won't you? Put something warm around you and come out on the deck
with me. I am afraid the houseboat has broken from her anchorage and
drifted some distance from the shore."

Miss Jenny Ann sprang up at once. For some time she had been conscious
of the storm. The peculiar sound of the lashing waves and the movement
under her she had ascribed to the gale. Once on her feet, she, too,
realized that the boat was rocking violently. They must be at the mercy
of the heavy seas. It was unbelievable that they had not awakened when
the houseboat had first slipped from her moorings.

Of course, Miss Jenny Ann and the girls still thought that they had
floated out from Wayside Point only a short time before. The storm was
so heavy--that must explain why they could see no land.

"Put on your heaviest clothes, girls, and your raincoats," Miss Jenny
Ann ordered bravely, trying to keep her own consternation out of her
voice. "We must light the lamps that should hang at the bow and stern
of our boat, and any others that will not be blown out by the wind. To
think that last night was the first time that we forgot to put out our
signal lanterns! We forgot everything in the excitement of the play."

The four girls slipped quietly into their clothes. They followed their
chaperon out on the deck. There they found her seated, flat on the deck
so as not to be thrown off her feet by the wind. Beaten and buffeted by
the storm, Madge and Phyllis finally managed to hang their lanterns in
the prow and stern of the houseboat. Then the five of them sat down
together.

"What do you think we had better do?" Phil asked, as cheerily as
possible.

"There is nothing to do but to stay aboard until we are taken off by
some other boat," answered Miss Jones. "We shall have to call out for
help."

How black and deep the water looked, how unlike the quiet channels in
which the houseboat had previously rested. "What time is it, Madge?"
inquired their chaperon unexpectedly.

Madge fought her way into the cabin. "It is nearly five o'clock," she
called. "The dawn will come within the hour."

It was difficult to keep a light burning, the wind blew so fiercely,
the rain poured down in such heavy sheets. The houseboat party dared
not go inside their cabin. They must stay on deck to watch for an
approaching boat to tow them safely back to land.

They sat in a huddled group, their arms about each other. The gay
Japanese parasols, the pretty decorations of the