“In for a bit of weather, eh?” said Mr. Evans, helping to pull the Nyoda far up on the beach out of harm’s way. The wind was whistling around the corner of the bluffs.
“Just a puff of wind,” replied Uncle Teddy, “but I would advise you all to batten down the hatches, I mean, tie your tent flaps.” As he spoke a white towel came fluttering over the bluff from one of the tents above and went sailing off over the lake. At that they all scattered to make their possessions secure.
All through the afternoon the storm raged. There was no rain, just a steady northwest wind increasing 31 in violence until it had reached the proportions of a gale. High as the cliffs were on three sides of the island, the spray was dashing over the top. When supper time came Aunt Clara called to Uncle Teddy: “Where are the eggs and bread and milk you brought from St. Pierre this morning?”
Uncle Teddy and Mr. Evans both jumped from the comfortable rock on the sheltered beach where they had been sitting watching the storm and blushed guiltily. “We never brought them!” they both exclaimed together. “We were so completely taken up with the business of getting the war canoe from the steamer dock that we forgot all about the supplies.”
“Well, we’ll just have to do without them, but we can’t have the supper we planned,” returned Aunt Clara. “A great Chief you are! Can only think of one thing at a time! I could have brought in a dozen war canoes and never forgotten the affairs of my household.”
“So you could, my dear,” admitted Uncle Teddy cheerfully, and returned unruffled to his contemplation of the tossing lake. By and by he took his binoculars and looked intently at a white spot against the dark waters.
“What is it, Uncle Teddy,” asked Sahwah, straining her eyes to follow his glance.
“Appears to be a sailboat,” said Uncle Teddy, without removing the glass from his eyes. “They’ve 32 taken the sail down, but they’re having a grand time of it out in those waves. They are being driven toward us. Now I can make out a man and a girl and a boy in the boat. Whew-w! What a blast that was!” A dry branch came hurtling down from some tree on the bluff, landing at their feet.
The next moment Uncle Teddy gave an exclamation. “They’re flying distress signals,” he said.
At that the girls and boys all sprang to their feet and crowded around Uncle Teddy excitedly. “What shall we do?” they asked.