The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest Part 21

"Oh, how splendid! Just in time!" they shouted, and Eugenia had difficulty in requiring that they sit still and not spill overboard.

Reaching the sailboat, never was found a happier face than Mae's.

"Oh, girls, I told you not to give up," she greeted them. "Just see our rescuer, Mr. Neal Nelson from the Colonade."

"Oh, my little choker's brother!" exclaimed Julia, too delighted to think of the usual formalities.

"And as I live, if it isn't--Bobby's life saver!" declared the young man. "Well, turn about is surely fair play, and I'm glad I got my innings in."

"However did you find us?" asked Julia when they were making sure the Blowell could "sail under her own steam" as Neal put it.

"I didn't--I just happened by. Out trying my new motor boat----"

"She's a beauty," commented Mae, feeling foolish as she uttered the words, for any old tug boat would have been a beauty under the circ.u.mstances.

How differently everything looked now! It was almost worth while being in peril to experience the joy of rescue.

"How did you like it over there?" called Neal, who was now keeping close enough alongside the Blowell to permit of conversation.

"Nice little island," answered Cleo. "I guess picnickers like it there."

"I fancy not," replied the young man. "Folks are not invited over there, I understand."

"Why?" questioned Eugenia, who was interested in the kindergarten effort discovered on the island.

"n.o.body knows and n.o.body cares," he replied, using the words of the latest popular song.

"We're going back there some day," declared Grace. "Found signs and things never left there by the Indians."

"Indians live there yet, I should think," replied Neal, turning on some more gas to keep up with the pace the Blowell was making.

"What's the name of that island, do you know?" called Grace.

"Surely," he replied, with a laugh in his boyish voice. "That's the famous Luna Land!"

CHAPTER XVI

THE BAREFOOT GIRLS

"LOOK! Look!" shrieked Grace. "That's Luna Land!"

"Oh, isn't that too stupid!" added Cleo, almost in dismay. "To think we were wandering around there and didn't know it."

"But how were we fooled?" asked Julia, also showing signs of keen disappointment.

"Don't you see we went in on the other side," explained Helen. "That's the pocket and just as I thought we were in the old hip pocket. Isn't that too mean!"

Eugenia and Mae were now made aware of the girls' eager expectations for a trip to that island, and when every one had finally been convinced that the trip had really been made without the least suspicion of its consummation, there seemed nothing to do but demand a good laugh from the odd occurrence.

All stood up to watch the very last speck of green, as Luna Land disappeared, and only the added interest and anxiety, consequent upon their delay, and the need to hasten back to the waiting home folks, tended to break the spell.

"To have actually been on that island!" repeated Grace, trying to realize it.

"And to have gathered signs there," put in Cleo. "Glad I took them along, although I did so unconsciously."

"We must have a troop meeting to-morrow," said Margaret. "This alters everything."

"I think it simply turns on the gasoline," remarked Grace. "Now, we know something about Looney Land."

Neal was leading in his new launch, and the Blowell followed as proudly as if nothing had occurred to spoil her trip. It was almost dark, but not quite, as the long summer evening stayed and over-stayed, to the benefit of the belated sailors.

"There's Leonore and Ben," sang out Grace, as they caught sight of the blue car waiting at the landing.

"Also Gerald and--yes, it's Isabel," called Helen, for from her family car a girl in Isabel's green sweater was waving merrily to the incoming craft.

Explanations with details of delays on a sailboat seemed entirely superfluous, and with creditable good sense the stranded party was welcomed home, without the worry of sighs or sobs.

"But why did you go to the city to-day of all days?" Cleo demanded of Isabel. "We have had the event of the season, and you should have been among those present."

"The dentist," explained Isabel, making room for her chums in the car.

"Nothing on earth but a tyrannical dentist could drag me away from Sea Crest in mid season."

"Well, I thought it must have been something urgent," Cleo conceded.

"But, Izzy love! We have been to Luna Land!"

"You didn't tell us!" charged Elizabeth. She had been to the city with Isabel.

"We didn't know," returned Cleo. "It was an accident--a miraculous accident."

Followed such s.n.a.t.c.hy bits of explanation as might be given on the short ride home. Isabel and Elizabeth seemed quite as much absorbed in the fact that their friend Neal had a new motor boat as did they in the revelation concerning Luna Land.

The evening attraction of moonlight bathing served to divert, temporarily, the girls' keen interest in holding a True Tred meeting immediately. Every one wanted to go straight back to the island--no dogs had devoured them, no lunatics were discovered up trees, no ghosts had been noticed ambling about the grove, and why had they even hesitated to explore there? Each demanded an answer from each, but none replied.

Moonlight, like all the other released atmospheric beauties, came "double barreled," and crowds flocked to the beach for the novelty of evening bathing.

"And of course, we're too young," grumbled Isabel. "I just wonder if the water is the same day as night. Come on, let's wade."

This was the signal for wading preparations. In a sheltered corner under the board walk, the girls divested themselves of their shoes and stockings, scampered back to the edge and encountered knee deep waves or wavelets.

"Wading is really decorous in the dark," boomed Elizabeth. "It's lots more fun than even bathing in daylight."

"But not as good as swimming," replied Louise, who had just allowed her pretty pink scarf-sash to come in contact with the ruinous salt water.

At the sound of the nine-thirty gong--it was the village fire alarm that always sounded the hour--the scouts as well as the other merrymakers hurried to dress. True, they had but to don stockings and pumps, but the beach crowds scattered so quickly, it was necessary to hurry, or run the risk of being alone with the crabs.