The girls took the dirty things up to the big sink to wash them. There was nothing to dry them with but that didn’t matter. They laid them on the old worn draining board to dry.

They wiped their hands on their hankies and then felt ready for exploring round outside. The boys were ready too.

With Timmy bounding here and there they went down to the lake. A path had once led down to it, with a low wall on each side. But now the wall was broken, moss had crept everywhere, and the path was choked with tufts of heather and even with small bushes of gorse.

The lake was as still and dark as ever. Some moor-hens chugged across it quickly, disappearing under the water when they saw the children.

“Now, what about that boat-house?” said Dick at last. “Is there one - or not?”

Chapter Fourteen

Where is the “Saucy Jane”?

They walked beside the lake-side as best they could. It was difficult because bushes and trees grew right down to the edge. It seemed as if there was no boat-house at all.

And then George came to a little backwater, leading off the lake. “Look!” she called. “Here’s a sort of river running from the lake.”

“It’s not a river. It’s only a little backwater,” said Dick. “Now we may find a boat-house somewhere here.”

They followed the backwater a little way, and then Julian gave an exclamation. “There it is! But it’s so covered up with ivy and brambles that you can hardly see it!”

They all looked where he pointed. They saw a long low building built right across the backwater, where it narrowed and came to an end. It was almost impossible to tell that it was a building, it was so overgrown.

“That’s it!” said Dick, pleased. “Now for the Saucy Jane!”

They scrambled through bushes and brambles to get to the entrance of the building. It had to be entered by the front, which was over the water and completely open. A broad ledge ran right round the boat-house inside, and the steps that went up to it from the bank outside were all broken away, completely rotted.

“Have to tread warily here,” said Julian. “Let me go first.”

He tried the old wooden steps, but they gave way beneath him at once. “Hopeless!” he said. “Let’s see if there’s any other way into the boat-house.”

There wasn’t - but at one side some of the wooden boards that made the wall of the boat-house were so rotten that they could be pulled away to make an opening. The boys pulled them down and then Julian squeezed through the opening into the dark, musty boat-house.

He found himself on the broad ledge that went round the great shed. Below him was the dark, quiet water with not even a ripple on it. He called to the others.

“Come along in! There’s a wooden ledge to stand on here, and it’s hardly rotted at all. It must be made of better wood.”