Page:Fairview Boys at Lighthouse Cove.djvu/100

96 "No ships come as close in shore as this. Some trawlers, that catch moss-bunker fish for fertilizer, do, in the daytime, to let down their nets, but not at night."

"Then what chance have we of being rescued?" asked Sammy.

"Oh, I guess we've as good a chance as any fellows would have who had this happen to them," went on Bob. "In the morning the chances are some ship will see us. We can make some sort of flag, for a distress signal, I think. If we knew how we might fix our lanterns now, to show that we needed help. But I don't know how to do it."

Neither did the other boys, so it was decided to wait until morning. Besides, none of them cared to go outside in the rain and darkness, now that they were on the open ocean. It gave them a sort of "scary" feeling. They did not say so, but they were a bit afraid, as they admitted afterward, of falling overboard.

The wind and rain still kept up, but the thunder and lightning were not so bad, and for this they were glad. Then, too, they were not tossed about so violently as they had been while in the waters of the Cove and the inlet.

There the shallow waters were more quickly disturbed by the wind, while the deeper sea took longer to raise large waves.

But, for all that, the Skip swayed and rocked in the grip of the storm, for she was but a small boat to be on such broad waters. In the hands of Silas Warner she might have ridden more easily, for her owner would have known how to steer her.

Then, too, he would have started the motor, and he could have kept her head to the wind and waves, and this is always wise in a storm.

But the boys could only let her drift, and this meant that at times the craft would dip down into the trough of the sea,