“Gosh!” he said. “S’pose we four had to live here straight on for sixteen years!”
Nina Forbes seemed to have a keener sense of the dangerous trend of such careless talk than her sister.
“I do wish you two wouldn’t babble,” she broke in sharply. “Alec is simply chock full of information. I can see it in his calculating eye. For instance—”
Maseden took the cue readily.
“For instance,” he said. “This inland lagoon explains the rush of the tide this morning. The greater part of the water which runs through the pass never goes back. It floods this immense area, is held up by the tide from the south, but goes out that way, because, by some irregular tidal action, the ebb begins in that direction. Therefore, an ideal backwash is set up, which accounts for all the wreckage strewed on the beach. Parts of ships which were lost a century ago will be stored here. The place is a maritime museum.”
“We may find a whole ship,” exclaimed Madge.
“What? After coming through the hell-gate we have left behind?”
“The bottle came through,” she persisted.
“Though it’s a black bottle it must have been white with fear many a score of times. Have you noticed the way in which the logs of our own raft were battered and bruised?... No, the way in was vile, and, I had better warn you now, the way out may be worse.”