Nick was shaking at a great rate. This might come partly from his recent excitement, but Jack knew that the air was rather cool to one who sat in garments saturated with salt water.
"We'd better be on the lookout for a camping ground somewhere on Paramore Island, here," he remarked. "A fire would come in handy for Nick; and, besides, I reckon we've done all we ought to for one day. If tomorrow pans out as lucky, we ought to get in touch with the lighthouse at Cape Charles."
"Well, I only hope," sighed Nick, between shivers, "that the programme will be a bit varied tomorrow. If there has to be somebody go overboard to hunt for mermaids, let me off, won't you, fellows?"
"We'll think it over, Nick," called George, who was taking it easy now, since his engine was dead, and the Comfort drawing him along in its wake.
They presently discovered a place that seemed to promise a certain amount of comfort; and so a landing was made.
"Smells like oysters around here, fellows," was the first remark Nick made, as he scrambled ashore, and started to thresh his arms about, in the endeavor to get up a circulation—Jack had advised this as a preventative against a cold.
"Well, I honestly believe that chap would think of eating if he heard the angel Gabriel tooting his horn," declared Herb. "He'd say that he wanted to be fortified again the journey across that old river Styx."
"Sure, I would!" admitted the grinning fat boy, frankly. "Anyhow, oysters are good stuff, whichever way you take 'em, and that nobody can deny. Get your old fire going, so I can change my clothes, and have an hour to gather a crop. Josh said if I got enough he'd give us scalloped oysters for supper. Yum! yum! don't that just make your mouths water, boys? It does mine."
The fire was soon going, and beside its cheery heat Nick made the change. His soaked garments were hung up to dry the best they could, though it is a hard job when clothes have been in salt water.
Then, with a tin pail Nick set out to gather his beloved shellfish, signs of which had been noted near by.