Sayfa 138 / 416

He had not pulled for fifteen minutes when the whole world about

him was suddenly obscured by the thick, woolly fog that swirled

past on the wind. It was as though an impenetrable wall had been

suddenly built up on all sides, a wall that offered no resistance

to his progress and yet no egress.

He immediately stopped rowing and rested his oars, listening. No

sound came to him except the slap of the increasing waves and the

occasional flap of a wet fish in its last struggles.

He carried no pocket compass, and the light gave no hint of the

direction of the sun. In the five minutes that he sat there the

head of his dory swung around and, even had he known the exact

compass direction of the Charming Lass before the fog, he would

have been unable to find it.

The situation did not alarm him in the least, for he had

experienced it often before. Reaching into the bow, he drew out

the dinner-horn that was part of the equipment of the dory and

sent an ear-splitting blast out into the fog.