Drifting along on the outsetting tide, the boat rapidly got beyond the glow diffused by the lamp beneath which Seth was sleeping, and glided with its helpless occupant into the pitchy darkness of the sea cavern.
CHAPTER XVI.
DRIFTING THROUGH THE NIGHT.
“Talk about crossing the Styx! I’ll bet it had nothing on this business of bumping along blindly in an oarless boat in a dark cave,” thought Nat as, sitting in the bottom of the small craft and using the seat for a back rest, he reviewed the situation.
Every minute he dreaded to hear the roaring of the motor boat’s exhaust, which would tell him that he was being pursued. But nothing of the sort occurred, and before long he saw the stars shining at the mouth of the strange subterranean tunnel.
“Thank goodness, it’s a calm night, anyhow,” he thought, as he observed the placid, unclouded sky; “if it had come on to blow, or if a big sea was running, I’d stand a good chance of going to Davy Jones before my time.”
The tide ran stronger at the mouth of the cave and in a very few minutes Nat was out under the stars and drifting seaward, whither he had no idea. He tore out a grating from the bottom of the boat and tried to use it as a paddle, but he made no progress with this crude substitute for an oar and soon gave up the attempt in sheer weariness and disgust.
“I’ll have to let her drift at her own sweet will,” thought the boy, “and trust to luck to being picked up. Wow! but I feel sleepy and heavy. Must be the after effects of that stuff Seth said his amiable parent gave me to put me to sleep.”
The boy fought against his drowsiness for some time; but, try as he would, his eyes simply refused to stay open. The eyelids felt as if they had been weighted with lead, and ere long the lone passenger of the drifting boat was sleeping under the stars as peacefully as if in his cot at home or on the Wireless Island.
He was awakened by a rough jolt. For a few minutes he had not the least idea where he was, and when his senses did begin to flow back into his sleepy brain he was considerably mystified. The boat was bumping against a huge dark bulk which Nat, in the dimness, at first thought must be a cliff. He was scrambling to his feet a-tingle with astonishment, when a gruff voice hailed him from above: