"Hurry?" thought the Carolinians sadly. And they redoubled their efforts, with the result that they began to catch crabs.
"Some one ought to see us and send a launch," said Maud.
At that moment, as the wind flattens a field of wheat to the ground, the waves bent and lay down before a veritable blast of black rain. It would have taken more than human strength to hold the guide boat to her course. Maud paddled desperately for a quarter of a minute and gave up. The boat swung sharply on her keel, rocked dangerously, and, once more light and sentient, a creature of life, made off bounding before the gale.
"We are very sorry," said the Carolinians, "but the skin is all off our hands, and at the best we are indifferent boatmen."
"The point is this," said Maud: "Can you swim?"
"I can," said Colonel Meredith, "but I am extremely sorry to confess that my cousin's aquatic education has been neglected. Where he lives every pool contains crocodiles, leeches, snapping-turtles, and water-moccasins, and the incentive to bathing for pleasure is slight."
"Don't worry about me," said Mr. Jonstone. "I can cling to the boat until the millennium."
"We shan't upset—probably," said Maud. "It will be better if you two sit in the bottom of the boat. I'll try to steer and hold her steady. This isn't the first time I've been blown off shore and then on shore. I suppose I ought to apologize for the weather, but it really isn't my fault. Who would have thought this morning that we were in for a storm?"
"If only you don't mind," said Colonel Meredith. "It's all our fault. You probably didn't want to come. You just came to be friendly and kind, and now you are hungry and wet to the skin——"