f trees crowning the
summit. He rubbed his eyes, scarcely able to credit his sight, half
believing it a mirage. Yet the view remained unchanged; it was land, a
bit of the west shore, a short promontory running out into the lake
toward which the raft, impelled by some hidden current, was steadily
drifting. His arm clapped the girl in sudden ecstasy.

"Yes, it's land, thank God!" he exclaimed thoughtfully. "We are floating
ashore, Natalie--saved in spite of ourselves. Why, we could not have been
so far out in the lake after all. That must be why all those vessels
passed to the east of us. I ought to have thought of that before; those
villains would never have deserted the yacht in mid-lake, and taken to
the boat. They must have known they could make shore easily."

Her glance searched the face of the bluff, which with each moment was
becoming more distinctly visible.

"You don't suppose they landed here, do you?"

"Not very likely; even if they did they are not here now. They would have
made it before daylight this morning. All the time we have been drifting
out there they had to get away in. There is no danger that Hogan is
anywhere along this shore now."

"You think he and--and those others have all gone?"

"Yes; why should they hang around here? The last idea in their heads
would be the possibility of our ever drifting in alive. Hogan has gone
back to Chicago to make a report to Hobart, and the rest have scattered
like a covey of partridges. Not one of them has a thought but that we
went down in the _Seminole_. Now they'll pull off their graft, and pull
it quick."

"And what will you do?"

"Get safely ashore first. It will be dark in less than an hour; but we
are too far out yet to venture swimming. We shall have to hang tight to
the raft a while yet, and drift; the current is carrying us all right. Do
you see any sign of life over there--houses, or smoke?"

"No; I have been looking; the whole shore-line appears utterly deserted.
Have you any idea where we can be?"

"Not the slightest; only this is certainly the west shore; there is no
such abandoned spot anywhere between Chicago and Milwaukee, and we must
be much farther north. They had plenty of time to put the yacht quite a
ways up shore before they sank her."

"Hogan must have known where he was."

"Unquestionably; it was all planned out; he knew exactly where he
intended to land, and how long it would take them to reach there after
they left the yac