The wind was now a howling gale.
Suddenly, as they drove on, the motor seemed to increase its speed.
"What's that?" asked Mr. Sneed. "I thought you had her running at her limit."
"So did I," Russ answered, bending over the machinery. Then he cried: "She's racing! We've lost our propeller! We're disabled in this storm!"
CHAPTER XX
IN THE VORTEX
"Haven't we looked distressed long enough?"
"I'm going below. I can't bear to watch that storm!"
The speakers were Alice and Ruth DeVere respectively, and they were leaning over the rail of the Mary Ellen, peering off into the swirl of driving mists, and across the heaving waters toward where the motorboat had been last seen.