“I believe it’s the sloop,” he declared. “She’s stuck, anyway, the same as we are, you know. Hegan and his pal will have to stay just where they are until a breeze happens along. And there hasn’t been more than a breath of air since they threw us out.”
“It might be some other boat,” Rod suggested.
“We’ll soon settle that,” said Jack. “Ahoy, there! Ahoy!”
He knew that call must travel some distance in such still air, and when no answering hail was returned his suspicions were confirmed.
“Can’t you picture them, as mad as a couple of hornets!” Jack chuckled. “They’ve fallen into their own trap and they can’t get out of it until a breeze comes.”
“I suppose there’s no chance of paddling back alongside and catching them off their guard?” Rod suggested.
The captain frowned thoughtfully.
“I guess not,” he said. “They’ll be getting the jumps soon. We’d make a pretty good target, remember, if they started to take potshots at us. All the same, I’m game if you are. It would be better than sitting here and doing nothing. There she goes again! You heard? It’s the boom swinging in the swell. Here, what idiots we are!” he went on, stooping and lifting the floor boards of the dinghy. “What could you want better than these for paddles? Quietly, now! If they hear us coming we shall have no better chance than when we drifted away. I expect it will be no good, anyway, but I can’t sit still doing nothing, much longer.”
Judging as accurately as possible the direction of the sound that came across the water occasionally, they began to paddle softly, and within five minutes Jack held up a warning hand and pointed ahead, where the shape of the Sea-Lark loomed dimly.
For another twenty fathoms they urged the dinghy along, until it was possible to see the sloop distinctly. Contrary to Jack’s expectation, there was nobody visible on deck. In such a dead calm it would have been useless for Hegan to stand by the wheel, but Jack was puzzled. The dinghy was now drawing near the vessel.