Part 14 (1/2)

This news was not pleasant for them to hear, though every one realized that the speaker was not ”drawing the long bow” when he made the a.s.sertion. Yes, they could almost note the rising of the dark ma.s.s. If it kept on as it was doing, inside of half an hour the heavens would be obscured above, and perhaps the forerunner of the gale be upon them.

b.u.mpus quickly started to pulling in the various fish lines he had been trailing along after the boat, in hopes of meeting up with a hungry fish that might be taken aboard, and not only afford a meal for the crowd, but give him a good chance to crow over his rival fisherman once more, ”rub it in,” as he called it.

Thad got out his charts, and the whole lot bent over, while he pointed out where they were just then, and the distant harbor he had hoped to reach.

”If it comes to the worst,” ventured Allan, ”there's that lone island ahead of us, Sturgeon Island it's called on the chart, and we might get in the lee of that.”

CHAPTER XIV

THE SQUALL

”Sturgeon Island, did you say, Allan?” remarked Step Hen. ”Sounds like it might be a good fis.h.i.+ng place. If we happened to land there, perhaps b.u.mpus and Giraffe might manage to do some big stunts, pulling in sturgeon. Can anybody tell me what sort of a fish that is, anyway? I never saw one, or a fellow that caught one, either.”

”Oh! they grow to big size, and are caught in the Great Lakes in this country. They take sturgeon eggs I believe to make this high-priced stuff they use in the tony clubs and call caviar, or something like that,” observed b.u.mpus, who really did know considerable about fish and fis.h.i.+ng, though of course he did not claim to be a fly fisherman, capable of casting seventy feet or more.

But the subject did not interest any of them just then. The way that bank of ominous clouds kept advancing higher and higher soon kept their attention riveted in that quarter.

”About how far away from our harbor are we, Thad?” asked Step Hen.

”Something like fifteen miles, I should say,” came the reply.

Giraffe looked at the balky engine, and shook his head.

”Then we'd better make up our minds right here and now that we'll never get to that place this day,” he said, positively; and there was no one bold enough to accept of the plain challenge his tones conveyed.

”That means our only hope lies in Sturgeon Island, don't it?” b.u.mpus asked.

”Looks that way,” Thad told him.

”But that don't seem so far on the map; you, just put your finger on the same, Thad; and if she's close enough to do that, hadn't we ought to see that island, ahead somewhere?”

”Suppose you take the gla.s.ses and look,” suggested the pilot, who was busy with the engine that had stopped short again, and needed coaxing to take up its burden once more, ”It's rather hazy, you'll notice, so that you couldn't be sure of anything more than three miles away, I reckon; but tell us what lies de ahead, will you, b.u.mpus?”

A minute later, and the fat scout cried out in considerable excitement:

”I can see land ahead, sure I can, fellows!”

”That must be the island, then,” rejoined Thad, busily engaged.

”Our only hope, so we had ought to call it our island,” Davy went on to say, as he deliberately took the gla.s.ses from b.u.mpus, and glued the smaller end of the same to his own eyes.

Then in turn everybody but Thad had to have a chance to look; and in the end it was the consensus of opinion that b.u.mpus had spoken only the truth when he said there were positive evidences of some sort of land ahead.

”Oh! if you could only get that old junk-shop engine to working for half an hour, Thad, we'd have plenty of time to circle around to the leeward side of that island, and then we could get ash.o.r.e, no matter what happened to the Belle,” b.u.mpus faltered, as he watched the skipper still working as rapidly as he could.

All at once the machinery started up again, when Thad gave the crank a whirl.

”Bully for you, Thad!” cried Davy, slapping the other heartily on the back; and then turning to look at the black clouds following after them, as though he would give fair warning that they meant to make a stiff fight for the opportunity of finding safety.