ad mostly?" asked Aunt Mary.

"It's best to be on the safe side," said Clover vaguely.

Then they entered the tangle of docks and express wagons and obstacles in
general and Mitchell had great difficulty in finding where his launch had
been taken to meet them.

But at last they got Aunt Mary down a flight of very slippery steps and
into a boat whose everything was labeled "Lady Belle," and Mitchell said
something and they cast loose and were off.

"Seems rather a small yacht," said Aunt Mary, glancing cheerfully about.
"I ain't surprised that you'd rather come in nights."

"Bless your heart, Aunt Mary," shrieked Jack, "this isn't the yacht, this
is the way we get to her."

"Oh," said Aunt Mary blankly.

"That's the yacht," yelled Burnett, "that white one with the black smoke
coming out and the sail up."

"What are they getting up steam for?" asked Clover. "The time to get up
steam is when you get down sails generally."

"They aren't getting up steam," said Mitchell, "they're getting up dinner.
It looks like a lot of smoke because of the shadow on the sail. And,
speaking of getting up dinner, reminds me that the topic before us now is,
how in thunder are we to get up Aunt Mary?"

"Put a rope around her and board her as if she was a cavalry horse,"
suggested Burnett.

"I scorn the suggestion," said their host; "if the worst comes to the
worst I can give her a back up, but I trust that Aunt Mary will rise to
the heights of the sail and the situation all at once and not make me do
any vertebratical stunts so early in the day."

They were running alongside of "Lady Belle" as he spoke, and the first
thing Aunt Mary knew she and her party were attached to the former by some
mysterious and not altogether solid connection.

"What do we do now?" she asked uneasily.

"I'll show you," laughed Burnett, and seizing two flapping ropes he went
skipping up a sort of stepladder and sprang upon the deck above.

Aunt Mary started to emulate his prowess and stood up at once. But the
next second she sat down extremely hard without knowing why she had done
so.

"Hold on, Miss Watkins," Mitchell cried hastily; "just you hold on until I
give you something to hold on to, and when you've got something to hold on
to, please keep holding on to it, until I tell you that the hour has come
in which to let go again."

"I didn't quite catch that," said Aunt Mary, "but I'm ready to do anythin'
you say if you only--" and again she spr