"The exercise kept me warm, and that's
about the only good I thought it was doing, but it did help, didn't it?"
"It certainly did," agreed Bobby. "My, but I'm hungry!"
"So am I," said Jimmy. "Won't the sun feel good when it rises?"
"I wonder which way we lie from home?"
"South, of course, for that's the drift of the current. All the bergs
drift south."
"Yes, but how far?"
"Oh, I don't know, but we must be some bit south of the island."
And so they calculated and chatted, while the glow grew in the eastern
sky, and until the sun rose, at last, to comfort them and warm stiffened
fingers and chilled bodies. But with the sun a westerly breeze also set
in to retard them, and their progress was tedious and slow.
The shore still lay a long way off, though a little nearer than when
they first discovered it in the morning light, and Bobby had just
remarked that they had gained a little, when Jimmy suddenly ceased
paddling, and rising to his feet gazed eagerly to the southward.
"What is it?" asked Bobby. "What do you see?"
"A sail! A sail!" Jimmy almost shouted a moment later. "I wasn't sure at
first, but now I'm certain!"
Bobby was on his feet in an instant, and the two, balancing themselves
dexterously while the skiff rose and fell upon the swell, watched
excitedly as the sail increased in size.
"It's a schooner!" said Jimmy.
"And it'll pick us up!" said Bobby.
"If it doesn't pass too far to windward to see us," suggested Jimmy.
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