At this, Peggy dropped down on the boat cushion and began to laugh helplessly.
“What do you find so funny, may I ask?” Michael questioned sourly from the gloom beside her.
“A fire!” Peggy giggled. “A fire in all this rain! I’m sorry, Michael—it’s just nerves!”
“Very funny,” Michael said. “Well, I suggest we just sit here until the storm stops. Then we’ll be able to see where we are.”
But the storm continued in full fury for hours while the three, drenched and shivering, waited. Mary lay down on a cushion and, unbelievably, in a few minutes, was fast asleep. Michael too began to yawn as the hours passed, and Peggy offered him her cushion to doze on. She couldn’t possibly have slept. She curled up at the base of a tree, wrapped in her oilskin, and waited for the rain to stop. By the time the storm had subsided a little, dawn was breaking in a gray haze that filtered through the rain and trees and gave Peggy a view of the surroundings. She judged that they must be on an island, and getting up to look through the woods, saw a little path. Looking back at her sleeping comrades, Peggy decided to explore a little before awakening them. She hadn’t followed the path more than a few yards when she came to a clearing and a cottage among the trees. All night, a refuge had been this close! Seeing the house, Peggy realized how cold and exhausted she was. She raced back to the others and woke them up.
“I feel like the three bears,” Mary said sleepily. “I hope they have three beds and a stove; I’m chilled through.”
“It’s a lucky break we had your raincoats,” Peggy told Michael. “Do you realize we might all have caught pneumonia?”
Peggy knocked timidly at the door, hating to rouse anyone at this hour. It must be close to five in the morning, she guessed. There was no answer and Michael knocked again, louder this time.
A sleepy, startled voice called out, “Who is it?” and Peggy knew that the voice was familiar. Before she could place it, the door opened a crack and then was flung wide. There stood Mrs. Cook, wide awake now with the shock of seeing the three young people—wet and bedraggled as lost kittens.
“Oh, come in, come in!” she cried. “What on earth happened?”