t into a laugh, though truth to tell there was
not any too much mirth about the same.

"Say, I haven't heard anything for nearly five minutes now, Jack!"
called Herb, who, it seemed, was paying strict attention to business,
and not bothering about whether he got anything to eat or not, or what
would happen in case they headed out into the vast expanse of salt
water that stretched across to Africa.

"Same here, Herb," echoed Jack.

"Do you think we've been heading out too far, and is that the reason,
Jack?"

"I've got my compass right before me and, if anything, we've been
edging in just a little bit more than at any other time," came Jack's
answer.

"Then what?" asked the _Comfort's_ skipper, eagerly.

"Perhaps the bay has opened up, and the shore line is miles away from
us!" was the cheering way Jack put it.

"Good for you, commodore!" called Josh.

"Oh! I hope that's so!" wailed Nick.

"But how are we going to find out?" queried Herb.

"By changing our course directly into the west, and taking the bull by
the horns," Jack replied, boldly. "We can creep along, you know, and
if we've made a mistake, why, it's easy to turn around and bear away
again. But somehow, I've got a pretty strong notion things are going
to work out all right for us, fellows."

"Hurrah! that's the kind of talk!" cried Nick, beginning to perk up a
little, and wonder if after all George might not be right when he said
that they owed it to themselves as a duty to eat, whether hungry or
not, in order to conserve their strength for any emergency.

"Are you turning now, Jack?" asked George.

"Yes; keep close by and try to pattern after what I do. Here goes,
then, fellows."

"Hit her up; who cares for expenses?" cried Josh, who had been taking
it comfortably right along, and seemed almost free from care.

By exercising more or less caution, they managed to change their course
without losing each other in the fog. This was accomplished by calling
out from time to time, or even sounding the signals on the horns.

In this fashion then they began to creep along. Only for that compass
which Jack had before him, they might as well have been heading out to
sea, for all any one could say.

"Me to get a compass as soon as we strike Charleston!" declared Herb.

"Yes, and George must do the same," Jack declared, from somewhere in
the opaque mist. "Supposing we were separated in some way; you two
fellows would be badly off with no means