Other motor-boats, manned by astonished officials and bearing
committees, chugged up to where the island had been and a flotilla of
rowboats and canoes hovered thereabouts while their occupants inspected
curiously the place where the official turning point with its crowded
grandstand had been. But the official turning point had vanished,
though the voice of our hero could still be beard up beyond Collison's
bend.

And still Townsend Ripley lay prone and laughed and laughed and laughed.

"Your money will be refunded, of course," he managed to say to the
several occupants of the grandstand. "You see we had a heavy rain all
night and----"

"Oh, don't _speak_ of returning our money," one of the girls laughed.
"We really ought to pay you _more_."

"We can't take any more," Pee-wee shouted. "You--you get the ride for
nothing--it's thrown in--because I said free transportation and a scout
has to keep his word. Even if we float miles and miles we can't take
another cent----"

"We may be rovers but we're not profiteers," moaned Townsend.

"If--if we don't drift to shore by supper time," said Pee-wee, "you get
your dinner too just like when an ocean steamer is delayed in a fog;
they give you your dinner, so don't you worry because you're with
scouts and when it gets to be six o'clock I'll make a hunter's stew."

At this there was a sudden noise as of horror and anguish and before
our voyagers realized what was happening, Townsend Ripley had rolled
off the island into the water.

CHAPTER XXX

ABSENCE MAKES THE ISLAND QUIET

"It's all right," Townsend sputtered as he crawled ashore. "I was just
thinking of something sad; I feel better now. It was one of the finest
races that I never saw."

"It would have been a good race," said Pee-wee with a frown indicative
of withering scorn, "only they had to go and break it up. _Just
because we moved_--do you call that an argument? _We_ ought to get the
silver cup, that's what _I_ think. They could have--have--headed us
off, couldn't they? The rule said they had to go around this flag, it
didn't say anything about where the flag would be. That's a
teckinality. Anyway, I'm glad we're rid of them."

"We seem to be making port," said Townsend. "I don't know just where
we are. I think if we were to cut up through these woods--You girls
want to get to the Edgemere trolley, I suppose?"

"That's the idea," said one of them.

"Well, then, let's see," Townsend r