CHAPTER IX

RUSS'S SECRET


Russ Bunker looked very funny--Rose said he did--when he suddenly came
back to the raft. Vi and Margy shouted to him that he would be drowned;
and Laddie said something more about sharks. But their older brother
paid little attention to them.

He had tied the cover down over the lifeboat again and he would not look
toward it, not even when Rose asked him what the matter was and if he
was going to leave all five of the castaways on the raft to starve and
be thirsty until luncheon time.

"I guess this isn't a very good place to play castaway, after all," said
Russ gravely. "And, anyway," he added, with sudden animation, "there's
the man with the gong. We'll have to run down and get cleaned up before
we go to the table."

"Dear me!" complained Laddie, "we never can have any fun. We always have
to stop and eat or go to bed, or something. Even on this ship we have
to."

Laddie thought that the most important thing in the world was play. Rose
watched Russ with a puzzled look. She felt that something had happened
that her brother did not want to talk about. Russ had a secret.