"That's all," said the Captain. "Just to mail this letter and buy some alcohol for Uncle Teddy and some peanuts for the chippies. Hadn't ought to take more than an hour and a half altogether." He started the engine and off they chugged. They reached St. Pierre in good time, mailed the letter, bought the alcohol and the peanuts and a postcard with a picture of a donkey on it to give to Katherine and some lollypops for Slim and started back.
"What's happened to the sun?" asked Hinpoha. It had been feeble and watery on the way over, but now it had vanished from the sky, and a fine mist seemed to be falling all over. Hinpoha shivered involuntarily as they started off.
"You really should have brought your sweater along," said the Captain. "Here, spread this tarpaulin over you, it'll keep you warm a little."
Hinpoha declared she wasn't very cold, but, nevertheless, she availed herself of the protection the tarpaulin afforded and was glad to have it. The mist thickened until it looked like steam, and almost before they knew it they were surrounded on all sides by a dense fog. They could not see a boat length ahead of them.
"Nice pickle," said the Captain, buttoning his collar around his throat. "How are we ever going to find our way back to Ellen's Isle in this mess?"
Hinpoha strained her eyes trying to peer through the white curtain. "I don't know," she said, "unless you can guide yourself by the fog horn in the harbor of St. Pierre. Keep it behind us, you know."
"But the sound seems to come from all around," said the Captain.
"It will at first, but afterwards you can tell," said Hinpoha. "Nyoda used to keep making us tell the direction from which sounds came and we can almost always do it. The fog horn is behind us now."
The Captain kept on in the direction they had been going and ran very slowly. "It'll take us all evening to get home at this rate," he said. "If we don't run past the island," he added under his breath.
A few minutes later the chugging of the engine ceased and their steady, if slow, progress was arrested. "What's the matter?" asked Hinpoha.
"I don't know," said the Captain in a vexed tone. "It can't be that we're out of gasoline--I filled up before we left. The engine's gone dead."