nce we left the shore, and we ought to be fully
a mile out beyond the headland."

"I quite agree with you. We have certainly a clear course now to the
ship if we do not make any blunder in keeping it."

The mate put the tiller a-starboard.

"I wonder how long I am to keep it over?" he said. "It is a queer
sensation steering without having an idea which way you are going."

"The next gun will tell us whether we have gone too far round or not far
enough," Mr. Atherton observed.

"Well, we will try that," the mate said after a short pause. "I should
think we ought to have made half a turn now."

"Stop!" Wilfrid exclaimed a minute later. "Easy rowing, lads, and listen
for the gun."

The mate ordered silence in the boat. Half a minute later the report of
the gun was again heard. There was a general exclamation of surprise,
for instead of coming, as they expected, from a point somewhere ahead,
it seemed to them all that the sound was almost astern of them.

"Now, who would have thought that?" the mate said. "I had no idea she
had gone round so far. Well, we must try again, and go to work more
gently this time. Row on, men!"

The tiller was put slightly a-port, and the boat continued her way. The
talk that had gone on among the passengers was now hushed. Mr. Atherton
had been chatting gaily with the girls from the time the fog came on,
and except at the moment when they went ashore and were attacked by the
natives, no uneasiness had been felt, for the sound of the guns had
seemed to all an assurance that there could be no difficulty in
rejoining the ship. The discovery that for a moment they had been
actually going away from the ship had, for the first time since they
rowed away from the shore, caused a feeling of real uneasiness, and when
Wilfrid again gave notice that the report would soon be heard, all
listened intently, and there was a general exclamation of satisfaction
when the sound was heard nearly ahead.

"We have got it now," the mate said. "Row on, lads; a long steady stroke
and we shall be in before dinner is cold yet."

The conversation now recommenced.

"Is it any use my stopping here any longer?" Jim Allen cried from the
bow; "because if not I will come aft to you. It is a good deal warmer
sitting together than it is out here by myself."

"Yes, you may as well come aft," the mate replied. "As long as we keep
the guns ahead we know that we are clear of rocks. It certainly has come
on bitterly cold