"Then we ought not to have any trouble," said Alec. "It looks as though this river was pretty deep."
"Oh! There's plenty of water in the river; but there's a bar across the mouth of it, and with this wind blowing there won't be much water over it."
Rapidly the Bertha B drew near the boats ahead of her. "They're all fast," commented the captain, as they passed a schooner on which a sailor was sounding with a pole. "Don't believe he's got three feet of water," the captain added. "And look there! The bar's clear out of water, with a flock of gulls on it. That's a sight you don't often see—the bar out of water."
Alec looked where the captain was pointing, and there, a long distance off the port bow, where the river entered the Delaware Bay, was a distinct black streak in the water, roughened at one end. The rough spots were gulls. But Alec would never have known that the black streak was a strip of mud and the knobby end was a mass of birds, had not the captain told him.
"Are we going to get through?" asked Alec, for the Bertha B was still slowly forging ahead.
"I don't know," said the captain. "We're in the mud now, but we've got a good engine and if we can keep in the channel, maybe we can make it. But she's hard to steer in the mud and most of those boats are right in the channel."
Slowly the Bertha B continued to move through the mud. A short distance ahead of her a schooner lay directly in the path. The captain turned his wheel and tried to swing the Bertha B to one side, but she would not turn. Nearer she came and still nearer to the stranded schooner. But the captain could not turn her. A collision seemed inevitable.
"Let go that starboard dredge," cried the captain to Sailor Bishop, who was still on deck. At the same instant the captain signalled sharply to the engineer. For a single moment the propeller ceased to turn. Then the Bertha B trembled from end to end, as the engine started again, full speed astern. The effect was instantaneous. The Bertha B almost stopped in her tracks. Before ever the sailor could reach the dredge and heave it overboard, the oyster-boat swung slightly to one side and lay still.
"Never mind that dredge," called the captain. To Alec he said, "We're done. All we can do is to lay here and wait for the tide to float us."