"Riding along on the top of the tide-rip, for that's what it must be, and now I remember hearing of such a thing on this coast."
"How long will it keep on, I wonder?" questioned Sandy.
"I don't know. I suppose till the tide is full or till we get out of the passage that we must be in."
The others looked at him silently.
"But this is a dandy boat," went on Tom cheerily, plying his steering oar, for there was no need to row in that rushing current, "she rides like a chip."
Even a powerful steamer, if caught where the boys were, could have done little more than they were doing to meet the emergency. Her only course would have been to run before the furious tide. The boys began to be resigned to their fortune. The fog seemed to lift occasionally now and then, shutting down, however, as densely as ever between the intervals of lighter weather.
Wild screams of sea birds that flew by like spirits of mist assailed their ears. Now and then the herculean splash of a great dolphin feeding in the tide came close alongside and startled them smartly.
True it was that they were still afloat and now appeared likely to remain so, but each moment was carrying them rapidly further from their friends and closer and closer to dangers whose nature they could only surmise.
As Sandy thought of all this, his fears began to return. His lip quivered.
"I wish we'd never left the ship," he said at last.