Chapter 45—The Four Following Days
The night was calm, and in the morning the Lieutenant resolved to order the embarkation of everything and everybody that very day. He, therefore, went down to the lake to look at the raft.
The fog was still thick, but the sunbeams were beginning to struggle through it. The clouds had been swept away by the hurricane of the preceding day, and it seemed likely to be hot.
When Hobson reached the banks of the lake, the fog was still too dense for him to make out anything on its surface, and he was waiting for it to clear away, when he was joined by Mrs. Barnett, Madge, and several others.
The fog gradually cleared off, drawing back to the end of the lake, but the raft was nowhere to be seen.
Presently a gust of wind completely swept away the fog.
The ra
