mused himself turning it
round and round and trying to get it to point in some other direction
than the north.

"Now, Dan," Vincent said at last, "give me that compass, and get out the
food. We will have a better meal than we did this morning, for now that
the wind is going down there's no chance of food running short. When we
have had dinner we will get up the sail again. The sea is not so rough
as it was, and it is certainly not so high as it was before we lowered
the sail yesterday."

"De waves bery big, massa."

"They are big, Dan; but they are not so angry. The heads are not
breaking over as they did last night, and the boat will go better over
these long waves than she did through the choppy sea at the beginning of
the gale."

Accordingly the bundle of spars was pulled up alongside and lifted. The
mast was set up and the sail hoisted. Dan in a few minutes forgot his
fears and lost even his sense of uneasiness as he found the boat mounted
wave after wave without shipping water. Several times, indeed, a shower
of spray flew high up in the air, but the gusts no longer buried her so
that the water came over the gunwale, and it was a long time before
there was any occasion to use the baler. As the sun set it could be seen
that there was a dark line between it and the water.

"There is the land, Dan; and I do not suppose it is more than twenty
miles away, for most of the coast lies low."

"But how we find de York River, massa? Will de compass tell you dat?"

"No, Dan. I don't know whether we have drifted north or south of it. At
ordinary times the current runs up the coast, but the wind this morning
was blowing from the north of west, and may have been doing so all
through the night for anything I know. Well, the great thing is to make
land. We are almost sure to come across some fishing boats, but, if not,
we must run ashore and find a house."

They continued sailing until Vincent's watch told him it was twelve
o'clock, by which time the coast was quite close. The wind now almost
dropped, and, lowering their sail, they rowed in until, on lowering the
anchor, they found that it touched the ground. Then they lay down and
slept till morning. Dan was the first to waken.

"Dar are some houses dere close down by the shore, sah, and some men
getting out a boat."

"That's all right, Dan," Vincent said, as he roused himself and looked
over. "We shall learn soon where we are."

In a quarter of an hour the fishing b