ccordingly it was not long before they were skirting the upper reaches
of the diminishing fog bank, being about a thousand feet or so above the
sea itself. Now and then slight rifts appeared in the disappearing mist,
and at such intervals it was possible for them to catch fleeting glimpses
of the Atlantic, whose wide expanse they had successfully spanned, an
event that would make history, if only it could ever be publicly known.

Jack could no longer see the low shore, much to his distress; but then
he knew positively it was there, and when the time came to change
their course directly into the west a brief flight would carry them
over the land.

It really mattered little to him where they made their landing, since he
would be able to find a way of reaching Bridgeton within a few hours. He
consulted his little wrist watch again and again.

Tom was more than a little amused to see Jack even clap it close to his
ear. He knew the reason of his doing this, for time was crawling on so
slowly in the estimation of the impatient one that he even suspected the
faithful little watch had ceased to go, though its steady ticking must
have speedily assured him such could not possibly be the case.

"Listen!" Lieutenant Beverly suddenly called out.

A strange weird sound came faintly to their ears. Even above all the
noise of their working engine they could make it out. To any one who came
from the interior of the country it might have seemed a bewildering
sound, and have called up strange fancies connected with marine monsters
that were said to have once inhabited these waters near the Gulf Stream.

But the trio of voyagers had lived too long near the coast not to
recognize a fog-siren when they heard its strident call.

Jack in particular was exultant.

"Tell me, is that the anchored light-ship's siren, Tom, do you think?" he
demanded, with considerable excitement.

The pilot nodded his head, and with a finger pointed to a dot on the
chart to indicate that it could be nothing else.

"I presume, Tom," Jack went on to say, "you came down when you did partly
to catch that sound as we came near the shoals where the lightship stands
guard day and night the whole year through."

"Well, I had that in mind," came the answer, "for, as I said before,
while feeling pretty sure of my bearings I thought I'd like to have them
verified. And now you can see I wasn't much out of the way."

"You've done splendidly, Tom," said Beverly, clap