It was all a great puzzle and Tess sighed and shook her head. Finally she asked: “If you please, where is the raft of logs?”
“Right down there,” said the girl, pointing to the southern side of the island. “You can’t see it. I dragged it into shallow water and covered it up with branches and brush.”
“Is—is it safe?” queried Tess.
“Well, it didn’t drown me coming over,” said the girl, with a short, hard laugh. “But the logs came near parting.”
“Oh!”
“I’ll fix ’em before we start back. That painter off your boat will help. We will be all right,” said the big girl, carelessly.
Dot awoke after a little, and so did Tom Jonah. The whole party went down to the brush-fringed shore. Tess saw that the girl had hidden her raft very ingeniously. And it was evident, too, that she hated to leave the island so long before evening.
“Got myself in a nice mess!” the Corner House girl heard her mutter, as she went about binding the three logs together more tightly with the strong rope from the cedar boat.
She worked hard for half an hour, standing almost waist deep in the water as she made the logs secure. It was not a heavy raft—nor was it very safe looking, to Tess’ mind.
But fortunately Dot thought it would be great fun to ride on such a craft, and Tess was too brave to say anything that would really frighten Dorothy.