"Well, the sight of such a bag of bones as me wouldn't be apt to stir those man-eaters up to any extent; but if they caught a glimpse of such a rolypoly morsel as you, Nick, it would set 'em wild."
"Oh! let up, won't you?" grumbled Nick. "This is too serious a subject to make fun over. I don't just hanker to make a dinner for any old shark, and don't you forget it, Josh Purdue."
They crossed the inlet at Chincoteague without the slightest trouble. Beyond lay Wallop's Island, and their speed had to be considerably reduced while navigating the tortuous and narrow channel lying between that body of reedy land and the main shore.
Despite the wideawake work of the pilot in the Tramp, there was always a liability of some boat charging upon an unseen mudbank; and hence it was advisable to take things rather easy, so that in case of such a disaster, it would be possible to pull off again, with the help of the other boats.
Then came the next inlet, which was also crossed easily.
"Say, nothing hard about this," George called out, as they headed once more down the bay toward Gargathy Inlet.
"Lots of things look harder than they turn out to be," answered Herb, who was having it easy enough in his wide-beamed craft.
"Still, be on your guard all the time," cautioned Jack, who meant to keep near the erratic Wireless all the time, because he felt it in his bones that if any accident did happen it would be in that quarter.
At noon they drew up and went ashore on a sandspit, where they ate lunch. Nick of course "browsed" around, as he called it, in search of oysters, and was speedily rewarded by discovering a supply. Indeed, they had hard work making him break away, when Jack tooted his conch shell as the signal for a start.
Matomkin Inlet proved as easy as the others.