The "Nomad" had vanished.
They were alone in mid-Pacific on the mysterious schooner!
CHAPTER XVI.
WHAT BEFELL IN THE FOG.
Captain Akers was the first to find a solution of the mystery.
"Fog!" he exclaimed.
Sure enough they now perceived, as they would have before had they not been too engrossed with their investigations, that a white smother was creeping up, enveloping sea and sky in its all-embracing obscurity. The mist had already blotted out the "Nomad" from view and was now rolling down like clouds of white steam upon the schooner. In a few moments they would be enveloped in it.
"This is the worst predicament yet!" cried Nat, as it dawned upon him that to think of returning to the "Nomad" in such a smother would be impossible.
As for Joe, he stood silent. More alarmed, though, than he cared to admit, Captain Akers fingered his beard thoughtfully.
"Nothing's so bad but it might be worse," he said soberly, "and if this fog will only lift within a reasonable time we may yet be all right."