“If a mere banjo player may join in too,” suggested Marbury, his eyes twinkling with fun, “we’ll show the sharks and mermaids what real talent can do.”
The girls often looked back on that evening. It seemed almost too happy and perfect to be quite real, Polly said. The night was wonderfully calm and clear, a night when all the stars looked nearer than usual, Sue declared.
Even the Admiral’s rolling basso was frequently heard, and the Senator hummed contentedly, when they happened to strike a special favorite of his. All the old college songs and heart-throb tunes that are handed down over cradles of nations were touched up by the glee club that night, and last of all, Polly’s clear soprano started up the Admiral’s favorite, “Tom Bowling.”
“Just leave that one to the echoes,” he said, as the sweetly-plaintive old melody died away on the still night air. “And now, to your bunks, every girl Jack of you, for you’ll wake up to-morrow with Maine under your noses, and Lost Island to shake hands with before breakfast.”
CHAPTER VII
LANDING AT LOST ISLAND
“Polly! Polly!” came a sleepy, anxious call from Crullers’ berth the next morning, and Polly sat up drowsily. It was still dark in their stateroom, but between the narrow shutters at the window, there stole a gray gleam of dawn. Polly sprang out of bed, and let down the shutter. And she half smiled as she did so, remembering how the first morning Crullers had tried to do so, and had started to cry because she had let the shutter fall down the side of the boat. Everything on the yacht was silent. The engines had stopped. There was no throbbing, no vibration, nothing, except stillness. Even to Polly’s practical mind there came a vague sense of danger, as she looked out of the window. Then she laughed.
Crullers was already out of bed, a blanket wrapped around her, as she dropped on her knees and peered under the berth.
“What are you doing?” asked Polly.
“Looking for the life preservers,” came back Crullers’ half-smothered tones. “Are we wrecked, Polly? Oh, I wish I had stayed at home.”