“Let’s hire a launch,” suggested the Captain, who felt that it was up to him to furnish the amusement, inasmuch as he had invited them to come along, “and go out on the lake.”
Launches were readily to be had and soon they were curving around in great circles through the waves, drenched with the spray, and enjoying it as only boys can enjoy the sensation of riding in a speed boat.
“Let’s go to Rock Island,” said Slim, who had not forgotten who else had planned to go there that day.
“Oh, nothing,” answered Slim, “except that there’s a pretty nice aquarium there, and—and the girls said they were going to be there.”
“But we were politely invited to stay home, if I remember rightly,” said Bottomless Pitt. “They’re going to have a pow-wow, or something like that.”
“But if we should run into them accidentally they would probably be glad to see us,” persisted Slim. Slim was fond of picnics gotten up by girls on account of the superior quality of the “grub”; he was especially fond of Winnebago picnics, because the Winnebagos treated him better than any other girls he knew, and as mentioned before, he had a decided weakness for red hair. Hence his ingenuous desire to go to Rock Island. The Captain, knowing Slim like a book, laughed. But he, too, wished he had been invited to the picnic, and his reasons coincided in their last item with Slim’s.
“All right,” he said, and turned the boat’s head toward the green outline of Rock Island. Half of the distance across the bay the launch wheezed and stopped dead.
“Pshaw,” said Slim disgustedly, when the Captain announced that they had run out of gasoline. They had come to a stop just off a small rocky island and with the aid of the one oar the launch boasted the Captain proceeded to paddle in to shore, in the hope that he could obtain gasoline there.
“Regular desert island,” grunted Slim, as they walked and met no one. “None of the cottages seem to be occupied.”
“Cheer up; we’ll find someone,” said the Captain. “The fishermen live on these islands all winter. Look at the limestone quarries over there.”
“And the ruined something or other behind them,” said the Bottomless Pitt.
“Let’s cut across here,” said Slim, who was ever on the lookout for short cuts. “I see some houses over there.”