LAND HO!
"Please--please keep quiet," cried Harriet, making herself heard above
the tumult. "Don't be frightened! We aren't sinking, and we are not
going to. Answer loudly when I call your names, so that I may know each
one of you is here."
"Now," she continued after the frightened girls had answered to their
names. "We'll try to find out what happened. You see that the boat has
stopped pitching, and the side roll isn't as pronounced as it was."
"What'th the anthwer?" piped Tommy.
"I don't know--yet," Harriet confessed. "But I'm going to know."
"The water is still coming in, and getting deeper," shivered Margery.
"Get out through the rear door," Harriet commanded. "One at a time."
"Which door is the rear one?" queried Crazy Jane. "All doors look alike
to me."
"Move away from the direction that the water is coming from," Harriet
continued.
Assisted by Jane McCarthy the girls obeyed Harriet's directions. Tommy
and Margery first, then Miss Elting and Hazel. In the cockpit the water
was not as deep, but Jane drove them all to the upper deck.
"The captain must go last, you know," laughed Harriet, as she climbed up
to join them.
By this time the girls were shivering with cold. The kimonos of washable
crepe in which they had elected to sleep during the cruise afforded them
little warmth.
"Get close together and keep each other warm," called Miss Elting.
"What! Sit down and shiver here all night long?" shouted Harriet. "No,
indeed. We must do something or we shall lose our boat."
"Wha--at happened?" shivered Margery.
"The waves smashed the front door in. That's all I know about it now."
"Oh, look!" screamed Hazel. "It's land!"
"Land, ho!" cried Crazy Jane.
"Yes, I know," replied Harriet calmly. "We are on shore. We have been
blown partly ashore. I saw that a moment after we came out here. There
is no danger to us, but there is to the boat."
"Did the anchor give way?" questioned the guardian, a sigh of relief
escaping her upon learning that the immediate danger was over.
"I don't know. Jane! I want you. We must go to the front of the boat and
see what can be done to stop the water from coming in. Are you ready?"
"All ready," called Jane. "Where away?"
"Below there."
"I want to go, too. I want to go down there and get thome dry clotheth,"
wailed Tommy.
"You'll look a long time on this boat before you'll find anything dry,"
laughed Crazy Jane. "Get up and run. Sprint back and forth along this
slippery deck, and, if you don't fall down and break your precious
necks, you'll start your circulation and get warm. Run for it!"
"Jane's advice is excellent, girls. Join hands and run back and forth,
while Jane and Harriet see what can be done for us," answered Miss
Elting.
Jane and Harriet climbed down the aft ladder and made their way into the
cabin. Everything was afloat there. It was with difficulty that they
made their way through and out to the forward deck over which the waves
were still dashing. Both girls were knocked flat almost the instant they
stepped out into the rear cockpit. They were picked up an instant
afterwards, only to be hurled against the deck house by a second wave.
Neither girl screamed; for a moment or two they were too nearly drowned
to speak. The rear end of the boat being driven up on the shore, the
forward end lay several inches lower. The lower deck in that part of the
boat was entirely under water.
"What are we going to do about it?" gasped Jane finally.
Harriet was groping about on the deck, her head under water a good part
of the time.
"I've found it," she cried.
"Found what?" demanded Miss McCarthy.
"The cleats."
"Well, what are they?"
"Maybe our last hope. Climb up to the top. I'll tell you my plan."
Jane lost no time in getting up where the rest of the party were dancing
about the deck, trying their best to get warm, and succeeding but
poorly.
"Harriet, don't you think we had better go ashore?" asked Miss Elting.
"You will be little better off there. But wait. Yes, the very thing. I
was going to use that awning for something else. It is the only dry
thing on the boat. Come, Jane; we'll do the best we can under the
circumstances."
Together the two girls got down the awning, which had once served them
as a tent. Assisted by Miss Elting they lugged it ashore and placing it
back far enough to be out of reach of the water, smoothed it out on the
ground. This would at least furnish them with a place to sleep. By this
time Tommy, Hazel and Margery had made their way ashore.
"How I wish we had some matches now! I'd build a fire. Jane, do you
think that box of matches could have kept dry through all this?"
questioned Harriet.
"It wouldn't do you any good if it had. How are you going to find it if
it is there?"
"That's so. Now, I think we had better take all the things out of the
cabin. Most of the stuff may be gone by morning. Miss Elting, will you
stay with the girls?" asked Harriet. "Then they won't feel afraid.
Besides we shall only be in each other's way if more than two of us try
to work in that cabin in the dark. The first thing to be done is to try
to stop the water from beating in through that wrecked doorway. I have
an idea. Jane, see if you can find some rope. There should be some on
the upper deck."
Jane McCarthy reported that there was no rope there. Harriet decided to
go on without it, believing that she knew a way to check the flood.
Calling Jane to assist her, the two girls carried the dining table out
to the upper deck. This they left there for the moment.
"Now hand out the cots," directed Harriet.
As this was being done, Harriet worked standing in water most of the
time. She placed the cots on edge across the doorway until three of them
had been set in place. Directing Jane to try to hold them in place,
Harriet grasped the table. This she braced against the cots. The table
held them in place.
"Hurrah! We've done it. See if you can find some blankets in there. One
will do."
After some searching about Jane announced that she had found a heavy
blanket. Acting under Harriet's directions Jane carried the blanket to
the upper deck and lowered it over the barricade of cots, weighting it
with heavy stones from the beach so that the end would remain on the
upper deck.
Harriet was unable to get either to the upper deck or into the boat,
without danger of pulling down her barricade, so she promptly jumped
into the lake and waded ashore. She fell down several times before
reaching dry land, knocked over by waves that overtook her and laid her
low. She sat down on the beach gasping.
"Come over here and rest a moment, Harriet," urged the guardian.
"I am all right, thank you. I haven't time to think about resting. I am
going to try to get our belongings out of the boat. We aren't so badly
off as we might be."
"If I had thome dry clotheth on I gueth I'd be all right," observed a
lisping voice from the darkness. "My kimono is thoaking wet."
"Now, Jane, I'm ready," finally announced Harriet. "Let's get that stove
out first of all. I fear it is ruined."
"Set the girls at it with dry leaves. They can wipe it dry and the
exercise will do them good," suggested Jane McCarthy.
"Fine! Come!"
The stove was carried out to the beach and stood up. Jane and Harriet
gathered leaves from weeds and bushes, together with such dry grass as
they were able to find in the darkness, heaping their plunder on the
canvas and directing the girls to polish the stove, hoping thereby to
keep it from rusting very badly. The occupation did Tommy, Hazel and
Margery good. They almost forgot their troubles for the time being.
The bedding and the clothing were next carried out and spread on the
ground to dry. This, too, gave the girls on shore something to do. They
wrung the water out of the bedding and clothing as thoroughly as
possible. The clothing was then hung on nearby bushes.
"I do not believe your clothing will be dry enough to wear until after
the sun shines on it," decided Miss Elting.
The girls groaned dismally. They did not relish the idea of going about
in kimonos for the better part of the next forenoon. Harriet and Jane
paid little attention to their own discomfort, however, for there were
still many things to be done. The cabin had held quite a stock of
supplies. Cans of provisions lay all about the floor. The two girls were
unable to gather up their supplies in the darkness. The water would not
damage the canned goods, so they decided to let these remain where they
were for the time being.
"I'll tell you what!" said Harriet, after pondering over the best course
to follow. "Let's take pails and go to bailing. Of course some water
will still leak in around the bottom cot, but we can bail out down to
that point. The water must come out. We might as well bail now as after
daylight. We won't get any wetter, and we don't mind lame backs, do we?"
"We don't, if you say not," agreed Jane. "What the captain of the 'Red
Rover' orders, is to be done. Where are the pails?"
"I think I remember having carried one outside."
"Here's the other," called Crazy Jane, who, at that moment, fell over
the missing pail and went sprawling in the water. She rose to her feet,
dripping, but in great good humor.
The two plucky girls set to work bailing. They did not wish to call in
their companions to help them, as they believed they could accomplish
more by themselves. Bailing out the boat was back-breaking work, and
there was so much water in the hold of the "Red Rover," that at first
their bailing seemed to have no effect whatever. Now and then they would
go ashore and throw themselves down for a brief rest. Miss Elting begged
them to do no more, but both Jane and Harriet were deaf to her
entreaties. They alternately bailed and rested until early in the
morning, when utterly exhausted from the strain of the past few hours'
work they were glad to throw themselves down on the canvas beside their
friends for a little rest.
By this time the dawn had begun to break and soon after the sun shone
brightly. The wind had died down and the lake lay smooth and glassy in
the morning sunlight.
"I'm going to try to get into that big chest that holds our clothes,"
announced Harriet. "If it really is water tight, then we shall not have
to worry long about dry garments."
"I'll go with you," said Miss Elting.
The two women made their way to the cabin of the houseboat, where they
were soon joined by Jane. By their united efforts the barricade was
removed from the door, and as the water had almost subsided Harriet had
little difficulty in getting at the chest.
"Hurrah!" she exclaimed as she turned the key which had been allowed to
stand in the lock, and lifted the lid. "Everything is all right. These
things are scarcely damp! Jane will you call the girls? We ought to
dress as quickly as possible."
Fifteen minutes later the Meadow-Brook Girls and Miss Elting were
enjoying the luxury of clean, dry clothing. Their hasty toilets were
scarcely completed, however, when they heard the steady chug! chug of an
approaching motor boat. Harriet climbed to the upper deck and shading
her hands with her eyes looked out over the waters. Suddenly she
exclaimed: "Girls, girls! Look at that boat!"