CHAPTER VIII
THE ISLAND OF DELIGHT
"It is the most mysterious thing I ever encountered," declared Miss Elting at breakfast, after she had stepped to the window again to gaze off over the lake to the cove—in the distance—where the "Red Rover" had lain when they retired the night before.
None of the girls except Harriet and Jane had much appetite for breakfast. They were too excited over the mysterious changing of their position.
"What I cannot understand," continued the guardian, "is how we, who pride ourselves on being woodsmen, trailers and scouts and all the other things, could possibly be carried across a lake, dragged over several miles of water and not know anything about it. Can you explain why we didn't wake up, Harriet Burrell?"
Harriet shook her head.
"And we are anchored just the same as we were last night," remarked Jane. "It's spirits, girls. No mistake about that."
"Now, Jane," laughed Harriet. "You know very well that the mere fact that our anchor was pulled up before we left the other side of the lake, then let down on this side, makes your spirit theory impossible."
"It wath thpookth," declared Tommy. "I thaw one thtanding on the handle of the mop pail latht night after I went to bed. I heard the water thplathh when he jumped in the pail."
"What a marvelous imagination you have," jeered Jane.