ashed against the boat. It was
unusually rough for a lake of its size. She inhaled deeply the strong,
bracing air, until, discovering that she was getting wet from the spray,
the girl hurried below and crawled into her cot, shivering a little.
Then she fell into a deep sleep, soothed by the rocking of the boat.

Tommy was moaning in her sleep. The others appeared to be sleeping
soundly. It was late in the night when Harriet was awakened by a
terrific crash. It seemed to her as though something had collided with
the "Red Rover." Then came a second crash, much louder than the first.
The second was followed by a sound of breaking woodwork. A draught of
cold air smote her in the face, then a huge volume of water swept into
the cabin overwhelming and half drowning the occupants.

Cots were overturned, the oil stove went over with a crash, and the
table was hurled the length of the cabin, landing bottom side up at the
rear end of the cabin.

A chorus of terrified, choking screams followed the second crash, that,
to their overwrought imaginations, seemed to have lasted for hours.

"Thave me! We're thinking!" wailed Tommy Thompson.

"Harriet! What has happened?" cried Miss Elting.

"I--I don't know."

The "Red Rover" lurched heavily to one side. The rush of water that
accompanied the lurch tumbled the Meadow-Brook Girls to the lower side
of the cabin. A volume of water rushed over them, and the furnishings of
the cabin were piled on top of them; in some instances a crushing weight
pinioned them to the floor.

The houseboat had sustained a severe blow, though as yet they could not
determine the nature of it. To make the situation more terrifying the
cabin was in utter darkness. For a moment the voices of the Meadow-Brook
Girls were stilled; then a chorus of screams, more terrified than
before, rose from the lips of the frightened girls.

CHAPTER V

LAND HO!

"Please--please keep quiet," cried Harriet, making herself heard above
the tumult. "Don't be frightened! We aren't sinking, and we are not
going to. Answer loudly when I call your names, so that I may know each
one of you is here."

"Now," she continued after the frightened girls had answered to their
names. "We'll try to find out what happened. You see that the boat has
stopped pitching, and the side roll isn't as pronounced as it was."

"What'th the anthwer?" piped Tommy.

"I don't know--yet," Harriet confessed. "But I'm going to know."

"The wat