“Right you are!” exclaimed Mollie, as the Little Captain steered close to shore, bidding Amy “let up” on the oars. “Couldn’t have been better if we’d had it made to order.”
“And we beat the rain at that,” observed Grace.
“Your precious suit is saved,” said Mollie, sarcastically. “Of course that’s what you mean.”
But Grace was too glad to straighten her cramped legs and scramble on shore to take notice of the words or the tone in which they were uttered.
The other girls followed her example while Betty remained to cover the Gem with the tarpaulin.
“We’ll find the shack first,” she said as she followed the girls and paused to make sure that the boat was well fastened and could be trusted to remain where she was. “Then we’ll come back for the eatables.”
“Gladly,” agreed Grace, for she was again beginning to feel the first pangs of hunger.
“And now,” said Mollie, as arm and arm she and Betty led the way up the rather steep ascent, “here’s hoping we find the shack.”
“I guess there’s not much doubt of that,” said Betty, confidently. “All we’ll have to do now will be to take possession.”
And so, of course, they were bewildered when, upon reaching the cleared space at the top of the hill which Henry Blackford had described to them, they found no cabin.