"Then we really can go home?" Ward asked.
"Just as soon as I sign up the crew," replied Larry, grinning. "We ought to be home for lunch, according to my way of figuring, though my watch stopped after we came ashore."
No one felt like lingering on Rattlesnake Island a moment longer than was necessary, and at a word from Larry the girls and Artie and Ward took their places in the boat while he and Fred pushed off. Almost breathlessly they watched while Larry spun the wheel, touched the clutch, and then—put-put-put—sounded the engine and a spontaneous cheer went up.
"Isn't it lovely!" cried Margy, her face glowing. "Isn't it too lovely to be going home!"
Ella forgot her tattered dress and her blistered heel in her delight at being found. She asked about her pony—whether it had been found.
"I never leave him tied long," she explained. "And all that night while I was drifting on the ocean, I wondered whether Duke would be fed and bedded down."
"What are you thinking about, Fred," Polly asked curiously.
Fred sat silent, and she could tell from the expression on his face that he had something he was turning over in his mind.
"Why," he said now, looking up, "I was thinking—Larry, if you could meet a boat with a wireless, or put in at a town with telephones, we could send word on ahead. Even if we make good time, the news would get there ahead of us and save an hour or two of worry, perhaps."
"For a boy, you sure have a level head," Larry declared approvingly. "I know I wouldn't want to be waiting much longer, after a night of wondering and hoping. Let's see—'tisn't likely we'll meet a ship with wireless, it's too early in the morning for the coastwise boats and we're too far in for the ocean-going vessels. Better to telegraph, anyway, Fred. Quicker. You write out a message and I'll see it gets sent."