There is no danger that Hogan is
anywhere along this shore now."
"You think he and--and those others have all gone?"
"Yes; why should they hang around here? The last idea in their heads
would be the possibility of our ever drifting in alive. Hogan has gone
back to Chicago to make a report to Hobart, and the rest have scattered
like a covey of partridges. Not one of them has a thought but that we
went down in the _Seminole_. Now they'll pull off their graft, and pull
it quick."
"And what will you do?"
"Get safely ashore first. It will be dark in less than an hour; but we
are too far out yet to venture swimming. We shall have to hang tight to
the raft a while yet, and drift; the current is carrying us all right. Do
you see any sign of life over there--houses, or smoke?"
"No; I have been looking; the whole shore-line appears utterly deserted.
Have you any idea where we can be?"
"Not the slightest; only this is certainly the west shore; there is no
such abandoned spot anywhere between Chicago and Milwaukee, and we must
be much farther north. They had plenty of time to put the yacht quite a
ways up shore before they sank her."
"Hogan must have known where he was."
"Unquestionably; it was all planned out; he knew exactly where he
intended to land, and how long it would take them to reach there after
they left the yacht."
"Perhaps," she suggested hesitatingly, "the gang had some rendezvous up
here in these north-woods, a place where they could hide.
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