“We’ll want to build the raft there. Then we can push her out right into the wake of the motorboat. I’ll wake Neale. Don’t disturb your guardian yet. Neale and I can do a lot before morning.”
“Oh, Luke,” she sighed, “you are such a comfort.”
Luke sped back to the camp and shook Neale awake in a jiffy, and without hearing the anxious girl’s approbation.
“Wha-what’s the matter?” asked the younger youth, sitting up and rubbing his eyes vigorously. “Nobody’s come to rescue us, has there, Luke?”
“Hush!” commanded the collegian. “No. But we’ve found a way to go after Tess and Dot.”
“Crackey!” gasped Neale, struggling out from under the blanket. “It will be a long, hard swim, Luke. I had thought of that.”
“Ruth has got an idea—and a good one,” declared Luke.
“Oh, that puts another face upon the matter, as the fellow said when he put on his masque at the costume ball. Ruth is a regular ‘go-getter’ when it comes to ideas. What is it?”
He hurried after Luke through the grove and they came out upon the easterly point of Palm Island, where the rocky reefs guarded the inlet whence the motor-boat had floated away.
Luke had already begun in a low voice to explain to Neale the details of Ruth’s idea. The younger fellow was immediately excited. The idea of making a raft that would bear them all up and float them over the quiet sea in pursuit of the motor-boat seemed the most feasible thing in the world.