By Wednesday afternoon, however, Miss Phillips expected to reach Rikers. There it was possible that some of the girls might find letters awaiting them at the Post Office.
“Now we’ll find out who are our really popular girls!” said Ruth, when they were near enough to the town to distinguish a church spire in the distance. She was confident that she would find at least two letters--one from her mother and one from Harold--so she knew that she was safe in making the remark.
“I won’t get any,” observed Marjorie. “I forgot to tell mother we expected to stop there. How about you, Doris?”
“I don’t know,” replied the girl, carelessly. “But I do know that we’ve got some water in our canoe. Do you see that, Marj?”
Marjorie turned sharply around--she had been “resting up” in the bow--and looked at the bottom of the canoe. Doris was right; there was about an inch of water.
“Water?” echoed Ruth, who had overheard the remark. “Don’t you know it’s a sign of a very poor boatsman to splash water into the boat?”
“Maybe it is,” admitted Marjorie; “nevertheless, it’s there. And I do believe it’s getting deeper. Look!”
Miss Phillips paddled close at these words and peered anxiously into the _Will-o’-the-Wisp_.
“It’s a leak!” she decided. “Evidently you have grazed a jagged rock or a tree-stump.”
“Can it be fixed?” asked Doris, hastily making for the shore.
“Oh, yes, quite easily,” replied the captain. “But since we are so near to Rikers, we might as well have it repaired there, for a real repair man would have more tools than we carry.”
Marjorie and Doris directed the _Will-o’-the-Wisp_ to the shore and got out while the others went a short distance farther down toward the regular place. Miss Phillips opened a box and took out five padlocks with chains.
“We will put these on here,” she said. “If I only had used the precaution to do this on the island, we wouldn’t have had all that needless worry and loss of time.”
“But it was exciting, you know,” argued Ruth. “Besides I can’t see why you are in such an awful hurry, Captain. The meet is still a week off!”
“Yes, I know it is; nevertheless, it is too good an opportunity for pleasure for us to miss a day at Silvertown. I should think you would be one of the first to realize that, Ruth.”