swered his younger brother.

"Der poat must haf gone town," said Hans. "Of not, den da vould look
aroundt and pick us ub, hey?"

"I don't believe Captain Fretwood would put himself out to look for
us," answered Dick. "He hated our whole crowd and would gladly get
rid of us."

A little later Sam shifted his position and chanced to place a hand
in one of his coat pockets.

"Here's luck!" he cried. "Not much, but something." And he drew forth
a thick cake of sweet chocolate, done up in tinfoil and paper.

"Oh, it's salted and will make us thirsty," said Dick.

The chocolate was examined and found to be in fairly good condition,
and despite the salt they could not resist the temptation to divide
the cake and eat it up. As my readers must know, chocolate is very
nourishing and they felt much better after the brief lunch, although
very thirsty.

"I bought that on the train from Bay St. Louis to Mobile," explained
the youngest Rover. "Sorry now I didn't get half a dozen."

"And a bottle of lemon soda with it," added Tom, who was bound to
have a little fun no matter how serious the outlook.

Slowly the morning wore away. About eleven o'clock it looked as if
the sun might come out, but soon it clouded over as before and then
the mist began to crawl up.

"This is terrible," sighed Sam, at last. "Dick, what can we do?"

"I don't know, Sam. If we knew in what direction the land lay we
might make some effort to reach it."

"We couldn't paddle the rafts fifty or a hundred miles."

"I am in hope that some steamer or sailing vessel will come this way
and pick us up," answered Dick.

Then a silence fell on the little crowd. Matters were growing serious
indeed, and all wondered how the adventure would end.

CHAPTER XVI

A DESERTED STEAM YACHT

"Dick, am I mistaken, or do I see a vessel over yonder?"

Tom asked the question, as he suddenly straightened up and took a
long look over to where the mist had temporarily lifted.

"It certainly does look like a ship of some sort," answered Dick,
gazing forward with equal eagerness.

"Shall ve call owid?" asked Hans.

"It is too far off."

"Is she coming this way?" asked Sam, who had gotten so much salt
water in his eyes that he could not see very well.

"I am not sure if it is a ship," said Tom. "But it is certainly
something."

"Let us try to paddle closer," suggested his older brother, and all
set to work; Tom using the folded campstool, and the others some b