p high and dry on the sandy beach of the island.

The narrow "strait" of the inlet between the bay and the ocean was
hardly visible at any considerable distance. It opened to view, however,
as they drew near; and Dab Kinzer rose higher than ever in his friend's
good opinion, as the swift little vessel he was steering shot unerringly
into the contracted channel.

"Ain't we pretty near where you said we were to try for some fish?" he
asked.

"Just outside there. Get the grapnel ready, Dick. Sharp, now!"

Sharp it was, and Ford himself lent a hand; and, in another moment, the
white sails went down, jib and main; "The Swallow" was drifting along
under bare poles, and Dick Lee and Ford were waiting the captain's
orders to let go the neat little anchor.

"Heave!"

Over went the iron, the hawser followed briskly.

"That'll do, Dick: hold her!"

Dick gave the rope a skilful turn around its "pin," and Dab shouted,--

"Now for some weak-fish! It's about three fathoms, and the tide's near
the turn."

Alas for the uncertainty of human calculations! The grapnel caught on
the bottom, surely and firmly; but, the moment there came any strain on
the seemingly stout hawser that held it, the latter parted like a
thread, and "The Swallow" was all adrift!

"Somebody's done gone cut dat rope!" shouted Dick, as he frantically
pulled in the treacherous bit of hemp.

There was an anxious look on Dab Kinzer's face for a moment. Then he
shouted,--

"Sharp, now, boys, or we'll be rolling in the surf in three minutes!
Haul away, Dick! Haul with him, Ford! Up with her! There, that'll give
us headway."

Ford Foster looked out to seaward, even while he was hauling his best
upon the sail halyards. All along the line of the coast, at distances
varying from a hundred yards or so to nearly a mile, there was an
irregular line of foaming breakers--an awful thing for a boat like "The
Swallow" to run into!

Perhaps; but ten times worse for a larger craft, for the latter would be
shattered on the shoals, where the bit of a yacht would find plenty of
water under her; that is, if she did not, at the same time, find too
much water _over_ her.

"Can't we go back through the inlet in the bar?" asked Ford.

"Not with this wind in our teeth, and it's getting worse every minute.
No more will it do to try to keep inside the surf."

"What can we do, then?"

"Take the smoothest places we can find, and run 'em. The sea isn't very
rough outside. I