soon going, and the green branches piled on top of them sent up the most
gratifying signal smokes.

"Now let's get our dinner," said Hinpoha, when that was accomplished,
"without waiting any longer."

The seven marooned sailors looked and looked in all directions without
seeing a single thing to wave at.

"It's too bad," said Katherine. "Here's a fine opportunity for some
likely young fisherman to make a hero of himself rescuing a band of
shipwrecked lady fairs and winning their undying gratitude. Maybe we'd
take up a collection and buy him an Ingersoll as a reward. But nobody
seems to be around anywhere to jump at the chance. It's a wasted
opportunity."

"There seems to be a boat around the other side of that point of land,"
said Gladys, shading her eyes with her hand. "See those two columns of
smoke going up?"

"It must be standing still," said the Captain. "The smoke is going up in
the same place all the while."

"It's two boats," said Katherine, "or does a boat have two smokestacks?"

"That's not boat smoke," said the Captain with a knowing air. "That's
from fires on the shore. They must be on that farther point, just beyond
the one we're looking against."

"Isn't that the Point of Pines?" asked Gladys.

"It is!" said Katherine. "And I'll bet you a cooky it's the Hounds who
have built those fires. They've been walking all this while and have
reached the Point."

"What would they want with two fires, though?" asked Gladys. "And such
thick smoke! They can't possibly be cooking anything over them."

"I know!" cried the Captain. "They're signal fires. You know Uncle Teddy
showed us how to make them. Two smokes mean 'We're lost.' They don't
know what to make of it because they didn't find us there and are
signalling for us."

"How perfectly rich!" said Katherine, laughing until her hair tumbled
down. "Here we are, cooped up in a lighthouse trying to signal someone
to come and get us away, and there they are, wanting us to come and help
them. It's the funniest thing you ever saw!"

And the Hares watched the two smokes ascending into the blue sky and
laughed helplessly.

Meanwhile, there was a panic on the Point of Pines. In the middle of the
peaceful dinner party two rowboats tied together came floating in toward
the shore. The boys waded out and brought them up on the beach.

"Look," cried Hinpoha, picking up something that lay in the bottom of
one of them. It was a battered tan khaki hat with the fray