ery rock and point was perfectly familiar; they knew
every cavern and rift, and talked and chatted about the days when they
had fished here, gone egging there, and climbed up or descended yonder;
but after a time the rocks began to look strange.

"Good job for us that Joe's place is on the other side of the island,"
said Vince cheerily. "I say, what a game if he saw the boat going
along, and took out his old glass to try and make out what craft it
was?"

"But he isn't this side," said Mike. "I say, think there are any rocks
out here?--because I don't know them."

"I don't think there can be," said Vince. "Remember coming out here
with your father a year ago?"

"Yes," said Mike; "but we were half a mile farther out, because he said
something about the current."

"Well, of course I don't know," said Vince; "but the water looks smooth
and deep. We should soon see it working and boiling up if there were
any rough rocks at the bottom."

"Or near the top," said Mike thoughtfully. "Now, look: oughtn't we to
be seeing the ridge over the Scraw by this time?"

"Not yet," replied Vince, who was carefully scanning the coast now.
"We've only just passed the point; and it must be yonder, farther
along."

They both scanned the cliffs very carefully, but they all looked much
the same--grey, forbidding, and grand, as they towered up from the
water, nowhere showing a place where any one could land.

"I say," cried Vince suddenly, "we're going along at a pretty good rate,
aren't we?"

"Yes, I was thinking so. Too fast: take in a bit of canvas."

Vince did not speak for a few moments, but gazed from the sail to the
surface of the smooth sea and back again two or three times.

"'Tisn't the sail that carries us along so," he said at last; "she only
just fills, and hardly pulls at the sheet at all. Ladle, old chap,
we're in a current that's carding us along at a tremendous rate."

Mike looked at him in alarm, but Vince went on coolly.

"There's nothing to mind, so long as we keep a sharp look-out for rocks.
The old boat would crush up like an egg if she went on one now. Here,
Ladle, quick! Look there!"

"What at?"

"The rocks. I mean the cliffs. Ah! port! port!--quick."

Mike obeyed, and none too soon, for as Vince was calling his attention
to the shape of the cliffs ashore, a rough, sharp pinnacle of rock rose
some ten feet out of the water just in front, with others to right and
left, and the boat just clear