"Tell them we've got money to pay with," added Ben a little more quietly.
The captain laughed, but gratified them by hailing the brig. "Here are two boys, sea-sick and scared; storm coming; no accommodation. Can you take them off my hands?"
"We are bound out," came the answer from the vessel, whose outlines were only dimly seen through the fog.
"Never mind where they are bound, tell him," said Ralph, pulling the captain's arm; "we don't care."
"We've no room for passengers," added the invisible speaker on the brig.
"Nor I neither," grumbled the captain of the smack. "I ought to have knowed better than to take 'em;" then aloud he added, "They'll die of fright on my hands if there comes a tough gale."
"Who are they?" asked the voice in the fog.
"Two young scamps that belong to a school that's gone on Whaleback to camp. Leastways that's what I guess.--Isn't it so, boys?"
"Yes."
The vessels were soon far apart, and the boys, disappointed in their hopes, sat down by the captain to watch him splice a rope.