“I thought I heard Tess calling,” went on Agnes.
There was no mistake about it. Down the stairway that led from the upper deck to the cabin came the cry of:
“Oh, come here! Come here quick! One of the mules is acting awful funny! I think he’s trying to kick Mr. Hank into the canal!”
[CHAPTER X—A STOWAWAY]
Ruth dropped some of the garments she was unpacking from her trunk. Agnes came from the dining room, where she was setting the table for the first meal on the craft. Neale and Mr. Howbridge ran from the motor compartment in the lower hold of the boat. Mrs. MacCall raised her hands and began to murmur in her broadest Scotch so that no one knew what she was saying. And from the upper deck of the boat, where they had been left sitting on camp stools under the green striped awning, came the chorused cries of Tess and Dot:
“Oh, come on up! Come on up!”
“Something must have happened!” exclaimed Ruth.
“But the girls are all right, thank goodness!” added Agnes.
Together all four of them, with Mrs. MacCall bringing up the rear, ascended to the upper deck. There they saw Dot and Tess pointing down the towpath. Hank Dayton was, indeed, having trouble with the mules. And Tess had not exaggerated when she said that one of the animals was trying to kick the driver into the canal.
“Oh! Oh!” screamed Ruth and Agnes, as the flying heels barely missed the man’s head.