ard the shadowy
structure. Roy reached it first and, turning, called: "Hey, fellows,
it's a boat!"

The others, drenched, but laughing, followed him, scrambling upon the
deck and over the combing into the cockpit of a dilapidated cabin
launch.

"What do you know about that!" said Roy. "Strike a light and let's see
where we're at. I feel like a wet dish rag."

Presently Pee-wee's flashlight was poking its bright shaft this way and
that as they looked curiously about them. They were in a neglected and
disheveled, but very cosy, little cabin with sleeping lockers on either
side and chintz curtains at the tiny portholes. A two-cylinder engine,
so rusted that the wheel wouldn't turn over and otherwise in a dubious
condition, was ineffectually covered by a piece of stiff and rotten oil
cloth, the floor was cluttered with junk, industrious spiders had woven
their webs all about and a frantic scurrying sound told of the hurried
departure of some little animal which had evidently made its home in the
forsaken hull.

"Oh, but this is great!" enthused Pee-wee. "This is the kind of an
adventure you read about; _now_ our adventures have really started."

"It'll be more to the purpose if we can get our supper really started,"
said Roy.

"How do you suppose it got here?" Pee-wee asked.

"That's easy," said Tom. "I didn't realize it before, but the tide must
come up over the road sometimes and flood all this land here. That's
what makes the road muddy. There must have been a good high tide some
time or other, and it brought the boat right up over the road and here
it is, marooned."

"Maybe it was the same flood that did all the damage down our way," Roy
said. "Well, here goes; get the things out, Pee-wee, and we'll have some
eats. Gee, it's nice in here."

It _was_ nice. The rain pattered down on the low roof and beat against
the little ports; the boat swayed a little in the heavier gusts of wind
and all the delightful accompaniments of a life on the ocean wave were
present--except the peril.

"You get out the cooking things," said Roy, "while I take a squint
around and see if I can find something to kindle a fire in."

He did not have to go far. Sliding open the little hatch, he emerged
into the cockpit, where the wind and rain smote him mercilessly. The
storm had grown into a tempest and Roy wondered how it would be out on
the wide river on such a night. In the cockpit was nothing but the
shredded remnant of a sun awni