"Better slow down; hadn't you?" suggested Bob. "We might hit
something."
"Yes, for goodness, sake, don't have a collision," begged Nellie.
"We ought to be pretty near shore," remarked Jerry. "I'll keep on a
little longer, and we'll come pretty near the dock, I think."
He tried to peer ahead into the fog, but it slowly settled down in
lazy, curling wreaths, that made it as hard to see through as though a
white blanket had been hung in front of him.
"Hark! What's that'?" asked Olivia, holding up her hand.
Out of the mist there came the dismal clang of a bell.
"Dong! Ding! Dong!"
"A vessel!" cried Bob. "Look out, Jerry, or we'll be run down."
"That isn't a vessel," said Rose, with a worried look on her face.
"That's the bell of the shoal buoy. We are quite a way out to sea!"
"And lost in the fog," added Nellie.
CHAPTER XVI
ON THE ROCKS
WITH a quick motion Jerry shut off the power, and the Ripper drifted
through the mist, slowly losing headway. The sound of the bell became
more distinct, and in a little while something dark loomed up before
the anxious eyes of the boys and girls.
"Lookout! She's going to hit!" cried Ned.
"That's the buoy," declared Nellie.
"What's its location?" asked Jerry. "Can't we get our bearings from
it?"
"Well, it's about eight miles off shore, I've heard the fishermen
say," replied Nellie, "and it's about four miles down the coast from
San Felicity."
"It doesn't seem as if we came as far as that," said Bob.
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