Bart said no more, but retired to convey this disheartening intelligence to his companions. They talked over it thoughtfully and with serious faces. The vessel went on. The tide was against them, but the wind was strong and fair, and blew with undiminishing power. Looking toward the shore, they could see that their progress was excellent. Nearer they came, and nearer, until at last they saw before them a vast extent of mud flats, beyond which lay a low ridge all green with verdure; and they knew it as the dike of Grand Pré. Beyond this again ascended the hills, with the white village at the base, and on the slope the conspicuous form of the Academy, with its broad portico and lofty cupola. . “Where are you going now, captain? You can’t anchor. Is there a port here to run the schooner into?” “Nary port.” “What’ll you do? Surely you won’t drift off again?” “Drift? No, sir.” “How will you manage?” “How? Why, there’s only one thing to do; and that is, to run her right straight in on to a mud flat.” As he spoke, he looked steadily forward, and gave the tiller a pull to starboard. The schooner turned slightly. The next instant it ran squarely upon the mud flat, and stuck there, hard and fast. XXIII. _A wild Undertaking.--A Race for Life.--The lost Boot.--The Quicksands.--The Isle of Safety.--The Mud Gulch.--Crossing the Abyss of Mud.--Bruce’s Doldrum.--Two forlorn Figures.--Rapturous Welcome.--Speech by the Grand Panjandrum._ THERE they were on the mud flat. It was a situation in which the B. O. W. C. had been before, but experience had not made it any the more pleasant to them. “We’ve done it before,” said Bruce, “and why shouldn’t we do it again?” “So I say,” remarked Arthur. “It’s a great deal farther,” said Phil, “but in my opinion it isn’t half so bad as the other one.” “Of course it isn’t,” said Tom. “The tide is leaving us rapidly, and we’ll be able to jump out upon the mud, and not up to our necks in water, as we did the last time.” “And so we needn’t prepare to fight with shovel-mouth sharks,” said Phil. “The fact is,” said Bart, “it’s going to be a difficult job, and harder than the last one, perhaps. We’ve got a couple of miles to go, instead of so many hundred yards. We must face that fact before leaving.” “We know that very well,” said Phil. “You see there is Grand Pré just in front of us.” “Yes.” “Well, we can’t go there, because between us and that place is the Cornwallis River, which just now is an abyss of mud, with a strong stream running at the bottom. So we’ll have to make an angle, and go up there toward the right, and go in a straight line to Cornwallis Bridge.. It will be two miles to the grass land, and another one to the bridge. So we’ll have two miles of mud.” “I don’t believe the mud is any different from what we found in the other place.”