At length Bruce stopped. “Bart,” said he, in a low voice, “is that you?” “Yes,” said Bart. “Look here. I’ve got something I want to tell you.” At this Bart came up to him in silence. “I don’t like this style of thing,” said Bruce. “Why, what can we do?” “O, never mind. I’ve got a plan. Do you think we couldn’t have been doing better all this day than staying here, moping our lives out?” “What do you mean?” “Why, I mean the very thing that I proposed this morning.” “What, to row to the ship?” “Yes. Why not?” “How can you row twenty miles?” “Stuff and nonsense. She can’t be so far. Captain Corbet’s utterly mistaken.” “Why, she’s below the horizon.” “I don’t care. I judge from the looks of her. Do you believe you can see so plainly a ship that’s twenty miles away? Why, man alive, if she had a flag up you could almost make it out. For my part, I feel sure that she isn’t over five miles away at the very farthest. I haven’t the slightest doubt about it. Why, Bart, you and I are both accustomed enough to look at ships out on the water, and you can see for yourself that it’s simply impossible that this one can be so far away as twenty miles, or farther away than I say. All the morning I couldn’t help feeling puzzled, and concluded that it might be something in the atmosphere that magnified the ship, and made her seem so near,--like the mirage, you know; but, afterwards, I gave that up.” “Well,” said Bart, after some thought, “I don’t know but what you’re about right, Bruce; but what are you going to do?” “Well, we’ve got this night before us, and if the wind comes, why, of course we are all right. But suppose that the wind doesn’t come, and we find ourselves to-morrow morning as we did this morning, with that ship so near. Do you feel able to stand here all day, and watch, and wait, and then sit down to our last dinner? I don’t. Or suppose that we find ourselves gradually drifting away from her. No--I can’t stand it. I’ve made up my mind to row out to her. What do you say? Will you come with me?” “I will,” said Bart, firmly. “I’ll go, even if it is twenty miles. I’d go forty, rather than live this day over again. But when do you propose to start?” “I’ve been thinking it all over,” said Bruce. “My plan is this: We’ll get all ready to-night; that is, have the oars in the boat, and put in a couple of bottles of fresh water; besides, we can take with us about our share of the food that remains. Well, to-morrow morning, if the calm continues, the moment that we see the ship, we’ll start, and row for her. Why, if we had only done that this morning, by this time we’d have been on board of her, with a boat from the ship back here with provisions. Mind you, don’t think of twenty miles; it isn’t more than five at the very furthest--perhaps not over three or four.” “All right. I’ll go. Do you intend to tell anybody?”