“Mo’ like a millium!” answered Nimbus, whose ideas of the value of their prize were even more vague than those of his young dorymate.
“Well,” said Breeze, “let’s head back for the schooner; Captain Coffin will know pretty near what it is worth. I suppose we’ll have to share this find with the rest of the crew, though;” and with the shadow of covetousness creeping over his soul, the boy thought sadly of how much pleasanter it would be to divide their prospective profits between two than among fourteen.
The same thought was evidently weighing upon Nimbus, as he slowly picked up his oars and made ready to pull--where? Now for the first time since sighting the first bit of the stuff that had lured them from their post of duty they began to look for the buoy-flag, which they had been warned not to lose sight of.
“There it is!” cried Breeze, pointing to a distant speck on the water.
They pulled towards it; but, when they had approached close enough to discover its real nature, they found it to be but a bit of floating drift-wood, and though they did not know it, they had gone another half-mile in the wrong direction.
“Well,” said Breeze, “it can’t be very far off, and so long as we pull with the wind we must get near enough to it for the schooner to sight us. The ambergris drifted with the wind, and we were pulling against it, you know.”
Yes, Nimbus remembered that, and agreed that they must now go with the wind in order to retrace their course. But neither of them knew that the wind had changed.
So, for more than an hour they pulled, in what they imagined to be the right direction, and every stroke carried them farther away from the schooner.
At length they realized their true position. They were once more adrift on the open sea in a frail dory, and this time without food or water. This time, too, they had only themselves to blame; for only their own carelessness and direct disobedience of orders had brought them into this miserable plight. There was but little chance of their being picked up, for vessels were rare in these waters. As for seeking to gain the horrible, rock-bound coast of the island, the mere thought of what they had seen of it caused them to dread it almost as much as the open sea. Still, this seemed to be the only thing left for them to do, and once more the tiny compass that had already proved such a true friend to Breeze was brought into service.
Upon getting the ball open and looking at the card, they were greatly puzzled to account for its movements, and thought it must be out of order. One side of it was so drawn down, and the other so lifted up, that the ball had to be inclined at a sharp angle to get the card to move at all. Neither of them had ever heard of the dip of the magnetic needle, nor did they know that they were within about ten degrees of the magnetic north pole, or the point at which a compass-needle, if allowed to move freely in every direction, would incline directly downward. However, where they were it still worked sufficiently well to give them a course towards the land, of which they could as yet see nothing, and with heavy hearts they began to row in the direction thus indicated.