e
occasion.

They thought of it; and the thought filled them with apprehension. From
the observations they had made before sunset, they knew that the shore
could not be near, not nearer than three miles, perhaps four.

Even with free footing, the true direction, and a clear view of the
path, it might have been a question about time. They all knew enough of
the sea to be aware how rapidly the tide sets in, especially on some
foreign shores, and there was nothing to assure them that the seaboard
of the Saara was not beset by the most treacherous of tides. On the
contrary, it was just this, a tidal current, that had forced their
vessel among the breakers, causing them to become what they now were,
castaways!

They had reason to dread the tides of the Saara's shore; and dread them
they did, their fears at each moment becoming stronger as they felt the
dark waters rising higher and higher around them!

CHAPTER SIX.

WADE OR SWIM?

Foe a time they floundered on, the old sailor in the lead, the three
boys strung out in a line after him. Sometimes they departed from this
formation, one or another trying towards the flank for shallower water.

Already it clasped them by the thighs; and just in proportion as it rose
upon their bodies, did their spirits become depressed. They knew that
they were following the crest of the sandspit. They knew it by the
deepening of the sea on each side of them: but they had by this time
discovered another index to their direction. Old Bill had kept his
"weather-eye" upon the waves; until he had discovered the angle at which
they broke over the "bar", and could follow the "combing" of the spit,
as he called it, without much danger of departure from the true path.

It was not the direction that troubled their thoughts any longer; but
the time and the tide.

Up to their waists in water, their progress could not be otherwise than
slow. The time would not have signified could they have been sure of
the tide, that is, sure of its not rising higher.

Alas! they could not be in doubt about this. On the contrary, they were
too well assured that it was rising higher; and with a rapidity that
threatened soon to submerge them under its merciless swells. These came
slowly sweeping along, in the diagonal direction, one succeeding the
other, and each new one striking higher up upon the bodies of the now
exhausted waders.

On they floundered, despite their exhaustion; on along the subaq