It be a cloud, or fog, I knows; or summut o' that sort, sure-ly, Master Bob!" Bob, however, would not be persuaded of this, persisting that he was right and Dick wrong.
"I don't know where your eyes can be!" he said scornfully.

"I'll bet anything it's a steamer; or, I never saw one!" But ere another hour had passed over their heads, Dick was proved to be the true prophet; he, the false! The low-lying bank of vapour, which originally resembled the trail of smoke from some passing steam-vessel on her way down Channel, gradually spread itself out along the horizon.
It then rose up, like a curtain, from the sea; and, stretching up its clammy heads towards the zenith, widened over the heavens until it shut out the western sun from their gaze, making the still early afternoon seem as night.
Creeping over the surface of the sullen water with ghostly footsteps, the mist soon shrouded the boat in its pall-like folds; impregnating the surrounding atmosphere with moisture and making the boys believe it was raining, though never a drop fell.
It was only a sea-fog, that was all.
But it was accompanied by a dampness that seemed like the hand of Death!.