It was not a very elaborate meal, but it put new heart and courage into the lost ones.
"We'll get back somehow—some time," declared Alice, who was now almost her old self. "And then won't everybody be glad!"
Night was coming on, but before the advent of darkness Russ had remedied the defect in the motor boat. There was trouble with the ignition system, and also with the carbureter.
"Now we could go, if we knew which way to go," he said, as he tested the craft.
"Hark!" exclaimed Alice, suddenly.
The sound of a cheerful whistle came through the screen of trees.
"Oh!" gasped Ruth. "Who can it be?"
She had her answer a moment later.
Around a bend in the stream, rowing a battered boat, came an old colored man. It was he who was making the melody. Cheerfully he whistled, and more happily was he listened to.
"Ahoy there, Uncle!" called Russ. "Can you tell us where we are, and where the Magnolia is tied up?"