“I hear Percy isn’t going with that fast crowd any more,” spoke up gentle Amy. “Maybe he’s reformed.”
“Well,” remarked Mollie, her nose in the air, “I’ll say he can stand a good bit of it.”
For a while everything went well with the girls and they were beginning to see visions of getting to camp in time to cook luncheon when suddenly something went wrong with the _Gem’s_ engine. It did not go dead, but there was a queer note in its putt-putting that worried Betty.
As they were passing Triangle Island--one of the many picturesque islands which dotted the Argono River--Grace suggested that they run into shore while Mollie and Betty “looked the engine over.”
“Be sure you say Mollie and Betty,” snorted Mollie. “What’s the matter with your ‘looking the engine over?’”
“I’d feel sorry for the engine,” chuckled Betty, and even Grace joined in the laugh at her expense.
Having visited the island before, Betty knew the very spot where conditions were best for landing. This was a little inlet from the river, deep enough to allow the _Gem_ to come close to shore.
As soon as they came near enough Grace and Amy grasped the overhanging branches of trees and swung themselves to firm ground, leaving Betty and Mollie in the boat to do the “dirty work.”
After considerable tinkering Betty announced that they were ready to start again but so much time had passed in the operation that Amy and Grace declared they were starving, despite the fact that it was not yet twelve o’clock.
“This is the best place ever for lunch,” Grace argued. “And we had our breakfast so early I really think we need something to eat.”
As the girls had thoughtfully brought along a picnic lunch in case they were not able to reach camp till later in the afternoon, Betty and Mollie brought it to light and then scrambled nimbly on to shore, the Little Captain with a rope in her hand with which she intended to fasten the boat to some sort of mooring.
“It would be a great thing, wouldn’t it,” she said, as she wound the rope about a stout tree and tied a seamanlike knot in it, “to wake up and find the _Gem_ sailing out to sea with us marooned on a desert isle?”
“More thrilling in the movies than in real life,” drawled Grace. “Now let’s get busy, girls. I’m starved.”