LAND HO!
"Please—please keep quiet," cried Harriet, making herself heard above the tumult. "Don't be frightened! We aren't sinking, and we are not going to. Answer loudly when I call your names, so that I may know each one of you is here."
"Now," she continued after the frightened girls had answered to their names. "We'll try to find out what happened. You see that the boat has stopped pitching, and the side roll isn't as pronounced as it was."
"What'th the anthwer?" piped Tommy.
"I don't know—yet," Harriet confessed. "But I'm going to know."
"The water is still coming in, and getting deeper," shivered Margery.
"Get out through the rear door," Harriet commanded. "One at a time."
"Which door is the rear one?" queried Crazy Jane. "All doors look alike to me."
"Move away from the direction that the water is coming from," Harriet continued.
Assisted by Jane McCarthy the girls obeyed Harriet's directions. Tommy and Margery first, then Miss Elting and Hazel. In the cockpit the water was not as deep, but Jane drove them all to the upper deck.
"The captain must go last, you know," laughed Harriet, as she climbed up to join them.
By this time the girls were shivering with cold. The kimonos of washable crepe in which they had elected to sleep during the cruise afforded them little warmth.
"Get close together and keep each other warm," called Miss Elting.
"What! Sit down and shiver here all night long?" shouted Harriet. "No, indeed. We must do something or we shall lose our boat."
"Wha—at happened?" shivered Margery.
"The waves smashed the front door in. That's all I know about it now."
"Oh, look!" screamed Hazel. "It's land!"
"Land, ho!" cried Crazy Jane.
"Yes, I know," replied Harriet calmly. "We are on shore. We have been blown partly ashore. I saw that a moment after we came out here. There is no danger to us, but there is to the boat."
"Did the anchor give way?" questioned the guardian, a sigh of relief escaping her upon learning that the immediate danger was over.
"I don't know. Jane! I want you. We must go to the front of the boat and see what can be done to stop the water from coming in. Are you ready?"
"All ready," called Jane. "Where away?"
"Below there."
"I want to go, too. I want to go down there and get thome dry clotheth," wailed Tommy.
"You'll look a long time on this boat before you'll find anything dry," laughed Crazy Jane. "Get up and run. Sprint back and forth along this slippery deck, and, if you don't fall down and break your precious necks, you'll start your circulation and get warm. Run for it!"
"Jane's advice is excellent, girls. Join hands and run back and forth, while Jane and Harriet see what can be done for us," answered Miss Elting.
Jane and Harriet climbed down the aft ladder and made their way into the cabin. Everything was afloat there. It was with difficulty that they made their way through and out to the forward deck over which the waves were still dashing. Both girls were knocked flat almost the instant they stepped out into the rear cockpit. They were picked up an instant afterwards, only to be hurled against the deck house by a second wave. Neither girl screamed; for a moment or two they were too nearly drowned to speak. The rear end of the boat being driven up on the shore, the forward end lay several inches lower. The lower deck in that part of the boat was entirely under water.
"What are we going to do about it?" gasped Jane finally.
Harriet was groping about on the deck, her head under water a good part of the time.
"I've found it," she cried.
"Found what?" demanded Miss McCarthy.
"The cleats."
"Well, what are they?"
"Maybe our last hope. Climb up to the top. I'll tell you my plan."
Jane lost no time in getting up where the rest of the party were dancing about the deck, trying their best to get warm, and succeeding but poorly.
"Harriet, don't you think we had better go ashore?" asked Miss Elting.
"You will be little better off there. But wait. Yes, the very thing. I was going to use that awning for something else. It is the only dry thing on the boat. Come, Jane; we'll do the best we can under the circumstances."
Together the two girls got down the awning, which had once served them as a tent. Assisted by Miss Elting they lugged it ashore and placing it back far enough to be out of reach of the water, smoothed it out on the ground. This would at least furnish them with a place to sleep. By this time Tommy, Hazel and Margery had made their way ashore.
"How I wish we had some matches now! I'd build a fire. Jane, do you think that box of matches could have kept dry through all this?" questioned Harriet.
"It wouldn't do you any good if it had. How are you going to find it if it is there?"
"That's so. Now, I think we had better take all the things out of the cabin. Most of the stuff may be gone by morning. Miss Elting, will you stay with the girls?" asked Harriet. "Then they won't feel afraid. Besides we shall only be in each other's way if more than two of us try to work in that cabin in the dark. The first thing to be done is to try to stop the water from beating in through that wrecked doorway. I have an idea. Jane, see if you can find some rope. There should be some on the upper deck."
Jane McCarthy reported that there was no rope there. Harriet decided to go on without it, believing that she knew a way to check the flood. Calling Jane to assist her, the two girls carried the dining table out to the upper deck. This they left there for the moment.
"Now hand out the cots," directed Harriet.
As this was being done, Harriet worked standing in water most of the time. She placed the cots on edge across the doorway until three of them had been set in place. Directing Jane to try to hold them in place, Harriet grasped the table. This she braced against the cots. The table held them in place.
"Hurrah! We've done it. See if you can find some blankets in there. One will do."
After some searching about Jane announced that she had found a heavy blanket. Acting under Harriet's directions Jane carried the blanket to the upper deck and lowered it over the barricade of cots, weighting it with heavy stones from the beach so that the end would remain on the upper deck.
Harriet was unable to get either to the upper deck or into the boat, without danger of pulling down her barricade, so she promptly jumped into the lake and waded ashore. She fell down several times before reaching dry land, knocked over by waves that overtook her and laid her low. She sat down on the beach gasping.
"Come over here and rest a moment, Harriet," urged the guardian.
"I am all right, thank you. I haven't time to think about resting. I am going to try to get our belongings out of the boat. We aren't so badly off as we might be."
"If I had thome dry clotheth on I gueth I'd be all right," observed a lisping voice from the darkness. "My kimono is thoaking wet."
"Now, Jane, I'm ready," finally announced Harriet. "Let's get that stove out first of all. I fear it is ruined."
"Set the girls at it with dry leaves. They can wipe it dry and the exercise will do them good," suggested Jane McCarthy.
"Fine! Come!"
The stove was carried out to the beach and stood up. Jane and Harriet gathered leaves from weeds and bushes, together with such dry grass as they were able to find in the darkness, heaping their plunder on the canvas and directing the girls to polish the stove, hoping thereby to keep it from rusting very badly. The occupation did Tommy, Hazel and Margery good. They almost forgot their troubles for the time being.
The bedding and the clothing were next carried out and spread on the ground to dry. This, too, gave the girls on shore something to do. They wrung the water out of the bedding and clothing as thoroughly as possible. The clothing was then hung on nearby bushes.
"I do not believe your clothing will be dry enough to wear until after the sun shines on it," decided Miss Elting.
The girls groaned dismally. They did not relish the idea of going about in kimonos for the better part of the next forenoon. Harriet and Jane paid little attention to their own discomfort, however, for there were still many things to be done. The cabin had held quite a stock of supplies. Cans of provisions lay all about the floor. The two girls were unable to gather up their supplies in the darkness. The water would not damage the canned goods, so they decided to let these remain where they were for the time being.
"I'll tell you what!" said Harriet, after pondering over the best course to follow. "Let's take pails and go to bailing. Of course some water will still leak in around the bottom cot, but we can bail out down to that point. The water must come out. We might as well bail now as after daylight. We won't get any wetter, and we don't mind lame backs, do we?"
"We don't, if you say not," agreed Jane. "What the captain of the 'Red Rover' orders, is to be done. Where are the pails?"
"I think I remember having carried one outside."
"Here's the other," called Crazy Jane, who, at that moment, fell over the missing pail and went sprawling in the water. She rose to her feet, dripping, but in great good humor.
The two plucky girls set to work bailing. They did not wish to call in their companions to help them, as they believed they could accomplish more by themselves. Bailing out the boat was back-breaking work, and there was so much water in the hold of the "Red Rover," that at first their bailing seemed to have no effect whatever. Now and then they would go ashore and throw themselves down for a brief rest. Miss Elting begged them to do no more, but both Jane and Harriet were deaf to her entreaties. They alternately bailed and rested until early in the morning, when utterly exhausted from the strain of the past few hours' work they were glad to throw themselves down on the canvas beside their friends for a little rest.
By this time the dawn had begun to break and soon after the sun shone brightly. The wind had died down and the lake lay smooth and glassy in the morning sunlight.
"I'm going to try to get into that big chest that holds our clothes," announced Harriet. "If it really is water tight, then we shall not have to worry long about dry garments."
"I'll go with you," said Miss Elting.
The two women made their way to the cabin of the houseboat, where they were soon joined by Jane. By their united efforts the barricade was removed from the door, and as the water had almost subsided Harriet had little difficulty in getting at the chest.
"Hurrah!" she exclaimed as she turned the key which had been allowed to stand in the lock, and lifted the lid. "Everything is all right. These things are scarcely damp! Jane will you call the girls? We ought to dress as quickly as possible."
Fifteen minutes later the Meadow-Brook Girls and Miss Elting were enjoying the luxury of clean, dry clothing. Their hasty toilets were scarcely completed, however, when they heard the steady chug! chug of an approaching motor boat. Harriet climbed to the upper deck and shading her hands with her eyes looked out over the waters. Suddenly she exclaimed: "Girls, girls! Look at that boat!"