After getting the supplies for the schooner, Messrs. Simmons and Long went along the shore to a place which Captain Corbet told them of, where they expected to secure some petrifactions. Captain Corbet went with them as guide. The mate took possession of the barn, and slept all the time. As for the boys, two of them, Bogud and Billy-mack, went with the teachers by special invitation, for the others preferred remaining. Six hours were consumed in fishing, and the remainder of the time in dawdling. They _did_ Pratt’s Cove so thoroughly that there was not a nook unexplored. On the following night, the “B. O. W. C.” decided to quit Captain Pratt’s house and sleep in the schooner. So they went down about dusk, and were put on board by Jiggins, who brought back the boat to the shore. Messrs. Simmons and Long did not return that night, nor yet on the following morning. About ten o’clock they got back. They were met by Captain Pratt and the five boys who had slept at his house. They had very serious faces. It seems that Captain Pratt had been down at eight o’clock to call the boys to breakfast. He found the schooner gone, and on the mud flats, left dry by the tide, lay the fluke of the anchor broken off short. This was the message that he brought, explaining, at the same time, that the boys had slept on board, and must have drifted away with the schooner. XII. _On the Track again.--Fishing for a Duck.--Asking for Bread, and getting Stones.--Pat shines as Cook._ AT receiving such startling intelligence, both Messrs’. Simmons and Long looked horrified and bewildered, and neither of them said one word. “At any rate, the mate’s on board,” said Mr. Long at last. “The mate! That’s the wrorst of it. He got his breakfast only a half an hour go. He slept in my barn.” “And where has the vessel gone?” cried Mr. Long, in great distress. “I can’t tell. I rowed out for a mile, but didn’t see any signs of her.” “We must go after them at once,” said Mr. Long. “Can’t we get a sail-boat somewhere?” “I suppose I can rig up a sail in my boat; but she’s only a punt, and I don’t think wo could manage her at all among the currents out there.” “I wonder if they know anything about sailing?” “No doubt they do,” said Captain Pratt. “O, they’re all right,” said Captain Corbet, confidently. “I said, when they went adrift before, that they’d turn up right side up--and up they turned. Besides, the weather’s fine, and there’s no danger in life.” “Still we must do something,” said Mr. Long, anxiously. “Even if they do understand sailing, they can never get back here again.” “It’s jest what I’ve been expectin’,” said Captain Corbet, after a profound silence, and with a tone of deep conviction. “What?” “Why, that there anchor.” “What did you expect?” “Why, that it would break off short. You see there’s been a crack in it for nigh two years, an’ every time I used it, I said, says I, it’s bound to go this time.”