“We’re sorry to have disturbed you, but we lost an oar and the boat drifted over here.”
“I let it slip,” Sim added a little nervously. “I’m not very good at rowing, I’m afraid.” She smiled up at him apologetically.
He still looked down at them, saying nothing, half amused and half angry, apparently.
“If you could lend us an oar we could row over and get ours,” Terry suggested. “We’d bring yours right back.”
Suddenly the young man burst out laughing, and they all felt better, so much better that they joined in the laugh themselves.
“You are char-r-rming,” he chuckled. “Of course you may take my oar; I will get it for you,” and he disappeared from sight as if he had dropped down a hatchway.
“See!” Arden whispered gleefully. “Isn’t he nice?”
Then they heard him call: “Can you push down to this end of my castle? My rowboat is moored here.”
Terry poled the boat in the shallow water, for the houseboat was tied up at the shore, to the place Dimitri indicated.
There was a boat similar to theirs fast to the larger craft. Dimitri handed Terry the oar, smiling.