t till next tide. Mayhap this fog will clear
off before evening, and we shall be able to work in; and now I expect
you two young uns would like some grub. Come below."

The two boys joyfully followed into the little cabin, and were soon
satisfying their hunger on bread and cold meat. The bargee drew a jug
of water from the breaker and placed it before them.

"The fire has gone out," he said, "or I would give yer a cup of
tea--that's our tipple; we don't keep spirits on board the _Sarah and
Jane_. I like a drop on shore, but it aint stuff to have on a barge,
where you wants your senses handy at all times. And now what are you
thinking of doing?" he asked when the boys had finished.

"What we had made up our minds to do was to lie where we were at the
edge of the mud till tide turned, and then to keep as close to the
shore as we could until we got back to Gravesend. The steamer we came
by does not go back till late, and we thought we should be back by
that time."

"No, you wouldn't," the man said. "Out in the middle of the stream you
would be back in two hours easy, but not close inshore. The tide
don't help you much there, and half your time you are in eddies and
back-currents. No, you wouldn't be back in Gravesend by eight noway."

"Then what would you advise us to do?"

"Well, just at present I won't give no advice at all. We will see how
things are going after a bit. Now let's take a look round."

So saying he climbed the ladder to the deck, followed by the boys. The
white fog still shut the boat in like a curtain.

"What do you think of it, Jack?"

"Don't know," the other replied. "Thought just now there was a puff of
air coming down the river. I wish it would, or we shan't make
Sheerness to-night, much less Rochester. Yes, that's a puff sure
enough. You are in luck, young uns. Like enough in half an hour there
will be a brisk wind blowing, driving all this fog out to sea before
it."

Another and another puff came, and tiny ripples swept across the
oil-like face of the water.

"It's a-coming, sure enough," the bargeman said. "I'd bet a pot of
beer as the fog will have lifted in a quarter of an hour."

Stronger and stronger came the puffs of wind.

The fog seemed as if stirred by an invisible hand. It was no longer a
dull, uniform whitish-gray; dark shadows seemed to flit across it, and
sometimes the view of the water extended here and there.

"There's the shore!" Bill exclaimed suddenly, but ere Geor