“Oh, cut it out,” laughed Roy, “and head her in toward the point, Chub. Funny how much easier she paddles now.” “We’re out of the current, probably,” answered Chub. “Shall we paddle around the point to the cove or--” But at that instant Roy set up a howl of laughter, pointing speechlessly down the stream. Dick and Chub turned. Four or five hundred yards away, drifting gaily away from them, was the rowboat containing the tent. Chub looked hurriedly behind him. “The rope slipped,” he muttered. “Didn’t you tie it?” asked Dick. “No, I sat on it. Turn her back, Roy; we’ll have to get the old thing.” “You’re a nice one,” laughed Roy. “Why didn’t you hold the rope in your teeth?” “Oh, he’d have to keep his mouth shut,” Dick scoffed, “and you know plaguey well he couldn’t do that.” “Say, suppose you take a paddle and do some of the work,” suggested Chub, fretfully. “I’d like to know what we’re hauling you around for, anyway, you--you lump of dead weight! Let’s throw him overboard and lighten the ship, Roy.” “Save your breath for paddling,” Dick advised cheerfully. “It’s a quarter of a mile to the boat and a quarter mile back. Don’t worry about me; I’m very comfortable,” and Dick proceeded to find an easier position, rocking the canoe perilously in the process. “Sit still, you idiot,” said Chub, “or I’ll duck you again. Do you want to have us in the water?” “Now, if I had my motor-boat--” Dick commenced. “Oh, blow you and your old motor-boat,” spluttered Chub. “You’ve got to learn to paddle, that’s what you’ve got to do!” The runaway boat was soon captured, but it was some time before they had reached the island again, and during the return trip both Chub and Roy saved their breath for their work. They were both pretty well tuckered by the time they had regained the end of Inner Beach. Just when the canoe was floating into shallow water, Dick, who for several minutes past had been smiling inscrutably at Roy’s back, observed casually: “Of course what we ought to have done--but it’s too late now.” “What are you mumbling about?” asked Chub crossly. “Nothing; that is, I was going to say that if you had put me in the rowboat I could have taken the oars and it wouldn’t have been so hard on you fellows.” Chub paused with paddle suspended and viewed Dick disgustedly. Then, “Well, why didn’t you think of it before, you lazy loafer?” he demanded. “Oh, I did think of it,” answered Dick calmly, hunching his shoulders in expectation of a shower of water, “but as I am only a passenger I didn’t think I had any right to make suggestions.” “Gee!” muttered Chub. But before he could bring his paddle into play Dick had thrown himself out of the canoe into a foot of water and was plunging up the beach out of danger. “Got your feet good and wet,” taunted Chub. “I like them that way,” laughed Dick from a safe distance. “If I had that motor-boat I could have saved you fellows--”