"Oh! is there danger?" asked Belle, immediately alarmed.
"Not much," replied Ed, "but we wouldn't like to walk home from this point." He was twisting the wheel so that the launch almost turned. Then a sound like something grating startled them.
"Bottom!" exclaimed Jack, jumping up and going toward the wheel. "That was ground, Ed!"
"Sounded a lot like it, but we can push off. Get that oar there,
Walter; get the other and——"
The launch gave a jerk and then stopped!
"Oh! what is it?" asked Bess and Belle in one voice.
"Nothing serious," Cora assured them. "You see, the tide has gone out so quickly that it has left us on a sand bar. I guess the boys can push off. They know how to handle oars."
But this time even skillful handling of oars would not move the launch. Ed ran the motor at full speed ahead and reversed, but the boat remained on the bar, which now, as the tide rapidly lowered, could be plainly seen in the moonlight.
"What next?" asked Cora coolly.
"Hard to say," replied Ed, in rather a mournful tone. "If we had gone down the bay, we would not have been alone, but I thought this upper end so much more attractive to-night. However, we need not despair. We can wait for the tide."