collision," suggested Harry, "how she ever came to graze this land and then escape I can't make out."
"I've been puzzling over that, too," replied Frank, "there's a lot that's very mysterious about this whole thing. The Southern Cross is, as you know, equipped with a submarine bell which should give warning when she approaches shallow water. Why didn't it sound last night?"
"Because there must be deep water right up to this coast," was the only explanation Harry could offer.
"That's just it," argued his brother. "But what is a coast doing here at all. We are two hundred miles out in the South Atlantic, or rather, we were last night."
"The charts don't show any land out there, do they?"
"Not so much as a pin point. Some of the deepest parts of the ocean are encountered there."
"Then the ship must have been off her course."
"It seems impossible. She is in charge of experienced navigators. Her compasses and other instruments are the most perfect of their kind."