By this we had shaken off the unwelcome convoy of the coast-line, and, having had a thrilling minute or two running the gauntlet of the great combers of the southwest bar, we were at last really out to sea, making our dash under a good sailing breeze, with the engine going, too, across the Tongue of Ocean.

This Tongue of Ocean is but a narrow strip of sea—­so narrow indeed that you scarcely lose sight of one coast before you sight the other—­yet the oldest sailors cross it with fear, for its appalling depth within its narrow boundaries make it subject to sudden “rages” in certain winds.  Even Charlie, who must have made the trip half a hundred times, scanned the western horizon with an anxious eye.

Presently, in the far southwest, tiny points like a row of pins began very faintly to range themselves along the sky-line.  They were palm trees, though you could not make them out to be such, or anything in particular, till long after.  One darker point seemed closer than the rest.

“There’s High Cay!” rang out the rich young voice of our passenger, whom we’d half forgotten in our tense scanning of the horizon.  Charlie and I both turned to him together in surprise—­and his face certainly betrayed the confusion of one who has let something slip involuntarily.

“Ho! ho! young man,” cried Charlie, his face darkening again, “what do you know about High Cay?  I thought this was your first trip.”

“So it is,” answered the boy, with a flush of evident annoyance, “on the sea.”

“What do you mean by ’on the sea’?”

“I mean that I’ve done it many a time—­on the chart.  I know every bluff and reef and shoal and cay around Andros from Morgan’s Bluff to Washerwoman’s Cut—­”

“You do, eh?”

“On the chart.  Why, I’ve studied charts since I was a kid, and gone every kind of voyage you can think of—­playing at buccaneering or whaling, or discovering the North Pole.  Every kid does that.”

“They do, eh?” said Charlie, evidently quite unimpressed. “I never did.”

“That’s because you’ve about as much imagination as a turnip in that head of yours,” I broke in, in defence of my young Apollo.

“Maybe, if you’re so smart,” continued Charlie, paying no attention to me, “you can navigate us through the North Bight?”

“Maybe!” answered our youngster pertly, with an odd little smile.  He had evidently recovered his nerve, and seemed to take pleasure in piquing Charlie’s bearish suspicions.

CHAPTER V

In Which We Enter the Wilderness.

Andros, as no other of the islands, is surrounded by a ring of reefs stretching all around its coasts.  The waters inside this ring are seldom more than a fathom or two deep, and, spreading out for miles and miles above a level coral floor, give something of the effect of a vast natural swimming-bath.  Frequently there is no more than four or five feet of water, and in calm weather it would be almost possible to walk for miles across this strange sea-bottom.