The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake eBook

Laura Lee Hope
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 165 pages of information about The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake.

The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake eBook

Laura Lee Hope
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 165 pages of information about The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake.

“There!” cried Betty.  “Now I can avoid them.”

She threw in the clutch, and as the Gem shot ahead she whistled to indicate her course.  This time came the proper response, and a little later the motor boat shot past the towering sides of the river steamer.  So near had a collision been that the girls could hear the complaining voice of the pilot of the large craft.

“What’s the matter with you fellows?” the man cried, as he looked down on the girls.  “Don’t you know what you’re doing?” Clearly he was angry.

“We got adrift, and the motor wouldn’t start,” cried Betty, in shrill tones.

“Pilot biscuit and puppy cakes!” cried the man.  “It’s a bunch of girls!  No wonder they didn’t know what to do!”

“We did—­ only we couldn’t do it!” shouted Betty, not willing to have any aspersions cast on herself or her friends.  “It was an accident!”

“All right; don’t let it happen again,” cried the steersman, in more kindly tones.  And then the Gem slipped on down the river.

“What are we going to do?” asked Mollie, as Grace steered her boat.

“If we’re going to stay out here I’m going to get dressed,” declared Grace.  “It’s quite chilly.”

Can you find your way back to the dock?” Aunt Kate inquired.  “Can you do it, Betty?”

“I think so.  We left a light on it, you know.  I’ll turn around and see if I can pick it out.  Oh, but I’m all in a tremble!”

“I don’t blame you—­ it was a narrow escape,” said Mollie.

“I don’t see how we could have gone adrift, unless some one cut the ropes,” remarked Grace.  “I’m sure I tied them tightly enough.”

“They may have become frayed by rubbing,” suggested Betty.  “We’ll look when we get a chance.  What are you going to do, Amy?” for she was entering the cabin.

“I’m going to make some hot chocolate,” Amy answered.  “I think we need it.”

“I’ll help,” spoke Aunt Kate.  “That’s a very sensible idea.”

“I think that is the dock light,” remarked Betty a little later, when the boat was headed up stream.

“Anyhow, we can’t be very far from it,” observed Grace.  “Try that one,” and she pointed to a gleam that came across the waters.  “Then there’s another just above.”

The first light did not prove to be the one on the private dock where they had been tied up, but the second attempt to locate it was successful, and soon they were back where they had been before.  Betty laid the Gem alongside the stringpiece, and Grace and Mollie, leaping out, soon had the boat fast.  The ends of the ropes, which had been trailing from the deck cleats in the water, were found unfrayed.

“They must have come untied!” said Grace.  “Oh, it was my fault.  I thought I had mastered those knots, but I must have tied the wrong kind.”

“Never mind,” said Betty, gently.

CHAPTER XII

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.