“Get into the launch, quick,” said Uncle Teddy 223 “and we’ll go and look.” Aunt Clara and Katherine and several more jumped in and they went off in feverish haste. Aunt Clara was almost prostrated at the thought that harm might have come to Antha from that errand. Around one of the numerous points which ran out into the water before you came to the Point of Pines they saw her, standing on a rock just underneath the surface, the water washing around her ankles. She was several hundred feet from the shore and the rowboat was nowhere to be seen. Her whole figure was tense from trying to cling to the slippery rock, and in her arms she was tightly clutching the camera. She fairly tumbled into the launch as it ran alongside her.
“What happened?” they all asked.
“The bottom came out of the boat,” said Antha, “and it filled up with water and I got out on that rock and the boat sank.”
“Which boat did you take?” asked Uncle Teddy.
“The small one,” replied Antha.
“Good Lord,” ejaculated Uncle Teddy. “That was the one with the loose board in the bottom! Why didn’t I take it away from the others? What a narrow scrape you had! It was a mighty good thing for you that that rock was right there.”
“And she stood there all day!”
“Why didn’t you swim to shore?” asked Uncle Teddy. “You can keep up pretty well, and you would have struck shallow water pretty soon.”
224“Because I had the camera,” said Antha, beginning to sob from exhaustion, “and I had–to–keep–it–dry!”
“You blessed lamb!” said Aunt Clara, and then choked and was unable to say any more.