We'll just have
to run for it and trust to luck!"
"Right-o," called Joe sturdily. "Let her flicker, old man! There's one
thing plumb certain, and that is if we come across an island
we're--um--likely to run clean over it!"
But Joe was wrong.
The words were scarcely off his lips when a cry of mingled astonishment
and alarm sprang from Steve as he threw his weight on the wheel. At the
same moment there was a shock that sent all hands reeling, the
_Adventurer_ quivered from stern to stern, and then, after a moment no
longer than a heart-beat, lurched forward again. Directly over the bow,
glimpsed vaguely through the rain and gloom, rose a towering cliff.
Steve's frantic efforts were in vain, for although he tore at the
clutch and the propeller thrashed the water astern, the _Adventurer_ was
already in the smother of the surf and an instant later she struck.
CHAPTER XIX
SHIPWRECKED
Afterwards the boys looked back on the ensuing five minutes as a dream
rather than a reality. The cruiser grounded with an impetus that set
pans rattling in galley, lifted again and once more thumped her stern
down, as she did so swinging her stern slowly around in a last frantic
effort to pull clear. Then the boat careened, a sea washed clean across
the deck and, with her keel forward of the engine firmly imbedded in the
sand, she lay still save for the tremors that shook her when the angry
surf rushed in across her beam.
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