“Now, I know what danger is, and just what courage and steadfastness men may show,” remarked Miss Elsie, as they passed south of a little headland that formed one of the shelters of the Dunstan cove.
“And you know how much grit women may show,” rejoined Halstead, “for not once did you give us any trouble.”
“Perhaps we were too badly frightened to make trouble,” laughed Jessie Lester.
“Well, you didn’t any of you faint or have hysterics after you realized the danger was over, did you?” retorted Captain Tom, laughing. “You can’t get away from the charge that you all showed splendid courage as soon as you realized that we were in real danger.”
“But you were planning to swim ashore with us from the reef,” said Mrs. Lester.
“I’m very, very thankful we didn’t have to try it,” replied Halstead, soberly. “It would have been one of those one-in-a-hundred chances that I don’t like to have to take.”
Jed was busy, now, putting out the heaviest fenders along the port side of the hull. Even in the cove the waves were running at a troublesome height. Yet Tom and Joe, by good team work at their respective posts, ran the “Meteor” in alongside the pier, almost without a jar.
“I’m thankful you’re all back safe,” called Mr. Dunstan, coming toward them. “I would have been worried, Mrs. Lester, if I hadn’t known all about the captain and crew that had the boat out.”
But when he heard about the hairbreadth escape from going on the reef off Muskeget Mr. Dunstan’s face went deathly pale. He asked the ladies to return to the house, while he boarded the “Meteor” and faced the boys anxiously.
“What on earth can it mean that the gasoline ran out?” he demanded. “Dawson, are you absolutely sure that you had plenty of oil when you returned at daylight this morning?”
“Positive of it, sir,” came emphatically from Engineer Joe.
“Then that oil must have been pumped quietly out of the tank while you three slept almost the sleep of the dead,” exclaimed the owner.
“It was pumped out very early in the day, too,” Tom insisted. “Such a big quantity couldn’t have been pumped anywhere except overboard. It would have taken several barrels to hold what was in the tank. Yet, by the time we were on deck, at a little after noon, there wasn’t a sign of gasoline anywhere on the water about us. The tide had carried it away.”