New England -- Juvenile fiction; Sailing -- Juvenile fiction; Sea stories
The engine was reassembled in the course of time and, with fresh
supplies, the _Adventurer_ turned homeward, the _Follow Me_ close
astern. They started after an early dinner, having decided to make
Northeast Harbor that evening and proceed to Camden the next day. They
had seen enough of the eastern end of the coast, they thought, while
from Camden westward there were numerous places that had looked
enticing. So "No Stop" was the order, and the _Adventurer_, turning back
into home waters off Lubec, churned her way through the Bay of Fundy at
a good pace. The morning had dawned hazy, but the sun had shone brightly
for awhile in mid-afternoon. Later the sunlight disappeared again and
the northern sky piled itself with clouds. South West Head was abeam
then and Steve half-heartedly offered to run to shelter. But the others
pooh-poohed the suggestion.
"If we duck every time there's a cloud," said Joe, "we'll never get back
to Camden. There isn't any wind and the barometer says fair."
The barometer was rather a joke aboard the _Adventurer_. It hung just
inside the forward companion way and was undoubtedly a most excellent
instrument. But not a soul aboard could read it properly. When it
dropped, the skies cleared and the wind blew. When it rose, it
invariably rained or got foggy. Steve had long since given it up in
despair, but Joe still maintained a belief in his powers of
prognosticating weather by the barometer, a belief that no one else on
the boat shared.
"If the pesky thing says that," remarked Han, "it'll snow before night!
Still, I don't see why we need to run into harbour yet. There's no sign
of fog, and if it's only rain that's coming, why, we've been wet before.
I say let her flicker, Steve."
"I guess so. We're not out far and if it does get very wet we can soon
get under cover somewhere. Find me the next chart, Joe, will you?"
They could see the Seal Islands, or they thought they could, off to port
at a little past three. The _Follow Me_ was hiking along about a quarter
of a mile astern, making better going than the _Adventurer_, just as she
always did in a heavy sea. And today the sea was piling up a good deal.
Joe looked anxious at times, but he had passed his novitiate and now it
took a good deal of tossing to send him below. What happened at about
half-past three occurred so suddenly that no one aboard the _Adventurer_
was prepared for it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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