e left alone
to-night, and that we fellows wanted your company?"

It was a pretty speech for Walter, and was not lost on the sensitive
Belle.

"How about sand bars, Ed?" asked Jack. "Might we run onto one?"

"We might, but I guess I could feel one coming. The tide is getting
away. We had better veer toward the shore."

"Oh! is there danger?" asked Belle, immediately alarmed.

"Not much," replied Ed, "but we wouldn't like to walk home from this
point." He was twisting the wheel so that the launch almost turned.
Then a sound like something grating startled them.

"Bottom!" exclaimed Jack, jumping up and going toward the wheel. "That
was ground, Ed!"

"Sounded a lot like it, but we can push off. Get that oar there,
Walter; get the other and----"

The launch gave a jerk and then stopped!

"Oh! what is it?" asked Bess and Belle in one voice.

"Nothing serious," Cora assured them. "You see, the tide has gone out
so quickly that it has left us on a sand bar. I guess the boys can
push off. They know how to handle oars."

But this time even skillful handling of oars would not move the launch.
Ed ran the motor at full speed ahead and reversed, but the boat
remained on the bar, which now, as the tide rapidly lowered, could be
plainly seen in the moonlight.

"What next?" asked Cora coolly.

"Hard to say," replied Ed, in rather a mournful tone. "If we had gone
down the bay, we would not have been alone, but I thought this upper
end so much more attractive to-night. However, we need not despair.
We can wait for the tide."

"Till morning!" almost shouted Belle.

"It's due at three-thirty," announced the imperturbable Walter.

"Oh! what shall we do?" wailed Bess.

"We might walk," suggested Cora. "It isn't very far to that shore, and
it's shallow."

"Mercy, no!" exclaimed Belle. "There are all sorts of holes in the mud
here. I would stay forever before I would try walking."

Cora laughed. She had no idea of being taken seriously.

"Now, you see," said Walter, "my wisdom in curtailing the chaperon.
Just imagine her now," and he rolled laughingly over toward Jack.

"Easy there! No need for artificial respiration or barrel-rolling just
yet," declared Jack. "In fact, if we had a bit of water, we'd be
thankful. Let me work the engine, Ed. Maybe I can give luck a turn
and get more push out of it."

Ed left his place, and Jack took it, but the sand bar held the little
launch like adamant, and it