"Well, they could shout, so as to let us know where to steer," Russ went on, rather provoked. "We could do that ourselves," Pepper Sneed said. "Do what?" asked Russ, hardly conscious of what he was saying, for just then a heavy wave threatened to swamp the dory, and it required skillful handling to keep her from being swamped. "We could yell," suggested Mr. Sneed. "Come on, give 'em a call!" Russ agreed to this, and, standing up, so their voices would carry better, and bracing themselves against the tumbling, swaying motion of the craft, they sent out a cry for aid--and yet not so much a cry for aid, as they were not yet in distress, but a cry for direction. "If I could only see where to steer," Russ exclaimed, when they had paused in their yelling, well-nigh exhausted, "it wouldn't be so bad! But I can't see a thing. It's getting darker every minute. I never saw such a funny storm." "It's coming up all right," declared the actor. "Going to blow great guns soon." "It's blowing them now," said Russ, grimly, as he clung to the wheel. "I can hardly keep her on the course." "What's the use of steering a course when you don't know whether it's right or not?" asked the actor. "Well, I'm not going to give up," Russ said, grimly. "I think I'm headed for the schooner, though I ought to have fetched her sooner than this, at the speed we're going." "Perhaps she's blowing away from us," suggested Mr. Sneed. "That's it!" Russ cried. "Why didn't I think of that before? She's running away from us. She can't help it, though, for she must scud before this storm. We've got to increase our speed to catch up to her. The wind and our engine ought to be more than a match for her sails alone. I'll put on more speed." The wind was now a howling gale. Suddenly, as they drove on, the motor seemed to increase its speed. "What's that?" asked Mr. Sneed. "I thought you had her running at her limit." "So did I," Russ answered, bending over the machinery. Then he cried: "She's racing! We've lost our propeller! We're disabled in this storm!" CHAPTER XX IN THE VORTEX "Haven't we looked distressed long enough?" "I'm going below. I can't bear to watch that storm!" The speakers were Alice and Ruth DeVere respectively, and they were leaning over the rail of the _Mary Ellen_, peering off into the swirl of driving mists, and across the heaving waters toward where the motorboat had been last seen. "Yes, I think Russ has enough pictures," Mr. Pertell said in answer to the remark of Alice. "I think you all looked sufficiently distressful. If the scenes of the shipwreck itself go as well as the first part of the drama has gone, we'll have a fine film." "Then may I go below?" asked Ruth. "I don't like the looks of the weather." "It does seem as though we'd get the storm after all," her father remarked.