The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat Part 10

"Sam, you make a fire."

"The oil stove may work," suggested Miss Elting. They tried it, but there was still too much water in the tanks, so Sam built a fire on sh.o.r.e, and shortly after Harriet and Jane were busily engaged in getting breakfast, while the boys worked steadily in the houseboat. Finding nails, saw and hammer, they patched up the broken door and hung it back in place. Then they removed all the supplies that had been left aboard and began cleaning up. They bailed the remaining water out, also shoveling out the gravel and the sand, after which they scrubbed the floor and the walls to a height of about three feet from the floor, where the water had left a dark line on the white woodwork.

An hour after the visiting boys had begun their work the cabin was ready for occupancy again, but the quilts, sheets and blankets were still wet.

A larger fire was built. The boys rigged a clothes line about the campfire and a.s.sisted the girls to hang up the wet bedding. By this time the lads were hungry. They readily accepted the invitation of the Meadow-Brook Girls to sit down with them to breakfast. The table and chairs had been brought ash.o.r.e, and there in the cove, with the trees and bushes for a background, the Meadow-Brook Girls and the Tramp Club sat down to breakfast. There was plenty of good cheer, though the faces of the girls were pale, and Harriet and Jane looked particularly tired.

"I'll tell you what you must do," declared Captain George during breakfast. "When you wish to shift your position, let us know, and we'll tow you about. Did your rope break?"

Harriet confessed that she had not looked. The captain said he would look into the matter after breakfast. The first thing to be done, after getting the equipment back on board, would be to tow the "Red Rover" off the sh.o.r.e. To do this they arranged to pa.s.s a rope to the launch, the launch to pull ahead while some of the boys pushed on the houseboat.

In the meantime, while waiting for the equipment to dry out, George and his friend, Billy Gordon, who owned the launch, took Harriet and Jane to town, where Jane wished to go to renew some of their supplies, as well as to purchase a couple of flatirons with which to press their wet clothing that had hung in the cabin when the deluge came.

During the trip George had drawn out the story of their previous disaster when they had drifted ash.o.r.e, though Harriet refrained from mentioning the fact that their anchor rope had been cut on that occasion. From George's questions it was plain that he suspected something was wrong, though Harriet failed to gratify his suspicions by direct answers to direct questions.

George explained, during the trip to the town, that the Tramp Club had been invited by Billy Gordon, who owned the launch, to spend a few weeks with him on the lake. He was to furnish the launch for their cruises, while the boys supplied the camp equipment. Billy knew the lake and they knew how to camp, and now that they had renewed acquaintance with their old rivals, the Meadow-Brook Girls, the Tramp Club were glad they had accepted Gordon's invitation.

The trip to town was quickly made, and the two girls completed their purchases with little loss of time, and were back on board the launch within an hour from the time they had started.

"Now," said George, after they had started on their return voyage, "is there any place you wish to go?"

"I want as soon as possible to get back to the boat and discuss with the girls what is to be done," answered Harriet.

"Well, can we help you? Is there anywhere you wish us to tow your houseboat?"

"Let me see," pondered Captain Burrell, "I think I should like to get out of that cove. We haven't made any plans."

"Then suppose we tow you over in front of our camp? We'll be handy, then, in case you need us again."

Harriet shook her head.

"I don't think that would be best. You see, we wish to go it alone. We don't wish to have to depend upon any one."

"You don't have to do so. You are able to take care of yourselves. I'd back the Meadow-Brook Girls against the world," declared George, confidently, which aroused a laugh from the other occupants of the boat.

"We helped you this morning, did we not?"

"Indeed, you did."

"But they would have gotten out of the sc.r.a.pe without us," nodded Billy.

"Surely we would," chuckled Crazy Jane. "We always do get out of our sc.r.a.pes, somehow. But we thank you just the same."

"Indeed, we do," agreed Harriet earnestly. "I was about to say, when you asked me if there were any place we wished to go, that we do wish to go over to the other side of the lake some day soon, and--"

"Any time," interrupted Billy. "I'll take you over to-day, if you say the word."

Harriet shook her head.

"Boys, we've got business on hand to-day," said Jane briskly. "There is plenty to be done. It will take us two days to get well settled again.

You will look us up occasionally, I am sure. We can then let you know where and when we wish to go, can't we?"

"Surely you can," agreed George enthusiastically. "But I'm sorry you won't come to anchor near our camp."

Harriet told him they should be moving frequently; that they hoped to be able to make a complete circuit of the lake before they had finished their vacation. George said that the boys, too, were going to move their camp now and then. He told the girls the Tramp Club had planned to spend a week on one of the islands in the lake, and that they would so arrange the time as to do so when the Meadow-Brook party was in that vicinity.

By the time they had reached the cove where the "Red Rover" lay the boys who had remained behind had gotten nearly all the belongings aboard.

Miss Elting and the girls were helping them, Tommy taking it upon herself to "boss" the whole job.

As soon as the motor boat party had landed, Harriet said she must look for the anchor rope, which had not been seen that morning.

"I'll do that," offered Larry Goheen. "You ought to make it secure, so that the boat can't get away," he added.

"I thought I secured it last night. I made a stout loop and slipped it over the cleat on the deck. I don't see how the boat could have gotten away unless the rope broke, which it undoubtedly did."

George said he would see about that. The rowboat had drifted ash.o.r.e unharmed. Captain George launched the boat and rowed out, paddling about until finally they saw him stop and raise the end of a rope from the water.

"Bring the launch out here, Bill," he called. "Yes, I've found it, and I've found something else too. There's been some crooked work here!"

"What do you mean?" called Harriet.

"I'll tell you when I come in. I've made a find, all right!"

The captain had indeed made a find--one that more than confirmed the suspicions he had formed earlier in the morning.

CHAPTER VII

A MYSTERIOUS NIGHT JOURNEY

Billy Gordon got aboard the launch and paddled it out to where Captain Baker sat examining the rope, the end of which he had picked up from the water.

"What have you found? More mystery?" shouted Crazy Jane.

"Yes. I'll tell you when I get ash.o.r.e. What kind of an anchor have you down here?"

"Just an anchor, that's all," answered Harriet. "Why?"

"Nothing. I was just wondering."

George climbed over into the launch, tying the rowboat behind it. Then the two lads hauled the anchor aboard the power boat. After examining the anchor, they paddled the launch ash.o.r.e, towing the smaller boat behind them.

"We have the old anchor. It's a good one too," announced Billy, stepping ash.o.r.e. "I take back all I said. George has some questions to ask you."

"Yes," nodded young Baker. "Was the anchor rope in good condition when you put out the anchor, Miss Burrell?"

"So far as I know. Did it break?"