CHAPTER XVIII.
LOST ON THE WESTERN SEA.
Not a hundred yards from him, and bobbing gently up and down on the long swells, was a small boat.
"If I can only get on board her, I'll be far better off than I would be here," muttered Nat to himself.
He kicked out vigorously and was soon alongside the drifting shallop. There was something strangely familiar about her looks to him. As he climbed on board her, by way of the stern, he soon saw why.
It was the collapsible boat which they had put overboard from the "Nomad" and the same one which he had detected the mysterious enemy of the "Island Queen" in the very act of casting loose. Seemingly that individual had achieved his malicious purpose and the boat, caught in the Pacific Drift, had slowly been drawn along in the mile-wide current of debris and flotsam. The chance was a providential one for Nat, at all events.
As will be recalled, the boat had been stocked up with provisions and a water keg put on board by the party marooned on the mysterious schooner. The first thing Nat made for was that keg. It was the work of an instant to turn the spigot and place his mouth to the refreshing stream that gushed forth. True, the water was warm, almost hot, in fact, but to Nat no nectar, brewed on high Olympus itself, could have tasted more delicious. He drank and then paused for breath and then, applying himself afresh to the spigot, he drank again.
The boy kept this up till his thirst was fully quenched, and then he turned his attention to the eatables. Luckily all the canned stuff was fitted with patent keys, so that no can opener was needed. The bag of ships biscuit contained all that was wanted in the way of bread. Nat thought, as he ate, that he had never tasted a more delicious meal.
When he had finished he gave a sigh of repletion and looked about him. The sea was still as empty as the sky. But the sun had sunk lower and the heat was not so intense.
As he gazed about him, over that vast, lonely expanse, Nat's apprehensions—lulled for a time—returned tenfold. If he was not picked up, what would become of him?