“The wind must be rising,” that maiden replied. “We’d better get out of the boat. I’ve had adventure enough for one day.”
“Seems to me I hear a queer kind of a scraping noise,” Sally said.
Betsy was the first up on deck, then she called down the hatchway in alarm. “Girls! Girls! Come quick. What do you suppose has happened? The anchor must have broken off for we are drifting out to sea.”
CHAPTER XXI
AN UNEXPECTED CRUISE
It was indeed as Betsy had said. “Oh, Virginia, what shall we do?” Sally clung to the oldest girl, her baby-blue eyes wide with terror.
The president of The Adventure Club was as frightened as were the others, but she said with assumed calm, “Let us remember what Mrs. Martin has often told us. When an emergency arises, try to think clearly, and a way out of the trouble will be found. Now, whatever we do, don’t let’s lose our heads.”
“I’m holding on to mine,” the irrepressible Betsy said gaily, suiting the action to the words. Virg continued, “We have all had first aid training, but unfortunately Miss King never foresaw that we would be set afloat in a boat at sea.”
“Of course one should put on life belts,” Eleanor remarked, “but those that we found were but crumbling cork.”
Because of the outgoing tide the boat was being rapidly carried away from shore. Virginia eagerly scanned the receding beach, then the cliff, but not a sign of life was to be seen. In the far distance she could see the tower of the seminary but that was at least two miles away.
The other girls were watching her, feeling sure that she would find some way out of their trouble. “We might shout, all together, and wave our colored sweater coats, but I don’t believe anyone would see or hear,” Margaret suggested.