Part 28 (2/2)

My ary that drove them as controllable as steam It was a hard ideal to reach, for the coiven hi hiht, in ht'

fro from the rudder

'This won't do, tooup

'Keep your stroke, but listen to me Can you see the compass card?'

'When I coet flurried, but each tiood look at it The course is sou'-west half-west

You take the opposite, north-east half-east, and keep her _stern_ on that It'll be rough, but it'll save soive me a hand free if I want it'

I did as he said, not without effort, and our progress gradually became smoother, till he had no need to speak at all The only sound noas one like the gentle simmer of a saucepan away to port--the lisp of surf I knew it to be--and the runt of the rowlocks

I broke the silence once to say 'It's very shallow' I had touched sand with ht scull

'Don't talk,' said Davies

About half an hour passed, and then he added sounding to his other occupations 'Pluular intervals, and he steered with his hip while pulling in the line Very little of it went out at first, then less still Again I struck bottoot a deep cast, and the dinghy, freed fro which shalloater always inflicts on a small boat, leapt buoyantly forward At the same time, I knew by boils on the s tideway

'The Buse Tief,' _[See Chart B]_ muttered Davies 'Row hard now, and steady as a clock'

For a hundred yards or etting six fathom casts, till, just as suddenly as it had deepened, the water shoaled--ten feet, six, three, one--the dinghy grounded

'Good!' said Davies 'Back her off! Pull your right only' The dinghy spun round with her bow to NNW 'Both arether! Don't you worry about the compass now; just pull, and listen for orders

There's a tricky bit co'

He put aside the chart, kicked the lead under the seat, and, kneeling on the dripping coils of line, sounded continuously with the butt-end of the boat-hook, a stumpy little implement, notched at intervals of a foot, and often before used for the same purpose All at once I are that a check had co after scent

'Stop her,' he said, suddenly, 'and throw out the grapnel'

I obeyed and we brought up, swinging to a slight current, whose direction Davies verified by the coave hiht What struck me most about hih the fog; a useless exercise (for five yards or so was the radius of our vision) which, however, I could not help indulging in, while I rested He ht and swift as an arrow this time, and in water deeper than the boat-hook

I could see by his face that he was taking soain we touched mud, and the artist's joy of achieve ae headed west, and for the first ti

'There's one!' he snapped at last 'Easy all!'

A boolided out of the ht up

'Rest for three ood time'

It was 1110 I ate some biscuits and took a nip of whisky while Davies prepared for the next stage

We had reached the eastern outlet of Memmert Balje, the channel which runs east and west behind Juist Island, direct to the south point of Memmert Hoe had reached it was incomprehensible tomy narrative with the dotted line on the chart I add this brief explanation, that Davies's method had been to cross the channel called the Buse Tief, and strike the other side of it at a point well _south_ of the outlet of the Memmert Balje (in view of the northward set of the ebb-tide), and then to drop back north and feel his way to the outlet The check was caused by a deep indentation in the Itzendorf Flat; a _cul-de-sac,_ with a widefor the Balje itself We had no time to skirt dents so deep as that; hence the dash across its ether, and of either being carried out to sea (for the slightest error was cue

The next three miles were the most critical of all They included the 'watershed', whose length and depth were doubtful; they included, too, the crux of the whole passage, a spot where the channel forks, our own branch continuing west, and another branch diverging froainst tiotiate that crux Add to this that the current was against us till the watershed was crossed; that the tide was just at its e, too low to allow us to risk short cuts, and too high to give definition to the banks of the channel; and that the compass was no aid whatever for the minor bends 'Ti the coht that we should now have booms on our starboard for the whole distance; on our starboard, I say, for experience had taught us that all channels running parallel with the coast and islands were uniformly boomed on the northern side Anyone less confident than Davies would have succu on theseprecious time But Davies knew our friend the 'boom' and his eccentricities too well; and preferred to trust to his sense of touch, which no fog in the world could iood, we should knohich side of the channel ere on But even this contingent advantage he deliberately sacrificed after a short distance, for he crossed over to the _south_ or unboo the ltzendorf Flat as his handrail, so to speak He was compelled to do this, he toldlines of booms would have involved us in irremediable confusion Our branch was the southern one, and it followed that weany help from booms until sure ere past that critical spot

For an hour ere at the extreet into a steady swing, for little checks were constant My right scull was for ever skidding on ed our progress Once ere both of us out in the sli on I found the fog be, lost all idea of ti and jerking to a mad music without tune or tiht arure asin his madness Then the boat-hook he wielded with a circular sweep began to take grotesque shapes ininsect, now the crank of a cripple's self-propelled perambulator, now the alpenstock of a lunatic mountaineer, who sits in his chair and climbs and climbs to some phantoed two insistent thoughts: 'we ' As to the latter, take a link-boy through a London fog and you will experience the sa

'We're rowing _back_!' I re becoainst obstructions 'Rubbish,' said Davies 'I've crossed over'; and I relapsed