The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat | Page 6

on the other thide."
"That is true, but to do so I should have to stand in the water," laughed the guardian.
"If you must paint the other side, of course we can turn the boat around," said Harriet. "I think a name on one side will answer our purpose for the present. Later on we can finish the job, if we think best."
"Yes," agreed Jane. "We've done enough for the present. Don't forget that we've got to settle the house in the morning. I want you all to think hard to-night, to see if we have forgotten anything."
"The only thing we have forgotten is our dinner. We haven't had a bite to eat since morning," Margery Brown reminded her friends.
"Margery can't think of anything but thomething to eat," laughed Tommy. "You mutht learn to eat atmothphere when you're hungry. That ith the way I do."
"I fear you will never grow fat on that sort of diet," laughed the guardian.
"I don't want to get fat, like Buthter," replied Tommy scornfully.
In the meantime Harriet and Jane had drawn away from the others and were engaged in a whispered conversation. Then the two girls got into the rowboat dragged the houseboat out into the lake, a few rods, and anchored it. They did not explain their action. The other girls laughed at them, and Miss Elting questioned them with her eyes but said nothing. She knew the two girls had some good reason for anchoring the "Red Rover" a little distance from the shore.
Early on the following morning, Jane and Harriet were out, loading the automobile with the supplies that had been delivered at the hotel the previous night. The car was piled high with bundles of various shapes and sizes. There was room for Jane and Harriet in front, but none for their companions elsewhere.
"We will go down to the dock with the stuff," explained Harriet, "then come back in time to take breakfast with you girls. We shan't try to put the supplies on board. We'll just dump them on the pier."
"You can put them on the boat if you want to. I don't care," answered Grace.
"Tommy is trying to get out of working to-day," scoffed Margery.
"I'm not," protested the little lisping girl indignantly. "If I were ath fat ath you, I might. I'll work after breakfatht, but I won't work before breakfatht."
"Nobody wants you to," flung back Jane, as she started her car ahead. "We'll do all the before-breakfast work, and we'll have the real appetites when we get to the food. You watch us."
They watched her skid around a sharp corner and heard her car for some few moments thereafter, but that was all. They were too well used to Crazy Jane McCarthy, by this time, to be surprised at anything she might do or say.
The drive to Johnson's dock was a short one. The two girls made it in a few moments. As they turned into the street that led down to the river they opened their eyes a little wider, but neither spoke. Nor was there a word said until they had driven out on the pier and halted the car. Then both girls burst out in exclamations of amazement at the same instant.
That which they discovered filled the hearts of the Meadow-Brook Girls with alarm. The "Red Rover" was nowhere in sight. The shore end of the rope, with which it had been secured to the dock when they anchored it out in the lake, was still securely tied to the string piece at the outer side of the dock.
"What is it, darlin'?" questioned Jane, with eyes wide and wondering.
"It looks to me very much as though our 'Red Rover' were at the bottom of the lake, Jane. Oh, what shall we do if she has sunk? Something has been going on here. Something occurred the first day we were here, to excite my suspicion. And now this strange thing has happened. There's the rowboat. Let's go out and look around. Oh, this is too bad, too bad!"
CHAPTER II
CRAZY JANE MAKES A DISCOVERY
"Wait!"
Jane sprang forward, and grasping the rope, lifted it from the water and began hauling in on it. She uttered a shout of joy.
"There's no 'Red Rover' on the other end of this rope, Harriet," she cried.
"Then it has broken away and sunk," answered Harriet gloomily. "Let's get into the rowboat and go out yonder."
"In a minute. I want to see what is at the other end of this rope, Harriet, dear. There's nothing like beginning at the right end. This is the right end; after we get the rope in we will move on to the other end. We may have to dive, but you and I know how to do that, don't we darlin'?"
Harriet nodded. The long rope came in dripping, so cold