It was growing dark, and the lake looked black and threatening. It was a treacherous body of water—a capful of wind was enough to raise a sea that would try almost any boat—and George knew better than to trust himself upon it while a gale was raging.
“I guess I don’t want any fish for supper,” said he, as he shifted his oar to the other side of the boat, and pushed her back toward the beach. “I shall have to be satisfied with what I brought with me in my bundle. It’s going to be a hard one,” he added, as a strong gust of wind lifted his hat from his head and carried it toward the cabin; “and I thank my lucky stars that I have a tight roof to shelter me. What in the world was that?”
Having drawn his scow high up on the beach, and fastened the painter securely to a tree, George ran to recover his hat; and just then, something that sounded like a cry for help came faintly to his ears.
Believing that the appeal came from the woods, George listened intently, and in a few seconds the cry was repeated. This time the wind brought it to him very plainly, and he caught the words:
“Help! help! Our boat is sinking!”
George looked in the direction from which the voice sounded, and was greatly astonished as well as alarmed, to see a cockle-shell of a boat dancing about among the waves, which had already grown to formidable proportions. While he gazed, she sank out of sight, and nothing but the top of the little shoulder-of-mutton sail she carried in the bow remained in view to show that she was still above water.
CHAPTER V.
A CAPSIZE.
George Edwards held his breath in suspense. The hull of the little craft was so long out of sight that he began to fear he would never see it again; but, all of a sudden, it bobbed up as buoyantly as a cork, and once more that frantic appeal for assistance was borne across the lake.
George was now able to see that there were two boys in the boat. One was clinging to the mast, waving his handkerchief over his head as a signal of distress, and the other was seated in the stern, wielding a clumsy-looking paddle, with which he endeavored to keep the boat before the wind.
George looked at them, and then he looked toward the promontory on which he had stopped to rest when he first reached the lake.