"It's a judgment on us!" "A fiddlestick!" retorted Bob.

"We'll only drift about like this for a short time; and, when the tide turns again, it will sweep us back to Spithead like one o'clock!" "I doesn't believe that, Master Bob," said Dick disconsolately, sitting down on a thwart, and looking longingly at a faint speck in the distance which he thought was Southsea; although they were almost out of sight of land now, the swift current carrying the boat along nearly four knots an hour.

"We should ha' tuk warnin', Master Bob, by Rover.

He knowed what wer' a-coming and so he swum ashore in time, he did!" "Rover is a faithless creature!" cried Bob hotly.

"I'll give him a good licking when we reach the land again, you see!" "When'll that be, Master Bob ?" "Oh, some time or other before night," replied he defiantly, but Dick could easily tell from his tone of voice that he did not speak quite so buoyantly as before; and his already long face grew longer as the day wore on without the breeze springing up again or any change of circumstances.
They did not pass a single ship near, notwithstanding that they saw several with all their sails set, their loftier canvas catching a few lingering puffs of air that did not descend low enough to affect the cutter.