“Both oars gone!” murmured Teddy, in sorrowful tones. “Jimmie’ll be mad. He won’t want me to take his boat again.”
“Maybe you can get ’em back,” suggested Janet. “But what made the stone anchor let go of us, Teddy?”
“I guess it slipped out of the rope,” he answered. “I’ll look.”
He pulled up the piece of clothesline that had held the boat, keeping it from drifting. As he had guessed, the stone that Jimmie had tied in a loop of the cord had slipped out. The punt had “slipped her anchor,” as a sailor would have said.
“If we get hungry, can we eat crabs?” inquired Janet, after a pause, during which the boat had drifted along on the tide.
“What do you mean—eat crabs?” asked Teddy, in some surprise.
“I mean if we can’t get home, and if we’re shipwrecked, can we eat the crabs we caught?” the little girl explained.
“Hum! I s’pose we could—if they were cooked,” answered Ted. “But we aren’t going to be shipwrecked.”
“What are we going to be, then?” Janet wanted to know. “How we going to get back home, Teddy? Maybe if we could get ashore, or on some island, we could build a fire and cook the crabs.”
“Maybe,” agreed her brother. “That would be a lot of fun!” His eyes sparkled as he thought of it. “Only,” he added, “we haven’t anything to cook the crabs in.”