“That’s fine!” cried Grace, as Betty slowed down once more.
“I thought we’d take it easy,” the Little Captain went on, “as we don’t want to finish our cruise in one day, or even two. If I drove the Gem to the limit, we’d be in Rainbow Lake, and out of it, in too short a time. So I planned to go down the river slowly, stop at noon and go ashore for our lunch, go on slowly again, and tie up for the night.”
“Then we’re going to sleep aboard?” asked Grace.
“Of course! What would be the fun of having bunks if we didn’t use them? Of course we’ll sleep here.”
“And stand watches—and all that sort of thing, the way your uncle told of it being done aboard ships?” Mollie wanted to know.
“There’ll be no need of that,” declared Betty. “But we can leave a light burning.”
“To scare away sharks?” asked Amy, with a laugh.
“No, but if we didn’t some one passing might think the boat deserted and—come aboard to take things.”
“I hope they don’t take us!” cried Mollie. “I’m going to hide my new bracelet,” and she looked at the sparkling trinket on her wrist.
“Amy, want to steer?” asked Grace, after a while, and the girl of mystery agreed eagerly. But she nearly came to grief within a few minutes. A canoeist rather rashly crossed the bows of the Gem at no great distance.