Just as he spoke there came a vivid flash of lightning. Involuntarily they all shrank. It seemed as though they were about to be blasted where they stood. And then, as a great crash followed, they trembled with the vibration of its rumble.

The next instant Ruth and Agnes cried simultaneously:

"Look! We're being blown ash.o.r.e!"

Neale and Mr. Howbridge peered through the darkness. Another lightning flash showed their peril.

"We're going to hit the island!" shouted Neale.

A few seconds later the wind blew the _Bluebird_, beams-on, upon a rocky sh.o.r.e.

CHAPTER XXIII

SUSPICIONS

The shock of the sudden stop, the tilting of the craft, which was sharply careened to one side, the howl of the wind, the rumble of the thunder, the flash of the lightning, and the dash of the rain--all these combined to make the position of those aboard the _Bluebird_ anything but enviable.

"Are we lost! Oh, are we lost?" cried Mrs. MacCall, rushing out of the cabin. "Ha the seas engulfed us?"

"No, nothing of the sort!" answered Mr. Howbridge. "Please don't get excited, and go back to the children. We are all right!"

"Yes, I believe we are," added Neale, as another flash showed what had happened. "At least we are in no danger of sinking now."

For they had been sent before the fury of the storm straight upon the rocky sh.o.r.e of one of the large islands of Lake Macopic. And there the houseboat came to rest.

As Neale had said, all danger of foundering was pa.s.sed, and in case of need they could easily escape to substantial land, though it was but an island. But tilted as the _Bluebird_ was, forming a less comfortable abode than formerly, she offered a better place to stay than did the woods of the island, bending as they were now to the fierce wind, and drenched as they were in the pelting rain.

"We're here for the night, at least," said Neale, as the continued lightning revealed more fully what had happened. "We shall not drift any more, and though there's a lot of excitement going on, I guess we can keep dry."

He and Mr. Howbridge, with Ruth and Agnes, stood out on the open, lower deck, but there was a shelter over their heads and the sides of the house part of the boat kept the rain from them. The storm was coming from the west, and they had been blown on the weather side of the island. The lee sh.o.r.e was on the other side. There they would have been sheltered, but they could not choose their situation.

"We'd better take a turn with a rope around a tree or two," suggested Hank, as he came up to join the little party. "No use drifting off again."

"You're right," agreed Neale. "And then we can turn in and wait for morning. I only hope--"

"What?" asked Agnes, as he hesitated.

"I hope it clears," Neale finished. But what he had been going to say was that he hoped no holes would be stove in the hull of the boat.

It was no easy task for him and Hank to get two lines ash.o.r.e--from bow and stern--and fasten them to trees. But eventually it was accomplished.

Then, as if it had worked its worst, the storm appeared to decrease in violence and it was possible to get a little rest.

However, before turning in again, Mrs. MacCall insisted on making a pot of tea for the older folk, while the small children were given some bread and milk. As the berths where Dot and Tess had been sleeping were uncomfortably tilted by the listing of the boat, the little girls were given the places occupied by Ruth and Agnes, who managed to make shift to get some rest in the slanting beds.

"Whew!" exclaimed Neale as he went to his room when all that was possible had been done, "this has been some night!"

As might have been expected, the morning broke clear, warm and sunny, and the only trace of the storm was in the rather high waves of the lake. Before Mrs. MacCall served breakfast Neale, Mr. Howbridge, Agnes and Ruth went ash.o.r.e, an easy matter, since the _Bluebird_ was stranded, and made an examination. They found their craft so firmly fixed on the rocky sh.o.r.e that help would be needed before she could be floated.

"But how are we going to get help?" asked Ruth.

"Oh, there may be fishermen living on this island," said Mr. Howbridge.

"We'll make a tour and see."

"And if there is none," added Neale, "Hank or I can row over to the next nearest island or to the mainland and bring back some men."

The _Bluebird_ carried on her afterdeck a small skiff to be used in making trips to and from the craft when she was at anchor out in some stream or lake. This boat would be available for the journey to the mainland or to another island.

An examination showed that the houseboat was not damaged more than superficially, and after a hearty breakfast, Neale and Mr. Howbridge held a consultation with Ruth and Agnes.

"What we had better do is this," said the lawyer. "We had better turn our energies in two ways. One toward getting the disabled motor in shape, and the other toward seeking help to put us afloat once more."

"Hank can work on the motor," decided Neale. "All it needs is to have the monkey wrench taken out of the pit. In fact the s.p.a.ce is so cramped that only one can work to advantage at a time. That will leave me free to go ash.o.r.e in the boat."

"Why not try this island first?" asked Ruth. "If there are any fishermen here they could help us get afloat, and it would save time. It is quite a distance to the main sh.o.r.e or even to the next island."

"Yes, it is," agreed Neale. "But I don't mind the row."

"It is still rough," put in Agnes, looking over the heaving lake.

"Then I think the best thing to do," said Mr. Howbridge, "is for some of us to go ash.o.r.e and see if we can find any men to help us. Three or four of them, with long poles, could pry the _Bluebird_ off the rocks and into the water again."

"Oh, do let's go ash.o.r.e!" cried Agnes, and Tess and Dot, coming up just then, echoed this.

Mrs. MacCall did not care to go, saying she would prepare dinner for them. Hank took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves and started to work on the motor, while the others began their island explorations.

The houseboat had been blown on one of the largest bits of wooded land that studded Lake Macopic. In fact it was so large and wild that after half an hour's walk no sign of habitation or inhabitants had been seen.

"Looks to be deserted," said Neale. "I guess I'll have to make the trip to the mainland after all."

"Perhaps," agreed the lawyer, while Ruth called to Tess and Dot not to stray too far off in their eagerness to see all there was to be seen in the strange woods. "Well, we are in no special rush, and while our position is not altogether comfortable on board the _Bluebird_, the relief from the storm is grateful. I wonder--"

"Hark!" suddenly whispered Ruth, holding up a hand to enjoin silence. "I hear voices!"

They all heard them a moment later.

"I guess some one lives here after all," remarked Mr. Howbridge. "The talk seems to come from just beyond us."

"Let's follow this path," suggested Neale, pointing to a fairly well defined one amid the trees. It skirted the sh.o.r.e, swung down into a little hollow, and then emerged on the bank of a small cove which formed a natural harbor for a small motor boat.

And a motor boat was at that moment in the sheltered cove. All in the party saw it, and they also saw something else. This was a view of two roughly dressed men, who, at the sound of crackling branches and rustling leaves beneath the feet of the explorers, looked up quickly.

"It's them again! Come on!" quickly cried one of the men, and in an instant they had jumped into the motor boat which was tied to a tree near sh.o.r.e.

It was the work of but a moment for one of them to turn over the flywheel and start the motor. The other cast off, and in less than a minute from the time the Corner House girls and their friends had glimpsed them the two ragged men were on their way in their boat out of the cove.