The "Red Rover" lurched heavily to one side. The rush of water that accompanied the lurch tumbled the Meadow-Brook Girls to the lower side of the cabin. A volume of water rushed over them, and the furnishings of the cabin were piled on top of them; in some instances a crushing weight pinioned them to the floor.

The houseboat had sustained a severe blow, though as yet they could not determine the nature of it. To make the situation more terrifying the cabin was in utter darkness. For a moment the voices of the Meadow-Brook Girls were stilled; then a chorus of screams, more terrified than before, rose from the lips of the frightened girls.

CHAPTER V

LAND HO!

"Please--please keep quiet," cried Harriet, making herself heard above the tumult. "Don't be frightened! We aren't sinking, and we are not going to. Answer loudly when I call your names, so that I may know each one of you is here."

"Now," she continued after the frightened girls had answered to their names. "We'll try to find out what happened. You see that the boat has stopped pitching, and the side roll isn't as p.r.o.nounced as it was."

"What'th the anthwer?" piped Tommy.

"I don't know--yet," Harriet confessed. "But I'm going to know."

"The water is still coming in, and getting deeper," shivered Margery.

"Get out through the rear door," Harriet commanded. "One at a time."

"Which door is the rear one?" queried Crazy Jane. "All doors look alike to me."

"Move away from the direction that the water is coming from," Harriet continued.

a.s.sisted by Jane McCarthy the girls obeyed Harriet's directions. Tommy and Margery first, then Miss Elting and Hazel. In the c.o.c.kpit the water was not as deep, but Jane drove them all to the upper deck.

"The captain must go last, you know," laughed Harriet, as she climbed up to join them.

By this time the girls were shivering with cold. The kimonos of washable crepe in which they had elected to sleep during the cruise afforded them little warmth.

"Get close together and keep each other warm," called Miss Elting.

"What! Sit down and shiver here all night long?" shouted Harriet. "No, indeed. We must do something or we shall lose our boat."

"Wha--at happened?" shivered Margery.

"The waves smashed the front door in. That's all I know about it now."

"Oh, look!" screamed Hazel. "It's land!"

"Land, ho!" cried Crazy Jane.

"Yes, I know," replied Harriet calmly. "We are on sh.o.r.e. We have been blown partly ash.o.r.e. I saw that a moment after we came out here. There is no danger to us, but there is to the boat."

"Did the anchor give way?" questioned the guardian, a sigh of relief escaping her upon learning that the immediate danger was over.

"I don't know. Jane! I want you. We must go to the front of the boat and see what can be done to stop the water from coming in. Are you ready?"

"All ready," called Jane. "Where away?"

"Below there."

"I want to go, too. I want to go down there and get thome dry clotheth,"

wailed Tommy.

"You'll look a long time on this boat before you'll find anything dry,"

laughed Crazy Jane. "Get up and run. Sprint back and forth along this slippery deck, and, if you don't fall down and break your precious necks, you'll start your circulation and get warm. Run for it!"

"Jane's advice is excellent, girls. Join hands and run back and forth, while Jane and Harriet see what can be done for us," answered Miss Elting.

Jane and Harriet climbed down the aft ladder and made their way into the cabin. Everything was afloat there. It was with difficulty that they made their way through and out to the forward deck over which the waves were still dashing. Both girls were knocked flat almost the instant they stepped out into the rear c.o.c.kpit. They were picked up an instant afterwards, only to be hurled against the deck house by a second wave.

Neither girl screamed; for a moment or two they were too nearly drowned to speak. The rear end of the boat being driven up on the sh.o.r.e, the forward end lay several inches lower. The lower deck in that part of the boat was entirely under water.

"What are we going to do about it?" gasped Jane finally.

Harriet was groping about on the deck, her head under water a good part of the time.

"I've found it," she cried.

"Found what?" demanded Miss McCarthy.

"The cleats."

"Well, what are they?"

"Maybe our last hope. Climb up to the top. I'll tell you my plan."

Jane lost no time in getting up where the rest of the party were dancing about the deck, trying their best to get warm, and succeeding but poorly.

"Harriet, don't you think we had better go ash.o.r.e?" asked Miss Elting.

"You will be little better off there. But wait. Yes, the very thing. I was going to use that awning for something else. It is the only dry thing on the boat. Come, Jane; we'll do the best we can under the circ.u.mstances."

Together the two girls got down the awning, which had once served them as a tent. a.s.sisted by Miss Elting they lugged it ash.o.r.e and placing it back far enough to be out of reach of the water, smoothed it out on the ground. This would at least furnish them with a place to sleep. By this time Tommy, Hazel and Margery had made their way ash.o.r.e.

"How I wish we had some matches now! I'd build a fire. Jane, do you think that box of matches could have kept dry through all this?"

questioned Harriet.

"It wouldn't do you any good if it had. How are you going to find it if it is there?"

"That's so. Now, I think we had better take all the things out of the cabin. Most of the stuff may be gone by morning. Miss Elting, will you stay with the girls?" asked Harriet. "Then they won't feel afraid.

Besides we shall only be in each other's way if more than two of us try to work in that cabin in the dark. The first thing to be done is to try to stop the water from beating in through that wrecked doorway. I have an idea. Jane, see if you can find some rope. There should be some on the upper deck."

Jane McCarthy reported that there was no rope there. Harriet decided to go on without it, believing that she knew a way to check the flood.

Calling Jane to a.s.sist her, the two girls carried the dining table out to the upper deck. This they left there for the moment.