"Oh, Luke," she sighed, "you are such a comfort."

Luke sped back to the camp and shook Neale awake in a jiffy, and without hearing the anxious girl's approbation.

"Wha-what's the matter?" asked the younger youth, sitting up and rubbing his eyes vigorously. "n.o.body's come to rescue us, has there, Luke?"

"Hush!" commanded the collegian. "No. But we've found a way to go after Tess and Dot."

"Crackey!" gasped Neale, struggling out from under the blanket. "It will be a long, hard swim, Luke. I had thought of that."

"Ruth has got an idea-and a good one," declared Luke.

"Oh, that puts another face upon the matter, as the fellow said when he put on his masque at the costume ball. Ruth is a regular 'go-getter'

when it comes to ideas. What is it?"

He hurried after Luke through the grove and they came out upon the easterly point of Palm Island, where the rocky reefs guarded the inlet whence the motor-boat had floated away.

Luke had already begun in a low voice to explain to Neale the details of Ruth's idea. The younger fellow was immediately excited. The idea of making a raft that would bear them all up and float them over the quiet sea in pursuit of the motor-boat seemed the most feasible thing in the world.

Perhaps, if Mr. Howbridge had been awakened at this time, his riper judgment might have pointed out facts that would have seemed to show flaws in Ruth's idea. But Luke and Neale accepted the plan at its face value and went to work immediately. As well as they could in the starlight they began to drag certain fallen tree trunks together on the sh.o.r.e by the deep inlet, ready for the real task of building the raft.

They had a rope and with its aid dragged the logs through the sands.

Agnes awoke and came out and insisted upon helping the young fellows.

Ruth, too, was too restless and excited to remain idle. Before dawn-oh, long before!-all four of them had aching shoulders and backs and blistered palms. But they worked on without complaint, believing that they were at last doing something practical toward the recovery of the lost children.

CHAPTER XX

THE FLAG ON THE TREE-TOP

"But it is practical, Guardy!" cried Agnes, at breakfast. "You know our Ruth is always practical."

"Far be it from me to say that it is not practical-theoretically,"

rejoined Mr. Howbridge, referring, as Agnes did, to the idea of building a raft.

"I guess whatever will float us off this island after the _Isobel_ is good enough to try," said Neale O'Neil, just a little sullenly.

"We will do all that can be done with the idea, of course," agreed Mr.

Howbridge.

"But," ventured Ruth slowly, herself a little timid now, "you see something dangerous about it?"

"I hope not, my dear girl."

"Can't we build a raft big enough to carry us all?" demanded Luke.

"I suppose even that might be done," admitted Mr. Howbridge. "But, you know, there are five of us, and we are of some weight. The raft must cover sufficient area to bear us up, and the children as well when we get them, if, perchance, the motor-boat should be unusable."

"Those logs do float pretty deep in the water," observed Neale.

"Green logs," said Luke, joining in. "They are almost awash."

"Can't we use the seasoned timber along sh.o.r.e?" asked Ruth, faintly.

"Not so well," Luke said thoughtfully. "You see, that is of all sizes and shapes. The easiest way to build the raft is with these trimmed logs. But most of the trees were felled during that small hurricane which brought us to the island."

"Oh!" wailed Agnes, "don't say that it can't be done."

"Not at all," said Mr. Howbridge, briskly. "We are going to bind those timbers together right after we have eaten, step a mast, bend a sail, and set sail. But we must not make the raft too c.u.mbersome; therefore we cannot all embark in this venture."

"Oh!" murmured Ruth.

But Agnes shouted: "I'm going! I don't care, Guardy Howbridge! If Neale goes, I'm going."

"Agnes!" murmured Ruth, putting a restraining hand upon her sister's arm.

"You're going, I suppose, Agnes, even if you have to walk?" chuckled Mr.

Howbridge, for he knew the obstreperous Agnes pretty well by this time.

"I don't care--"

"Yes, you do, child," said the lawyer more earnestly. "You care very much about getting Tess and Dot back safely. We may have much difficulty in managing the raft. Especially on our return. The boat may be broken, or perhaps we cannot finish repairing the mechanism when we overtake it.

"We must build a raft of limited capacity. It must hold the boys and me, and the children, of course. But the added weight of you and Ruth might sink it so deeply that it could not be managed. You girls will remain here--"

"Alone?" gasped Agnes.

"No. Together," put in Neale.

"Oh, Guardy!" exclaimed Ruth, "will that be necessary? Are you sure?"

"It is a physical impossibility for us to make these green logs float higher than they do," said Mr. Howbridge dryly. "Some tropical timber is corky and very light. Not these palm logs. To build the raft of drift timber is, as you can see yourself, my dear, impossible. We must use what we have to hand, and use it at once."

"Oh, yes! Oh, yes!" murmured Ruth. "There must be no more delay."

"It will take our best efforts to manage the raft. If the wind holds fair that canvas will make a splendid sail; but it will have to be tended all the time or half of the wind will be spilled, as the sailors say. Two of us at the sail and one at the steering oar. You two girls will have to remain behind."

"It is not so much the staying here," said Ruth shakenly. "But I wanted to find the children myself and make sure they are all right."

"You will have to trust that to us," said Mr. Howbridge. "I do not believe for a moment that anything will happen to you girls here on Palm Island."

"Oh, I am not afraid," Ruth rejoined faintly.

"I think the camp should be moved over to the spring. There is a sheltered place in the side of the hill within ten yards of the spring-almost a cave. As we must take your tent--"

"Don't bother about us!" cried Ruth. "Hurry and finish your raft."