is as red as my
hair."

Far out over the lake they could see the black trail of smoke made by an
approaching steamer.

"Here comes the _Huronic_," said Gladys.

"Let's stay out here until she goes past, and wave at the people," said
Katherine.

"We won't have time, if we want to get to the Point of Pines ahead of
the others," said the Captain. Katherine reluctantly admitted that he
was right and they picked their way down the littered stairs again. But
there were so many fascinating corners to poke into that another half
hour ticked by before they could finally tear themselves away.

"Where are the boats?" asked Katherine, who was the first through the
door. Yes, where were they? They were no longer fastened where the
Captain had left them. Far out in the lake they saw them, still tied
together, bobbing up and down on the baby waves.

The girls uttered a shriek of dismay, all except Katherine, who
exclaimed in comical amazement, "What do you know about that?"

"I thought I had them tied fast," said the Captain ruefully. "What in
the name of goodness are we going to do now?"

"Don't ask me," said the Monkey, gazing in a fascinated way at the
swiftly fleeing boats. There was a strong current among the islands up
here which was sweeping the runaways very fast toward the channel.

"Stranded!" exclaimed the Captain.

"Marooned!" said the Bottomless Pitt.

"Shipwrecked!" said the Monkey.

"Desoited!" cried Katherine, wringing her hands and rolling her eyes.
"Left to perish miserably in the middle of the sea! Now, Count Flamingo,
you have your revenge!"

"Just the same," said Gladys when she had finished laughing at
Katherine's absurd heroics, "we're in a fine pickle. Just how are we
going to get out of here?"

"Let's see," said Katherine, puckering her brow. "What do people usually
do on such occasions? We've been in 'fine pickles' before, and we've
always gotten out of them. Isn't the proper thing to do when you're
locked up in a lonely tower to sing siren-like music until the noble
hero hears you and comes to the rescue? Do you suppose my secret lover
would ever mistake my sweet voice for anyone else's, once he heard it
wafted in on the breeze?"

"Oh, stop your nonsense, Katherine," said Gladys. "You make me laugh so
I can't think of a thing to do. Captain, how are we going to attract
people's attention?"

"Run up a distress signal, I suppose," replied the Captain, "if we have
anything to run up."

"