good one, but he
decided to find the lantern before he tested it. He didn't have to
search long for the lantern, for he fell over it almost the next step he
took. Finding a sheltered place, he opened the lantern and tried the
match. It lighted, flickered uncertainly a moment and then burned
steadily. He held it to the wick, closed the door and raising the light
looked about him.

There were seven rowboats and Chub's canoe made fast to the end of the
float. It was a little difficult to tell which were Ferry Hill and which
Hammond craft, but Roy didn't let that trouble him. For the next ten
minutes he was so busy that he forgot his coldness. Once the moon came
out for a moment or two, but for the most part it was so dark that the
lantern's rays seemed very feeble. Finally, however, the last knot was
tied and Roy, blowing out the lantern, slid into one of the Ferry Hill
boats and slipped oars into oarlocks. Then, slowly, he headed away in
the darkness, and one by one went each of the seven other boats, the
canoe dipping along in the rear. For, thought Roy with a chuckle,
"what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."

I'm not going to dwell on the next hour. Fortunately there was no wind,
and the slight tide was in his favor. There were one or two lights on
the opposite shore, but as Roy didn't know where they were they didn't
help much, and it was more by good-luck than good management that he
reached it at all.

When the boat did grate on the shore he leaped out with painter in hand
and made fast to a rock. Then he returned to the boat and waited as
patiently as he could for dawn. But he didn't have to do that, as it
proved. He had been nodding here only half an hour perhaps when the
moon, which all the night had been trying its best to elude the clouds,
positively leaped into view with an effect so startling that Roy almost
fell out of the boat. The moon was floating across a little pond of
purple-gray sky, the banks of which were piles of fluffy white clouds
like snow. But he didn't waste much time in admiring the scene. Swiftly
he looked about him. He would have yelled with joy if he hadn't been so
tired and sleepy, for there, not a dozen yards away along the bank was
the boat-house.

At first he decided to pull the boats out where they were and return to
the island without them. Then he determined to see the thing through if
it took all the rest of the night. So he pushed off and headed
up-stream. By keep