"What are in these bags?" inquired one.
"Shavings," answered George. "We thought we might want to kindle a fire for something."
"I say, George," said James Porter, standing up in his boat to get a good view of the things in the Alert. "I wish you would feel in my basket, and get a cup that is in there, and pass it over this way. I'm thirsty. I was so excited," he continued, taking off his hat and wiping the perspiration from his forehead, "that I sweat as if I had been dumped in the river. There isn't a dry rag on me."
"Which is your basket?" inquired Harry, struggling hard to suppress a laugh.
"It's a brown basket, with a white cover," answered James.
George and Harry were too full of laughter to trust themselves to speak; but Charles exclaimed, as he drew aside the covering,
"There's no brown basket here."
"There ought to be," said one of the coast-guards; "I brought my things in a brown basket."
"So did I," exclaimed another.
"There's a cheat somewhere," said James.