“They may have become frayed by rubbing,” suggested Betty. “We’ll look when we get a chance. What are you going to do, Amy?” for she was entering the cabin.
“I’m going to make some hot chocolate,” Amy answered. “I think we need it.”
“I’ll help,” spoke Aunt Kate. “That’s a very sensible idea.”
“I think that is the dock light,” remarked Betty a little later, when the boat was headed up stream.
“Anyhow, we can’t be very far from it,” observed Grace. “Try that one,” and she pointed to a gleam that came across the waters. “Then there’s another just above.”
The first light did not prove to be the one on the private dock where they had been tied up, but the second attempt to locate it was successful, and soon they were back where they had been before. Betty laid the Gem alongside the stringpiece, and Grace and Mollie, leaping out, soon had the boat fast. The ends of the ropes, which had been trailing from the deck cleats in the water, were found unfrayed.
“They must have come untied!” said Grace. “Oh, it was my fault. I thought I had mastered those knots, but I must have tied the wrong kind.”
“Never mind,” said Betty, gently.
CHAPTER XII
AT RAINBOW LAKE
Once the Gem was securely tied—and Betty now made sure of this—the tired and rather chilly girls adjourned to the cabin, and under the lights had the hot chocolate Aunt Kate and Amy had made.