"There is the wrecked ship," he said to himself, as thoughts came swiftly; "it would do for a shelter, and we should have to live on sea-birds, unless we could find that after all there are some stores buried in the ship's hold under the sand." "Steady!" cried the captain just then, interrupting the flow of his wild thoughts; and the men rested on their oars again, while shout after shout was sent up, but with no reply. "We must have come far enough," muttered Captain Marsham; and he hesitated as he vainly tried to pierce the dense medium which surrounded them. "We'll lie on our oars and drift a little while," he said aloud; "the fog will pass over soon. What do you say, Johannes?" "One never knows, sir," replied the man gravely; "but it is of no use to go on rowing; we must have passed the ship, for there is a strong current here." "Well, we shall see." They sat listening till, growing fidgety, Steve turned to lean over the stern and take hold of the rope which held the beluga. The great fish-like creature yielded to the drag and came close up, but its head was hardly discernible, and it looked so weird and strange that the boy loosed his hold with a shudder, expecting that it would float away. But it remained stationary for a few moments, and then, urged by the current, rubbed heavily against the boat's side, imperceptibly altering its position by dragging round the stern. After listening patiently for some time, the captain drew a little compass from his pocket and placed it beside him on the thwart, waiting till it was steady, when he exclaimed in quite a startled tone: "Which way were we pulling, my men?" "About due west, sir." "But the boat's head lies south, and we have been going right away from the steamer. Here, pull hard starboard, backwater port!" he cried; and as the oars dipped he bent down and watched the compass till he found the boat's head pointing north-east, when he shouted, "All together: give way!" It was a relief to feel that something was being done to extricate them from their awkward predicament, and the men pulled hard for the next ten minutes or so, when, at a word from Captain Marsham, they easied, and a fresh howl was sent forth to penetrate the fog. But this had no better result than the last, and once more the order was given to pull and obeyed with fresh vigour, when Steve suddenly leaped up. "I heard it then," he said. "Hold hard!" cried Captain Marsham, and the oars hung dripping over the side. "Heard what, my lad?" "The steamer's whistle, quite plainly." There was a dead silence at this as all listened, but not a sound reached them but the drip, drip, drip of the water from the blades of the oars. "Mistaken, I'm afraid, Steve, my lad," said the captain. "Any one of you hear the whistle?" There was no reply. "Give way, my lads." Splash went the oars, and at that moment Steve cried excitedly: "There it is again, right astern!"