“I think you are very remark-able boys,” put in Mr. Lawrence.
“What made you think we were on the lake?” Will inquired.
“I suppose you caught sight of my—our, I mean,—signal of distress?” Marmaduke said placidly.
“Your what? ‘Signal of distress?’ Well, that knocks everything else on head: that is most extraordinary!” the scandalized tar ejaculated.
Poor fellow! The boys’ observations and inquiries had kept him in a state of continual bewilderedness. It was he who had expressed his astonishment so huffishly every time.
“Yes,” rejoined Marmaduke, “the handkerchief on the oar. That brought you, didn’t it?”
“I don’t know anything about any handkerchief on any oar; and you must be crazy to think we could see one in this darkness,” was the depressing answer. “But, to be sure,” the sailor added, “I did notice that a pole with a rag on it seemed to be lowered just before we came up to you; was that the signal?”
“Boys, I knew how fond you are of endangering your lives, and when you were nowhere to be found, I shrewdly suspected that you had found your way out into the storm—and surely enough, you had!” Mr. Lawrence explained.
“Marmaduke, don’t meddle with romance again!” Charles whispered.