The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat Part 3

"Then it has broken away and sunk," answered Harriet gloomily. "Let's get into the rowboat and go out yonder."

"In a minute. I want to see what is at the other end of this rope, Harriet, dear. There's nothing like beginning at the right end. This is the right end; after we get the rope in we will move on to the other end. We may have to dive, but you and I know how to do that, don't we darlin'?"

Harriet nodded. The long rope came in dripping, so cold to the touch as to make Jane's fingers numb.

"There!" exclaimed Jane, slamming the rope down on the wharf. "There's the old thing. Didn't I tell you there was no 'Red Rover' on the end of it."

"Then we had better take to the rowboat. I don't understand this at all," said Harriet, in a troubled voice.

"Just a minute, Harriet. Will you look at this and tell Jane McCarthy the meaning of it?" She extended the end of the rope toward Harriet. The latter took it, permitting the dripping rope to lie across the palm of one hand for a minute. Harriet glanced up at her companion with troubled eyes.

"Do you know what has been done to it?" asked Harriet.

"I think so," nodded Jane.

"The rope has been cut," reflected Harriet.

"It has," agreed Jane.

"But, who could have done such a thing?" Harriet wondered.

"If I knew, I'd make him suffer for this piece of work," retorted Jane.

"I don't know; I can't even think," answered Harriet solemnly. "What do you suppose has become of the boat, Jane?"

"Goodness knows," replied Jane.

"I'm going to search the lake." Harriet ran around the end of the pier, where, shoving off the rowboat, she leaped in. Jane followed her. "I'm going to the west. The wind is blowing that way."

Jane McCarthy nodded understandingly. Harriet was rowing, Jane sitting in the stern of the boat.

"Watch the sh.o.r.e, Jane. I will do the rowing. I am going to tell you what I discovered that day we first went aboard the houseboat. I put my hand on the stove quite by accident that morning. The stove was so hot that it burned my hand."

"You don't say?"

"Yes. Now explain how that stove happened to be hot," continued Harriet.

"That's easy. Somebody had had a fire in it," nodded Jane.

"Exactly. And not long before we went aboard. Then there were bread crumbs on the floor. Jane, some person had been living on that boat. You remember how anxious Dee d.i.c.kinson was that we should not go to the boat until he had first been there?"

"Yes, but what has that to do with the cutting of the rope, last night, and losing the boat?"

"I don't know. That the two puzzles have some connection I am positive.

What we wish most, just now, is to find the 'Red Rover.'"

"There's something red on the sh.o.r.e; it looks like a fire!" cried Jane, pointing excitedly. "Oh, if it should be the boat."

Harriet ceased rowing and quickly turned her head over her right shoulder. She gazed, at first half startled, then uttered a cry of delight.

"It's the 'Red Rover.' Don't you see? Hurrah! We've found the boat. It's the sun shining on those red sides that made it look like a fire."

Harriet swung the prow of the boat and began rowing sh.o.r.eward with all her might. After a few minutes of rowing she drove the boat in alongside of the "Red Rover," then leaped out on the sh.o.r.e. The unknown miscreant having cut her from her moorings the houseboat had drifted down the lake. She had stranded among a forest of rushes, the bottom of the boat being hard and fast on the gravel.

The girls breathless with excitement, climbed aboard. The after-half of the house floor was under water. There were fully two feet of water in the stern. In the after c.o.c.kpit were several bushels of sand and gravel that had been thrown up by the wind and waves during the night.

"Oh, the villains, to do a thing like this!" raged Jane. She started to run aft for a pail but losing her footing on the slippery floor she went sprawling and splashing into the water. Jane scrambled up, wet from head to feet.

"Oh, me! Oh my! What a mess!"

Harriet leaned against the side of the cabin screaming with laughter.

Jane looked at her an instant, then, joined in the merriment.

"You are a sight!" gasped Harriet.

"Why shouldn't I be? I've been in the water? Are we going to stand here and laugh all the morning, or are we going to get busy?"

For answer Harriet Burrell picked up a pail and began bailing out the c.o.c.kpit. Jane, dripping, took up another pail and together the girls worked feverishly. There were several barrels of water in the c.o.c.kpit, so their backs were aching by the time they had finished bailing out the water. The stern of the boat now floated clear, but the forward end was hard and fast on the ground.

"The next thing is to get the boat off the gravel," announced Harriet.

"Maybe we can hitch the rowboat on and drag the 'Red Rover' off,"

suggested Jane.

Harriet shook her head.

"It won't work. We shall have to drag it off by main force. You can't be any wetter, and I'm not afraid of a little water. Let's get outside the boat and see what we can do."

A few seconds later as they took hold and directed their strength to the task of moving the heavy boat, Harriet's feet slipped from under her.

She fell over into the water, coming up coughing, the water streaming from her hair and shoulders, and falling into the lake in a shower. Jane screamed with delight. "You're wet all right, now! No mistake about that," jeered Crazy Jane. "And what have we done? Moved the old tub three quarters of an inch. At this rate we'll have her afloat about supper time. I wish I had my car hitched to it. I'd drag the old thing out so fast it would make her dizzy."

Harriet had grasped the edge of the boat, tugging with all her might.

Jane dashed around to the other side, adding her strength to the task.

The boat gave way with such suddenness that both girls fell into the lake. But they did not care. They could get no wetter. Therefore they laughed and joked over their bedraggled condition. The "Red Rover"

floated clear of the rushes.

"Do the best you can. I'll get the rowboat," cried Harriet, splashing toward the sh.o.r.e. Her clothes were so heavy with water that they impeded her movements. She shoved the rowboat out, and, leaping in, rowed it out into the lake with strong sweeps of the oars. In a few moments she was alongside.

"The rope is too short. What shall we do?" called Jane.

"There is a rope attached to this boat. I think it will be long enough for towing. Wait, I'll toss it to you. Make it fast. The boat is heavy and we are going to have a hard pull, but I don't dare leave it here until we can get help."

Jane waded over to the rowboat for the rope. She made it fast; then, getting behind the houseboat, she pushed while Harriet rowed. The "Red Rover" started but slowly. It was all the two girls could do to get it in motion. Then when, finally, they had gotten under way with it, Jane was obliged to wade out in water nearly to her neck to reach the rowboat. She nearly upset it in getting aboard. Two pairs of oars, instead of one, were now bent to the work of towing the houseboat. The boat went broadside to the waves, nearly pulling them overboard. They saw that it would be impossible to tow it to the Johnson dock in this fashion.

"One of us must row and the other steer," declared Harriet.

"I'll do the rowing. You've had your share," cried Jane. "Wait, I'll pull you alongside."

"No. You must keep the oars going, or the big boat will drift back into shallow water again. I'll get back there all right." Harriet unshipped her oars and stood up in the boat. She took a clean, curving dive into the lake. Jane shouted delightedly.