h
her bow entangled in a bunch of weed.

"I shall have to court-martial the captain for running his ship ashore,"
said Brian.

"Poor William!" cried Elsie; "fancy being shipwrecked on his first
voyage!"

For some minutes the children stood gazing idly at the disabled craft;
her engines had stopped working, and it was evident that she would have
to be towed into port.

"We must get a long stick--a fishing-rod, or something of that kind,"
said Guy. "Hullo!" he added. "Look, Brian! I believe she's sinking."

It was only too true; the "destroyer" was slowly settling down, stern
foremost.

"Oh, do get it!" cried Elsie; but the wreck was well out of reach--at
least ten feet from the shore. For a minute the spectators stood
hesitating, undecided what to do; then the vessel gave a lurch, her
bows slipped from the edge of the flower-pot, and down she went.

"O Brian, I am so sorry!" exclaimed Elsie. "You've taken so much trouble
to make it, and poor William's drowned!"

Brian laughed. "Oh, we can get her out again," he said. "I think she
must have been leaking where the propeller shaft goes through her
stern."

If it had been summer one of the boys would probably have rolled up his
trousers and waded into the water to recover the boat. As it was, they
had to improvise some form of drag.

"We must get that big rake," said Brian. "We can lash it to one of those
clothes-props, and then we shall be able to reach her and haul her out."

The rake was found, and bound with stout cord to the clothes-prop, and
the process of "salving" the wrecked steamer commenced.

"I must mind and not damage her with these iron spikes," said Brian,
carefully thrusting out the head of the rake and lowering it into the
water.

"Hullo! I've got something," he remarked an instant later, as he hauled
in the drag. "But it isn't the boat. What can it be?"

The prongs of the rake grated on the bricks, and there, amid dead
leaves, rotten twigs, and muddy sediment, lay something which at first
glance might have been mistaken for a dead fish. Guy stooped down and
picked it up out of the water. For a moment he gazed at it in utter
astonishment.

"Why, it's the missing carving-knife!" he exclaimed.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VI.

MORE MYSTERY.

"It's that poultry-carver right enough," repeated Guy--"the one the
mater said was lost."

[Illustration]

His sister and Brian all crowded round to have a nearer view of the
object in