ADRIFT
“Well, Captain Betty, what are your orders?” asked Amy, as the four
girls, and Aunt Kate, stood grouped in the space aft of the trunk
cabin, Betty being at the wheel, while the _Gem_ moved slowly down the
Argono River.
“Just make yourselves perfectly at home,” answered Betty. “This trip is
for fun and pleasure, and, as far as possible, we are to do just as we
please. You don’t mind; do you, Aunt Kate?”
“Not in the least, my dear, as long as you don’t sink,” and the
chaperone smiled indulgently.
“This boat won’t sink,” declared Betty, with confidence. “It has
water-tight compartments. Uncle Amos had them built purposely.”
“It certainly is a beautiful boat—beautiful,” murmured Mollie, looking
about as she pulled and straightened her middy blouse. “And it was so
good of you, Bet, to ask us on this cruise.”
“Why, that’s what the boat is for—for one’s friends. We are all
shipmates now.”
“‘Strike up a song, here comes a sailor,’” chanted Grace, rather
indistinctly, for she was, as usual, eating a chocolate.
The girls, standing there on the little depressed deck, their hair
tastefully arranged, topped by natty little caps, with their sailor
suits of blue and white, presented a picture that more than one turned
to look at. The _Gem_ was near the shore, along which ran a
main-traveled highway, and there seemed to be plenty of traffic this
morning. Also, a number of boats were going up or down stream, some
large, some small, and often the occupants turned to take a second look
at the Outdoor Girls.
Certainly they had every appearance of living the life of the open, for
they had been well tanned by the long walk they took, and that
“berry-brown” was being added to now by the summer sun reflecting from
the river.
“Is this as fast as you can go?” asked Mollie, as she looked over the
side and noted that they were not much exceeding the current of the
river.
“Indeed, no! Look!” cried Betty, as she released the throttle control
that connected the gasoline supply with the motor. At once, as when the
accelerator pedal of an auto is pressed, the engine hummed and
throbbed, and a mass of foam appeared at the stern to show the presence
of the whirling propeller.
“That’s fine!” cried Grace, as Betty slowed down once more.
“I thought we’d take it easy,” the Little Captain went on, “as we don’t
want to finish our cruise in one day, or even two. If I drove the _Gem_
to the limit, we’d be in Rainbow Lake, and out of it, in too short a
time. So I planned to go down the river slowly, stop at noon and go
ashore for our lunch, go on slowly again, and tie up for the night.”
“Then we’re going to sleep aboard?” asked Grace.
“Of course! What would be the fun of having bunks if we didn’t use
them? Of course we’ll sleep here.”
“And stand watches—and all that sort of thing, the way your uncle told
of it being done aboard ships?” Mollie wanted to know.
“There’ll be no need of that,” declared Betty. “But we can leave a
light burning.”
“To scare away sharks?” asked Amy, with a laugh.
“No, but if we didn’t some one passing might think the boat deserted
and—come aboard to take things.”
“I hope they don’t take us!” cried Mollie. “I’m going to hide my new
bracelet,” and she looked at the sparkling trinket on her wrist.
“Amy, want to steer?” asked Grace, after a while, and the girl of
mystery agreed eagerly. But she nearly came to grief within a few
minutes. A canoeist rather rashly crossed the bows of the _Gem_ at no
great distance.
“Port! Port!” cried Betty, suddenly, seeing the danger.
“Which is port—right or left? I’ve forgotten!” wailed Amy, helplessly.
“To the left! To the left!” answered Betty, springing forward. She was
not in time to prevent Amy from turning the wheel to the left, which
had the effect of swinging the boat to the right, and almost directly
toward the canoeist, who shouted in alarm.
But by this time Betty had reached the wheel, and twirled it rapidly.
She was only just in time, and the _Gem_ fairly grazed the canoe, the
wash from the propeller rocking it dangerously.
“We beg your pardon!” called Betty to the young man in the frail craft.
“That’s all right,” he said, pleasantly. “It was my own fault.”
“Thank you,” spoke Amy, gratefully. “Here, Bet, I don’t want to steer
any more.”
“No, keep the wheel. You may as well learn, and I’ll stand by you. No
telling when you may have to steer all alone.”
They stopped for lunch in a pretty little grove, and sat and talked for
an hour afterward. Mollie hunted up a telephone and got into
communication with her house. She came back looking rather sober.
“The specialist says Dodo will have to undergo an operation,” she
reported. Grace gasped, and the others looked worried.
“It isn’t serious,” continued Mollie, “and he says she will surely be
better after it. But of course mamma feels dreadful about it.”
“I should think so,” observed Betty. “They never found out who those
mean autoists were, did they?”
“No,” answered Grace, “and we’ve never gotten a trace of Prince, or the
missing papers. Papa is much worried.”
“Well, let’s talk about something more pleasant,” suggested Betty.
“Shall we start off again?”
“Might as well,” agreed Grace. “And as it isn’t far to that funny Mr.
Lagg’s store, let’s stop and——”
“Get some candy and poetry,” sniped Amy, with a laugh.
“I was going to say hairpins, as I need them,” spoke Grace, with a
dignity that soon vanished, “but since you suggested chocolates, I’ll
get them as well.”
They found Mr. Lagg smiling as usual.
“This fine and beautiful sunny day,
what will you have—oats or hay?”
Thus he greeted the girls, who laughingly declined anything in the line
of fodder.
“Unless you could put some out as a bait for our horse Prince,” spoke
Grace. “It’s the queerest thing where he can have gone.”
“It is strange,” admitted the genial storekeeper, who had heard the
story from Will. “But if I hear of him I’ll let you know. And, now what
can I do for you?
“I’ve razors, soap and perfume rare,
To scent the balmy summer air,”
He bowed to the girls in turn.
“How about chewing gum?” asked Betty.
“Oh, would you?” asked Grace, in rather horrified tones.
“Certainly, aboard the boat where no one will see us.”
“Gum, gum; chewing gum,
One and two is a small sum,”
Mr. Lagg thus quoted as he opened the showcase.
The girls made several purchases, and were treated to more of the
storekeeper’s amusing couplets. Then they started off again, having
inquired for a good place at which to tie up for the night.
Dunkirk, on the western shore, was recommended by Mr. Lagg in a little
rhyme, and then he waved to them from the end of his dock as the _Gem_
was once more under way.
“Look out for that big steamer,” cautioned Betty a little later, to
Grace, who was steering.
“Why, I’m far enough off,” answered Grace.
“You never can tell,” responded the Little Captain, “for there is often
a strong attraction between vessels on a body of water. Give it a wide
berth, as Uncle Amos would say.”
That Betty’s advice was needed was made manifest a moment later, for
the large steamer whistled sharply, which was an intimation to the
smaller craft to veer off, and Grace shifted the wheel.
They reached Dunkirk without further incident, except that about a mile
from it the motor developed some trouble. In vain Betty and the others
poked about in the forward compartment trying to locate it, and they
might not have succeeded had not a man, passing in a little
one-cylindered boat, kindly stopped and discovered that one of the
spark plug wires was loose. It was soon adjusted and the _Gem_
proceeded.
“I’ll always be on the lookout for that first, when there is any
trouble after this,” said Betty, as she thanked the stranger.
“Oh, that isn’t the only kind of trouble that can develop in a motor,”
he assured her. But Betty well knew this herself.
They had passed Elm Island soon after leaving Mr. Lagg’s store, but saw
no sign of life on it. They intended to come back later on in their
cruise and camp there, if they decided to carry out their original
plans of living in a tent or bungalow.
“That is, if the ghost doesn’t make it too unpleasant,” remarked Betty.
They ate supper aboard the boat, cooking on the little galley stove.
Then the work of getting ready for the night, washing the dishes,
preparing the bunks, and so on, was divided among the five, though Aunt
Kate wanted the girls to go ashore and let her attend to everything.
“We’ll take a little walk ashore after we have everything ready,”
suggested Betty. The stroll along the river bank in the cool of the
evening, while the colors of the glorious sunset were still in the sky,
was most enjoyable.
“Gracious! A mosquito bit me!” exclaimed Grace, as she rubbed the back
of her slim, white hand.
“That isn’t a capital crime,” laughed Mollie.
“No, but if there are mosquitoes here they will make life miserable for
us to-night,” Grace went on.
“I have citronella, and there are mosquito nettings over the bunks,”
said Betty. “Don’t worry.”
They went back to the boat, and the lanterns were lighted.
“Oh, doesn’t it look too nice to sleep in!” exclaimed Amy, as they
gazed into the little cabin, with its tastefully arranged berths.
“I’m tired enough to sleep on almost any thing,” yawned Mollie. “Let’s
see who’ll be the first to——”
“Not snore, I hope!” exclaimed Betty.
“Don’t suggest such a thing,” came from Amy. “We are none of us
addicted to the luxury.”
But, after all, tired as they were, no one felt like going to sleep,
once they were prepared for it. They talked over the events of the day,
got to laughing, and from laughing to almost hysterical giggling. But
finally nature asserted herself, and all was quiet aboard the _Gem_,
which had been moored to a private dock, just above the town.
It was Betty, rather a light sleeper, who awoke first, and she could
not account at once for the peculiar motion. It was as though she was
swinging in a hammock. She sat up, and peered about the dimly lighted
cabin. Then the remembrance of where she was came to her.
“But—but!” she exclaimed. “We’re adrift! We’re floating down the
river!”
She sprang from her berth and awakened Grace by shaking her.