"Why, what's that thing away off there?" cried Joe, suddenly pointing toward the sunset.
They all looked in the direction he indicated and could make out plainly enough, against the glowing panorama, a queer, waving pillar of darkness. It looked like a long, thin cloud set on end.
As they gazed at it, it waved tremulously, and beyond the shadow of a doubt it grew larger.
"It looks like one of those dust devils we see at home, only a hundred times as large," said Joe.
Captain Akers, whose face had suddenly grown very grave, spoke up.
"That's just what it is, Joe," he said; "a huge dust devil. That thing yonder is a waterspout. It's coming this way. I hope it does not strike us or——"
He paused ominously.
"Or what?" asked Joe curiously.
"Or we may be in grave danger," concluded Captain Akers.
They all looked somewhat alarmed. Nat had read about waterspouts in the geography books, but he had never been at close quarters with the strange columns of water stretching from sea to sky, and engulfing all that they encounter.