“Oh, I forgot!� I cried, laughing, too.
Here we both wheeled to a shout from Stevens. With one hand he still clung to the wheel, but the other pointed off over the waters.
Seamen are familiar with those inexplicable “pockets� in a fog, and this one was as clear a “lift� as I’ve ever witnessed. Furthermore, it came in an exact line with a decided object; an object on shore; though one would never have guessed we were so near the “hard.�
Over there, as though viewed through a gray tunnel, but clear as daylight itself, showed a bluff, surmounted by a lighthouse.
“Montauk!� I cried.
But before the fog banks once more swept the rift out of existence, my exclamation was answered vehemently. Stroth’s imprecation came low, but it carried venom enough to make up for much volume.
Then we continued monotonously on our westward course through the mist.
CHAPTER XV.
ON PAROLE.
That night, about nine o’clock, the atmosphere cleared to the rising of the full moon, and it proved Stroth’s rough estimate of the distance we could travel to be remarkably accurate.
The lead had been constantly kept going, and when we were able at last to catch the rays of Fire Island light, it bore about three points off the starboard bow, and some four miles distant.