The raft drifted aimlessly on, the waves lapping its sides, and tossing it about as though in wanton play. The currents and the wind held it in their relentless grip, and bore it steadily forward, surging along the grey surface of the sea. The girl lay quiet, her face upturned, unconscious now of her dread surroundings; and the man swayed above her, his head bent upon his breast, both sleeping the sleep of sheer exhaustion. Out of the dim mist shrouding the eastern sky the vague outline of a distant steamer revealed itself for a moment, the smoke from its stacks adding to the gathering gloom. It was but a vision fading swiftly away into silence. No throb of the engines awoke the unconscious sleepers; no eye on the speeding deck saw the low-lying raft, or its occupants. The vessel vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving nothing but a trackless waste of sea. The two slept on.
It was the startled cry of Natalie that roused West, and brought his drooping head, upright. She was sitting up, still held safely by the coil of rope, and pointing excitedly behind him.
"Oh, see there! Look where I point--isn't that land?"
The raft rocked as he swung his body hastily about, and gazed intently in the direction indicated. Land! of course it was land; land already so close at hand, his eyes could trace its conformation--the narrow strip of sand beach, the sharp bluff beyond, the fringe of trees crowning the summit. He rubbed his eyes, scarcely able to credit his sight, half believing it a mirage. Yet the view remained unchanged; it was land, a bit of the west shore, a short promontory running out into the lake toward which the raft, impelled by some hidden current, was steadily drifting. His arm clapped the girl in sudden ecstasy.
"Yes, it's land, thank God!" he exclaimed thoughtfully. "We are floating ashore, Natalie--saved in spite of ourselves. Why, we could not have been so far out in the lake after all. That must be why all those vessels passed to the east of us. I ought to have thought of that before; those villains would never have deserted the yacht in mid-lake, and taken to the boat. They must have known they could make shore easily."
Her glance searched the face of the bluff, which with each moment was becoming more distinctly visible.
"You don't suppose they landed here, do you?"
"Not very likely; even if they did they are not here now. They would have made it before daylight this morning. All the time we have been drifting out there they had to get away in. There is no danger that Hogan is anywhere along this shore now."