CHAPTER XX
OUT OF THE FOG
That afternoon the boys and girls went in swimming and that eveningConnie's mother treated them all to a substantial dinner such as only sheknew how to cook.
And the way it disappeared before those ravenous girls and boys made evenMr. Danvers hold up his hands in consternation. But Connie's motherlaughed happily, pressed them to eat everything up, "for it would onlyspoil," and looked more than ever like Connie's older sister.
That night the boys were put up in a spare room which contained one bedand two cots which Connie's mother always kept stowed away foremergencies. For the cottage on Lighthouse Island was a popular placewith Mrs. Danvers' relatives and friends, and she often had unexpectedcompany.
They went out on the porch a little while after supper, and the boys wereat their funniest and kept the girls in a continual gale of merriment.
The time passed so quickly that before they knew it eleven o'clock chimedout from the hall inside and in consternation Connie's mother hurriedthem all off to bed.
"To-morrow is another day," she added with a little smile.
As they started up the stairs Teddy looked down at Billie and saidboyishly:
"Say, Billie, you've got _some_ sunburn, haven't you? You're--you'remighty pretty."
Then Teddy blushed and Billie blushed, and Billie hoped with all herheart that Laura had not heard it.
Laura had not, for she was talking and laughing with Paul Martinson andConnie. And so Billie, running ahead and reaching her room first, turnedon the light and stepped over to the mirror.
Was that Billie, she wondered, who gazed back at her from the mirror? Forthis girl was surely prettier than Billie ever had been. Her eyes wereshining, her cheeks were flushed under their tan, and her hair, a littletumbled by the breeze from the sea, made an unexpectedly pretty frame fora very lovely face.
The next day the girls insisted that the boys take them out in theirmotor boat. The boys protested a little, for the sun was acting ratherqueerly--going under a cloud and staying there sometimes for half an houron a stretch.
"I don't know," said Paul, a doubtful eye on the sky. "It isn't what youcould call a real clear day, girls, and I don't want to take any chanceswith you."
"Oh, we're not afraid, if you're not," sang out Laura teasingly, and heturned round upon her with a scowl.
"I'm not afraid for myself, and I think probably you know that. Just thesame----"
"Oh, but here's the sun!" called Vi suddenly, as the sun burst forth fromthe cloud and showered a golden glory over everything. "It's going to bea beautiful day--just beautiful."
So it was settled, and amid great fun and laughter they picked up thelunch that Connie's mother prepared for them and started happily off,humming as they went.
As they clambered aboard _The Shelling_--Paul had named his craft afterCaptain Shelling, the master of Boxton Military Academy,--the sun wentunder a cloud again, and this cloud was bigger and blacker than any thathad swallowed it before. But Laura's taunt still rang in Paul's ears, andhe said nothing.
In a little while there was no need for words. The girls began to see forthemselves that Paul had been right and that it would have been farbetter if they had waited till a really clear day.
They had put some distance between them and the mainland when the sunwent under a cloud for good, and a cool little breeze began to rise.
This had been going on for some time before they even realized it, theywere having such fun. Then it was Connie who spoke.
"Doesn't it look a little--a little--threatening, Paul?" she askedtimidly. "Do you suppose it is going to rain?"
"No, I don't think it's going to rain," Paul answered, his hands on thewheel, his eyes rather anxiously fixed on the water ahead. "But I dothink we're going to have one of those sudden heavy mists that come offthe coast here. Dad said to look out for them, because they're thickenough to cut, and if you get caught in one you can't see your handbefore your face."
The girls were sober enough now as they looked at each other.
"But what makes you think we're going to have one, Paul?" asked Laurahumbly.
"Because the air is so still and muggy," Paul answered, then added with awave of his hand out over the water: "Look--do you see that?"
"That" was a faint, misty cloudlike vapor hanging so low that it seemedalmost to touch the water. And suddenly the girls were conscious thattheir hair was wet and also their hands and their clothes.
"Goodness, we must be in it now!" said Vi looking wonderingly down at herdamp skirt. "Only it's so light you can't see it."
"I'm afraid it won't be light very long," said Paul grimly, as he swung_The Shelling_ around and headed back the way they had come.
"What are you going to do?" asked Laura, still more humbly, for she nowwas beginning to think that she was to blame for the fix they were in--ifindeed it were a fix.
"I'm going to get back to land as soon as I can," Paul answered her."Before this fog closes down on us."
"What would happen, Paul?" asked Billie softly. "I mean if it shouldclose down on us."
"We'd be lost," said Paul shortly, for by this time he was more thananxious. He was worried.
"Lost!" they repeated, and looked at each other wide-eyed.
"Well, you needn't look as if that was the end of the world," said Teddy,trying to speak lightly. "All we would have to do would be to keep ondrifting around till the fog lifted. It's simple."
"Yes, it's simple all right," said Chet gloomily. "If we don't run intoanything."
"Run into anything!" gasped Connie, while the other girls just stared."Oh, Paul, is there really any danger of that?"
"Of course," said Paul impatiently, noticing that the fog was growingthicker and blacker every moment. "There's always danger of running intosomething when you get yourself lost in a fog. And it's the little boatthat gets the worst of it," he added gloomily.
"Say, can't you try being cheerful for a change?" cried Teddyindignantly, for he had noticed how white Billie was getting and wastrying his best to think of something to say that would make her laugh."There's no use of singing a funeral song yet, you know."
"No, and there's no use in starting a dance, either," retorted Paul,wondering how much longer he would be able to keep his course. "We're ina mighty bad fix, and no harm can be done by everybody knowing it. Ican't possibly get back to the island--or the mainland either--beforethis fog settles down upon us."
It took a minute or two for this to sink in. There was no doubt about it.He was telling them that in a few minutes they would be lost in thishorrible fog. And that might mean--they shivered and turned dismayedfaces to each other.
"I--oh, I'm awfully sorry," wailed Laura. "If I hadn't said what I did toPaul we might never have come."
"Nonsense! that had nothing to do with it," said Billie, putting a loyalarm about her chum. "We would have come just the same."
Then followed a waking nightmare for the boys and girls. In a few momentsthe fog settled down upon them in a thick impenetrable veil, so densethat, as Paul had said, you could almost have cut it.
It became impossible for Paul to steer, and all there was to do was tosit still and wait and hope for the best. Fog horns were sounding allabout, some seeming so close that the girls fully expected to see somegreat shape loom up through the mist, bearing down upon them.
For a long time nobody spoke--they were too busy listening to the weirdmeanings of the fog horns and wondering how they could have escaped acollision so long. For a while Paul had kept the engine running in thehope that he might be able to keep to his course and eventually get toLighthouse Island. But he had decided that this only made a collisionmore likely, and so had shut it off. And now they had been floating forwhat seemed hours to the miserable boys and girls.
It was Connie who finally broke the silence.
"Oh, dear," she said, apropos of nothing at all, "now I suppose we'llhave to die an
d never solve our mystery after all." She sighedplaintively, and the girls had a wild desire to shout with laughter andcry at the same time.
"Goodness," said Laura hysterically, "if we've got to die who cares aboutmysteries anyway?"
The boys, who had been peering ahead into the heavy unfriendly fog,looked at the girls in surprise.
"What do you mean--mystery?" Ferd asked.
Before the girls could answer a sharp cry from Paul jerked their eyesback to him.
"Look!" he cried, one hand on the wheel and the other pointing excitedlybefore them to a dark something which loomed suddenly out of the mist."There! To starboard. We'll bump it sure!"