“Not a sign,” replied Joy. “We have heard lots of cries, but we are the only ones who have reached this launch.”
“Yes. I think we ran into one of the cutters. Whew! how this blamed thing does roll.”
It required all the efforts of the three to retain their position upon the tossing launch. The sweep of the waves sent a perfect deluge of water over them at times, and they were compelled to cling with tooth and nail.
The force of the wind continued unabated, but it was evident from the suddenness of its coming and its very fierceness that it would not last.
The lights of the _Monongahela_ were no longer visible. Immediately after gaining the comparative safety of the capsized launch, Clif eagerly scanned the horizon.
“I am afraid she has been driven off before the gale, fellows,” he said, anxiously.
“It certainly looks that way,” agreed Joy. “I guess we can say good-by to the old _Monongahela_.”
“It say good-by to us,” chimed in Trolley. “It go away; we no want to.”
He spoke lightly, but he fully understood the extreme gravity of the situation. All three realized that their lives were in deadly peril.
With only the frail planks of an overturned boat between them and the depths of the angry sea, it was plainly evident that little hope remained.
And what of the others who had left the practice ship?
Clif shuddered and his eyes moistened as he recalled the names of his shipmates. Some there were who had not been friendly to him. Many had sworn undying vengeance because he had led the plebes on more than one successful resistance to the hazing of the upper classes. In that very launch Judson Greene had pulled an oar.
All animosity was forgotten now, however; in the presence of such an awful tragedy only heartfelt sympathy and regret could live.
“Haven’t you seen anything of the others?” he asked again.
“I guess they gone down,” muttered Trolley. “Poor boys! Me very sorry.”
A realization of their own situation was suddenly brought home to them. A curling wave, higher than the rest, abruptly broke over the launch with such force that all three lads were hurled bodily from the keel.
Clif was thrown a dozen feet away from the boat, and when he regained the surface after the violent plunge he found himself buffeted about in a smother of foam.