"Where away!"
"Right under our bow! Sheer off! Hard over!"
Tom sprang to his feet, broad awake in an instant. Right above, like an immense black cliff, towered the bow of a steamer. He could see the bright running lights shining like jewels.
"Jack! Sandy!" he bawled out. "Get up! They'll run us down!"
The huge black bulk of the strange craft did, indeed, appear as if it must inevitably cut the drifting dory in two. But the outcry of the bow watch had come in time. Just as Jack and Sandy sprang up and Tom was thinking that everything was over, the great bow swung off. The steamer rushed by so close that Tom could almost have touched her with his hand.
"Ahoy!" roared a voice from the bridge. "What boat is that?"
"It's a native canoe," came another voice.
"Not on your life it isn't," yelled Tom. "This is an unofficial exploring expedition and——"
"Tom Dacre!" bellowed a voice from the bridge.
"Ahoy, uncle!" hailed back Tom, who had caught the word Northerner on the steamer's bow as she was swinging by.