"How could anybody put a bar across a big inlet?" asked Tom, seriously.
"Charley means there's a sand-bar under the water," said Harry.
"Tom, did you ever see a joke in your life?" asked Joe.
"No, and nobody else ever saw a joke. What do you think a joke looks like? Is it round or square?"
"Joe's are usually flat," said Harry. "But what's the use of talking in this way? What we want to do is to get out of that inlet."
"Let go all your halyards, Joe, and then drop the anchor overboard. We'll stop here awhile, and make up our minds what to do," ordered Charley.
The Ghost was soon riding quietly at anchor in three feet of water. Charley looked carefully at the line of breakers, wondering where the channel could possibly lie. Suddenly it occurred to him that the breakers were not caused by a bar, but by the tide, which was running out of the bay, meeting the swell of the ocean. "There's a channel there somewhere, deep enough for big steamboats, and if we only knew just where it was, we'd try it," said Charley, after studying the matter for some time.
"Shall we get through the breakers without getting full of water?" inquired Tom.
"I don't know. I suppose we'll have to take our chances. Boats do go through the inlet every day, and I never heard of one getting swamped."
"Let's wait here until we see some boat go in or out. We can see how she gets through, and where the channel is," suggested Tom.