It was good to be on land again, even though it wasn’t dry land, and the ride home, safe and swift, was blissful after the dangers and excitement of that thrilling picnic.
It seemed that Seven League Island must have been the very centre of the hurricane and that West Haven had only been visited with a heavy shower. Miss Campbell, therefore, was spared any great anxiety.
But, oh, the joy of drawing up to the cheerful blaze of the wood fire, while eight youthful adventurers related a somewhat softened version of the events of the day! Then the supper that followed, in Miss Campbell’s big, old-fashioned dining room, with fried chicken and hot biscuits and omelette as light as a feather, and strawberry jam that took the prize at the county fair!
But best of all was what Merry did at the last, when, notwithstanding his stiff joints and bandaged eye, he rose from his seat and cried:
“Hip, hip, hurrah! Three cheers for Billie, the pluckiest chauffeur that ever ran a motor car.”
And all the rest joined in, even Miss Campbell, who clapped her hands and cried:
“Three cheers for my dear, dear Billie.”
Then Billie cried:
“Three cheers for Ben because he never said ‘I told you so,’ about the rain.”
That very night, before he went to his own home, Ben called at Mr. Richard Butler’s house and told him the story of the bogus automobile supplies marked with the name of Butler Brothers.