ng through the surf.
Arrived off shore, they waited till a big wave came directly at the
stern, then with a shout gave way and rode in on its crest, jumping out
into the water and pulling the dory high up on what proved to be a
shingle beach backed by a high rock wall a hundred yards or so inland.

All the boys now scrambled out, glad enough to set foot on shore. But
they found their surroundings cheerless rather. The soft blanket of the
fog shut in, white and fleecy, all about them. Now and again they heard
a wandering sea-bird call, but they could see neither the sea nor any
part of the shore beyond the rock wall near at hand. They no longer
heard the whistle of the _Nora_ lying at anchor at the mouth of the
channel.

Both the natives now pulled out pipes and began to smoke silently. One
produced from his pocket an object deeply wrapped in a bundle of rags
and hide, which finally proved to be an old brass watch, which he
consulted anxiously.

"Him sleep," he remarked, shaking the watch and putting it to his ear.
By this Rob knew that he meant that the watch had stopped.

"I knew he could talk," said John. "Ask him where we can get something
to eat. I'm getting awful hungry."

"You're always hungry, John," said Rob. "The most important thing for us
is to find where we are. Here, you!" He addressed the natives. "You can
talk English. Which way is town? How far? Why don't we get there at
once?"

The wrinkled native smiled amiably again, and remarked "By-'n-by"; but
that seemed to be the extent of his English, for after that he only
shook his head and smiled.

"This is a fine thing, isn't it?" said Rob. "I wonder what your uncle
Dick will think of us. Anyway, we've got our guns and blankets, and
there's a box of crackers and some canned tomatoes under the boat seat."

At last the two natives began to jabber together excitedly. They turned
and said something to the boys which the latter could not understand,
and then, without further ado, made off inland and disappeared in the
fog. Some moments elapsed before the boys understood what had happened,
and indeed they had no means of knowing the truth, which was that the
two natives, who were perfectly friendly, had started across to the
Mission House of Wood Island, some two miles or more, in search of
something to eat, and possibly in the wish of getting further
instructions about these young men they found in their charge.

"Why don't they come back?" asked Jesse,