The Mystery on Cobbett's Island by Kathryn Kenny

T-shirt and dove over the side of the boat.
    â€œWhat happened, Peter?” cried Trixie, voicing the distress they all felt.
    â€œDo you want me to come in, too?” Mart shouted at the same time, but Peter was already in the water and could not hear them.
    In a few minutes, which seemed like hours to the three in the boat, Peter grabbed hold of the side and, pulling himself halfway up on the deck, he said, “We’ve hit a big hunk of waterlogged driftwood, and the rudder’s broken. It’s lucky we didn’t tear a hole in the boat!”
    â€œOh, no!” cried Diana. “I simply can’t bear to think of anything happening to
Star Fire
.”
    Peter shook the water out of his hair and climbed aboard. “Well, I can always get a new rudder,” he said disconsolately. “It would have been awful to get a hole stove in her side.”
    Mart helped him lift the rudder off the rudder post and lay it on the seat. It was split right through the middle and, quite obviously, was useless.
    Trixie looked to see if she could see
Blitzen
, but by now Cap was completely out of sight around the point. “Well, that’s that,” she said, half to herself. “What do we do, Peter?”
    Peter noticed how Trixie had said “we” instead of “you” and exclaimed, “By Jove, you’re really great!” The despairing look on his face changed to a smile. “A lot of kids would panic in a situation like this and yell for the skipper to do something, but here you are, cool as a cucumber, offering to help. That’s really great!”
    â€œOh, we’ve been in lots worse scrapes than this and managed to survive,” Trixie assured him.
    â€œNeither wind nor storm, nor hail nor a broken rudder can stay us in the completion of our appointed task,” Mart said, trying to look solemn.
    â€œAt the moment, our appointed task seems to be to get home,” Peter chuckled. He decided to take the sails down and try to paddle back, using the one oar. He was doing all right until he reached a point where the force of the eddy slackened, and it soon became apparent that they were making no headway against the tide. In fact, the current was slowly but surely carrying them out into the bay and back toward the lighthouse.
    â€œMart, break out the anchor. If the water isn’t too deep here, it may catch on the bottom,” Peter said.
    But this plan failed to work; the water was too deep for the length of cable on the anchor. Then Peter tried tying a line to the plastic bucket he carried in the boat, and he let it down over the stern. “This is one way toimprovise a sea anchor,” he said, “and it may keep us from drifting quite so fast.”
    As he worked, he kept glancing around him and finally said, “Someone will be coming along soon who will give us a tow, although there aren’t many boats out this early in the season.”
    Trixie thought she sensed a note of anxiety in Peter’s voice although he was obviously doing his best to reassure them and to appear casual about their situation. “I’ll hoist this red flag, just in case someone
does
come along. They’ll see we are in trouble and not think we’re just fishing,” he said as he produced a small red pennant from the drawer in the stern of the boat.
    â€œIs that what the flag is for?” asked Diana.
    â€œNo, it’s really a protest flag,” Peter answered. “We use it during a race when we see someone making a foul, and want to enter a protest to the race committee. Actually, we don’t often use it, but it’s required equipment, and I guess it’s lucky I followed the rules and had one aboard.”
    They were all on the alert for a passing boat, but the minutes ticked away without any sign of help showing up.
Star Fire
was being carried down the bay, and, as they all realized, out to sea. Suddenly, Peter’s face brightened.