ou," said Mrs.
Watson. "If you want to see about the boat now, the men are ready to
go with you."

With those words she led the way out to the kitchen, where a couple of
men were waiting. Bart and Bruce followed them down to a boat-house on
the river bank, and saw the boat there which Mrs. Watson had offered
them. This boat could be launched at any time, and as there was
nothing more to be done, the boys strolled disconsolately about, and
finally went to the end of the promontory, and spent a long time
looking out over the water, and conversing sadly about poor Tom's
chances.

There they sat late in the night, until midnight came, and so on into
the morning. At last the scene before them changed from a sheet of
water to a broad expanse of mud. The water had all retired, leaving
the bed of the river exposed.

Of all the rivers that flow into the Bay of Fundy none is more
remarkable than the Petitcodiac. At high tide it is full--a mighty
stream; at low tide it is empty--a channel of mud forty miles long; and
the intervening periods are marked by the furious flow of ascending or
descending waters.

And now, as the boys sat there looking out upon the expanse of mud
before them, they became aware of a dull, low, booming sound, that came
up from a far distant point, and seemed like the voice of many waters
sounding from the storm-vexed bay outside. There was no moon, but the
light was sufficient to enable them to see the exposed riverbed, far
over to the shadowy outline of the opposite shore. Here, where in the
morning a mighty ship had floated, nothing could now float; but the
noise that broke upon their ears told them of the return of the waters
that now were about to pour onward with resistless might into the empty
channel, and send successive waves far along into the heart of the land.

"What is that noise?" asked Bruce. "It grows louder and louder."

"That," said bart, "is the Bore of the Petitcodiac."

"Have you ever seen it?"

"Never. I've heard of it often, but have never seen it."

But their words were interrupted now by the deepening thunder of the
approaching waters. Towards the quarter whence the sound arose they
turned their heads involuntarily. At first they could see nothing
through the gloom of night; but at length, as they strained their eyes
looking down the river, they saw in the distance a faint, white,
phosphorescent gleam, and as it appeared the roar grew louder, and
rounder, and