The Twilight, being an undecked "Rice Lake" canoe, could easily carry two persons, and, with the help of Charley and Tom, Joe climbed into her. Charley then picked up the floating sail of the Dawn, made her painter fast to his own stern, and started under paddle for the shore. It was not a light task to tow the water-logged canoe, but both the sea and the wind helped him, and he landed by the time that the other boys had got the camp fire started and the coffee nearly ready.
"Well," said Harry, "I've learned how to get into a canoe to-day. If I'd stuck to the rule, and tried to get in over the stern, I should be out in the lake yet."
"I'm going to write to the London Field and get it to print my new rule about capsizing," said Joe.
"What's that?" asked Charley. "To turn somersaults in the water? That was what you were doing all the time until Tom came up."
"That was for exercise, and had nothing to do with my rule, which is, 'Always have a fellow in a "Rice Lake" canoe to pick you up.'"
"All your trouble came from forgetting to lash your ballast bag," remarked Harry. "I hope it will teach you a lesson."
"That's a proper remark for a Commodore who wants to enforce discipline," cried Charley; "but I insist that the trouble came from carrying too much sail."
"The sail would have been all right if it hadn't been for the wind," replied Harry.
"And the wind wouldn't have done us any harm if we hadn't been on the lake," added Joe.
"Boys, attention!" cried Harry. "Captain Charles Smith is hereby appointed sailing-master of this fleet, and will be obeyed and respected accordingly, or, at any rate, as much as he can make us obey and respect him. Anyhow, it will be his duty to tell us how much sail to carry, and how to manage the canoes under sail."