ers of that team, too, they
were naturally particularly interested in the missing youth.

The three boys who had so unceremoniously left the motor boat _Duchess_
still stood around the hot fire on the shore, drying their garments.
Purt Sweet was really a pitiful sight, his fancy clothing looking so
much worse than that of his two companions. The girls were in gales of
laughter over his plight.

Laura repeated in a sing-song voice:

"Double, double, toil and trouble,
Garments steam and Purt does bubble!"

"Now, Miss Laura," complained the victim, "This is altogether too
serious a matter, I assure you, for laughter. What ever shall we do to
get home?"

"Well, we can't walk," chuckled Lance.

"Guess we'll have to appear on the _Lady of the Lake_" said Chet.

"My goodness! In _this_ state?" mourned Purt. "Only fawncy!"

"You can't fly home," said Jess. "Somebody is bound to see you."

"Let's take off our shoes, wring out our socks, and put 'em on again,
and then walk over to the amusement park," said Chet.

"And if you girls will paddle over we'll treat you to ice cream," added
Lance.

"You are trying to bribe us----I see," declared Laura, laughing again.

"Just so," said Lance. "We'll stand treat if you don't tell everybody
how we had to jump out of Purt's old boat."

There was a good deal of laughter at this; but finally the four girls
agreed and the boys helped them into the water again with their canoes.
It was not far to the amusement park at the west end of Cavern Island,
and the three partially dried boys arrived there about the time that the
two canoes reached the landing.

There was a good deal of fun while the seven young folks were eating the
cream. Purt Sweet slunk into his seat in the corner, striving to hide
his bedraggled apparel. He tucked a paper napkin into the front of his
waistcoat, and so hid the hideous color scheme of the gaudy shirt, the
stripes of which had spread with wondrous rapidity. Then he buttoned his
coat tightly to hide the ruined waistcoat; but the coat was tight
anyway, and the ducking had done it no good.

"I believe, on my life, Purt," chuckled Chet, "that the coat is
shrinking on you. That tailor cheated you this time----I know he did. If
the coat gets much smaller, and you eat much more ice cream, you'll
burst through the coat at all the seams like a full-blown
cotton-blossom."

"Better let _me_ eat the ice cream for you, old man," advised Lance,
seriously