“We must be up to Riverhead all right,” remarked Bess. “Though I haven’t noticed anything like a town.”
“You couldn’t notice much of anything in this rain,” Cora said. “We’re not aground, at all events,” for they could feel the boat moving down stream under the influence of the current.
“Switch on the searchlight and see if we can discover where we are,” suggested Belle.
“Good idea,” commented Captain Cora. A push of a button and the small but powerful searchlight, mounted amidships on the cabin roof, gleamed out. It was operated by a storage battery, which, in turn, was charged by a small dynamo connected to the engine fly wheel. And by means of a worm gear, operated by a wheel near the steering apparatus, the light could be deflected in any direction.
Cora trained it on the bank. Looking through the rain-covered windows of the cabin the girls, and their boy guests, saw a water-soaked bank, covered with bushes and rushes. It was dusk now.
“That doesn’t look like Riverhead,” commented Jack.
“More like river-end,” said Paul. “Where in the world are we?”
“Don’t ask me!” exclaimed Cora, a trifle nervously. “I’m sure I did the best I could in the mist.”
“Of course you did, Sis,” said her brother soothingly. “It isn’t any one’s fault. We’re all right. The boat doesn’t seem to be damaged by trying to poke her pretty nose into the bank, and if we can’t go on to Camp Surprise in the darkness and rain we can go to some hotel and stay. There’s one in Riverhead.”
Just then, into the radiance of the searchlight stepped a man clad in yellow oilskins, rubber boots and with a sou’wester on his head.