“If a painter could only put it on canvas,” sighed Cora.
“He never could!” exclaimed Belle. “The best he could do would be a poor imitation.”
“Oh,” she exclaimed, “my foot is soaking wet!”
“It’s a little water that’s seeped in,” he remarked. “We’ll get the bailer from the cabin locker and throw it out.”
Walter bestirred himself and got the bailer. But after he had used it for a minute, a puzzled look came into his face.
“It’s coming in faster than I can get it out,” he said.
Belle uttered a little cry, and Bess became a trifle pale.
“It is coming in pretty fast for a fact,” muttered Paul.
“We’ll all have to get at it,” said Jack soberly.
There was only one bailer in the boat, and there was nothing else in the shape of a can or pail.
“Take off your sweaters,” said Jack to the boys. “Soak up the water and wring them out over the side of the boat. Lively now!”
A moment more and the boys were working like beavers.
“It must have been the straining of the engine,” explained Jack. “It’s started a board in the old tub. Work like the mischief, boys!”
Bess and Belle were huddled together in alarm, but they said nothing to betray the panic that was growing upon them.
Cora’s lips were pressed a little more tightly together and her cheeks were a trifle pale. But her eyes were glowing like stars, and were full of courage and determination.
She gave the wheel a turn and headed straight for the island, which was the nearest land.
The water continued to gain, and as the boat settled a trifle in consequence of the added weight, its progress was necessarily slower.
The boys were working frantically. Bess and Belle would have gladly helped, but in the narrow limits of the boat they would only have been in the way.
The open space in the bottom of the boat was yawning now. Jack doubled up his sweater and thrust it into the opening, while the others continued to bail.
Still the water gained, and the boat was perceptibly settling. But they were near the island now, and Cora turned the bow toward a low, shelving part.
A moment more and, with a sensation of infinite relief, they felt the bow slide into the mud of the bottom. Jack leaped to the engine and stopped its chugging. Then all took a long breath and looked at each other.