There was a noticeable decrease in the size and height of the waves and the wind abated in proportion.

In half an hour after the rift had been first noticed by Merritt, the black squall had passed, and the late afternoon sun began to shine in a pallid way through the driving cloud masses.
The lads, however, were still in a serious fix.

They had been driven so far out to sea that the land was blotted out altogether.

All about them was only the still heaving Atlantic.

The sun, too, was westering fast, and it would not be long before darkness fell.
Without gasoline and with no sail, they had no means of making land.
Worse still, they were in the track of the in and out-bound steamers to and from New York--according to Tubby's reckoning--and they had no lights.
"Well, we seem to have got out of the frying pan into the fire," said Merritt in a troubled voice.