re near.

"There!" said Vince at last, in a triumphant tone; "that's different to
baling when you feel that the water is coming in as fast as you throw it
out. I haven't got it all, but as much as I can without making a
noise."

He replaced the bottom board and then returned the pot to the locker,
and Mike moved a little forward now to meet him half-way.

"Think we're going as fast now as ever?" whispered Mike.

"Eh? I don't know. I was too busy to think about it. No, not quite,
and--I say, are we going right?"

"Right?"

"Well, I mean as we were. We seemed to be going south, as far as I
could make out by the stars; and now we're going north."

"Nonsense! impossible!"

"Look, then! I'm sure we had our backs to the pole star, and that meant
going south, and out to sea; but now we've got our faces due north."

"Yes," said Mike, after a few moments' pause; "that's right: we're going
north."

"Well, that isn't out to sea."

"No," replied Mike thoughtfully.

"And running along at such a rate as we are, we ought to have been ever
so far away by this time, instead of rushing along here deep down among
the rocks, as if we were in a narrow channel. I can't make it out: can
you?"

Mike remained thoughtful and silent again for a time, and then said
wearily,--

"No; I can't understand it. It gives me the headache to think; and
being whirled along like this is so confusing. My thoughts go rushing
along like the water."

"Don't talk so loud, Mike," said Vince, after a pause, "or we shall be
heard. But we must have left them a long way behind, or else they've
covered over their lanthorn so as to come upon us by surprise."

"Think they are near us, then?"

"Must be, because the tide would carry them along as fast as it does us;
and they have the advantage of knowing the way. Oh! I do wish we could
get out in the open sea; and then, once we were clear of the rocks, we'd
show them what the boat could do. It would puzzle them to--"

He was going to say "catch us then," but he stopped short, gazing
upward, out of the black chasm in which they were, at the stars.

"What is it? See the light?" whispered Mike.

"No: I was trying to make out our course. The passage has wound off to
the right, and we're going east."

"Of course it would zigzag and turn about," said Mike wearily; "but
we're in deeper water here, for we don't seem to go near any small
rocks."

"No; but we're going by plenty of big ones