diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:55:45 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:55:45 -0700 |
| commit | e27388da43b315bcb2c97eb7620d8557eeeabc62 (patch) | |
| tree | 86f53db80c9bc55363f6e087120eb3c192d2505f /31419-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '31419-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 31419-h/31419-h.htm | 9761 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31419-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 61103 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31419-h/images/illus1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 71606 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31419-h/images/illus2.jpg | bin | 0 -> 70782 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31419-h/images/illus3.jpg | bin | 0 -> 62836 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31419-h/images/illus4.jpg | bin | 0 -> 63554 bytes |
6 files changed, 9761 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/31419-h/31419-h.htm b/31419-h/31419-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c25a223 --- /dev/null +++ b/31419-h/31419-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9761 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" > +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<meta name="generator" content="eppg.py 0.46 (08-Feb-2010)" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Wyn’s Camping Days by Amy Bell Marlowe</title> +<style type="text/css"> +body {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;} +p {margin-top:1ex; margin-bottom:0; text-align:justify;} +.pagenum {display:inline; font-size:x-small; text-align:right; text-indent:0; + position:absolute; right:2%; padding:1px 3px; font-style:normal; + font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none; + background-color:inherit; border:1px solid #eee;} +.pncolor {color:silver;} +h1,h2 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal;} +h1 {font-size:1.6em; margin-top:4ex; margin-bottom:2ex;} +h2 {font-size:1.4em; margin-top:4ex; margin-bottom:2ex;} +a {text-decoration:none;} +div.toc a {text-decoration:underline;} +div.loi a {text-decoration:underline;} +hr.pb {margin:30px 0; width:100%; border:none; border-top:thin dashed silver;} +hr.tb {margin:20px auto 20px 20%;width:60%; border:none; border-bottom:thin solid black;} +.tpi {margin:25px auto;text-align:center;} +td.booklist {margin-left:4ex;text-indent:-4ex;} +div.booklist {border:1px solid black; margin:10px auto; width:42ex; padding:10px; font-size:smaller;} +div.titlepage {} +div.titlepage p {text-align:center;} +.b {font-weight:bold;} +.fs12 {font-size:1.2em;} +.fs08 {font-size:0.8em;} +.mb10 {margin-bottom:10px;} +.mt00 {margin-top:00px;} +div.figcenter {text-align:center; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;} +div.figcenter p {text-align:center;} +p.center {text-align:center; text-indent:0em;} +p.caption {font-size:smaller;} +.fs18 {font-size:1.8em;} +.mb20 {margin-bottom:20px;} +.mb40 {margin-bottom:40px;} +hr.copypage {border:none;border-bottom:1px solid black; width:6%; margin-left:48%;} +.c {text-align:center;} +.sc {font-variant:small-caps;} +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; clear:both;} +td.tcol1 {text-align:right; padding-right:1ex; vertical-align:top;} +td.tcol2 {text-align:left; padding-right:2ex; vertical-align:top;} +td.tcol3 {text-align:right; vertical-align:bottom;} +td.center {text-align:center;} +td.fs12 {font-size:1.2em;} +td.fs08 {font-size:0.8em;} +td.tar {text-align:right;} +td.sc {font-variant:small-caps} +.fs14 {font-size:1.4em;} +span.h2fs {font-size:smaller;} +div.bquote {font-size:1.0em; margin:5px 5%;} +div.bquote p {text-indent:0em; margin-bottom:4px; margin-top:4px;} +div.poetry {text-indent:0em; margin-left:2em; margin-bottom:4px; margin-top:4px;} +.mt20 {margin-top:20px;} +.mb05 {margin-bottom:05px;} +.ml10 {margin-left:10px;} +.fs09 {font-size:0.9em;} +.fs13 {font-size:1.3em;} +.fs11 {font-size:1.1em;} +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wyn's Camping Days, by Amy Bell Marlowe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Wyn's Camping Days + or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club + +Author: Amy Bell Marlowe + +Release Date: February 27, 2010 [EBook #31419] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WYN'S CAMPING DAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class='tpi'> +<img alt='cover' src='images/cover.jpg' /> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<h1>WYN’S CAMPING DAYS</h1> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<div class='titlepage booklist'> +<p class='fs12'>BOOKS FOR GIRLS<br /><i>By</i> AMY BELL MARLOWE</p> +<p class='fs08 mb10'>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume,<br />75 +cents, postpaid</p> +<table summary='booklist'> +<tr><td class='booklist'> +THE OLDEST OF FOUR<br />Or Natalie’s Way Out +</td></tr><tr><td class='booklist'> +THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM<br />Or the Secret of the Rocks +</td></tr><tr><td class='booklist'> +A LITTLE MISS NOBOBY<br />Or With the Girls of Pinewood Hall +</td></tr><tr><td class='booklist'> +THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH<br />Or Alone in a Great City +</td></tr><tr><td class='booklist'> +WYN’S CAMPING DAYS<br />Or The Outing of Go-Ahead Club +</td></tr><tr><td class='booklist'> +FRANCES OF THE RANGES<br />Or The Old Ranchman’s Treasure +</td></tr><tr><td class='booklist'> +THE GIRLS OF RIVERCLIFF SCHOOL<br />Or Beth Baldwin’s Resolve +</td></tr> +</table> +<p class='fs12'>GROSSET & DUNLAP</p> +<p +class='mt00'>PUBLISHERS NEW +YORK</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<div class='figcenter'> +<a id='link_i1'></a><img src='images/illus1.jpg' id="img" alt='' /> +<p class='center caption'> +IT DID SEEM, BECAUSE THEY WERE IN A HURRY, THAT EVERYTHING WENT WRONG. <i>Frontispiece (Page 80).</i> +</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<div class='titlepage'> +<p class='fs18 mb20'>WYN’S<br />CAMPING DAYS</p> +<p>OR</p> <p class='fs12 mb40'>THE OUTING OF THE<br />GO-AHEAD CLUB</p> +<p>BY</p> <p class='fs12 mb10'>AMY BELL MARLOWE</p> <p class='fs08 mb40'>AUTHOR +OF<br />THE OLDEST OF FOUR, THE GIRL FROM SUNSET<br />RANCH, A LITTLE MISS +NOBODY, ETC.</p> <p class='mb40'>Illustrated</p> <p>NEW YORK<br /><span +class='fs12'>GROSSET & DUNLAP<br />PUBLISHERS</span></p></div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c sc'>Copyright, 1914, by<br />GROSSET & DUNLAP</p> +<hr class='copypage' /> +<p class='c'><i>Wyn’s Camping Days</i></p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<table summary='TOC'> +<tr><td colspan='3' class='center fs12'>CONTENTS</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan='3' class='center fs12'></td></tr> +<tr><td class='fs08'>CHAPTER</td><td colspan='2' class='tar fs08'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>I.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Go-Ahead Club</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_1'>1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>II.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Busters</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_2'>12</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>III.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Polly</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_3'>20</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>IV.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Silver Images</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_4'>34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>V.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Bessie Lavine</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_5'>49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>VI.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Off for the Lake</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_6'>55</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>VII.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Storm Breaks</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_7'>71</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>VIII.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>At Windmill Farm</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_8'>83</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>IX.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>John Jarley, Exile</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_9'>94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>X.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The “Happy Day”</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_10'>104</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XI.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Where the Accident Happened</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_11'>120</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XII.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>An Overturn</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_12'>129</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XIII.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>A Serious Adventure</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_13'>144</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XIV.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Repulse</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_14'>150</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XV.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Trouble “Bruin”</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_15'>161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XVI.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Tit for Tat</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_16'>171</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XVII.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Visitors</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_17'>188</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XVIII.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Regatta</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_18'>198</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XIX.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Under White Wings</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_19'>207</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XX.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Canoe Race</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_20'>213</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXI.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Way of the Wind</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_21'>224</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXII.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Prisoners of the Tower</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_22'>232</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXIII.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Wyn Hits Something</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_23'>240</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXIV.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Night Alarm</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_24'>248</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXV.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Strange Bateau</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_25'>258</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXVI.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Boys to the Rescue</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_26'>267</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXVII.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Is it the “Bright Eyes”?</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_27'>278</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXVIII.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>A Friend in Need</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_28'>288</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXIX.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>The Sunken Treasure</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_29'>296</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXX.</td><td class='tcol2 sc'>Striking Camp</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_30'>306</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs14'>WYN’S CAMPING DAYS</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1'></a>1</span><a id='link_1'></a>CHAPTER I<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE GO-AHEAD CLUB</span></h2> + +<p>“Oh, girls! such news!” cried Wynifred Mallory, banging open the +door of Canoe Lodge, and bringing into the living room a big breath of the cool +May air, which drew out of the open fireplace a sudden balloon of smoke, setting +the other members of the Go-Ahead Club there assembled coughing.</p> + +<p>Grace Hedges, who was acting as fireman that week, turned an exasperated +face, with a bar of smut across it, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>“If another soul comes in that door and creates a back-draught until +this fire gets to burning properly, I certainly shall have hysterics! I never +did see such a mean old thing to burn.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind, Gracie. We’re all here now–all six of us. +There are no more Go-Aheads to come,” observed Bessie Lavine, yawning over +her book in the only sunny corner of the room.</p> + +<p>“There! it’s burning–finally,” exclaimed <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2'></a>2</span> Grace, with blended disgust +and thankfulness. “I never was cut out for a fireman, girls.”</p> + +<p>“Poor Gracie,” purred Wyn, who had approached the blaze that was +now beginning to curl through the hickory sticks piled more or less +scientifically against the backlog. “Don’t you know it needed just +that back-draught to break the deadlock in the chimney and start your fire +crackling this way?”</p> + +<p>“Bah! it was just hateful,” grumbled Grace. “I hate fire +making. And it does seem as though my week for playing fireman comes around +twice as often as it should.” Wyn had moved rather too near to the darting +flames, and Grace suddenly pulled the captain of the club aside. +“<i>Don’t</i> stand so near, Silly!” she cried.</p> + +<p>“Fireman! save my che-ild!” wailed “Frank” Cameron, +coming forward and winding her long arms around Wynifred. “What’s +the news, Wyn, dear? Nobody had the politeness to ask you. Wherefore all the +excitement?”</p> + +<p>“There must be a strike at the blacksmith shop,” said Percy +Havel, a curly-headed blonde girl.</p> + +<p>“No!” cried Frank, with a droll twist of her rather homely +features. “I’ll wager they’ve laid off one of the hands of the +town clock. Business is dreadfully dull. I heard my father say so.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3'></a>3</span>She was a tall, +lanky girl, was Frances Cameron, with a great mass of blue-black hair and +flashing black eyes. She was thin, strong, and lacking in those soft curves of +budding womanhood which girls of her age usually display. “Straight up and +down, my dears,” she often said. “Built upon the most approved +clothespin plan, with every bone perfectly–not to say +generously–developed.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Wyn, laughing, “if you girls will give me a +chance I will divulge my news.”</p> + +<p>“Be still!” commanded Frank. “The oracle speaks.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, hurry up, Wyn!” exclaimed Percy, coming nearer the group +before the now roaring fire. “I’ve been dying to tell +them.”</p> + +<p>“Well, girls,” said Wyn, smiling, so that her brown eyes fairly +danced. “Mrs. Havel–Percy’s aunt–says she will +go.”</p> + +<p>“Fine!” exclaimed Frankie.</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean it, Wyn?” gasped Mina Everett. “Then +we really <i>can</i> go camping?”</p> + +<p>“And to Lake Honotonka?” put in Bessie.</p> + +<p>“That’s what we aimed to do; wasn’t it?” demanded +Wyn, laughing. “And when the Go-Ahead Club starts to do a thing, it +usually arrives; doesn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“At least, the captain arrives for them,” said <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4'></a>4</span> Frank, giving Wyn’s +arm a little squeeze. “We wouldn’t get far in our ‘go-ahead’ +plans if it wasn’t for you, Wynnie.”</p> + +<p>“Such flattery!” protested the captain.</p> + +<p>“You didn’t have an easy time convincing my mother–I know +that,” said Mina, shaking <i>her</i> head. “You know, she’s so +afraid of water.”</p> + +<p>“And my mother is afraid of high winds,” confessed Bessie. +“Wyn had to coax to bring her around.”</p> + +<p>“And of course, Gracie’s mother is afraid of fire,” +chuckled Frank; “and there you have the three elements. You can plainly +see that Gracie knows very little about fire. She never built one in her life +until we formed our camping club.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well,” observed Grace, trying to rub the smut off her face +with a handkerchief and the aid of a pocket-mirror, “this is about the end +of the fire season, thank goodness! If we go into camp after school closes, on +Lake Honotonka, there won’t be any fires to build.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, <i>won’t</i> there?” cried Bessie. “You just +wait. Instead of taking turns at being fireman for the week, as we do through +the winter, we’ll draw lots to see who shall build <i>all</i> the fires. +And you know very well, Gracie, that you always <i>are</i> unlucky.”</p> + +<p>“Sure she is,” agreed Frank. “She always <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5'></a>5</span> draws the very boobiest of +all booby prizes out of the grab-bag.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” wailed Grace, who was big, and handsome, and not a +little lazy, “I do so hate to work, too. If there had been another set of +girls I liked at Denton Academy, I’d never have joined the Go-Ahead +Club.”</p> + +<p>“Right. Gracie is better fitted for a Fall-Behind Club,” observed +Wyn.</p> + +<p>“But tell us, Wynnie,” begged Mina. “Is it really all +arranged? Has everybody agreed that we can go in our canoes to Lake +Honotonka?”</p> + +<p>“And stay all vacation if we like?” cried Percy.</p> + +<p>“That is the understanding,” Wyn assured them. +“Percy’s aunt is the very kindest lady who ever +was―”</p> + +<p>“Vote we buy her something nice,” interposed Frank.</p> + +<p>“That will come in due season,” Wyn continued. “But Mrs. +Havel went with me to all our people. She knows all about the place, of +course―”</p> + +<p>“So does my father,” interposed Bessie.</p> + +<p>“And he wasn’t hard to convince,” Wyn responded. “Of +course, there are wild nooks along Honotonka’s shores; but at the upper +end is Braisely Park, where all those rich folks live; <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_6'></a>6</span> and there’s the village of +Meade’s Forge at this end of the lake. We can get supplies, or a doctor, +or send a telephone message, easily enough. And what more does one +want–camping out?”</p> + +<p>“We’ll have just a lovely time!” sighed Bessie. “I +can hardly wait for school to close.”</p> + +<p>“A month and a half yet,” said Frank Cameron. “And every +day will seem longer than the one that preceded it. But then! when it does +come―”</p> + +<p>“Just think of living under canvas–and for weeks and weeks! It +almost makes me feel spooky,” declared Grace, beginning to grow +enthusiastic.</p> + +<p>These girls, all attending Denton Academy and living within the limits of +that town, being the daughters of fairly well-to-do parents, had been able to +enjoy many advantages as well as pleasures that poorer girls could not have; but +none of them had chanced to experience the joys of a vacation in the woods.</p> + +<p>During the preceding autumn they had become immensely interested in canoeing. +Denton was situated upon the beautiful, winding Wintinooski, and the six members +of the Go-Ahead Club had taken several Saturday cruises on the river. But never +had they gone as far up the stream as Lake Honotonka.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7'></a>7</span>That was a wide and +beautiful sheet of water, thirty-five miles to the west of the town of Denton. +Their boy friends had sometimes been allowed to go camping upon the shores of +the lake; and their enthusiastic praise of the fun to be had under canvas had +set Wynifred Mallory and her chums “just wild,” as Frank Cameron +expressed it, to try it too.</p> + +<p>Wyn was a girl of determination and physical as well as moral courage. If she +made up her mind that a thing was right, and she wanted it, she usually got +it.</p> + +<p>When the girls first broached their desire to spend the summer at the big +lake, and actually live under canvas, not one of their parents encouraged the +idea. Because the “Busters,” a certain boys’ club of the +girls’ friends, were going to the lake again for the long vacation, made +no difference to the mothers and fathers–especially the mothers of Wyn and +her chums of the Go-Ahead Club.</p> + +<p>“It’s no use,” Bessie Lavine had reported, at their first +meeting after the idea was born in Canoe Lodge, as the girls called their novel +boathouse overhanging the bank of a quiet pool of the Wintinooski. “Even +father won’t hear of it. Six girls going alone into the +wilds―”</p> + +<p>“But the Busters and Professor Skillings will <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_8'></a>8</span> be near our camp,” Frank had cried. +“That’s what I told mother. But she couldn’t see +it.”</p> + +<p>Wyn had listened at that meeting to the opinions of all the other +girls–and to their hopeless and disappointed complaints as well–and +then she had taken the whole burden on her own shoulders.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you say another word at home about it, girls–any of +you,” she said. “Leave it to me. Our idea of living for the summer +in the open is a good one. We’ll come back to school in the fall with +ginger and health enough to keep us going like dynamos during the next school +year.”</p> + +<p>“But you can’t make my mother see that,” wailed Percy. +“She only sees the snakes, and mosquitoes, and tramps, and big winds, and +drowning, and I don’t know but she visualizes earthquake shocks and +volcanoes!”</p> + +<p>“Give me a chance,” said Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Voted!” Frankie declared. “When Wyn sets out to do a thing +we might as well give her her head. She’s like Davy Crockett; and I hope +all our folks will come down without being shot, like the historic +’coon.”</p> + +<p>And this present declaration of their captain, which had so aroused the +Go-Ahead Club, was the result of Wyn Mallory’s exertions.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9'></a>9</span>She had first +obtained the interest and cooperation of Percy’s Aunt Evelyn, who was a +widowed lady fond of outdoor life herself. Mrs. Havel was to act as chaperone. +With this addition to their forces, the girls stood a much better chance to win +over their parents to their plan.</p> + +<p>And finally Wyn had gained the permission of the most obdurate parent. The +cruise of the Go-Ahead Club in their canoes to Lake Honotonka, and their camping +for the summer at some available spot along the lake shore, was decided +upon.</p> + +<p>“And are the Busters going?” asked Frank. “That’s the +next important matter.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, we can get along without those boys, I guess,” scoffed +Bessie.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know. We don’t need ’em. And they are a great +nuisance sometimes,” admitted Frank, laughing. “But just the same, +we’ll have lots more fun with them around–especially Dave +Shepard–eh, Wynnie?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t see that you need <i>me</i> to witness the truth of your +statement, Frank,” returned Wyn, flushing very prettily, for the girls +sometimes teased her about Dave, who was her next-door neighbor. “Of +course we want the boys, even if Bess is a man-hater.”</p> + +<p>“I guess they’ll go,” Frank said. “They liked it so +much last year. And the professor is interested <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_10'></a>10</span> in the geological specimens to be found up that +way.”</p> + +<p>“Goodness!” exclaimed Mina. “Is Professor Skillings going +with them again? He is so odd.”</p> + +<p>“He’s very absent-minded,” said Bessie.</p> + +<p>Frank began to laugh again. “Say!” she began, “did you hear +about what happened to him last week? Father met him coming down Lane +Street–you know, it’s narrow and the sidewalk in places is scarcely +wide enough for two people to pass comfortably.</p> + +<p>“There was poor Professor Skillings hobbling along with one foot +continually in the gutter, his eyes fixed on a book he was reading as he walked. +Father said to him:</p> + +<p>“‘Good morning, Professor! How are you feeling to-day?’</p> + +<p>“‘Why–why–why!’ exclaimed the professor–you +know his funny way of speaking. ‘Why–why–why–I was very well +when I started out, I thought. But I don’t know what’s come over me. +Do you know, I’ve developed a pronounced limp since leaving the +house!’”</p> + +<p>“Well, the boys like him,” Wyn said, when the girls’ +laughter had subsided.</p> + +<p>“I thought I saw Dave Shepard and that ‘Tubby’ Blaisdell around +here when I hurried <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11'></a>11</span> +down from school to light the fire,” remarked Grace.</p> + +<p>At that moment a strange, scraping sound was heard right above the +girls’ heads. Bess and Mina jumped up.</p> + +<p>“What’s that?” cried Grace.</p> + +<p>“It’s something on the roof,” declared Wyn.</p> + +<p>Now, Canoe Lodge was built on a high bank over the river. One stepped from +the level sward into the living room. The roof on one side was a short, sharp +pitch; but over the river it ran out in a long, easy slope to shelter the canoe +landing.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a crash, and the very house shook. There was a wheezy +shout of alarm, the sound of another voice in wild laughter, and some heavy body +slid down the long side of the roof with the noise of an avalanche.</p> + +<p>“The Busters!” shrieked Percy, and ran to a window overlooking +the river.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12'></a>12</span><a id='link_2'></a>CHAPTER II<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE BUSTERS</span></h2> + +<p>The girls could overlook the lower slope of the long roof through the bay +window at the end of the living room. They crowded to it after Percy Havel, and +beheld a most amazing as well as ridiculous sight.</p> + +<p>A very fat youth, in a blue and white striped sweater and with a +closely-cropped yellow head, was face down upon a length of plank, which plank +was sliding like a bobsled down the incline of green-stained shingles.</p> + +<p>“It’s Tubby!” gasped Frank Cameron.</p> + +<p>“Oh! oh! oh!” squealed Mina. “Is he doing that for +<i>fun</i>?”</p> + +<p>Before any further comment could be made, the boy on the plank shot out over +the edge of the roof and dived, with a mighty splash, into the deep water of the +pool, adjoining which Canoe Lodge was built.</p> + +<p>“He’ll be drowned!” cried Grace, wringing her plump +hands.</p> + +<p>“It’ll serve him right if he is!” exclaimed <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13'></a>13</span> Bessie. “What +business had he on our roof, I want to know?”</p> + +<p>“Poor Tubby!” cried Wyn, choked with laughter.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t he the most ridiculous creature that ever was?” +rejoined Frank. “See there! he’s come up to blow like a +frog.”</p> + +<p>“It’s a whale that comes up to blow,” Wyn reminded her.</p> + +<p>“Well! isn’t Tubby Blaisdell a regular whale of a boy?” +returned the black-eyed girl.</p> + +<p>“There’s Dave!” cried Mina.</p> + +<p>“I knew the two wouldn’t be far apart!” sniffed Bess +Lavine.</p> + +<p>“He’s got a boat and is going to Tubby’s rescue,” +cried Grace.</p> + +<p>“But see Tubby flounder around!” Frankie observed. “Why! +that boy couldn’t sink if you filled his pockets with +flatirons!”</p> + +<p>“There! he <i>is</i> going under,” ejaculated the more timorous +Mina.</p> + +<p>“Dave will get him, all right,” declared Wyn, with +confidence.</p> + +<p>She and Dave Shepard had been good chums since they were both in rompers. Her +girl friends might tease Wyn sometimes about Dave; but the girl had no brothers +and Dave made up the loss to her in every way.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14'></a>14</span>“Oh! +he’s going to spear him with that boathook!” gasped Mina again.</p> + +<p>And really, it looked so. Tubby Blaisdell was splashing about in the pool +before the canoe landing like a young grampus. Tubby was always getting into +more or less serious predicaments, and he always “lost his head” and +usually had to be aided by his friends.</p> + +<p>In this case Dave Shepard prepared to literally spear him in the water. +Dave–who was a tall, athletic boy, with a frank, pleasant face, if +freckled, and close-cut brown curls in profusion–had driven the +flat-bottomed skiff he had obtained from a neighboring landing, across the pool, +and now, standing erect in the boat, with a single lunge impaled upon the +boathook the tail of Tubby’s coat.</p> + +<p>His chum was going down, as Dave thrust the boathook; for the unfortunate +victim of the accident had swallowed a quantity of water when he dived with the +plank from the eaves of the roof of Canoe Lodge. There was no time to lose if +Dave wished to rescue Tubby before serious injury resulted to the unfortunate +fat youth.</p> + +<p>It was something of a feat to bring Tubby Blaisdell alongside the skiff and +haul him inboard without overturning the boat. But Dave accomplished <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15'></a>15</span> it to the admiration of +the girls–even to Bessie’s satisfaction.</p> + +<p>“Well, I’m glad he got Tubby out,” said that damsel, +nodding her head.</p> + +<p>“Glad to know that you are so humane, Bess,” laughed Frank.</p> + +<p>The girls trooped out to learn at closer range if the Blaisdell youth was +really injured or only exhausted.</p> + +<p>He lay panting like a big fish in the bottom of the skiff. It was altogether +too cold an evening for him to be exposed in his wet clothing. When the +skiff’s nose bumped into the shore, Dave Shepard leaped out with alacrity +and secured the painter to a post.</p> + +<p>“Get up out of there, Tubby!” he commanded. “You’ll +get your death of dampness. Come on!”</p> + +<p>“Oh–oh–oh! I can’t,” chattered the fat youth. +“I–I’m fr-roze to the ve-ry mar-row of m-m-my +bones!”</p> + +<p>“The chill has struck in awful deep, then, Tubby,” cried Frank +Cameron, from the river bank.</p> + +<p>“Come on out of that!” commanded Dave. “I’m going to +run you home so that you will not get cold.”</p> + +<p>“Me?” chattered Blaisdell, rising like a turtle <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16'></a>16</span> out of its shell. +“Run me home? Wh-wh-why, I c-c-couldn’t do it. You know I +couldn’t r-r-run that far, Dave.”</p> + +<p>“He must go right in by our fire and get warm,” declared Wyn, +quickly. “Get your things, girls, and we’ll all go home and leave +Dave and Tubby to enjoy that nice fire Grace built.”</p> + +<p>“That wet boy all over our nice rug!” exclaimed Bessie. “I +object.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t be hateful, Bess,” admonished Grace.</p> + +<p>“But what was he doing on our roof?” demanded the girl who +claimed that she did not like boys.</p> + +<p>At this Dave burst into a great laugh and was scarcely able to drag Tubby +ashore.</p> + +<p>“It’s a wonder he didn’t come right through on our +heads,” complained Frank. “He’s so heavy.”</p> + +<p>“But he <i>would</i> do it,” declared Dave, still laughing as he +helped his fat friend up the bank to the door of Canoe Lodge. “It would +have been a real good trick, too, if Tubby hadn’t slipped.”</p> + +<p>“Always up to mischief!” sniffed Bessie Lavine. +“That’s why I dislike boys so.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t see what he could do on our roof,” said Wyn, +wonderingly.</p> + +<p>“And he had no business there!” cried Grace.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17'></a>17</span>“Why,” +explained Dave, for Tubby could not defend himself. “We saw Grace making +the fire, and we knew the wood was green. It made a big smudge coming out of the +chimney, and Tubby thought he had a brilliant idea.”</p> + +<p>“I know!” exclaimed Frankie. “He had that plank to put over +the top of our chimney. We’d have been smoked out, sure enough.”</p> + +<p>“That’s it,” chuckled Dave. “Tubby got up all right, +and he got the plank up all right. But just as he tried to lift the plank to the +top of the chimney his foot slipped, the board dropped, he fell on it as if he +was coasting down hill, and–you saw the rest!”</p> + +<p>“Oh–oh!” chattered Tubby. “Come on in and let me +get–get to–to th-that f-f-fire. I’m <i>frozen</i>!”</p> + +<p>“Here’s the key, Dave,” said Wyn, laughing (for the fat +youth <i>did</i> look so funny), “and you can lock up when you go home and +bring the key to my house. Don’t you boys make a mess in here for us to +clean up,” she added.</p> + +<p>“But they will. Boys always do,” declared Bessie Lavine.</p> + +<p>“Well, thank goodness, it won’t be <i>my</i> turn to clean up +after them, or make another fire,” declared Grace.</p> + +<p>“They will do no damage,” returned Wyn, <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_18'></a>18</span> with assurance, as the girls trooped away +from the boathouse toward the town.</p> + +<p>“They have to keep their camp clean,” declared Frank. “I +know that. Professor Skillings may be forgetful; but he is very particular about +<i>that</i>. Ferdinand Roberts told me so.”</p> + +<p>“I expect those horrid Busters <i>do</i> know a lot more than we do +about camping.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed they do,” sighed Grace. “How’ll we ever put +up a tent big enough to house seven?”</p> + +<p>“The boys will help us,” declared Wyn.</p> + +<p>“I expect we’ll have to let them,” grumbled Bess. “Or +else pay a man to do it for us.”</p> + +<p>“My goodness me!” laughed Frances Cameron. “It must be a +dreadful thing to hate boys like Bess does! They’re awfully bad sometimes, +I know―”</p> + +<p>“Look at what those two boys tried to do to us this very +evening,” exclaimed Bessie.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Tubby’s always up to some foolishness,” said Percy, +laughing.</p> + +<p>“And that Dave Shepard is just as bad!” cried Bess Lavine, +tossing her head.</p> + +<p>“Wyn won’t agree with that statement,” chuckled Frank.</p> + +<p>“And all six of the Busters are full of mischief,” went on the +complaining one. “I wish <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_19'></a>19</span> they were not going to the same place we are to +camp.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Bess!” exclaimed Mina.</p> + +<p>“I <i>do</i> wish that. They’ll be around under foot all the +time. And they’ll play tricks, and be rough and rude, and I know they will +spoil the summer for us.”</p> + +<p>“You go on!” came from Frank, with some scorn. “I guess I +can hold up my end against the Busters.”</p> + +<p>“Just wait and see,” prophesied Bessie, shaking her head. +“I feel very sure that, the Busters and the Go-Ahead Club will not get +along well together at Lake Honotonka.”</p> + +<p>“It takes two parties for an argument,” said Wyn Mallory, +quietly. “And in spite of their mischief I believe in the +Busters.”</p> + +<p>“Wait and see if what I say isn’t true!” snapped Bessie, +and turned off into a side street toward her own home.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20'></a>20</span><a id='link_3'></a>CHAPTER III<br /><span class='h2fs'>POLLY</span></h2> + +<p>Wyn Mallory was one of those girls whom people called +“different.”</p> + +<p>Not that there was a thing really odd about her. She was happy, healthy, more +than a little athletic, of a sanguine temperament, and possessed a deal of tact +for a girl of her age.</p> + +<p>But there was a quality in her character that balanced her better than most +girls are. That foundation of good sense on which only can be erected a lasting +character, was Wyn’s. She was just as girlish and “fly-away” +at times, as Frances Cameron herself, or Percy Havel; but she always stopped +short of hurting another person’s feelings and she seemed to really enjoy +doing things for others, which her mates sometimes acclaimed as +“tiresome.”</p> + +<p>And don’t think there was a mite of self-consciousness about all this +in Wyn Mallory’s make-up, for there wasn’t. She enjoyed being +helpful and kind because that was her nature–not <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_21'></a>21</span> for the praise she might receive from her +older friends.</p> + +<p>Wyn was a natural leader. Such girls always are. Without asserting +themselves, other girls will look up to them, and copy them, and follow them. +Whereas a bad, or ill-natured, or haughty girl must have some means of bribing +the weak-minded ones to gain a following at all.</p> + +<p>The Mallory family was a small one. Wyn had a little sister; but there was a +difference of twelve years between them. The family was a very affectionate one, +and Papa Mallory, Mamma Mallory, and Wyn all worshipped at the shrine of little +May.</p> + +<p>So when at supper that Friday evening something was said about certain +drygoods needed for the little one, Wyn offered at once to spend her Saturday +forenoon shopping.</p> + +<p>She had plenty to do that morning; Saturday morning is always a busy time for +any school girl in the upper grades, and Wyn was well advanced at Denton +Academy. But she hastened out by nine o’clock and went down town.</p> + +<p>Denton was a pretty town, with good stores, a courthouse, well stocked +library and several churches of various denominations. In the center was an +ancient Parade Ground–a broad, well-shaped public park, with a huge +flagstaff in the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22'></a>22</span> +middle of the main field, and Civil War cannon flanking the entrances.</p> + +<p>Denton had a history. On this open field the Minute Men had marched and +counter-marched; and before Revolutionary days, even, the so-called +“train-bands” had paraded here. Like Boston Common, Denton’s +Parade Ground was a plot devoted for all time to the people, and could be used +for no other purpose but that of a public park.</p> + +<p>The streets that bordered the three sides of the Parade Ground (for it was of +flat-iron shape) were the best residential streets of the town; yet Market +Street–the main business thoroughfare–was only a square away from +one side of the park.</p> + +<p>Wyn Mallory on this bright May morning walked briskly along the shaded side +of the park and turned off at Archer Street to reach the main stem of the town, +where the shops stood in rows and the electric cars to Maynbury had the right of +way in the middle of the street.</p> + +<p>Her very first call was at Mr. Erad’s drygoods and notion store. His +shop was much smaller than some of the modern “department” stores +that had of late appeared in Denton; but the old store held the conservative +trade. Mr. Erad had been in trade, at this very corner, from the time he <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23'></a>23</span> was a smooth-faced young +man; and now his hair and beard were almost white.</p> + +<p>He was a pleasant, cheerful–and usually charitable–gentleman, +with rosy cheeks and gold-rimmed spectacles. He spent most of his time “on +the floor,” greeting old customers, attracting new ones with his courtesy, +and generally overseeing the salesmen.</p> + +<p>He usually had a pleasant word and a hand-shake for Wyn when she entered his +store; but this morning the old gentleman did not even notice her as she came +through one of the turnstile doors.</p> + +<p>He stood near, however, speaking with a girl of about Wyn’s age–a +girl who was a total stranger to the captain of the Go-Ahead Club. The stranger +was rather poorly dressed. She wore shabby gloves, and a shabby hat, and shabby +shoes. Besides, both her dark frock and the hat were “ages and ages” +behind the fashion.</p> + +<p>Her clothes were really so ugly that the girl herself did not have a chance +to look her best. Wyn realized that after the second glance. And she saw that +the strange girl was almost handsome.</p> + +<p>She was as big as Grace Hedges; but she was dark. Her hair was beautifully +crinkled where it lay flat against the sides of her head over her ears. At the +back there was a great roll, and <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_24'></a>24</span> it was glossy and well cared-for. Even a girl who +cannot afford to dress in the mode can make her hair beautiful by a little +effort.</p> + +<p>This girl had made that effort and, furthermore, she had made herself as neat +as anyone need be.</p> + +<p>In addition to her beautiful hair, the stranger’s other attractions can +be enumerated as a long, well formed nose, well defined eyebrows and long +lashes, and deep gray eyes that looked almost black in the shade of her broad +brow. Her skin was lovely, although she was very much bronzed by the sun. A +rose-flush showed through this tan and aided her red, full lips to give color to +her face. Her teeth were two splendid, perfect rows of dazzling white; her chin +was beautifully molded. This fully developed countenance was lit by +intelligence, as well, and, with her well rounded figure and gentle, deprecating +manner, Wyn thought of her instantly as a big helpless child.</p> + +<p>Mr. Erad was speaking very sternly to her, and that, alone, made Wyn desire +to take her part. She could not bear to hear anybody scold a person so timid and +humble. And at every decisive phrase Mr. Erad uttered, Wyn could see her +wince.</p> + +<p>“I cannot do it. I do not see why I should,” <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_25'></a>25</span> declared the storekeeper. “Indeed, +there are many reasons why I should not. Yes–I know. I employed John +Jarley at one time. But that was years ago. He would not stay with me. He was +always trying something new. And he never stuck to a thing long enough for +either he–or anybody else–to find out whether he was fitted for it +or not.</p> + +<p>“Hold on! I take that back. I guess there’s <i>one</i> man in +town,” said Mr. Erad, with almost a snarl, “who thinks John Jarley +stuck long enough on one job.”</p> + +<p>Wyn, frankly listening, but watching the girl and Mr. Erad covertly, saw the +former’s face flame hotly at the shot. But her murmured reply was too low +for Wyn to hear.</p> + +<p>“Ha! I know nothing was ever proved against him. But decent people know +the other party, and know that he is square. John Jarley got out of town and +stayed out of town. That was enough to show everybody that he felt +guilty.”</p> + +<p>“You are wrong, sir,” said the dark girl, her voice trembling, +but audible now in her strong emotion. “You are wrong. It was my +mother’s ill health that took us into the woods. And the ill-natured +gossip of the neighbors–just such things as you have now +repeated–troubled my <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_26'></a>26</span> mother, too. So father took us away from it +all.”</p> + +<p>“If he was honest, he made a great mistake in running away at that +time,” asserted Mr. Erad.</p> + +<p>“No, he made no mistake,” returned the girl, her fine eyes +flashing. “He did the right thing. He saved my mother agony, and made her +last years beautiful. My father did no wrong in either case, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Well, well, well!” snapped Mr. Erad. “I cannot discuss the +matter with you. We should not agree, I am sure. And I can do nothing for +you.”</p> + +<p>“Wait, please! give me a chance! Let me work for you to pay for these +things we need. I will work faithfully―”</p> + +<p>“I have no place for you.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, sir―”</p> + +<p>“My goodness, girl! <i>No</i>, I tell you. Isn’t that enough? +Beside, you are not well dressed enough to wait upon my customers. And you could +not earn enough here to pay your board, dress decently, and pay for any bill of +goods that you–or your father–may want.”</p> + +<p>The girl turned away. There was a bit of dingy veiling attached to the front +of her old-fashioned hat, and Wyn saw her pull this down quickly over her face. +The listener knew <i>why</i>, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_27'></a>27</span> and she had to wink her own eyes hard to keep back +the tears.</p> + +<p>She deliberately turned her back upon old Mr. Erad, whom she was usually so +glad to see, and went hastily down the aisle. From her distant station by the +notion counter she saw the drooping figure of the strange girl leave the +store.</p> + +<p>Wyn Mallory was worried. She could not see a forlorn cat on the street, or a +homeless dog shivering beside a garbage can, that she was not tempted to +“do something for it.”</p> + +<p>Dave Shepard often laughingly said that it was an adventure to go walking +with Wyn Mallory, One never knew what she was going to see that needed +“fixing.” And Dave might have added, that if Wyn had him for escort, +she usually got these wrong things “fixed.”</p> + +<p>She now hastened through her purchasing, not with any definite object in +view, save that she wanted to get out of the store. Mr. Erad was not at all the +nice, charitable man whom she had always supposed him to be. That is, it looked +so now to the impulsive, warm-hearted girl.</p> + +<p>Her mind was fixed upon the strange girl and her troubles. Wyn did not +neglect the errand her mother had given her to do, although she hurried her +shopping.</p> + +<p>When she was out of the store, she drew a <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_28'></a>28</span> long breath. “I couldn’t breathe in that +place–not well,” she told herself. “I wonder where that poor +girl has gone now?”</p> + +<p>There was nobody to answer her, nor was the strange girl in sight. Wyn felt +rather remorseful that she had not let her shopping wait and followed the +strange girl out of the store immediately.</p> + +<p>The stranger might have been in desperate straits. Wyn could not imagine +anybody begging for goods, and for work, especially after the way Mr. Erad had +spoken, unless in great trouble.</p> + +<p>Wyn began to take herself seriously to task. The strange girl had disappeared +and she had not even tried to help her, or comfort her.</p> + +<p>“I might have gone out and offered some little help, or sympathy. How +do I know what will become of her? And she may have no friends in town. At +least, it is evident that she does not live here.”</p> + +<p>There were several other errands to do. All the time, especially while she +was on the street, she kept her eye open for the strange girl whose name she +presumed must be “Jarley.”</p> + +<p>But Wyn did not see her anywhere, and it seemed useless to wander down Market +Street looking for her. So, when she had completed her purchases, she turned her +face homeward.</p> + +<div class='figcenter'> +<a id='link_i2'></a><img src='images/illus2.jpg' id="imgi2" alt='' /> +<p class='center caption'> +“MY DEAR, I WILL BE YOUR FRIEND.” <i>Page 30.</i> +</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29'></a>29</span>She went up past +Mr. Erad’s store again and turned through Archer Street. As she crossed +into the park she looked for a settee to rest on, for unconsciously she had +walked more briskly than usual.</p> + +<p>There, under a wide-limbed oak, was a green-painted seat, removed from any +other settee; but there was a figure on it.</p> + +<p>“There’s room for two, I guess,” thought Wyn; and then she +made a discovery that almost made her cry out aloud. Its occupant was the very +girl for whom she was in search!</p> + +<p>Wyn controlled her impulse to run forward, and approached the bench quite +casually. Before she reached it, however, she realized that the dark girl was +crying softly.</p> + +<p>Natural delicacy would have restrained Wyn from approaching the girl so +abruptly. Only, she was deeply interested, and already knowing the occasion for +her tears, the captain of the Go-Ahead Club could not ignore the forlorn figure +on the bench.</p> + +<p>Without speaking, she dropped into the seat beside the strange girl, and put +her hand on the other’s shoulder.</p> + +<p>“My dear!” she said, when the startled gray eyes–all +a-flood with tears–were raised to her own. “My dear, tell me all +about it–<i>do</i>! If <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_30'></a>30</span> I can’t help you, I will be your friend, and it +will make you feel lots better to tell it all to somebody who +sympathizes.”</p> + +<p>“Bu-but you ca-can’t sympathize with me!” gasped the other, +looking into Wyn’s steady, brown eyes and finding friendliness and +commiseration there. “You–you see, you never knew the lack of +anything good; you’re not poor.”</p> + +<p>“No, I am not poor,” admitted Wyn.</p> + +<p>“And I don’t want charity!” cried the strange girl +quickly.</p> + +<p>“I am not going to offer it to you. But I’d dearly love to be +your friend,” Wyn said. “You know–you’re so +pretty!” she added, impulsively.</p> + +<p>The girl flushed charmingly again. “I–I guess I’m not very +pretty in my old duds, and with my nose and eyes red from crying.”</p> + +<p>But she was really one of those few persons who are not made ugly by crying. +She had neither red eyes nor a red nose.</p> + +<p>“Do tell me what troubles you,” urged Wyn, patting her firm, +calloused hand.</p> + +<p>Those hands were no soft, useless members–no, indeed! Pretty as she +was, the stranger had evidently been in the habit of performing arduous manual +labor.</p> + +<p>“Where do you live, my dear?” asked Wyn, again, as her first +question was not answered.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31'></a>31</span>“Up beyond +Meade’s Forge,” said the strange girl.</p> + +<p>“Oh, my! On Lake Honotonka?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, ma’am.”</p> + +<p>“Please don’t <i>ma’am</i> me!” cried the captain of +the Go-Ahead Club. “My name is Wynifred Mallory. My friends all call me +Wyn. Now, I want you to be my friend, so you must commence calling me Wyn right +away.”</p> + +<p>“But–but you don’t know me,” said the other girl, +hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>“I am going to; am I not?” demanded Wyn, with her frank smile. +“Surely, now that I have confided in you, you will confide in me to the +same extent? Or, don’t you like me?”</p> + +<p>“Of course I like you!” exclaimed the still sobbing girl. +“But–but I do not know that I have any right to allow you to be my +friend.”</p> + +<p>“Goodness me! why not?” exclaimed Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Why–why, we have a bad name in this town, it seems,” said +the other.</p> + +<p>“Who have?” snapped Wyn, hating Mr. Erad harder than ever +now.</p> + +<p>“My father and I.”</p> + +<p>“What have you done that makes you a pariah?” exclaimed Wyn, +fairly laughing now. “Aren’t you foolish?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32'></a>32</span>“No. People +say my father was not honest I am Polly Jarley,” said the girl, +desperately.</p> + +<p>“Polly Jolly?” cried Wyn. “Not much you are! You are +anything but jolly. You are Polly Miserrimus.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know what that means, ma’am―”</p> + +<p>“Wyn!” exclaimed the other girl, quickly.</p> + +<p>“M–Miss Wyn.”</p> + +<p>“Not right. Just Wyn. Plain Wyn―”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I couldn’t call you plain,” cried the poorly dressed +girl, with some spontaneity now. “For you are very pretty. But I +don’t really know what Mis–Mis―”</p> + +<p>“‘Miserrimus’?’”</p> + +<p>“That is it.”</p> + +<p>“It’s Latin, and it means miserable, all right,” laughed +Wyn. “And you act more to fit the name of ‘Polly Miserrimus’ than +that of ‘Polly Jolly.’”</p> + +<p>“It’s Jarley, Miss Wyn.”</p> + +<p>“But now tell me all about it, Polly,” urged Wyn, having by this +means stopped the flow of Polly’s tears. “Surely it will help you +just to free your mind. And don’t be foolish enough to think that I +wouldn’t want to know you and be your friend if your poor father was the +biggest criminal on earth.”</p> + +<p>“He isn’t! He is unfortunate. He has been <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_33'></a>33</span> accused wrongfully, and everybody is +against him,” exclaimed Polly, with some heat.</p> + +<p>“All right. Then let’s hear about it,” urged Wyn, capturing +both of the other girl’s hands in her own, and smiling into her +tear-drenched gray eyes.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34'></a>34</span><a id='link_4'></a>CHAPTER IV<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE SILVER IMAGES</span></h2> + +<p>“Didn’t you ever hear of us Jarleys?” Polly first of all +demanded.</p> + +<p>“Only as being interested in the wax-work business,” replied Wyn, +with twinkling eyes.</p> + +<p>“I–I guess father never made wax-work,” said Polly, +hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>She was an innocent sort of girl, who evidently lacked many advantages of +education and reading that Wyn and her friends had enjoyed as a matter of +course.</p> + +<p>“Well, I never heard the name before to-day–not <i>your</i> name, +nor your father’s,” Wyn said.</p> + +<p>“Well, we used to live here.”</p> + +<p>“In Denton?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, ma’am―”</p> + +<p>“Will you stop that?” cried Wyn. “I am Wyn Mallory, I tell +you.”</p> + +<p>“All right, Wyn. It’s a pretty name. I’ll be glad to use +it,” returned Polly.</p> + +<p>“Prove it by using it altogether,” commanded Wyn. “Now, +what about your father?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35'></a>35</span>“I–I +can’t tell you much about it–much of the particulars, I mean,” +said the girl from Lake Honotonka, diffidently. “I don’t really know +them. Father never speaks of it much. But even as a tiny girl mother explained +to me that when folks said father had done wrong I must deny it. That it was not +so. It was only circumstances that made him appear in the wrong. And–you +know, Wyn–your mother wouldn’t lie to you!”</p> + +<p>“Of course not!” cried Wyn, warmly. “Of course +not!”</p> + +<p>“Well, then, you’ll have to believe just what I tell you. Father +was in some business deal with a man here in Denton, and something went wrong. +The other man accused father of being dishonest. Father could not defend +himself. Circumstances were dead against him. And it worried mother so that it +made her sick.</p> + +<p>“So we all left town. Father had very little money, and he built a +shack up there in the woods near Honotonka. We’re just ‘squatters’ +up there. But gradually father got a few boats, and built a float, and made +enough in the summer from fishermen and campers to support us. Of course, mother +being sick so many years before she died, kept us very poor. I only go to the +district school winters. Then I have to walk <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_36'></a>36</span> four miles each way, for we own no horse. Summers I +help father with the boats.”</p> + +<p>“That’s where you got such palms! cried Wyn, touching her new +friend’s calloused hands again.</p> + +<p>“It’s rowing does it. But I don’t mind. I love the water, +you see.”</p> + +<p>“So do I. I’ve got a canoe. I’m captain of a girls’ +canoe club.”</p> + +<p>“That’s nice,” said Polly. “I suppose when you take +up boating for just a sport it’s lots better than trying to make +one’s living out of it.”</p> + +<p>“Well, tell me more,” urged Wyn. “What are you in town for +now? Why did I find you crying here on the bench?”</p> + +<p>“A man hurt me by talking harshly about poor father,” said the +girl from Lake Honotonka.</p> + +<p>“Come on! tell me,” urged Wyn, giving her a little shake. Polly +suddenly threw an arm about the town girl and hugged her tightly.</p> + +<p>“I <i>do</i> love you, Wyn Mallory,” she sobbed. “I–I +wish you were my sister. I get so lonely sometimes up there in the woods, for +there’s only father and me now. And this past winter he was very sick with +rheumatic fever. You see, there was an accident.”</p> + +<p>“He met with an accident, you mean?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. It was awful–or it might have been <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_37'></a>37</span> awful for him if he and I had not had +signals that we use when there’s a fog on the lake. I’ll tell +you.</p> + +<p>“You see, there is a man named Shelton–Dr. Shelton–who +lives in one of the grand houses at Braisely Park–you know, that is the +rich people’s summer colony at the upper end of the lake?”</p> + +<p>“I know about it,” said Wyn. “Although I never was +there.”</p> + +<p>“Well, Dr. Shelton had his motor boat down at our float. He left it +there himself, and he told father to go to the express office at Meade’s +Forge on a certain day and get a box that would be there addressed to Dr. +Shelton. It was a valuable box.</p> + +<p>“When father went for it the expressman would not give it up until he +had telephoned to Dr. Shelton and recognized the doctor’s voice over the +wire. It seems that that box was packed with ancient silver images that had been +found in a ruined temple in Yucatan, and had been sent to Dr. Shelton by the man +who found them. They claim they were worth at the least five thousand +dollars.</p> + +<p>“The doctor had a party at his house right then, he said over the +telephone, and he wanted father to come up the lake with the box. He <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38'></a>38</span> wanted to display his +antique treasures to his friends.</p> + +<p>“Now, it was a dreadfully bad day. After father had started down to the +Forge in the motor boat he knew that a storm was coming. And ahead of it was a +thick fog. He told Dr. Shelton over the ’phone that it was a bad time to +make the trip the whole length of Lake Honotonka.</p> + +<p>“The doctor would not listen to any excuses, however; and it was his +boat that was being risked. And his silver images, too! Those rich people +don’t care much about a poor man’s life, and if father had refused +to risk his on the lake in the storm Dr. Shelton would have given his trade to +some other boatkeeper after that.</p> + +<p>“So father started in the <i>Bright Eyes</i>. He did not shoot right up +the middle of the lake, as he would have done had the day been fair. The lake is +twenty miles broad, you know, in the middle. So he kept near our side–the +south side it is–and did not lose sight of the shore at first.</p> + +<p>“But at Gannet Island he knew he had better run outside. You see, the +strait between the island and the shore is narrow and, when the wind is high, it +sometimes is dangerous in there. Why, ten years ago, one of the little excursion +steamers <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39'></a>39</span> that used +to ply the lake then, got caught in that strait and was wrecked!</p> + +<p>“So father <i>had</i> to go outside of Gannet Island. The fog shut down +as thick as a blanket before he more than sighted the end of the island. He kept +on, remembering what Dr. Shelton had said, and that is where he made a +mistake,” said Polly, shaking her head. “He ought to have turned +right around and come back to our landing.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me! what happened to him?” cried Wyn, eagerly.</p> + +<p>“The fog came down, thicker and thicker,” proceeded the +boatman’s daughter. “And the wind rode down upon father, too. Wind +and fog together are not usual; but when the two combine it is much worse than +either alone. You see, the thick mist swirling into father’s eyes, driven +head-on by the wind, blinded him. He steered a shade too near the shore.</p> + +<p>“Suddenly the <i>Bright Eyes</i> struck. A motor boat, going head-on +upon a snag, can be easily wrecked. The boat struck and stuck, and father leaped +up to shut off the engine.</p> + +<p>“As he did so, something swished through the blinding fog and struck +him, carrying him backward over the stern of the boat. Perhaps it was the loss +of his weight that allowed the <i>Bright Eyes</i> to scrape over the snag. At +least, she did so <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40'></a>40</span> as +father plunged into the lake, and as he sank he knew that the boat, with her +engine at half speed, was tearing away across the lake.</p> + +<p>“It was the drooping limb of a tree that had torn father from the stern +of the motor boat,” continued Polly Jarley. “It may have been a big +root of the same tree, under water, that had proved the finish of the boat. For +nobody ever saw the <i>Bright Eyes</i> again. She just ran off at a tangent, +into the middle of the lake, somewhere, we suppose, and filled and +sank.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me! And your father?” asked Wyn, anxiously.</p> + +<p>“He got ashore on the island. Then he signalled to me, and I went off +during a lull in the storm, and got him. He went to bed, and it was three months +before he was up and around again.</p> + +<p>“He suffered dreadfully with rheumatic fever,” continued Polly, +sadly. “And all the time Dr. Shelton was talking just as mean about him as +he could. He didn’t believe his story. He even said that he thought my +father took the motor boat down the river somewhere and sold it. And the way he +talked about that box of silver images―”</p> + +<p>“Oh, oh!” cried Wyn. “I’d forgotten about them. Of +course they were lost, too?”</p> + +<p>“Sunk somewhere in Lake Honotonka,” declared <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_41'></a>41</span> Polly. “Father knows no more about +where the boat lies than Dr. Shelton himself. But there are always people ready +and willing to pick up the evil that is said about a person and help circulate +it.</p> + +<p>“While father was flat on his back, folks were talking about him. We +had to raise money on the boats to pay for our food and father’s medicine. +If we don’t have a good season this summer we will be unable to pay off +the chattel mortgage next winter, and will lose the boats. I tell you, Miss Wyn, +it is <i>hard</i>.”</p> + +<p>“You poor, dear girl!” exclaimed Wyn. “I should think it +<i>was</i> hard. And that mean man accuses your father―”</p> + +<p>“Well, you see, there was father’s past record against him. The +story of his trouble here in Denton followed him into the woods, of course. If +anybody gets mad at us up at the Forge, they throw the whole thing up to us. +I–I <i>hate</i> it there,” sobbed the boatkeeper’s +daughter.</p> + +<p>“And yet, it is harder on poor father. He is straight, but everything +has been against him. I saw he felt dreadfully these past few days because I +need some decent clothes. And there is no money to buy any.</p> + +<p>“So I thought I would come to town and see some old friends of +mother’s who used to come <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_42'></a>42</span> and see us years ago. Yes, there were a few people +who stuck to mother, even if they did not quite approve of poor father. But, +when I paddled ’way down here―”</p> + +<p>“Not in a canoe?” cried Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I came down very easily yesterday evening and stopped at a +boatman’s house on the edge of town. I shall go back again to-day. The +Wintinooski isn’t kicking up much of a rumpus just now. The spring floods +are about all over.”</p> + +<p>“But you must be a splendid hand with a paddle,” said Wyn. +“It’s a long way to the lake.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! I don’t mind it,” said Polly. “Or, I +<i>wouldn’t</i> mind it if it had done me the least good to come down +here,” and she sighed.</p> + +<p>“You are disappointed?” queried Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Dreadfully! I did not find mother’s old friends. I had not heard +from them for two or three years, and found that they were away–nobody +knows where. I did not know but I might get work here in town for a few weeks, +and live with these old friends, and so earn some money. I am so shabby! And +father isn’t fit to be seen.</p> + +<p>“And then–then there was a man in town who used to befriend +mother. I know when I was quite a little girl, the year after we had gone to the +woods to live, father was ill for a long time and mother had to have things. She +went to <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43'></a>43</span> this +storekeeper in Denton and he let her have things on account and we paid him +afterward. Oh, we paid him–every cent!” declared Polly, again wiping +her eyes.</p> + +<p>“And I hoped he would–for mother’s sake–help us +again. I went to him. I–I reminded him of how father once worked for him, +and that he knew mother. But he was angry about something–he would not +listen–he would neither give me work nor let me have goods charged. +I–I–well, it just broke me down, Wyn Mallory, and I came here to cry +it out.”</p> + +<p>“It’s a shame!” exclaimed Wyn. “I am just as sorry +for you as I can be. And I believe that your father is perfectly honest and that +he never in his life intended to defraud anybody.”</p> + +<p>It was that blessed <i>tact</i> that made Wynifred Mallory say that. It was +the sure way to Polly Jarley’s heart; and Wyn’s words and way opened +the door wide and Polly took her in.</p> + +<p>“You–you <i>blessed</i> creature!” cried the +boatman’s daughter. “I know you must have been ’specially sent to +comfort me. I <i>was</i> so miserable.”</p> + +<p>“Of course I was sent,” declared Wyn. She did not propose to tell +her new acquaintance that she had observed her in Erad’s store and had +looked for her all over Market Street.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44'></a>44</span>“Such things +are meant to be. If we trust to God we surely shall have release from our +difficulties. That is just as sure as the day follows the night,” declared +Wyn, with simple, straight-forward faith.</p> + +<p>“And just see how it is proved in this case. You were in trouble, and +sat here crying, and needed somebody to help you. And I came along perfectly +willing and able to help you, and you are going to be helped.”</p> + +<p>“I <i>am</i> helped!” declared Polly. “You just put the +courage back into me. I didn’t know what to do―”</p> + +<p>“Do you know any better now?” demanded Wyn, quickly.</p> + +<p>“We–ell, I―”</p> + +<p>“That doesn’t sound as though you had <i>quite</i> made up your +mind,” said Wyn, with a little laugh.</p> + +<p>“Never mind. I can stand even going back home with my hands empty, +better than before I met you,” declared Polly, bravely.</p> + +<p>“But you won’t go back home empty-handed.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Wyn! Can you get me work?”</p> + +<p>“No, not here. Nor do I believe you ought to leave your father alone up +there for so long. I expect he is not very well yet?”</p> + +<p>“No. He is not,” admitted Polly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45'></a>45</span>“Then, you +go home. That is the best place for you, anyway. But before you go you shall +make such purchases as you may need―”</p> + +<p>Polly drew away from her along the seat, and her gray eyes grew brighter. +“Oh, Miss Mallory!” she murmured. “Don’t do +<i>that</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t do what?” demanded Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Don’t spoil it all.”</p> + +<p>“Spoil what-all?” cried Wyn, in exasperation. “I’m +not going to spoil anything. But you listen to me. This is sense.”</p> + +<p>“I–I couldn’t take charity from <i>you</i>–a +stranger.”</p> + +<p>“I offer to lend you twenty dollars. You can pay it back when you +choose.”</p> + +<p>“Twenty dollars! You lend me twenty dollars?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. I have quite some spending money given to me, and I have been +saving nearly all of it for some time. So I can easily spare it.”</p> + +<p>“But I don’t know when I can repay you.”</p> + +<p>“I can tell you, then. You can pay me back this very summer.”</p> + +<p>“This summer, miss?”</p> + +<p>“Don’t call me ‘miss’!” cried Wyn, in greater +exasperation. “I have told you my name is ‘Wyn’! And I mean exactly +what I say. This is a perfectly straight business proposition,” and <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46'></a>46</span> she laughed her +full-throated laugh that made even Polly Jarley, in her trouble, smile.</p> + +<p>“Then your business, Wyn Mallory, must be the saving of people from +trouble–is that it? For there is no reason in what you say you will +do–Oh, I can’t accept it. It would be charity!” cried Polly, +again clasping Wyn’s hands.</p> + +<p>“It is not charity,” said Wyn, firmly, opening her purse. +“And I’ll quickly show you why it is not. You see, Polly +Jolly–and I want you to smile at me and look as though you fitted that +name. You see, I am captain of the Go-Ahead Club.”</p> + +<p>“The Go-Ahead Club?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. We are six girls. We each own canoes. And we are just +<i>crazy</i> to spend next summer under canvas.”</p> + +<p>“You are going camping?”</p> + +<p>“That is our intention,” Wyn said, nodding.</p> + +<p>“Oh, then! come up to Lake Honotonka,” cried Polly. “I can +show you beautiful places to camp, and we can have lots of fun―”</p> + +<p>“That likewise is our intention,” broke in Wyn. “We have +just decided to camp for the summer on the shore of the lake. Rather, our +parents, guardians, and the cat, have finally agreed to our plans. We shall come +up there the week after the Academy closes.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47'></a>47</span>“Now, we +want you, Polly, to find us the very best camping place, to arrange everything +for us, and don’t have it too far from your place, and from Meade’s +Forge. I expect the Busters will camp on one of the islands. The Busters, you +see, are our boy friends who are likewise going to the lake. They were there +last year with Professor Skillings.”</p> + +<p>“I remember them,” said Polly, wonderingly. “And you and +your girl friends are coming?”</p> + +<p>“Just the surest thing you know, Polly,” declared Wyn. “So +you are going to take this twenty dollars,” and she suddenly thrust the +bill into the other girl’s hand and closed her fingers over it. +“Then, next summer, we shall let you pay it back in perfectly legitimate +charges, for we’ll want you and your father to help us a good deal.</p> + +<p>“Now, what say, Polly Jolly? Will you please let your face fit your +name–as I have rechristened you? Smile, my dear–smile!”</p> + +<p>“I could cry again, Wyn–you are so kind!” half sobbed the +other girl.</p> + +<p>“Now, you stop all that foolishness–a great, big girl like +you!” exclaimed Wyn. “Turn off the sprinkler, as Dave Shepard says. +Get right up now and go briskly about your buying. And write to me when you get +home and write just as <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_48'></a>48</span> often as you can till we meet at the lake this +summer.”</p> + +<p>“You dear!” ejaculated Polly.</p> + +<p>“You’re another. How will I address you–at the +Forge?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and you must give me your address,” said the +boatman’s daughter, eagerly.</p> + +<p>Wyn did so. The two girls, such recent but already such warm friends, kissed +each other and Polly Jarley went briskly away toward Market Street. Wyn stopped +on the bench for several minutes and watched the girl from Lake Honotonka walk +away, while a smile wreathed her lips and a warm light lingered in her brown +eyes.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49'></a>49</span><a id='link_5'></a>CHAPTER V<br /><span class='h2fs'>BESSIE LAVINE</span></h2> + +<p>Suddenly a gay voice hailed Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Hi, Captain of the Go-Aheads! What are you doing, mooning +here?”</p> + +<p>“Why, Bess!” returned Wyn, turning to greet Bessie Lavine. +“I didn’t see you coming along.”</p> + +<p>“No; but I saw you, my noble captain.”</p> + +<p>“Going shopping?”</p> + +<p>“Aye, aye, Captain!” cried the other member of the Go-Ahead club. +“But who was that I saw you with? Didn’t I see you talking to that +girl who just crossed Benefit Street?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes.”</p> + +<p>“Who was she?”</p> + +<p>“Polly Jarley. She is daughter of a boatman up at the lake. And +wasn’t it fortunate that I met her? She can find us a camping place and +get everything fixed up there for our coming.”</p> + +<p>“What’s her name?” asked Bess, sharply.</p> + +<p>“Polly Jarley.”</p> + +<p>“And she lives up there by the lake?”</p> + +<p>“So she says.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50'></a>50</span>“Her father +is John Jarley, of course?” queried Bessie, looking down at Wyn, +darkly.</p> + +<p>“Yes. That is her father’s name,” said Wyn, beginning to +wonder at her friend’s manner.</p> + +<p>“Well! I guess you don’t know those Jarleys very well; do +you?”</p> + +<p>“Why–I―”</p> + +<p>Wyn hesitated to tell Bessie that she had only just now met the unfortunate +boatman’s daughter. She remembered Polly’s story, and what she had +overheard Mr. Erad say in the drygoods store.</p> + +<p>“You surely <i>can’t</i> know what and who they are, and still be +friendly with that girl?” repeated Bessie, her eyes flashing with +anger.</p> + +<p>“Why, my dear,” said Wyn, soothingly. “Don’t speak +that way. Sit down and tell me what you mean. I certainly have not known Polly +long; and I never met her father―”</p> + +<p>“Oh, they left this town a long time ago.”</p> + +<p>“So she told me. And she said something about her father having been +accused of dishonesty―”</p> + +<p>“I should say so!” gasped Bessie. “Why, John Jarley almost +ruined <i>my</i> father. He was a traitor to him. They were in a deal +together–it was when my father first tried to get into the real estate +business here in Denton–and this John Jarley sold him out. Why, everybody +knows it! <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51'></a>51</span> It +crippled father for a long time, and what Jarley got out of playing traitor +never did him any good, I guess, for they were soon as poor as Job’s +turkey, and they went to live in the woods there. He’s a poor, miserable +wretch. Father says he’s never had a stroke of luck since he played him +such a mean trick–and serves him right!”</p> + +<p>Wyn stared at her in amazement, for Bessie had gone on quite breathlessly and +had spoken with much heat. Finally Wyn observed:</p> + +<p>“Well, dear, <i>your</i> father has done well since those days. They +say he is one of our richest citizens. Surely you can forgive what poor John +Jarley did, for he and his daughter are now very miserable.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why we should forgive them,” cried Bessie, +hotly.</p> + +<p>“Why, Bess! This poor girl had nothing to do with her father wronging +your father―”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care. She’s his daughter. It’s in the blood. +I wouldn’t trust her a single bit. I wouldn’t speak to her. And no +girl can be <i>her</i> friend and mine, too!”</p> + +<p>“Why, Bess! don’t say that,” urged Wyn. “You and I +have been friends for years and years. We wouldn’t want to have a falling +out.”</p> + +<p>“I see no need for us to fall out,” exclaimed Bessie, her eyes +still flashing. “But I just won’t <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_52'></a>52</span> associate with girls who associate with those low +people–there now!”</p> + +<p>“Now do you feel better, Bess?” asked Wyn, laughing.</p> + +<p>That was the worst of Wyn Mallory! All the girls said so. One couldn’t +“fight” with her. For, you see, it takes two at least to keep a +quarrel alive, although but one to start it.</p> + +<p>“Well, you don’t know how mean that man, Jarley, was to my +father. And years ago they were the very best of friends. Why! they went to +school together, and were chums–just as thick as you and I are, +Wynnie–just as thick. And for him to be a traitor―”</p> + +<p>“If he was, don’t you think he has been paying for it?” +asked Wyn, sensibly. “According to what I hear he is poor, and ill, and +unfortunate―”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know whether he is or not. It was only a few weeks ago +we heard of his stealing a motor boat up there at the lake and some other +valuables, and selling them―”</p> + +<p>“He wouldn’t be poor if he had done that; would he?” +interrupted Wyn. “For I know for a fact that he is very, very +poor.”</p> + +<p>She did not want to tell Bessie that she had given Polly Jarley money; but +she did not believe that the boatman’s daughter would be in need as <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53'></a>53</span> she was if Mr. Jarley were +guilty of the crime of which he had been so recently accused.</p> + +<p>“Well, I haven’t a mite of sympathy for them,” declared +Bessie.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps you cannot be expected to have sympathy for the +Jarleys,” admitted Wyn, in her wholesome way. “But you won’t +mind, will you, dear, if <i>I</i> have a little for poor Polly?” and she +hugged Bessie, who had sat down, close to her. “Come on, +Bessie–don’t be mad at <i>me</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear! nobody can be mad at you, Wyn Mallory. You do blarney +so.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, now, my dear; it isn’t blarneying at all!” laughed +Wyn. “It’s just showing you the sensible way. We girls don’t +want to be flighty, and have ‘mads on,’ as Frank says, for no real reason. +And this poor girl will never trouble you in the world―”</p> + +<p>“I wish she wasn’t up at that lake,” declared Bessie.</p> + +<p>“Why, Bess! the lake’s plenty big enough,” said Wyn, +chuckling. “We won’t have to see much of the Jarleys. +Although―”</p> + +<p>“I sha’n’t go if she is to be on hand,” asserted +Bessie, with vehemence.</p> + +<p>“One would think poor Polly Jarley had an infectious disease. She +won’t hurt you, Bess.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care. I feel just as papa does about it. <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54'></a>54</span> He and Jarley were closer +than brothers. But he wouldn’t speak to Jarley now–no, sir! And I +don’t want anything to do with that girl.”</p> + +<p>With this Bess jumped up, preparing to go on her way to the stores. Wyn was +going home, and she gathered up her packages.</p> + +<p>“You’ll think differently about it some day, Bess,” she +said, thoughtfully, as her friend tripped away. “How foolish to hold +rancor so long! For years and years those two men have hated each other. And I +expect Polly would dislike Bess just as Bess dislikes her–and for no real +reason!</p> + +<p>“And it seems too bad. Mr. Lavine is very rich while John Jarley is +very poor. Usually it is the wicked man who prospers–for a time, at least +I really don’t understand this,” sighed Wyn, traveling homeward. +“If Polly’s father is guilty as they believe he is, what did he do +with the money he must have made by his crimes?”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55'></a>55</span><a id='link_6'></a>CHAPTER VI<br /><span class='h2fs'>OFF FOR THE LAKE</span></h2> + +<p>Although the members of the Go-Ahead Club–some of them, at +least–had expressed the wish that the time to start for Lake Honotonka was +already at hand, the remaining days of May and the busy month of June slipped +away speedily. At odd hours there was a deal to do to prepare for the outing +which the girl canoeists longed to enjoy.</p> + +<p>Wyn received several letters from Polly Jarley, more hopeful letters than she +might have expected considering the situation in which the boatman’s +daughter was placed. Evidently Polly was trying to live up to her +“rechristening.”</p> + +<p>In reply Wyn made several arrangements for the big outing which she confided +only in a general way to the club. Polly had selected a beautiful spot just east +of the rough water behind Gannet Island, and not half a mile from her +father’s boathouse, for the camping place of the Go-Ahead Club, and she +wrote Wyn that she had stuck <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_56'></a>56</span> up a sign pre-empting the spot for the girls from +Denton.</p> + +<p>It was arranged with the Busters, who would go up to Lake Honotonka the same +day as the Go-Aheads, to send the stores together by bateau. Wyn arranged to +have the girls’ stores housed by the Jarleys, for she did not think that +the canvas of either the sleeping or the cook-tent would be sufficient +protection if there came a heavy storm.</p> + +<p>The boys had picked their camping place the year before. They would go to the +far end of Gannet Island, where there was a cave which promised a fairly good +storehouse for their goods and chattels. They proposed to erect their one big +tent right in front of this cavity in the rock–in conjunction therewith, +in fact. There was a backbone of rock through the center of the island in which +Professor Skillings, as a geologist, was very much interested, and had been for +a long time.</p> + +<p>To purchase the stores cost considerable money. The girls had to do it all +out of their own pockets, and to tell the truth some of them had to mortgage +their spending allowance for the entire summer to “put up” their pro +rata sum for these supplies.</p> + +<p>“Papa says it is going to cost me as much <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_57'></a>57</span> as though I were spending the summer at +Newport,” Percy Havel said, with a sigh.</p> + +<p>“<i>My</i> folks have expressed some surprise,” admitted Mina +Everett. “They thought we were going to camp out <i>al fresco</i>; but +they can scarcely believe now that we are not going to live upon <i>pâté de foie +gras</i> and have a French chef to get up the meals.”</p> + +<p>“My father began to say something about the cost the other +night,” giggled Frank Cameron. “But I put the stopper on poor pa +very quickly. I told him that I’d willingly give up the camping-out scheme +if he’d buy a touring car. I said:</p> + +<p>“‘Pa, I’ve figured the whole thing out, and we can do it easily +enough. The car, to begin with, will cost $5,000, which at six per cent, is only +$300 a year. If we charge ten per cent, off for depreciation it will come to +$500 more. A good chauffeur can be had for $125 per month, or $1,500 per year. I +have allowed $10 per week for gasoline and $5 for repairs. The chauffeur’s +uniform and furs will come to about $200. Now, let’s see what it comes to. +Three hundred, plus five hundred, and then the chauffeur’s salary +at―’</p> + +<p>“‘Don’t bother me any more, my dear,’ says pa. ‘I know what +it comes to.’</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58'></a>58</span>“‘What +<i>does</i> it come to, Pa?’ I asked. ‘How quick you are at +figures!’</p> + +<p>“‘My dear,’ he said, impressively, ‘it comes to a standstill +right here and now. We will have no touring car. I’ll say no more about +the Go-Ahead Club.’</p> + +<p>“Oh, you can manage the grown-ups,” concluded Frank, with a +laugh, “if you go about it right.”</p> + +<p>The bateau of stores went up the Wintinooski two days before the girls and +boys were to start; yet for fear that all might not have gone right with the +provisions, Wyn insisted that each member of the Go-Ahead. Club pack in her +canoe the usual “day’s ration” that they had been taught +should always be carried for an emergency.</p> + +<p>“It only adds to the weight,” grumbled Grace. “And dear +knows, the old blankets and things that you make us paddle about, makes the +going hard enough.”</p> + +<p>“That’s it–kick!” exclaimed Frank. “You’d +kick if your feet were tied, Gracie.”</p> + +<p>“Assuredly!” returned the big girl.</p> + +<p>“Now, don’t fuss at the rules of the club that have long ago been +voted upon and adopted,” said Wyn, cheerfully. “We do not know what +is going to happen. Somebody might hit a snag. It would take hours to make +repairs–perhaps <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_59'></a>59</span> we would have to camp for the night somewhere on the +way. We want to be prepared for all such emergencies.”</p> + +<p>“Well, the Busters aren’t loading themselves down with all this +truck,” declared Grace, with, vigor.</p> + +<p>“That’s all right. Let us be the wise ones,” laughed +Wynifred. “The boys may want to borrow of us before we get to Lake +Honotonka.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Wynnie!” cried Bess Lavine, “if you are expecting all +sorts of breakdowns and misfortunes, I shall be afraid to start at +all.”</p> + +<p>“Guess I’ll go on with Aunt Evelyn to the Forge, and send my +canoe by train,” laughed Percy Havel. “Wyn’s got us drowned +already.”</p> + +<p>But on the morning of the departure not one of the girls prophesied +misfortune. As for the boys, they were bubbling over with fun.</p> + +<p>Professor Skillings was going to paddle up the river with them, although Mrs. +Havel would take the afternoon train to the lake. The professor had gone on +ahead; but Dave Shepard arranged the two clubs in line and boys and girls +marched through the streets and down to the river, being hailed by their friends +and bidden good-bye by their less fortunate mates.</p> + +<p>Somebody started singing, and the twelve <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_60'></a>60</span> young voices were soon in the rhythm of “This +is the Life!” Dave and Tubby were ahead, their paddles over their +shoulders, each carrying his blanket-roll in approved scout fashion. The roll +made Tubby Blaisdell look twice his real size.</p> + +<p>As the party struck across the sward toward the boathouses Dave suddenly +dropped his paraphernalia and started on a run for the river.</p> + +<p>“Hi, there!” he shouted. “The professor is in trouble, +boys!”</p> + +<p>The Busters bounded away after him, and the girls, catching the excitement, +followed along the bank of the swiftly-flowing Wintinooski. There was Professor +Skillings in his canoe, drifting rapidly into the middle of the current, and +plainly without his paddle. Indeed, that useful–not to say +necessary–instrument, capped the pile of Professor Skillings’ +impedimenta on the bank. He had evidently–in his usual absent-minded +manner–stepped into his canoe and pushed off from shore without getting +his cargo aboard.</p> + +<p>Amid much laughter Dave and Ferd Roberts got a skiff and went after their +teacher. Professor Skillings chuckled at his own troubles. Although he was well +past the meridian of life, he had neither lost his sense of the ridiculous nor +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61'></a>61</span> his ability to laugh +at a joke when it was on himself.</p> + +<p>While the boys were rescuing their friend and mentor, the Go-Ahead Club +proceeded to get out their own canoes and load them. The weight had to be +distributed in bow and stern of the light, cedar craft; but Wyn and her mates +had practised loading and launching their boats so frequently that there was +little danger of an overset now.</p> + +<p>Grace was still growling about the food and cooking apparatus distributed +among the canoeists. Wyn said, laughing:</p> + +<p>“That is still the bone of contention; is it, Gracie?”</p> + +<p>“What <i>is</i> a ‘bone of contention’?” demanded Mina, +innocently.</p> + +<p>“Why, the jawbone, of course, silly!” cried Frank.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you mind about my jawbone, miss!” snapped Grace.</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t let’s fight, girls,” Mina said, +soothingly.</p> + +<p>“Better a dinner of herbs with contentment than a stalled ox and +trouble on the side,” misquoted Frank.</p> + +<p>The six girls quickly shot their canoes out into the stream. At this point +the current was swift; <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_62'></a>62</span> but above Denton the river broadened into wide pools +through which the current flowed sluggishly and it would be easier paddling.</p> + +<p>The girls set into a steady stroke, led by their captain, and passed the +pretty town in a few minutes. Wyn could see the upper windows of her home and +noted a white cloth fluttering from one. She knew that her mother was standing +there with the field-glasses and Baby May. Perhaps the little one was trying to +see “sister” through the strong glasses.</p> + +<p>So Wyn pulled off her cap and swung it over her head and the six canoes +immediately fell out of alignment.</p> + +<p>“Don’t do that, Wyn!” shouted Bess. “Those boys will +catch up with us.”</p> + +<p>“Well, we want them to; don’t we?” asked the captain of the +Go-Aheads, good-naturedly. “We’re going to lunch together, and if we +make the poor boys work too hard they’ll eat every crumb we’ve got +and leave nothing for poor little we-uns.”</p> + +<p>“So <i>that’s</i> why you made us bring all this food?” +demanded Bess, in disgust. “Can’t those boys feed +themselves?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, they’ll do their share,” Wyn replied, laughing. +“You’ll see. Don’t you see how heavily laden Tubby’s +canoe is? I warrant he <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_63'></a>63</span> has enough luncheon aboard for a small +army.”</p> + +<p>“I can’t look over my shoulder–I never can,” quoth +Bessie. “Paddling a canoe takes more of my attention than riding a +bicycle.”</p> + +<p>“Or a motorcycle. Those things are just awful,” cried Mina +Everett.</p> + +<p>“Shucks!” exclaimed the lively Frankie. “A motorcycle is +only an ordinary bicycle driven crazy by over-indulgence in gasoline.”</p> + +<p>“How smart!” cried Bessie. “But you’d better save +your breath to cool your porridge―”</p> + +<p>“Or, better still, to work your paddle,” commented Grace, with a +swift glance behind. “Those Busters are coming up the river, hand over +fist.”</p> + +<p>“With poor Tubby in the rear, of course,” said Frank, glancing +back. “The tide is certainly against <i>him</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” giggled Percy, “poor Tubby was more than +‘tide’ last week when he took Annabel Craven out on the river. Did you +hear about it? You know–the night before graduation.”</p> + +<p>“I believe that fat youth is sweet on Annabel,” announced Bessie, +shaking her head seriously.</p> + +<p>“What do you suppose Ann thinks of Tubby?” cried Grace.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64'></a>64</span>“You know +how it is,” chuckled Frank. “Nobody loves a fat boy. Go on, Percy. +What happened to poor old Tubby?”</p> + +<p>“Why, he inveigled Annabel down to the river and got her into a boat +and was going to row her around in the moonlight. You know it was just a +scrumptious night.”</p> + +<p>“M-m-m! wasn’t it?” agreed Frank.</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Percy, “Tubby got in without overturning the +boat and settled to work. The current was pretty swift and he struck right out +into it and headed up stream.</p> + +<p>“And there he tugged, and tugged, and tugged, giving all his attention +to the oars and having none to spare for Annabel. By and by, after Tubby had +tugged, and grunted, and perspired for half an hour, he said:</p> + +<p>“‘Say, I never saw anything like this current to-night–not in all +my born days! I’ve been pulling like a horse for half an hour and I +don’t see that we’ve made as much as a dozen feet!’</p> + +<p>“And then Annabel spoke up real pretty, and says she:</p> + +<p>“‘Oh, Mr. Blaisdell! I’ve just thought of something. The anchor +fell overboard some time ago and I forgot to tell you. Do you suppose it could +have caught on something?’”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65'></a>65</span>The other girls +were intensely amused at this, for they all appreciated Annabel Craven’s +character as well as poor Tubby’s good-natured blundering. But while they +laughed and chattered in this way the Busters crept steadily up on them.</p> + +<p>“I told you how it would be,” said Bess, tartly, “if we +didn’t hurry up.”</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with you girls?” demanded Dave Shepard. +“One would think you were sent for and couldn’t come, by the way you +paddle. You’ll get to the lake before noon at this rate.”</p> + +<p>“Not much danger of that, Davie,” returned Wyn. “And you +know we agreed to stop at Ware’s Island for lunch.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I wish that was right here!” grunted a voice from the rear, +where Tubby Blaisdell was paddling away with almost as much splashing as a small +side-wheel steamer.</p> + +<p>“My goodness, boy!” cried Ferd Roberts. “You’re not +hungry so soon, are you?”</p> + +<p>“Soon?” repeated Tubby, with disgust “It’s so long +since breakfast that I’ve forgotten what I had to eat.”</p> + +<p>“What do you want to eat, Tubby?” asked Frank, giggling.</p> + +<p>“Not particular. Anything–from a marshmallow <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_66'></a>66</span> cake to a tough steak,” grunted the +fat boy.</p> + +<p>“Tubby wouldn’t be as particular as the grouchy gentleman who +went into the restaurant out West and ordered a steak,” chuckled Dave. +“After the waiter brought it the customer tried his knife on it and then +called the waiter back.</p> + +<p>“‘Say!’ he objected. ‘This steak isn’t tender +enough.’</p> + +<p>“‘Not tender enough, stranger?’ returned the cowboy waiter. ‘What +d’you expect? Want it to hug an’ kiss yer?’”</p> + +<p>When the laugh on Tubby had subsided Professor Skillings said, with a twinkle +in his eye:</p> + +<p>“Our friend, Blaisdell, should be able to exist some time on his +accumulation of fat. He ought not to seriously suffer from hunger as +yet.”</p> + +<p>“Like a camel living on its hump–eh?” said Wyn. “How +about that, Tubby?”</p> + +<p>“I’m no relation to a camel–I tell you that,” snorted +the fat boy, with disgust.</p> + +<p>“Then Mr. Blaisdell might imitate some insects; mightn’t he, +Professor Skillings?” suggested Frank, with a sly look. “You know +there are insects that live on nothing.”</p> + +<p>“On nothing?” exclaimed the professor, quickly. “Oh, no, +young lady, you are mistaken. That is quite impossible.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67'></a>67</span>“But, +Professor! A moth lives on nothing; doesn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“No, indeed. How could that be?” cried the scientific gentleman, +greatly perturbed by Frank’s apparent display of ignorance.</p> + +<p>“Why, moths eat holes; don’t they?” chortled Frank. +“Surely ‘holes’ are a pretty slim diet.”</p> + +<p>Professor Skillings led the laughter himself over this simple joke. But he +added:</p> + +<p>“I fear I should not be able to interest you in science, +Frances.”</p> + +<p>“Not in summer, sir–oh, never!” cried Frank. “I +refuse to learn a single, living thing until school opens again next +fall.”</p> + +<p>In spite of Tubby’s complaints, the canoeing party sighted Ware Island +in good season for luncheon. This was a low, wooded spot around which the +Wintinooski–split in two streams–flowed very quietly. The country on +both sides was cut up into farms, with intervening patches of woods, dotted with +ferns, and was very beautiful.</p> + +<p>There was a little beach on one side of the island, with a green, shaded bank +above. This was a favorite picnicking spot for parties from Denton; but our +friends had the island all to themselves this day.</p> + +<p>The girls had been as far as this island before <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_68'></a>68</span> in their canoes; but never beyond. From +this spot on the journey up the Wintinooski would be all new to Wyn Mallory and +her chums.</p> + +<p>The canoes were hauled up out of the water and the boys skirmished for fuel +while the girls got out the luncheon. Ferd Roberts was fire-builder, and Grace, +who hated that work, watched him closely, marveling how quickly and well he +constructed the pyre and had a blaze merrily dancing among the sticks.</p> + +<p>“Doesn’t that beat all!” cried Grace. “You must love +fires as much as Nero did.”</p> + +<p>“Nero? Let’s see–he was the chap that always was cold; +wasn’t he?” queried Ferd, grinning.</p> + +<p>“Nope!” broke in Frank. “That was Zero. You <i>will</i> get +your ancient history mixed, Ferd!”</p> + +<p>The luncheon was quickly laid, and Tubby was not the only one who did it +justice. But Bessie Lavine continued to act disagreeably toward the boys. She +was “forever nagging,” as Dave said; and sometimes there was a spark +of fire when she managed to get one or another of the boys +“mad.”</p> + +<p>Professor Skillings wandered off with his bag and little geological hammer +and Tubby rolled over on his back under a shady bush and went to sleep.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69'></a>69</span>“Pig!” +ejaculated Bess, in disgust. “That’s all boys think of–their +stomachs.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t be so hateful, Bess,” advised Frank. “Come +on; the rest of us are going to walk around a little to settle our luncheon, +before tackling the paddles again.”</p> + +<p>“Humph! with the boys?” snapped Bess, seeing Wyn start off with +Dave by her side. “Not me, thank you!”</p> + +<p>“All right,” chuckled Frank Cameron. “You can keep Tubby +company.”</p> + +<p>But that suggestion made Bess even more angry, and she went off with her nose +in the air, and all alone. But as the crowd of young folk came around the east +end of Ware Island, they, saw Bess standing upon the brink of a steep bank, +under a small tree, where the water had washed out a good deal of the earth in a +sort of cave beneath where she stood.</p> + +<p>“Hi, Bessie! get back from there!” shouted Dave, warningly. +“That place is likely to cave in.”</p> + +<p>“Then you certainly <i>would</i> get a ducking,” added Frank.</p> + +<p>“Pooh! I guess I know what I’m about,” said the girl. +“I’m no baby.”</p> + +<p>“You’re acting like one,” growled Dave. “That place +is dangerous.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70'></a>70</span>“It’s +not, Mr. Smartie!” cried Bess, and she stamped her foot in anger.</p> + +<p>And just as though that had been the signal for which it had been waiting, +several square yards of the steep bank, with the tree she was clinging to, +slumped down into the river.</p> + +<p>The girls screamed, while the boys bounded forward toward the spot where +Bessie had disappeared.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Dave!” cried Wyn. “Save her! save her! She can’t +swim very well. She will be drowned!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71'></a>71</span><a id='link_7'></a>CHAPTER VII<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE STORM BREAKS</span></h2> + +<p>Dave Shepard, followed by the other “Busters,” leaped down to the +edge of the water before they came to the spot where the bank had caved. They +feared that by tramping along the edge they might bring down even a greater +avalanche than had fallen with the unfortunate Bessie.</p> + +<p>“There she is, fellows!” cried Dave. “She’s hanging +to the tree!”</p> + +<p>“I see her!” returned Ferd Roberts.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Dave! we can’t reach her,” cried another of the +Busters.</p> + +<p>“I wish the professor was here,” cried Ferd. “He’d +know what to do.”</p> + +<p>“My goodness!” returned Dave, throwing off his coat and cap. +“I don’t need anybody to tell me what to do. <i>We’ve got to +go after her!</i>”</p> + +<p>He tore off the low shoes he wore, pitched them after his cap and coat, and +leaped into the water. The current tugged hard at the end of <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72'></a>72</span> the island, and Bessie and +the uprooted sapling were being carried out farther and farther into the +stream.</p> + +<p>The girl had not screamed. Indeed, she had been startled to such a degree +when she went down that she had really not breath enough for speech as yet.</p> + +<p>The boys were “right on the job,” and only a few seconds elapsed +from the moment the bank gave away until that in which Dave Shepard sprang into +the river.</p> + +<p>Some of the roots of the tree still clung to the shore. A part of the +loosened earth had fallen upon these roots and so the tree was anchored. But +Bessie was clinging to the hole of the sapling quite fifteen feet from the edge +of the solid beach.</p> + +<p>“Catch hold of hands, boys!” commanded Dave. “Make a chain! +Give me one hand, Ferd! The current is tugging me right off my feet!”</p> + +<p>His four mates obeyed orders promptly. Dave was captain of the Busters, as +Wyn was of the Go-Ahead Club; and the boys had learned to obey their captain +promptly–all but Tubby, at least. But Tubby was not in this exciting +adventure at all, being asleep under the bush at their lunching place.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73'></a>73</span>The fat boy was +not even aroused when the crowd trooped back to the spot, boys and girls alike +chattering like magpies. Dave and Ferd carried the dripping Bessie in +“arm-chair” fashion and the girl who so disliked boys clung to her +two chief rescuers with abandon.</p> + +<p>They had hauled her out of the river just as she was losing her grasp on the +tree. A moment later she might have been whirled down stream by the current and +her life endangered. As it was, she had swallowed much water, and was just as +wet inside and out as she would ever be in her life.</p> + +<p>All the boys were more or less wet–Dave was saturated to his arm-pits. +But the day was warm, and the boys were used to such duckings. It was another +matter, however, with the girl. She was already shaking with an incipient +chill.</p> + +<p>“Wood on the fire, boys–get a lot of it,” commanded Dave. +“And get our blankets and let’s put up a makeshift tent for Bess to +use. She must get off her wet duds and wring them out and dry them. Hi! wake up +that Tubby Blaisdell. We want his help.”</p> + +<p>Ferd proceeded to walk right over the fat youth on his way for more fuel and +that effectually aroused the lad.</p> + +<p>“Hey–you! what are you about?” yawned <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_74'></a>74</span> Tubby. “Can’t you find +another place to walk on but <i>me</i>, Ferd Roberts?”</p> + +<p>“I’ve got to walk <i>some</i>where,” quoth Ferd.</p> + +<p>“Why! you’re all wet,” gasped Tubby. “And so are you, +Dave! And those other fellows–I declare!”</p> + +<p>“Wake up and do something, Tubby,” commanded Dave. “We want +to get a tent up, There’s been an accident, and Bessie Lavine is wetter +than any of us. Let’s have your knife.”</p> + +<p>“My–my knife?” yawned Tubby, rolling over slowly to reach +into his breeches pocket.</p> + +<p>This was too good a chance for Ferd to resist. Tubby was rolling near the +edge of the bank as Ferd came back with his arms full of broken branches. Ferd +put his foot against Tubby’s back and pushed with all his might.</p> + +<p>“Hi! Stop that! Ugh!”</p> + +<p>Tubby rolled over once–he rolled over twice; then, with many +ejaculations and bumps rolled completely down the slope, amid the laughter of +the boys and girls above him.</p> + +<p>Tubby missed the canoes–by good luck–and rolled with a splash +into a shallow pool at the river’s edge.</p> + +<p>“You mean thing!” he yelled, getting up with some alacrity and +shaking his fist at Ferd. “I–I’m all wet.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75'></a>75</span>“So are we, +Tubby,” Dave said. “You belong to our lodge now. Come on up here +with that knife of yours. Didn’t I tell you I wanted to use it?”</p> + +<p>The other boys were scurrying after stakes and blankets, while the girls fed +the fire till it roared high, and Bessie stood in the heat of the flames.</p> + +<p>“What do you think of the boys <i>now</i>, Bess?” Frank Cameron +whispered in the victim’s ear. “Some good–at +times–eh?”</p> + +<p>“Now, don’t worry her, Frank,” commanded Mina, the +tender-hearted. “The poor, dear girl! See–she’s just as wet as +she can possibly be.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, and wasn’t I scared!” gasped Bess, honestly. +“When that bank went down I thought I was right on my way through to +China! I did, indeed.”</p> + +<p>“I was so thankful Dave was there,” said Wyn Mallory, +thoughtfully. “You see, Dave is one of those dependable boys.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve got to admit it,” gasped Bess. “He’s some +good. Why! he caught me just as I was slipping off that tree. I +<i>can’t</i> thank him!”</p> + +<p>“Never mind,” said Wyn, cheerfully. “It is decided, I +guess, that the boys may be of some use to us this summer, after all.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_76'></a>76</span>“That’s so, if we’re all going to +run the risk of drowning,” Grace Hedges observed.</p> + +<p>“I am going to learn to swim better,” declared Bess. +“I’ll just put my t–time all in on <i>that</i>. But, oh, +girls! I am so wet!”</p> + +<p>“Tent’s ready, ladies!” shouted Dave Shepard. “Make +her take her clothing off, Wyn. We fellows will get the professor and go over to +the other side of the island for a swim. Ferd and I have got to strip off and +wring out our trousers, anyway. And I reckon Tubby is some wet.”</p> + +<p>“That’s all right,” grumbled the fat youth, waddling after +his mates. “I’ll pay Ferd out for that–you see!”</p> + +<p>The boys were back in an hour and a half. By that time Bess had been made +quite presentable, for her garments had been dried over the fire. However, the +girls were dressed in a way to stand–as well as might be–such +accidents as Bessie had met.</p> + +<p>The girl who had declared boys no good frankly shook hands with Dave before +they embarked again, and thanked him very prettily for his help in time of +need.</p> + +<p>“Go ahead! get a medal for me,” said Dave. “Pin it right +<i>there</i>,” and he pointed to the lapel of his jacket. “I’m +a hero. Keep on praising <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_77'></a>77</span> me, Miss Lavine, and I’ll grow as tall as a +giraffe.”</p> + +<p>“And that’s the highest form of animal life–ask the +professor if it isn’t,” chuckled Frank Cameron.</p> + +<p>But they were all very thankful that nothing serious had resulted from the +accident. There was an after-result, however, that promised to be unpleasant. +They had been so delayed at the island that it was half-past three before they +got off. There was still a long stretch to paddle to Meade’s Forge at the +foot of Honotonka Lake.</p> + +<p>And, swiftly as they paddled, the sun was setting when they arrived at the +Forge. Besides, a heavy cloud was coming up, threatening a storm. Indeed, +lightning was already playing around the horizon behind them.</p> + +<p>There was no hotel at the Forge, and no good place to stop for the night. +Mrs. Havel was out in her canoe waiting for them. Gannet Island, where the boys +were to camp, was in sight, and the camping place the girls had had selected for +them was even nearer.</p> + +<p>“We had better go at once,” said the professor, earnestly. +“We will stop and help you erect your tents first―”</p> + +<p>“No, you will not,” returned Mrs. Havel. “The girls and I +have got to learn to be independent. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_78'></a>78</span> Besides, your stores are waiting for you over there +on the island, and I understand from the boatmen that the things are not yet +under cover. You must hurry. We’ll get along all right; won’t we, +girls?”</p> + +<p>“Sure!” agreed Frank.</p> + +<p>“We haven’t come up here to be a burden on the boys, I +hope,” said Wyn, sturdily.</p> + +<p>Wyn was captain, and as both she and Mrs. Havel thought they could get along +all right, it was not for the other girls to object. The professor and the boys +bade them good-bye and paddled away as fast as possible for the distant island. +Even Tubby put forth some effort, for the thunderstorm was surely coming.</p> + +<p>Tired as they were, the girls of the Go-Ahead Club made their paddles fly for +another half-hour. Then they were in sight of a white birch, to the top of which +was fastened a long streamer, like a pennant.</p> + +<p>“There’s the place!” cried Wyn, recognizing the signal that +Polly Jarley had written to her about.</p> + +<p>“And yonder is the boatman’s place where our stores were +left?” asked Mrs. Havel.</p> + +<p>“Yes, ma’am.”</p> + +<p>“We cannot stop for anything now, and must depend for the night upon +what we have with us. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_79'></a>79</span> I don’t like the look of that cloud,” +said the lady.</p> + +<p>None of the girls liked the look of it, either. It had now rolled up to the +zenith–a leaden mass, looming over them most threateningly. And there was +a rumble of thunder in the summer air.</p> + +<p>“Oh! what a beautiful spot!” cried Percy.</p> + +<p>“See that reach of lawn–and the thick grove behind it. Goodness +me!” exclaimed Mina Everett, “do you suppose there are bears in that +woods?”</p> + +<p>“If there are, we’ll catch ’em and eat ’em,” +said Frank, practically. “Now you know, Mina, there hasn’t been a +bear shot in this state since your grandfather’s time.”</p> + +<p>“Well, then, if there’s been none shot, maybe there are a lot +grown up here in the woods,” objected Mina.</p> + +<p>“Don’t scare a fellow to death with your croaking,” +admonished Percy.</p> + +<p>Bessie had known that Polly Jarley had chosen the site for the camp; and she +was secretly prepared to find fault with it. But as they drove their canoes +ashore on the little, silvery beach below the green knoll where the pennant +fluttered, Bess could find in her heart no complaint.</p> + +<p>It seemed an ideal spot. On three sides the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_80'></a>80</span> thick woods sheltered the knoll of green. In front +the lake lay like a mirror–its surface whitened in ridges ’way out toward +the middle now, for the wind was coming.</p> + +<p>“Hurry ashore, girls,” said Mrs. Havel. “And pull your +canoes well up on the sand. We must hurry to get our shelter up first of all. It +will rain before dark, and the night is coming fast.”</p> + +<p>“Wish the boys had stopped to help us,” wailed Grace.</p> + +<p>“And let their own stores get all wet–eh?” cried Wyn. +“For shame! Come on, girls. To the tent!”</p> + +<p>There was a pile of canvas which had been dropped here by the bateau men on +their way to Gannet Island that forenoon. There were stakes and poles with the +canvas, and the girls had practised putting up the shelter and striking it for +some weeks in Wyn’s back yard.</p> + +<p>They were not so clumsy at this work, therefore; but it did seem, because +they were in a hurry, that everything went wrong.</p> + +<p>Mina pounded her thumb with a stake-mallet, and the ridge pole fell once and +struck Grace on the side of the head. Poor Grace was always unfortunate.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me! I wish I was home!” wailed <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_81'></a>81</span> the big girl. “And ouch! it’s +going to thunder and lightning just awful!”</p> + +<p>“Now, keep at work!” admonished their captain. “Fasten +those pegs down well, Frankie,” she added, to the girl, who had taken the +mallet. “Never mind crying over your poor thumb, Mina. Wait till the +tent’s up and all our things brought up from the canoes.”</p> + +<p>“Here come the first drops, girls!” shrieked Frankie.</p> + +<p>Drops! It was a deluge! It came across the lake in a perfect wall of water, +shutting out their view of Gannet Island and everything else.</p> + +<p>The girls scuttled for the canoes, emptied them, turned the boats keel +upward, and then retreated to the big tent, Wyn even dragging the canvas of the +cook tent inside to keep it from becoming saturated.</p> + +<p>Fortunately the last peg had been secured. The flap was laced down quickly. +In the semi-darkness of the sudden twilight the girls and Mrs. Havel stood +together and listened to the rain drum upon the taut canvas.</p> + +<p>How it sounded! Worse than the rain on a tin roof! Peering out through the +slit in the middle of the tent-flap they could see nothing but a gray wall of +water.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a glaring blue flash, followed <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_82'></a>82</span> soon by the roar of the thunder. Several +of the girls cried out and crouched upon the ground.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me! this is awful!” groaned Grace again.</p> + +<p>Mina Everett was sobbing with the pain in her thumb and her fear of the +lightning.</p> + +<p>“Now, this will never do, girls,” admonished Wyn Mallory. +“Come! we can set up the alcohol lamp and make tea. That will help some. +There are crackers and some ham, and a whole big bottle of olives. Why! we +sha’n’t starve for supper, that’s sure.”</p> + +<p>“I–I don’t know as I want to eat,” quavered Mina.</p> + +<p>“Pshaw! We Go-Aheads must not be afraid of a little +storm―”</p> + +<p>Wyn’s voice was drowned in the clap of thunder which accompanied an +awful flash of lightning. With both came a splintering crash, the tent seemed to +rock, and for a moment its interior was vividly illuminated by the electric +bolt. The lightning had struck near at hand.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83'></a>83</span><a id='link_8'></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>AT WINDMILL FARM</span></h2> + +<p>Both Wyn and Mrs. Havel–the bravest of the seven gathered in the big +tent–were frightened by this awful shock. The other girls clung to them, +Mina and Grace sobbing aloud.</p> + +<p>“I–I feel as though that bolt fairly seared my eyeballs,” +groaned Frank Cameron. “Oh, dear! Here’s another!”</p> + +<p>But this flash was not so severe. The girls peered out of the slit in the +front of the tent and screamed again in alarm. The rain had passed for the +moment. There, not many rods away, stood an old, half-dead oak with its top all +ablaze.</p> + +<p>“That is where the lightning struck,” cried Wyn.</p> + +<p>“It is fortunate our tent was no nearer to that side of the +plateau,” observed Mrs. Havel.</p> + +<p>Then the rain commenced again, and the thudding on the canvas drowned out +their voices for a time.</p> + +<p>Somehow Wyn managed to get supper. The thunder and lightning gradually +subsided; but for <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84'></a>84</span> an +hour the rain came in intermittent dashes and it was nine o’clock before +they could venture forth into the cool, damp air.</p> + +<p>They had eaten their simple meal and set up the sleeping cots (which were +likewise of canvas) before that. There was a flooring of matched planks to be +laid, too; but the rain had wet them and the girls would have to wait for +to-morrow’s sun to dry them.</p> + +<p>“Oh! I don’t believe living under canvas is going to be half so +nice as we thought,” complained Mina. “I never <i>did</i> think +about its storming.”</p> + +<p>“A bad beginning makes a good ending,” quoted Mrs. Havel, +brightly. “This is only for one night.”</p> + +<p>“Excuse me! I don’t want another like it, Auntie,” declared +her niece.</p> + +<p>They could have no lamp to see to go to bed by, save Wyn’s pocket +electric flash.</p> + +<p>“And it’s so plaguey awkward!” cried Frankie. “Here +one of us has to hold the snapper shut so the others can see. Here, Mina! +I’ve played Goddess of Liberty long enough; <i>you</i> hold the lamp +awhile.”</p> + +<p>Wyn slung a line from one end of the tent to the other, and on this they hung +their clothes. All the girls were provided with warm pajamas <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85'></a>85</span> as being safer night +garments under canvas than the muslin robes they wore at home.</p> + +<p>“I <i>do</i> feel so funny,” cried Percy, hopping into her own +nest. “I can’t curl my toes up in my nightgown–they stick +right out at the bottom of these trousers!”</p> + +<p>“And doesn’t the grass tickle your feet?” cried Frank, +dancing about between the cots. “My, my! this <i>is</i> camping out in +real earnest. O-o-o! Here’s a trickle of water running under the side of +the tent, Wyn.”</p> + +<p>“You can thank your stars it isn’t running through a hole in the +tent right upon your heads,” responded the captain. “Do get into +bed, Frank.”</p> + +<p>Even Frank was quiet at last. The day had been a strenuous one. The muttering +thunder in the distance lulled them to sleep. Soon the big white tent upon the +knoll by the lake was silent save for the soft breathing of the girls and their +chaperone.</p> + +<p>And–odd as it may seem, considering the strangeness of their +surroundings–all the girls slept soundly through the night. It was Wyn +Mallory herself who first opened her eyes and knew, by the light outside, that +it must be near sunrise.</p> + +<p>Up she popped, stepping lightly over the cold <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_86'></a>86</span> grass so as not to arouse her mates and +Mrs. Havel, and reached the opening. She peered through. To the east the horizon +was aglow with melting shades of pink, amber, turquoise and rose. The sun was +coming!</p> + +<p>Wyn snapped open the flap and ran out to welcome His Majesty. Then, however, +she remembered that she was in pajamas, and glanced around swiftly to see if she +was observed.</p> + +<p>Not a soul was in sight. At that moment the first chorus of the feathered +choir that welcomes the day in the wilds, had ceased. Silence had fallen upon +the forest and upon the lake.</p> + +<p>Only the lap, lap, lap of the little waves upon the shore was audible. The +wind did not stir the tree branches. There was a little chill in the air after +the storm, and the ground was saturated.</p> + +<p>Wyn was doubtful about that “early morning plunge” in the lake +that she had heard the boys talk about, and which she had secretly determined to +emulate. But the boys’ camp was at the far end of Gannet Island and she +could not see it at all. She wondered if Dave and his friends would plunge into +that awfully cold-looking water on this chilly morning?</p> + +<p>To assure herself that the water <i>was</i> cold she ran down to where the +canoes lay and poked one <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_87'></a>87</span> big toe into the edge of the pool. Ouch! it was just +like ice!</p> + +<p>“No, no!” whispered Wyn, and scuttled up the bank again, hugging +herself tight in both arms to counteract the chill.</p> + +<p>But she couldn’t go back to bed. It was too beautiful a morning. And +all the others were sleeping soundly.</p> + +<p>Wyn decided that she would not awaken them. But she slipped inside, selected +her own clothing, and in ten minutes was dressed. Then she ran down to the pool +again, palmed the water all over her face, rubbing her cheeks and forehead and +ears till they tingled, and then wiped dry upon the towel she had brought with +her.</p> + +<p>Another five minutes and her hair was braided Indian fashion, and tied +neatly. Then the sun popped up–broadly agrin and with the promise in his +red countenance of a very warm day.</p> + +<p>“Good-morning, Mr. Sun!” quoth Wyn, dancing a little dance of her +own invention upon the summit of the green knoll that overhung the lake before +the tent. “I hope you give us a fine day, and that we all enjoy +it.”</p> + +<p>With a final pirouette she ran back to the tent. Still Mrs. Havel and the +others slept.</p> + +<p>“What lazy folk!” she told them, in a whisper, and then caught up +a six-quart pail and ran <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_88'></a>88</span> back through the open place and found the wood road +that Polly had written her about.</p> + +<p>She knew that to her left lay the way to the landing where Mr. Jarley kept +his boats, and where their stores were under cover in a shed. But breakfast was +the first consideration, and in the other direction lay Windmill Farm, at which +Polly told her she had arranged for the Go-Aheads to get milk, fresh eggs, and +garden vegetables.</p> + +<p>So Wyn tripped along this right hand extension of the wood path and, within +half an hour, came out of the forest upon the edge of the cleared farm. Before +her lay sloping fields up, up, up to a high knoll, on the top of which stood a +windmill, painted red.</p> + +<p>The long arms of the mill, canvas-covered, rose much higher in the air than +the gilt vane that glistened on the very peak of the roof. The rising sun shone +full upon the windmill and made it a brilliant spot of color against the blue +sky; but the wind was still and the sails did not cause the arms to revolve.</p> + +<p>Just below the mill, upon the leisurely slope of the knoll, was set the +white-painted farmhouse, with well-kept stables and out-buildings and poultry +yards and piggery at the rear.</p> + +<p>“What a pretty spot!” cried Wyn, aloud. <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_89'></a>89</span> “And the woods are so thick between +it and the lake that one would never know it was here.”</p> + +<p>She hurried on, for she knew by the smoke rising from the house chimney and +the bustle of sound from the barnyard that the farmer and his family were +astir.</p> + +<p>Before she reached the side porch a number of cows, one with a bell on her +neck leading the herd, filed out through the side yard and took a lane for the +distant pasture. Horses neighed for their breakfasts, the pigs squealed in their +sties and there was a pretty young woman singing at the well curb as she drew a +great, splashing bucket of water.</p> + +<p>“Oh! you’re one of the girls Polly Jarley told us were coming to +the lake to camp?” said the farmer’s wife, graciously. “And +did you get here in the storm last night? How do you all like it?”</p> + +<p>“I can only answer for myself,” declared Wyn, laughing. +“They were all asleep when I came away. But I guess if we have nothing +worse to trouble us than that shower we shall get along all right.”</p> + +<p>“You’re a plucky girl–for a city one,” said the +woman. “Now, do you want milk and eggs?”</p> + +<p>Wyn told her what she wanted, and paid for <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_90'></a>90</span> the things. Then she started back to camp, laden with +the brimming milk pail and a basket which the farmer’s wife had let her +have.</p> + +<p>The sun was now mounting swiftly in his course across the sky. Faintly she +heard the sawmill at the Forge blowing a whistle to call the hands, and knew +that it was six o’clock. She hurried her steps and reached the opening +where the tent was pitched just as the first sleepy Go-Ahead was creeping out to +see what manner of day it might be.</p> + +<p>“For goodness’ sake, Wyn Mallory!” cried this yawning nymph +in blue pajamas. “Have you been up all night?”</p> + +<p>“Aren’t you cute in those things, Percy?” returned Wyn. +“You look just like a doll in a store window. Come on and dress. +It’s time you were all up. Why! the day will be gone before you know +it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh–ow–ouch!” yawned Percy, and then jumped quickly +through the opening of the tent because Grace Hedges pushed her.</p> + +<p>“Why! the sun’s up!” cried the big girl. “Why! and +there’s Wyn with milk–and eggs–and pretty red +radishes–and <i>peas</i>. Mercy me! Look at all the things in this basket. +Whose garden have you been robbing, Wyn?”</p> + +<p>“Come on!” commanded the captain of the <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_91'></a>91</span> Go-Ahead Club. “I brought a bag of +meal in <i>my</i> canoe. And there is salt, and aluminum bowls, and spoons. We +can make a good breakfast of eggs and mush. Hurry up, all you lazy folk, and +help get breakfast.”</p> + +<p>“O-o-o! isn’t the grass cold!” exclaimed one girl who had +just stepped out from between woolen blankets.</p> + +<p>“I–I feel as though I were dressing outdoors,” gasped +another, with chattering teeth. “D-don’t you suppose anybody can see +through this tent?”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense, goosey!” ejaculated Frank. “Hurry up and get +into your clothes. You take up more room than an elephant.”</p> + +<p>“Did you ever share a dressing room with an elephant, Frank?” +demanded Bess.</p> + +<p>“Not before,” returned the thin girl, grimly. “But I am +preparing for that experience when I try to dress in the same tent with +Gracie.”</p> + +<p>But they were all eager to get outside when they sniffed the smoke of the +campfire, and, a little later, the odor of eggs “frying in the pan.” +Despite the saturated condition of most of the underbrush Wyn knew where to get +dry wood for fuel, Dave had long ago taught her that bit of woodcraft.</p> + +<p>With a small camp hatchet she had attacked <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_92'></a>92</span> the under branches of the spruce and low pine trees, +and soon had a good heap of these dead sticks near the tent. She turned over a +flat stone that lay near by for a hearth. Before the other girls and Mrs. Havel +were dressed and had washed their faces at the lakeside, Captain Wyn was +stirring mush in a kettle and frying eggs in pork fat in a big aluminum pan.</p> + +<p>“Sunny side up; or with a veil of brown drawn over their beautiful +faces, Frankie?” asked Wyn, referring to the sizzling eggs. “How do +you like ’em?”</p> + +<p>“I like ’em on toast–‘Adam and Eve on a raft’ Brother +Ed calls ’em. And when he wants ’em scrambled he says, ‘Wreck +’em!’”</p> + +<p>“You’ll get no toast this morning,” declared Wyn. +“You’ll be satisfied with crackers–or go without.”</p> + +<p>“Cruel lady!” quoth Frank. “I expect I’ll have to +accept my yoke of eggs―”</p> + +<p>“Only the <i>yolk</i> of the eggs, Frank?”</p> + +<p>“No, I mean the pair I want,” laughed Frankie. “And +I’ll take ’em without the toast and–‘sunny side +up.’”</p> + +<p>“Good! I can’t turn an egg without breaking it–never could. +Now, girls! bring your plates. I’ll flop a pair of eggs onto each plate. +There’s crackers in the box. Hand around your bowls. <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_93'></a>93</span> The cornmeal mush is nice, and there is +lovely milk and sugar if you want it. For ‘them that likes’ there is +coffee.”</p> + +<p>“M-m-m! Doesn’t it smell good?” cried Grace, as the party +came trooping to the fire with their kits.</p> + +<p>“I–I thought I’d miss the sweet butter,” said Bess, +sitting down cross-legged on the already dry grass. “But somehow +I’ve got <i>such</i> an appetite.”</p> + +<p>“I hope the boys are having as good a time,” sighed Wyn, sitting +back upon her heels and spooning up her mush, flooded with the new milk. +“Isn’t this just scrumptious, Mrs. Havel?”</p> + +<p>“It is the simple life,” replied that lady, smiling. +“Plenty of fresh air, no frills, plain food–that ought to do much +for you girls this summer. I am sure if you can endure plain food and simple +living for these several weeks before us, you will all be improved in both +health and mind.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94'></a>94</span><a id='link_9'></a>CHAPTER IX<br /><span class='h2fs'>JOHN JARLEY, EXILE</span></h2> + +<p>This could be no day of leisure for the Go-Ahead Club. To get settled in camp +was the first task–and that no small one.</p> + +<p>There was the plank flooring to be laid in the big tent, the cook-tent to be +erected, and the floor laid in that. There was a sheet-iron stove to erect, with +a smoke pipe to the outside, and an asbestos “blanket” to wrap +around the pipe to keep the canvas of the tent-top from scorching.</p> + +<p>There were the swinging shelves to put up, fastened to the ridge-pole of the +cook-tent, on which certain supplies could be kept out of the reach of the wood +mice and other small vermin. Indeed, there were a dozen and one things of moment +to see about, beside bringing over to the camp a selection of the +stores–and their extra clothes–from John Jarley’s shack by the +boat landing.</p> + +<p>Wyn was a competent girl and knew something about using a hammer and a saw. +The flooring planks for both tents had been assembled at <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_95'></a>95</span> Denton, and were numbered; but after they +got the sleepers laid Wyn realized that she and her mates had tackled more of a +task than they had expected.</p> + +<p>“And the boys will be just as busy as they can be to-day,” she +said to the other girls. “It’s a wonder if everything they owned +didn’t get soaked last evening.</p> + +<p>“Now, we can’t depend upon the Busters to give us any assistance +just now. Doubt if we see ‘hide nor hair’ of them to-day. But we need +somebody to make these floors properly. There! Bess has stuck a splinter into +her hand already.”</p> + +<p>“Plague take the old board!” snapped Bess, dropping it and +sucking on a ragged little wound in her hand.</p> + +<p>“You see,” Wyn said, quickly. “I’m going to get some +help. Anybody want to walk over to Jarley’s with me?”</p> + +<p>“Are you going to get that man to come here?” demanded Bess, +sharply.</p> + +<p>“Don’t see what else there is to do–do you, +Bessie?”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t there anybody else to help us around here? There must be +other squatters.”</p> + +<p>“I do not know of any. We chance to know the Jarleys―”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96'></a>96</span>“Not +I!” cried Bess, shaking her head. “<i>I</i> don’t know +them–and I won’t know them.”</p> + +<p>“All right. You and Grace and Percy take the pails and try for some +berries in the woods yonder. I saw some ripe ones this morning. Fresh picked +berries will add nicely to our bill-of-fare; isn’t that so, Mrs. +Havel?”</p> + +<p>“Quite so, my dear,” replied the widow, and buried herself in her +book again, for, as she had told the girls, she had not come here to work; they +must treat her as a guest.</p> + +<p>“Are you going to stop with Mrs. Havel, Mina?” continued Wyn. +“Then come along with me, Frank. We’ll go over and see if the +Jarleys bite. Bess is afraid they will!”</p> + +<p>“She was telling us all about John Jarley,” said Wyn’s +chum, as the two left the camp on the green knoll. “Do you suppose he +stole that motor boat and the box of silver statuettes?”</p> + +<hr class='tb' /> + +<p>“I don’t <i>know</i> anything about it,” said Wyn, briskly. +“But I know that he and Polly are very poor, and with a motor boat and +five thousand dollars’ worth of silver, it looks to me as though they +would be very foolish to suffer the privations they do. It’s nasty gossip, +that’s all it is.”</p> + +<p>“Well, Bess says the man stole from her father years +ago―”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97'></a>97</span>“I +don’t know much about <i>that</i>, either,” interrupted Wynifred. +“But I think Bess is overstepping the line of exact truth when she says +John Jarley stole from her father. They were doing business together, and Mr. +Lavine accused Jarley of ‘selling him out’ in a real estate deal.</p> + +<p>“I asked my father about it. Father says the whole business was a +little misty, at best. If Jarley did all Lavine said, he merely was guilty of +being false to his friend and partner. It is doubtful if he made much out of it. +But Lavine talked loudly and long; he had lots of friends even then. The talk +and all fairly hounded the Jarleys out of town.</p> + +<p>“And now,” said Wyn, warmly, “the Lavines are rich and the +Jarleys have always been poor. Mr. Jarley is an exile from his old home and such +friends as he had in Denton. It is really a shame, I think–and +you’ll say so, too, when you see what a splendid girl Polly is.”</p> + +<p>The two girls had followed the edge of the lake toward the landing, instead +of taking the path through the wood. Suddenly they came in sight of the float +and shack, with the several boats in Mr. Jarley’s keeping.</p> + +<p>Back from the shore was a tiny cottage, painted red, its window sash and door +striped with yellow. It was a gay little cot, and everything about <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98'></a>98</span> it was as neat and as +gaily painted as a Dutch picture.</p> + +<p>As Wyn and Frank came down the hill they saw Polly Jarley run out of the +house and down to the landing. Her father was busy there at an overturned +boat–evidently caulking the seams.</p> + +<p>The boatman’s girl did not see her visitors coming; but Wyn and Frank +got a good view of her, and the latter exclaimed to Wyn:</p> + +<p>“Why! she’s as pretty as a picture! She’s handsome! If she +only had on nice clothes she would be a perfect beauty.”</p> + +<p>“Wouldn’t she?” returned Wyn, happily. “I think my +Polly Jolly is just the <i>dearest</i> looking creature. Isn’t she brown? +And what pretty feet and hands she has!”</p> + +<p>Polly wore a very short skirt, patched and stained. Her blouse was open at +the throat, so that the soft roundness of the curve of her shoulder was plainly +visible.</p> + +<p>Out of the open neck of the blouse her deeply tanned throat rose like a +bronze column; the roses in her cheeks and on her lips relieved the sun-darkened +skin. Her hair was in two great plaits and it was evident that she seldom +troubled about a hat. She was lithe, graceful as she could be, and bubbling over +with good health if not good spirits.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99'></a>99</span>And this was a +morning–after the rain–to make even a lachrymose person lively. The +smell of all growing things was in the nostrils–the warmth of the sun +lapped one about like a mantle–it was a beautiful, beautiful +day,–one to be remembered.</p> + +<p>Wyn shouted and started running down the hill. Polly heard her, turned to see +who it might be who called, and recognizing her friend, set out to meet her +quite as eagerly.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Miss Wynifred!” cried the boatman’s daughter.</p> + +<p>“Polly Jolly! This is Frank Cameron.” She kissed Polly warmly. +“How fine you look, Polly! Tell me! will all we girls look as healthy and +be as strong as you are, by the autumn? You’re a picture!”</p> + +<p>“A pretty shabby one, I fear, Miss Wyn,” protested Polly, yet +smiling. “I am in the very oldest clothes I have, for there is much dirty +work to be done around here. We have hardly got ready for the summer yet. Father +has been so lame.”</p> + +<p>“And you must introduce me to your father, Polly,” Wyn said, +quickly. “We have something for him to do–if he will be so +kind.”</p> + +<p>“All you need to do is to say what it is, Wynifred,” responded +Polly, warmly. “If either of <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_100'></a>100</span> us can do anything for you we will only be too +glad.”</p> + +<p>The three girls walked to the spot where Mr. Jarley was engaged upon his +boat. He was not at all the sort of a person whom the girls from town had +expected to see. The boatmen and woodsmen who sometimes drifted into Denton were +rough characters. This man, after being ten years and more in the woods, savored +little of the rough life he had followed.</p> + +<p>He was a small man, very neat in his suit of brown overalls, with grizzled +hair, a short-cropped gray mustache, and without color in his face save the coat +of tan his out-of-door life had given him.</p> + +<p>There was a gentle, deprecatory air about him that reminded Wyn strongly of +Polly herself. But this manner was almost the only characteristic that father +and daughter had in common.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jarley was low-spoken, too; he listened quietly and with an air of +deference to what Wyn had to propose.</p> + +<p>“Surely I will come around and do all I can to aid you, Miss +Mallory,” he said. “You shall pick out the stores you think you will +need, and we will take a boat around to your camp. Your stores will be perfectly +safe here–if you wish to risk them in my care,” he added.</p> + +<p>“Of course, sir. And we expect to pay you for <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_101'></a>101</span> keeping them. If we have a long spell +of rainy weather the dampness would be bound to spoil things in our +tents.”</p> + +<p>“True. This corrugated iron shack will keep the stores dry, and the +door has a good padlock,” returned Mr. Jarley. “Now, you young +ladies pick out what you wish carried over to the camp and I will soon be at +your service.”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t he nice?” whispered Wyn to Frank, when Polly had run +into the house for something, and Mr. Jarley himself was out of hearing.</p> + +<p>“Why! he is a perfect gentleman!” exclaimed Frank. “How can +Bess talk as she does about him? I am surprised at her.”</p> + +<p>“And these other people about here, too!” declared Wyn, warmly. +“What an evil tongue Gossip has! That man–Shelton, is his +name?–at the other end of the lake, who has accused Mr. Jarley of stealing +his boat and the silver statues, ought to be punished.”</p> + +<p>“Well–of course–we don’t <i>know</i> anything more +about the Jarleys than these other people,” observed Frank, +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“I judge people by their appearance a good deal, I suppose,” +admitted Wyn. “And mother tells me that is a poor way to judge. Just the +same, I <i>feel</i> that the Jarleys are being maligned. And I would love to +help them.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102'></a>102</span>“Well! +there isn’t much chance to do that unless you can prove that he <i>is</i> +honest, after all,” remarked Frank.</p> + +<p>“I know it. Everything is going to tell against him unless the lost +boat and the images can be found. I wonder where it was sunk? Do you suppose +Polly would tell us just where the accident happened?”</p> + +<p>“Ask her.”</p> + +<p>“I will, if I get a chance,” declared Wyn. “And +wouldn’t it be fine if we girls could find the sunken boat and the box +belonging to Dr. Shelton, and clear up the whole trouble?”</p> + +<p>“Even <i>that</i> would not satisfy Bessie Lavine,” said Frankie, +with a little laugh. “You know–Bess is ‘awful sot in her +ways.’ When she has made up her mind that a thing is so, you can’t +shake it out of her with a charge of dynamite!”</p> + +<p>“You never tried the dynamite; did you, Frank?” queried Wyn, +smiling.</p> + +<p>“No! But I’ve wanted to–at times.”</p> + +<p>“Bessie is like her father–obstinate. It is a family trait Yet, +once get her turned around–show her that she has been wrong and unfair to +anybody–and she can’t do too much for her to prove how sorry she +is.”</p> + +<p>“That’s right! look how she talked against the +boys–especially against Dave Shepard. And <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_103'></a>103</span> now you can just wager she won’t be able to +do enough for him to show how grateful she is for being pulled out of the +water,” laughed Frank.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jarley was ready to load the boat for them, and Polly came back with the +key to the shack. Polly could not go over to the camp, for both she and her +father could not leave the landing at once. Some fishermen might come along at +any time to hire a boat. The season was opening now, and after the “lean +months” that had gone by, the Jarleys had to be on the watch for every +dollar that might come their way.</p> + +<p>“It seems an awfully hard life for such a man–and for +Polly,” whispered Wyn to her companion. “I’d just <i>love</i> +to have Polly for a member of our club.”</p> + +<p>“So would I,” agreed Frank. “She’s just as sweet as +she can be. But Bess would go right up in the air!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I know it,” sighed Wyn. “Somehow we have got to make +Bessie Lavine see the error of her ways. Oh, dear! why can’t people be +nice to each other all the time?”</p> + +<p>“Goodness me, Wyn Mallory!” exclaimed Frank. “What do you +expect while there still remains ‘original sin’ in the world? That seems +to have been left out of <i>your</i> constitution; but most of the rest of us +have our share.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104'></a>104</span><a id='link_10'></a>CHAPTER X<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE “HAPPY DAY”</span></h2> + +<p>That day the camp upon the hill overlooking Lake Honotonka was completed. Mr. +Jarley was very helpful, for beside laying the floors of the two tents, and +setting up the stove, he built for the girls an open-air fireplace of flat +rocks, dragged up from the shore; set up their plank dining table, cut and set +three posts for their clothes-line (for they were to do their own laundry work), +dug shallow ditches all around the tents, with a drain to carry off any water +that might collect; built an “overlook-seat” at the foot of a big +birch which overhung the water, and did countless other little services which +most of the Go-Ahead Club appreciated.</p> + +<p>Bessie Lavine did not come back from the berrying expedition until Mr. Jarley +had gone back to the landing; and of course she hadn’t much to say about +the change in the appearance of things. But the other girls were +enthusiastic.</p> + +<p>“And now we must have a name for the camp,” <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_105'></a>105</span> said Mrs. Havel, as they sat down to +the oilcloth-covered table to dinner.</p> + +<p>The arrangements for cooking and eating were of the simplest; yet everything +was neat. Using oilcloth saved laundry, and using paper napkins was likewise a +help. The food was served daintily, if simply, and although all the girls were +used to much finer table service at home, the hearty appetites engendered by the +pure air of lake and forest made even coarse food taste delicious.</p> + +<p>They were all instantly enthusiastic over their chaperone’s suggestion. +Half a dozen names were suggested on the spur of the moment; but no particular +one met the approval of all the girls, immediately.</p> + +<p>“We’ll have to draw lots,” suggested Mina.</p> + +<p>“No! let’s each write down the best names we can think of, and +then vote on them,” said Bess.</p> + +<p>“Goody!” cried Frank. “We must have a name that fits, but +is pretty and not too ‘hifalutin’,’ as my grandmother would +say.”</p> + +<p>“Naming the camp is all very well, girls,” said Wyn, seriously, +rapping on the table for order. “But there are more important things to +decide. The work of the camp is to be properly apportioned―”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” groaned Grace. “Have we <i>got</i> to work? +After traipsing over four miles of <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_106'></a>106</span> huckleberry pasture all the morning I feel as +though I had done my share for to-day.”</p> + +<p>“And she ate as many as she picked!” cried Bess. “Oh, +I’m going to tell on you, Miss! You’re not going to crawl out of +your fair share.”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t enlist to work,” declared Grace, with some +sullenness. “What’s the fun of camping out if one has to work like a +slave all the time?”</p> + +<p>“And we haven’t even begun!” cried Frank. “For shame, +Gracie!”</p> + +<p>“Now, none of the members of the Go-Aheads, I feel sure,” quoth +Wyn, quietly, “will try to escape her just burden. To have the fun of +camping out under canvas we must each do our share of the work quickly and +cheerfully. We will divide up the tasks, and change them about weekly. Of +course, Mrs. Havel is not supposed to lift her hand. She is our +guest.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, but auntie is going to show us how to make pancakes,” cried +Percy.</p> + +<p>“I’ll learn to do <i>that</i>,” said Grace, brightening up. +“For I love ’em.”</p> + +<p>“Of course–piggy-wiggy!” scoffed Bess. “Come, Wyn, +you set us our tasks and any girl who kicks about ’em shall be +fined.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll do better than that. We will use Mina’s idea of +drawing lots about the work. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_107'></a>107</span> There are certain things to be done each +week–each day, of course. Two girls must ’tend fires and cook; two +girls must air and make beds, clean up about the tents, and wait on table if +needed; the other two must get up early and go for the milk and vegetables, +gather berries, and do odd jobs. The girls who do the ‘chamber work’ +should wash the dishes, too, for the cooks will be too tired and heated after +preparing the meals to clean up the tables and mess with the dishwashing.</p> + +<p>“Now are those three divisions satisfactory? Every third week, you see, +the two who go for the milk, etcetera, will have an easy job. Is it +agreed?”</p> + +<p>There was no objection raised to this plan, and the girls paired off as they +usually did–Wyn and Frank together, Grace and Percy, and Bess and +Mina.</p> + +<p>Then they drew straws–really grass blades of three lengths–to see +which couple should do which. It fell to the lot of Bess and Mina to cook for a +week. Grace and Percy Havel were “chambermaids,” and Wyn and Frank +Cameron had the good luck to get the shortest blade of grass.</p> + +<p>“Of course, <i>I’d</i> have to work hard two weeks before getting +a chance to rest,” grumbled Grace. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_108'></a>108</span> “Probably something will happen after +we’re here a fortnight, and we’ll all have to go home.”</p> + +<p>“It would take something <i>awful</i> to send me home from this +beautiful spot in a fortnight,” cried Mina.</p> + +<p>“Just my luck if you all got smallpox, or something equally +contagious,” growled Grace.</p> + +<p>“Then you certainly would be fortunate for once–if you escaped +it,” chuckled Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Not a bit of it. They’d quarantine you here, and have nurses, +and lots of nice jellies and ices for you; while poor unlucky me would be packed +back to Denton for the rest of the summer–and after working like a slave, +dishwashing, and sweeping, and making beds, and cooking, and the like, for two +whole weeks.”</p> + +<p>Despite Grace’s complaints, the club as a whole was satisfied with the +arrangements for taking care of the camp. There had been a secondary +consideration in the minds of all their mothers when permission was obtained for +the Go-Aheads to spend the summer under canvas. Mrs. Evelyn Havel was a +wondrously good housekeeper. She had been trained in domestic science, too. And +she had promised to have an oversight of each girl’s work and to teach +them, from time to time, many helpful domestic things.</p> + +<p>This phase of the camping-out plan Wyn had <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_109'></a>109</span> “played up” in getting the consent of +all the parents; and for one, Wyn was determined to carry the scheme through. +When they went back to Denton in the fall she proposed to be a good “plain +cook” herself, and she hoped the other girls would fall in cheerfully with +the project also. She knew Mrs. Havel would do all she could toward teaching +them.</p> + +<p>The work once apportioned to them, the girls’ minds could be given more +particularly to the naming of the camp. But they would not decide upon it until +bedtime. However, all six cudgeled their brains to invent striking names.</p> + +<p>It was decided that only one name could be suggested by each girl, and this +would give them a list of six to choose from. Oddly enough both Mina and Grace +chose the same–Camp Pleasant. It looked as though <i>that</i> name had a +lead at the start.</p> + +<p>Frank suggested Birch Tree Camp–for there was an enormous birch on the +knoll at the foot of which Mr. Jarley had set up a bench for them.</p> + +<p>“Now you, Bess?” said Wyn, as mistress of ceremonies.</p> + +<p>“Camp Pleasant is all right,” admitted Miss Lavine; “only +it is not very distinctive. I expect there are thousands of Camp +Pleasants–don’t you think so?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_110'></a>110</span>“What’s the matter with <i>my</i> +name?” demanded Frank Cameron.</p> + +<p>“I find the same fault with it,” replied Bess. “It is not +distinctive enough. Now, I don’t know that I have the right idea; but I +believe that calling the camp after our club wouldn’t be so bad. And it +would mean something.”</p> + +<p>“Go-Ahead Camp? Or Camp Go-Ahead?” cried Grace.</p> + +<p>“There’s nothing romantic about it, that’s sure,” +objected Mina.</p> + +<p>“Goodness me! we’re not looking for romance, I hope,” cried +the strong-minded Bess.</p> + +<p>“Bess is a suffragette in embryo–I declare!” cried Frank, +laughing.</p> + +<p>“How does Camp Cheer sound?” suggested Percy. “Now, +that’s real nice, <i>I</i> think.”</p> + +<p>“Say, we’ve got to vote on them, anyway,” said Grace. +“<i>We’ve</i> got two votes for Camp Pleasant, Mina.”</p> + +<p>“But hold on!” cried Frank. “Here’s one hasn’t +been heard from. The shrinking violet of all our crew! What’s the matter, +Wynnie? Can’t you decide on a name?”</p> + +<p>“I thought of one last evening when we were paddling over here from the +Forge–before the rain,” admitted the captain.</p> + +<p>“Well! for pity’s sake!” gasped Grace. <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_111'></a>111</span> “That’s before we even knew +it was to have a name.”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t think particularly about naming the camp,” said +Wyn, reflectively, “but from the water, with the squall working up behind +us, and the last light of the day lingering on this little hill, the name +flashed into my mind.”</p> + +<p>“What is it?” chorused the others. “Do tell us, +Wyn!”</p> + +<p>“Green Knoll.”</p> + +<p>“Just <i>that</i>?” cried Grace. “‘Green Knoll’? Why! +It <i>was</i> green; wasn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“I remember how green it seemed from the lake,” added Bess. +“It’s not a silly name, either. It means something.”</p> + +<p>“I take it all back about ‘Birch Tree Camp,’” declared +Frank. “‘Green Knoll.’ There’s a dignity about that–as +our assistant principal, Miss Hutchins, would say.”</p> + +<p>“It’s a fine name, <i>I</i> think,” admitted Percy Havel, +slowly. “I withdraw Camp Cheer. It may not be so cheerful here all the +time–especially if we catch smallpox, as Grace says. But it will +<i>always</i> be green up here on the knoll.”</p> + +<p>“As long as we are here to see it, at least,” agreed Frankie, +nodding.</p> + +<p>“Say! our Camp Pleasant is swamped!” cried <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_112'></a>112</span> Grace. “What say, Mina? Shall we +surrender?”</p> + +<p>“Green Knoll sounds very pretty,” agreed the sweet-tempered Mina +Everett.</p> + +<p>“Oh, girls! do you really all like it?” Wyn cried.</p> + +<p>“I vote aye!” said Frank, with emphasis. The other four followed +in quick succession.</p> + +<p>“Why, that’s lovely of you!” cried the captain of the club. +“I–I was afraid nobody would like it but myself.”</p> + +<p>“It’s so appropriate,” said Bess.</p> + +<p>“It’s all <i>right</i>,” Frank declared. “I wonder +what the Busters will call their camp?”</p> + +<p>“They named it last fall,” said Wyn. “Dave told me. It is +Cave-in-the-Wood Camp. Not so bad–eh?”</p> + +<p>“Pretty good for a parcel of boys,” observed Bess.</p> + +<p>“Well, I’m glad the worry’s over,” yawned Grace. +“Let’s go to bed. You know, Percy, we’ve got to work like +slaves to-morrow, so it behooves us to get to bed betimes.”</p> + +<p>“Mercy!” cried Frankie, “they’ll be wanting to make +up the cots before we are out of them in the morning. Come on! let’s all +turn in.”</p> + +<p>There was a general roll-call at daybreak the next morning. Wynifred and +Frank were not the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113'></a>113</span> +only ones to get up as soon as day approached, although to them had been +allotted the task of going to Windmill Farm for the milk and the day’s +supply of vegetables.</p> + +<p>They had agreed the night before to venture into the water. The boys always +bragged about this early morning dip, which was a rule of their camp.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to do anything those +boys do,” declared Bess, with her usual contempt for the vaunted +superiority of the other sex. “If they can run down and plunge right into +the water, right out of bed, why can’t <i>we</i>?”</p> + +<p>So even Grace–who had her doubts about it–ventured on this second +morning. They slipped out of their sleeping clothes and into bathing suits. +There <i>was</i> a little chill in the air; but Wyn assured them the water would +be warmer than the air and–if they remained in half an hour, or +so–the sun would be up and his rays would warm them when they came +out.</p> + +<p>And Wyn’s prophecy was proven right. The six girls disported in the +lake like a flock of ducks. Mrs. Havel, however, would not let them remain more +than twenty minutes. The sun had shot up, then, and already the green knoll was +warm in his first rays.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114'></a>114</span>Wyn and Frank +scurried into their clothes and hurried away to the farm for the milk and +vegetables. Frank saw the windmill on the summit of the hill, and nothing would +do but she must run up and inspect it. The breeze was rising and the farmer, who +was likewise the miller, was preparing to “grind a grist.”</p> + +<p>“We’ve got a good bit of grain on hand; but we’ve not had +wind enough of daytimes lately to grind a handful,” he said. “I +can’t invite you inside, young ladies, because when they set up this mill +for me they made the door, as you see, right behind the sails. When the arms are +in motion I am shut in till the grist is ground; or I stop the sails with this +lever just inside the door–d’ye see?”</p> + +<p>As the girls went back toward the house the arms began turning with a +groaning sound. The wind became fresher. Round and round the long arms turned, +while the canvas bellied like the sails on a boat.</p> + +<p>Louder and louder grew the hum of the mill. The miller threw in the clutch +and the stones began to grind. They heard the corn poured into the hopper, and +then the shriek of the kernels as they were ground between the stones. The whole +building began to shake.</p> + +<p>“What a ponderous thing it is!” exclaimed <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_115'></a>115</span> Frank. “And see! there’s a +tiny window in the roof facing the lake. I imagine you could see clear to +Meade’s Forge from that window.”</p> + +<p>“Farther than that, my dear–much farther,” said the +farmer’s wife, handing Frank the basket of fresh vegetables over the +garden fence. “On a clear day you can see ’way across the lake to Braisely +Park. The tower of Dr. Shelton’s fine house is visible from that window. +And the whole spread of the lake. But the air must be very clear.”</p> + +<p>“Goody! We’ll bring the other girls up here some day when the +mill is not running and climb to the top of the mill for the view,” +declared Frank.</p> + +<p>Bess and Mina, with some advice from Mrs. Havel, made a very good breakfast. +Although neither was very domestic in her tastes, the two young cooks were on +their mettle, and did the best they could. If the hot biscuits were not quite so +flaky as their mothers’ own cooks made them at home, and some of the +poached eggs broke in the poacher, and the broiled bacon got afire several time +and “fussed them all up,” as Mina said, the general opinion of the +occupants of Green Knoll Camp was that “there was no kick +coming”–of course, expressed thus by the slangy Frank Cameron.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116'></a>116</span>Grace +<i>would</i> dawdle over the dishwashing, and Percy was a good second. +Therefore, those two still had work on their hands when Bess sighted a motor +boat coming swiftly toward their camp from the direction of Gannet Island.</p> + +<p>“Now somebody’s going to butt in and bother us,” declared +Bess. “It can’t be the Busters, I s’pose?”</p> + +<p>“That’s exactly who it is!” cried Wyn, delightedly. +“That’s the <i>Happy Day</i>. Dave said if his cousin, Frank Dumont, +could come up here, he would bring his father’s motor boat. And he must +have come yesterday when we were busy and did not see him.”</p> + +<p>“Hurrah!” cried Frank. “A motor boat beats a canoe all to +pieces.”</p> + +<p>“The Busters are aboard, all right,” sighed Bess, after another +look. “Now we’ll have a noisy time.”</p> + +<p>“Now there’ll be something doing!” quoth Frank. +“That’s the trouble with a crowd of girls. After they have played +‘Ring Around the Rosy’ and ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’ they +don’t know another living thing to do except to sit down and look prim and +be prosy. But with boys it’s different. There’s something doing all +the time.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117'></a>117</span>“You +should have been a boy, Frank,” declared Bess, with some disgust.</p> + +<p>“If I was one, I’d be hanging around your house all the time, +Bessie mine,” laughed the other, hugging the boy-hater.</p> + +<p>“Get away! I’d have Patrick turn the hose on you if you +did!” cried Bess, in mock wrath.</p> + +<p>But secretly, Miss Lavine, as well as her mates, was glad of the break in the +quiet affairs of Green Knoll Camp made by the appearance of Dave Shepard and his +spirited chums.</p> + +<p>“Oh, crackey, girls! you ought to see our camp! We’ve got a +regular pirates’ cave,” declared Ferdinand Roberts.</p> + +<p>“Did your stores get wet in that awful storm?” demanded Wyn from +the top of the knoll.</p> + +<p>“Not much. We managed to cover them with the canvas. And now +we’ve cleaned out the cave and it’s great. All we need is some +captives to take over there and chain to the rocks,” laughed Dave.</p> + +<p>“And fatten ’em up till they’re fit to eat,” drawled +Tubby Blaisdell.</p> + +<p>“Stop it, Tub!” cried one of his mates. “We’re not +going to play cannibals, but pirates.”</p> + +<p>“Well, in either case,” declared Bess, “you will not get +captives at Green Knoll Camp.”</p> + +<p>“Is that what you call this pretty hillock?” <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_118'></a>118</span> cried Dave. “Well, it <i>is</i> a +beauty spot! And how nice you girls have made everything. Why! you don’t +need any boys around at all.”</p> + +<p>“That’s what I’ve always told them,” murmured Bess. +“They’re only a nuisance.”</p> + +<p>“We came over to see if we could help you,” continued Dave. +“Here’s my cousin, Frank Dumont, girls. Some of you know him, +anyway. This is his motor boat, and if there really is nothing we can do to help +you here, why, Frank wants to take you all–with Mrs. Havel, if she is +agreeable–for a trip around the lake. We’ve got supplies aboard and +we’ll stop somewhere and make a picnic dinner.”</p> + +<p>“Goody!” cried Mina. “Then we will not have to make dinner +here, Bess.”</p> + +<p>“Agreed!” announced Grace. “There will be no more dishes to +wash until evening, then.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I don’t know,” Dave said, slowly. “Of course +we like to have you girls go along; but usually girls do the grub-getting and +dishwashing on a picnic.”</p> + +<p>“Nothing doing, then,” declared Frank, laughing at him. +“This crowd of girls are going as invited guests, or not at all. We +promise to be ornamental, but not useful.”</p> + +<p>“You’re ornamental, all right, in those blouses and +bloomers,” declared Ferd, for the girls had <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_119'></a>119</span> discarded skirts about the camp, and +felt much more free and comfortable than they usually did.</p> + +<p>“If worse comes to worst,” said Mrs. Havel, smiling, +“<i>I</i> will be the camp drudge, boys, for I want to see the lake shore +in panorama.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, let ’em come,” drawled Tubby, still lying on his back +on the little deck of the <i>Happy Day</i>. “They’ll get hungry some +time and <i>have</i> to cook for us.”</p> + +<p>And so, amid much bustle, and laughter, and raillery, the girls of Green +Knoll Camp joined the boys of Cave-in-the-Wood Camp in the motor boat for a trip +around the big lake.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120'></a>120</span><a id='link_11'></a>CHAPTER XI<br /><span class='h2fs'>WHERE THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED</span></h2> + +<p>“And where is Professor Skillings?” asked Mrs. Havel, as the +well-laden launch drew away from the little natural landing which defended one +end of the girls’ bathing beach at Green Knoll Camp.</p> + +<p>“Bless your heart, ma’am,” said Ferdinand Roberts, +laughing, “the old gentleman is trying to figure out one of Tubby’s +unanswerable arguments–that is, I believe, what you’d call +it.”</p> + +<p>“One of Tubby’s unanswerable arguments?” cried Wyn. +“For pity’s sake! what can that be?”</p> + +<p>“Why, at breakfast this morning the professor got to ‘dreaming,’ +as he sometimes does. He tells us lots of interesting things when he begins +talking that way; but sometimes, if we are in a hurry to get away, we have to +put the stopper in,” chuckled Ferd.</p> + +<p>“Tubby usually does it. Tubby really <i>is</i> good for something +beside eating and sleeping, girls–you wouldn’t believe +it!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121'></a>121</span>“You +<i>do</i> surprise us,” admitted Bess Lavine, cuttingly.</p> + +<p>“All right. But just wait and listen. We wanted to get away early and +come over here after you,” said Ferd. “And the professor began to +give us one of his talks. This time it was on literature. By and by he says:</p> + +<p>“‘We are told that it took, Gray, author of ‘An Elegy Written in a +Country Churchyard,’ seven years to write that famous poem.”</p> + +<p>“‘Gee!’ exclaimed Tubby. ‘If he’d only known stenography +how much better off he’d been.’</p> + +<p>“‘Ahem! how do you prove that, Mr. Blaisdell?’ inquired the +professor, quite amazed.</p> + +<p>“‘Why, we took that as a lesson in the shorthand class of the +Commercial Department last spring,’ said Tubby, ‘and some of the real good +ones could do Gray’s Elegy, from dictation, in seven minutes. See what +Gray would have saved if he’d known shorthand!’</p> + +<p>“And that completely shut up the professor,” said Ferd, as the +laughter broke out. “He hasn’t recovered from the shock +yet.”</p> + +<p>The <i>Happy Day</i> was turned toward the Forge first, skirting the shore +all the way. That brought them, of course, close to Jarley’s Landing. +Polly was just pushing out in a little skiff.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122'></a>122</span>Wyn and Frank +waved to her; but the other girls did not know her, of course, and only watched +the boatman’s daughter curiously.</p> + +<p>“How well she rows!” exclaimed Percy.</p> + +<p>“Say! but she’s a fine looking girl,” said Dave, earnestly. +“What handsome arms she’s got.”</p> + +<p>“Handsome is as handsome does,” remarked Bess, snappishly.</p> + +<p>“She’s as brown as an Indian,” observed Mina.</p> + +<p>“That doesn’t hurt her,” declared Dave, stoutly. “Is +<i>she</i> the girl you were speaking about, Wyn?”</p> + +<p>“She is Polly Jarley, and she is my friend,” responded Wynifred, +quietly. “And I believe her to be as good as she is beautiful.”</p> + +<p>“Then there are wings sprouting under her blouse,” laughed Frank; +“for there’s no girl <i>I</i> ever saw who could hold a candle to +Polly for right down beauty.”</p> + +<p>“She looks so sad,” said Mina, softly.</p> + +<p>“Why shouldn’t she be sad?” Wyn demanded, “with +everybody talking about her father the way they do?”</p> + +<p>“Come, girls!” commanded Mrs. Havel. “Don’t gossip. +Find some other topic of conversation.”</p> + +<p>“Ha! quite so,” cried Frank, with a grimace upon her own homely +face. “A girl may be as <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_123'></a>123</span> pretty as a picture and spoil it all by an ugly +frame of mind. How’s <i>that</i> for a spark thrown from the +wheel?”</p> + +<p>“Stand back, audience!” exclaimed Dave. “Something like +that is likely to happen any minute.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t really see how the old professor gets on with you boys +at all,” remarked Bessie Lavine, with a sigh. “You’d worry the +life out of an angel.”</p> + +<p>“But Professor Skillings is <i>not</i> an angel–thanks be!” +exclaimed Dave.</p> + +<p>“He’s a good old scout!” drawled Tubby.</p> + +<p>“He just hasn’t forgotten what it is to be a boy,” began +Ferd.</p> + +<p>“But, goodness me!” cried Frankie. “He’s forgotten +about everything else, at some time or other; hasn’t he?”</p> + +<p>“Not what he’s learned out of books and from observation,” +declared Dave. “But my goodness! he <i>is</i> absent-minded. Yesterday a +couple of us fellows chopped up a good heap of firewood. We don’t have a +fancy stove like you girls, but just an out-of-doors fireplace. After supper the +dear old prof, said he’d wash the dishes, and we dumped all the pots and +pans together and–what do you think?”</p> + +<p>“Couldn’t think,” drawled Frank. “I’m too <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124'></a>124</span> lazy. Tell us without +making your story so complicated.”</p> + +<p>“Why, we found he had carried an armful of firewood down to the shore +and was industriously swashing the sticks up and down in the water, thinking he +was washing the supper dishes.”</p> + +<p>With similar conversation, and merry badinage, the journey around Lake +Honotonka progressed. The shores of the lake, in full summer dress, were +beautiful. There was an awning upon the motor boat, so the rapidly mounting sun +did not trouble the party. But it <i>was</i> hot at noonday, and through +Dave’s glasses they could see that the sails on the mill behind Windmill +Farm were still. There wasn’t air enough stirring, even at that height, to +keep the arms in motion, and down here on the water the temperature grew +baking.</p> + +<p>They ran into a cool cove and went ashore for dinner. Nobody wanted anything +hot, and so, as there was a splendid spring at hand, they made lemonade and ate +sandwiches of potted chicken and hard-boiled eggs which the boys had been +thoughtful enough to bring along. The girls had crisp salad leaves to go with +the chicken, too, and some nice mayonnaise. Altogether even Tubby was willing to +pronounce the “cold bite” satisfying.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125'></a>125</span>“And +I’m no hypocrite,” declared the fat youth, earnestly. “When I +say a thing I mean it.”</p> + +<p>“What <i>is</i> your idea of a hypocrite, Tubby?” demanded Wyn, +laughing.</p> + +<p>“A boy who comes to school smiling,” replied Tubby, promptly.</p> + +<p>After a while a little breeze ruffled the surface of the lake again and the +<i>Happy Day</i> was made ready for departure. They continued then toward the +west, where lay the preserve known as Braisely Park, in which there were at +least a dozen rich men’s lodges. They were all in sight from the +lake–at some point, at least. Each beautiful place had a water privilege, +and the landings and boathouses were very picturesque. There was a whole fleet +of craft here, too, ranging in size from a cedar canoe to a steam yacht. The +latter belonged to Dr. Shelton, the man who had accused John Jarley of stealing +the motor boat <i>Bright Eyes</i> and the five thousand dollars’ worth of +silver images from the ruined temples of Yucatan.</p> + +<p>“And of course,” said Wyn, warmly, “that is nonsense. For +if Polly and her father had done such a thing, they would turn the silver into +money; wouldn’t they, and stop living in poverty?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126'></a>126</span>“Well, it +looks mighty funny where that boat and all could have gone,” Bessie +remarked.</p> + +<p>“If she sank as quickly as he says, the wreck must lie off Gannet +Island somewhere,” remarked Dave, reflectively.</p> + +<p>“Oh! I wish we could find it,” commented Wyn.</p> + +<p>“If it ever sank at all,” sneered Bessie.</p> + +<p>But it was almost impossible to quarrel with Wyn Mallory. Frank would have +“got hot” a dozen times at Bess while the party chanced to discuss +the Jarleys and their troubles. But the captain of the Go-Ahead Club was +patient.</p> + +<p>Bye and bye–and after mid-afternoon–the <i>Happy Day</i> came +around to the west end of Gannet Island. Up among the trees a glint of white +betrayed the presence of the boys’ tent. In a little sheltered cove below +the site of Cave-in-the-Wood Camp, danced the fleet of canoes.</p> + +<p>Nothing would do but the girls and Mrs. Havel must go ashore and see the cave +and the camp.</p> + +<p>“And we can have tea,” said Ferd. “How’s that, girls? +Professor Skillings has got a whole canister of best gunpowder in his private +stores–and there he is on that log, examining specimens.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” cried Frankie, “tea isn’t going to +satisfy the gnawing of <i>my</i> appetite.”</p> + +<p>“How about a fish-fry?” demanded Dave, <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_127'></a>127</span> swerving the motor boat suddenly away +from the landing.</p> + +<p>“Where’ll you get your fish?” cried Percy Havel.</p> + +<p>“In the fish store at Meade’s Forge,” scoffed Ferdinand +Roberts.</p> + +<p>“That’s too far to run for supper–and back again–this +afternoon, boys,” said Mrs. Havel.</p> + +<p>“Just you wait,” cried Dave. “I caught sight of something +just now–there she is!”</p> + +<p>The <i>Happy Day</i> rounded a wooded point of the island. Near the shore +floated Polly Jarley’s skiff and Polly was just getting up her anchor.</p> + +<p>“She’s been fishing all day!” exclaimed Wyn.</p> + +<p>“And I’ll wager she’s got a fine mess of perch,” said +Dave. “Hi, Miss Jarley!” he shouted. “Hold on a +minute.”</p> + +<p>Polly had heard the chugging of the motor boat. Now she stood up suddenly and +waved both hands in some excitement.</p> + +<p>“What does she want?” demanded Bess.</p> + +<p>“Get out! farther out!” the boatman’s daughter shouted, her +clear voice echoing from the wooded heights of the island. “Danger +here!”</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with her?” demanded Bess again. +“Is there a submarine mine sunk here?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128'></a>128</span>But Dave veered +off, taking a wider course from the shore.</p> + +<p>“What is the matter, Polly?” shouted Wyn, standing up and making +a megaphone of her hands.</p> + +<p>“Snags!” replied the other girl. “Here’s where father +ran Dr. Shelton’s boat on a root. The shallow water here is full of them. +Look out”</p> + +<p>“Say!” cried Frank Dumont “We don’t want to sink the +old <i>Happy Day</i>.”</p> + +<p>“So <i>this</i> is where the accident happened; is it?” observed +Wyn, looking around at the shores of the little cove and the contour of the +island’s outline.</p> + +<p>“Humph!” snapped Bessie Lavine, sitting down quickly. “I +don’t believe there was any accident at all. It was all a +story.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129'></a>129</span><a id='link_12'></a>CHAPTER XII<br /><span class='h2fs'>AN OVERTURN</span></h2> + +<p>Dave Shepard had stopped the motor boat land now he hailed the pretty girl in +the skiff.</p> + +<p>“I say, Miss Jarley! did you have any luck?”</p> + +<p>“I’ve got a good string of white perch. They love to feed among +these stumps,” returned Polly.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Polly Jolly! sell us some; will you?” cried Wyn, eagerly. +“We’re so hungry.”</p> + +<p>“Do, do!” chorused several of the other girls and boys aboard the +<i>Happy Day</i>.</p> + +<p>Polly, smiling, held up a long withe on which wriggled at least two dozen +silvery fish. “Aren’t they beauties?” she demanded. +“Wait! I’ll row out.”</p> + +<p>She had already raised her anchor. Now she sat down, seized the short oars, +and plunged them into the water. How she could row! Even Bessie Lavine murmured +some enthusiastic praise of the boatman’s daughter.</p> + +<p>Her skiff shot alongside the motor boat. She caught the gunwale, and then +held up the string of fish again.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130'></a>130</span>“How much, +Miss Jarley?” asked Dave.</p> + +<p>“Half a dollar. Is that too much?”</p> + +<p>“It looks too little; but I suppose you know what you can get for them +at the Forge,” he said.</p> + +<p>“And this saves me rowing down there,” returned the brown girl, +smiling and blushing under the scrutiny of so many eyes.</p> + +<p>Wyn leaned over the rail, took the fish, and kissed Polly on her brown +cheek.</p> + +<p>“Dreadfully glad to see you, dear,” she declared. +“Won’t you come over to the camp to-morrow and show us girls +where–and how–to fish, too? We’re crazy for a fishing +trip.”</p> + +<p>“Why–if you want me?” said Polly, her fine eyes slowly +taking in the group of girls aboard the motor boat.</p> + +<p>All looked at her in a friendly way save Bessie, and she had her back to the +girl.</p> + +<p>“I’ll come,” said Polly, blushing again; and then she +pocketed, the piece of money Dave gave her, and pushed off a bit.</p> + +<p>“Is this really where your father came so near losing his life, +Polly?” asked Wyn, seriously.</p> + +<p>“Yes, Miss Wyn. Right yonder. It was so thick he could not see the +shore. A limb of that tree yonder–you can see where it was broken off; see +the scar?”</p> + +<p>There was a long yellow mark high up on the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_131'></a>131</span> tree trunk overhanging the pool where Polly had +been fishing.</p> + +<p>“That limb brushed father out of the boat just as she struck. The snag +must have torn a big hole in the bottom of the <i>Bright Eyes</i>. Lightened by +his going overboard, she shot away–somewhere–toward the middle of +the lake, perhaps. He knows that he gave the wheel a twirl just as he went +overboard and that must have driven the nose of the boat around.</p> + +<p>“She shot away into the fog. He never saw or heard of her again. We +paddled about for a week afterward–the bateau men and I–and we +couldn’t find it. Poor father was abed, you see, for a long time and could +not help.”</p> + +<p>“All a story, <i>I</i> believe,” whispered Bess, to Mina.</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t!” begged the tender-hearted girl.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Polly heard this aside. She plunged her oars into the water again and +the skiff shot away. She only nodded when they sang out “Good-bye” +to her.</p> + +<p>The <i>Happy Day</i> carried the party quickly back to the cove under the +hill on which Cave-in-the-Wood Camp had been established. The girls and boys +landed and were met by Professor Skillings–who could be a very gallant man +indeed, where ladies were concerned. He helped Mrs. Havel <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_132'></a>132</span> out of the motor boat, which Dave had +brought alongside of a steep bank, where the water was deep, and which made a +good landing place.</p> + +<p>“My dear Mrs. Havel! I am charmed to see you again,” said the +professor. “You are comfortably situated over there on the shore, I +hope?”</p> + +<p>“My girls are as successful in making me comfortable as are your boys +in looking after you, I believe, Professor Skillings,” returned the lady, +laughing.</p> + +<p>“More so–I have no doubt! More so,” admitted the +professor.</p> + +<p>“Treason! treason!” shouted Dave Shepard.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with you?” demanded Wyn, who had hopped +ashore behind the chaperone.</p> + +<p>“Professor Skillings is going back on us, boys,” declared +Dave.</p> + +<p>“Why, Professor!” cried Ferdinand. “Where would you find in +all the five zones such a set of boys as we-uns?”</p> + +<p>“Five zones? Correct, my boy,” declared the professor, seriously. +“But name those five zones; will you, please?”</p> + +<p>“Sure!” wheezed Tubby, before Ferd could reply. “Temperate, +Intemperate, Canal, Torrid, and Ozone.”</p> + +<p>“Goodness gracious, Agnes!” gasped Dave. <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_133'></a>133</span> “Can you beat Tubby when he lays +himself out to be real erudite?” while the others–even the professor +and Mrs. Havel–could not forbear to chuckle.</p> + +<p>But Dave and Ferd got busy at once while the others laughed, and chaffed, and +looked over the boys’ camping arrangements. Dave was cook and Ferd made +and fed the fire. These boys had all the approved Scout tricks for making fire +and preparing food–they could have qualified as first-class scouts.</p> + +<p>Ferd started for an armful of wood he had cut down at the bottom of the steep +bank and suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, he slipped, his feet pointed +heavenward, and he skated down the bank upon the small of his back.</p> + +<p>“My goodness me!” exclaimed Frank Cameron. “Did you see +that?”</p> + +<p>“Sure,” said Dave, amid the laughter of the crowd. “Poor +Ferdy! the whole world is against him!”</p> + +<p>“You bet it is,” growled Ferd, picking himself up slowly at the +bottom of the bank. “And it’s an awful hard world at +that.”</p> + +<p>“Come on! Come on!” whined Tubby Blaisdell. “Aren’t +you ever going to get supper? You’re wasting time.”</p> + +<p>Dave was expertly cleaning fish. Wyn ran to his <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_134'></a>134</span> help, finding the flour, +cracker-crumbs, and salt pork. The pan was already heating over the blaze that +the unfortunate Ferdinand had started in the fireplace.</p> + +<p>“If you’re so blamed hungry,” said Dumont to the wailing +Tubby, “start on the raw flour. It’s filling, I’ll be +bound.”</p> + +<p>“Say! I don’t just want to get filled. I want to enjoy what I +eat. I could be another Nebuchadnezzar and eat grass, if it was just +<i>filling</i> I wanted.”</p> + +<p>“Ha!” cried Dave. “Tubby is as particular as the Western +lawyer–a perfectly literal man–who entered a restaurant where the +waiter came to him and said:</p> + +<p>“‘What’ll you ’ave, sir? I ’ave frogs’ legs, deviled +kidneys, pigs’ feet, and calves’ brains.’</p> + +<p>“‘You look it,’ declared the lawyer man. ‘But what is that to me? +I have come here to eat–don’t tell me your +misfortunes.’”</p> + +<p>Amid much laughter and chaffing they finally sat down to the +fish-fry–and if there is anything more toothsome than perch, fresh from +the water, and fried crisply in a pan with salt pork over the hot coals of a +campfire, “the deponent knoweth not,” as Frank Cameron put it.</p> + +<p>Then Tubby got his banjo, Dumont his mandolin, Dave his ocarina, and they +sang, and played, and told jokes, until a silver crescent moon rising <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135'></a>135</span> over the lake warned +them that the hour was growing late. The feminine visitors then boarded the +<i>Happy Day</i> and under the escort of Dave and Ferdinand to work the boat, +the girls and their chaperone made the run back to Green Knoll Camp, giving the +cove where Polly Jarley had caught the perch a wide berth.</p> + +<p>Dave insisted upon going ashore at Green Knoll and searching the camp +“for possible burglars,” as he laughingly said.</p> + +<p>“Do, <i>do</i> look under my bed, Dave!” squealed Frank, in mock +distraction. “I’ve always expected to find a man under my +bed.”</p> + +<p>“But it was real nice of him, just the same,” admitted Mina +Everett, when the <i>Happy Day</i> had chugged away. “I feel a whole lot +better now that he has beaten up the camp.”</p> + +<p>On the next morning Grace and Percy were not allowed to lag over the +breakfast dishes till all hours.</p> + +<p>“This shall be no lazy girls’ camp,” declared Mrs. Havel. +“The quicker you all get your tasks done, the better. Then you can have +games, and go fishing, and otherwise enjoy yourselves.”</p> + +<p>The fish-fry they had enjoyed at Cave-in-the-Wood Camp the evening before had +given them all an appetite for more, and as Polly Jarley appeared early, +according to promise, Wyn began <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_136'></a>136</span> to bustle around and hunt out the fishing +tackle.</p> + +<p>There probably wasn’t a girl in the crowd who was afraid to put a worm +on a hook, save Mina. She owned up to the fact that they made her +“squirmy” and she hated to see live bait on a hook.</p> + +<p>“But that’s what we have to use for lake fish–or river +fish, either,” Wyn told her. “You’re not going to be much good +to this fishing party.”</p> + +<p>“I know it, Wynnie. And I sha’n’t go,” said the timid +one. “Mrs. Havel is not going fishing, and I can stay with her.”</p> + +<p>“You’ll have company,” snapped Bessie Lavine. +“I’m sure <i>I’m</i> not going,” and she said it with +such a significant look at Polly Jarley, who had come ashore, that the +boatman’s daughter, as well as the other girls, could not fail to +understand <i>why</i> she made the declaration.</p> + +<p>“Why, Bess Lavine!” exclaimed Frankie, the outspoken.</p> + +<p>Polly’s face had flushed deeply, then paled. Bess had avoided her +before; but now she had come out openly with her animosity.</p> + +<p>“Is your name Miss Lavine?” asked the boatman’s daughter, +her voice quivering with emotion.</p> + +<p>“What if it is?” snapped Bess.</p> + +<p>“Then I guess I know why you speak to me so―”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_137'></a>137</span>“Don’t flatter yourself, Miss! I +don’t care to speak to you,” said Bess.</p> + +<p>“Nor do I care to have anything to do with you,” said Polly, +plucking up a little spirit herself under this provocation. “You are Henry +Lavine’s daughter. I am not surprised at your speech and actions. He has +done all he could to hurt my father’s reputation for years–and you +seem to be just like him.”</p> + +<p>“Hurt your father’s reputation–Bosh!” cried Bess. +“You can’t spoil a―”</p> + +<p>But here Wyn Mallory came to the rescue.</p> + +<p>“Stop, Bess! Don’t you pay any attention to what she says, Polly. +If this quarrel goes on, Bess, I shall tell Mrs. Havel immediately. You come +with us, Polly; if Bessie doesn’t wish to go fishing, she can remain at +camp. Come, girls!”</p> + +<p>Bess and Mina remained behind.</p> + +<p>“I told you how ’twould be, Miss Wyn,” said Polly, her eyes +bright and hard and the angry flush in her cheek making her handsomer than ever. +“I shall only make trouble among your friends.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t notice any of the rest of us running up the red flag; +do you?” interposed Frank Cameron. “Bess’s crazy.”</p> + +<p>“The Lavines have been our worst enemies–worse than Dr. +Shelton,” said Polly, with half a <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_138'></a>138</span> sob. “Mr. Lavine is up here at the lake in +the spring and fall, usually, and he will always talk to anybody who will listen +about his old trouble with father. And he is an influential man.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you cry a tear about it!” exclaimed Frank, wiping +her own eyes angrily.</p> + +<p>Wyn had put a comforting arm over the shoulder of the boatman’s +daughter. “We’ll just forget it, my dear,” she said, +gently.</p> + +<p>But it was not so easy to forget–not so easy for Polly, at least, +although the other girls treated her as nicely as they could. Her face remained +sad, and she could not respond to their quips and sallies as the fleet of four +canoes and Polly’s skiff got under weigh.</p> + +<p>Polly pulled strongly along the shore in her light craft; but of course the +canoes could have left her far behind had the girls so wished. Their guide +warned them finally against loud talking and splashing, and soon they came to a +quiet cove where the trees stood thickly along the lake shore, and the water was +not much ruffled by the morning breeze.</p> + +<p>Polly had brought the right kind of bait for perch, and most of the girls of +the Go-Ahead Club had no difficulty in arranging their rods and lines and +casting for the hungry fish. Perch, “shiners,” roaches, and an +occasional “bullhead” began to <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_139'></a>139</span> come into the canoes. These latter scared some of +the girls; but they were better eating than any of the other fish and both Wyn +and Frank, as well as Polly, knew how to take them off the hook without getting +“horned.”</p> + +<p>Polly did not remain with them more than an hour. She was sure the girls +would get all the fish they would want right at this spot, and so, excusing +herself, she rowed back to the landing.</p> + +<p>“It’s a shame!” exclaimed Frank, the minute she was out of +hearing. “I don’t see what possesses Bess to be so mean.”</p> + +<p>“I am sorry,” rejoined Wyn. “Polly will not come to the +camp again–I can see that.”</p> + +<p>“A shame!” cried Percy. “And she seems such a nice +girl.”</p> + +<p>“Bessie ought to be strapped!” declared Frank.</p> + +<p>“I am sure Polly seems just as good as we are,” Grace remarked. +“I don’t see why Bess has to make herself so +objectionable.”</p> + +<p>“She should be punished for it,” declared Percy.</p> + +<p>“Turn the tables on her,” suggested Frank. “If she will not +have anything to do with Polly, let’s give <i>her</i> the cold +shoulder.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Wyn, firmly. “That would be <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_140'></a>140</span> adding fuel to the flames–and +would be unfair to Bess.”</p> + +<p>“Well, Bess is unfair to your Polly Jolly,” said Frankie.</p> + +<p>“Two wrongs never yet made a right,” said the captain of the +Go-Ahead Club.</p> + +<p>“Well!”</p> + +<p>“Bessie is a member of our club. She has greater rights at Green Knoll +Camp than Polly. It is true Polly will not come again, unless Bessie is more +friendly. The thing, then is to convince Bess that she is wrong.”</p> + +<p>“Well!” exclaimed Frank again. “I’d like to see you +do it.”</p> + +<p>“I hope you will see me,” returned Wyn, placidly. “Or, at +least, I hope you will see Bessie’s mind changed, whether by my efforts, +or not. Oh, dear! it’s so much easier to get along pleasantly in this +world if folks only thought so. Query: Why is a grouch?”</p> + +<p>Percy suddenly uttered a yell and almost plunged out of her canoe. She had +whipped in her line and there was a small eel on the hook.</p> + +<p>It is really wonderful what an excited eel can do in a canoe with a girl as +his partner in crime! Mr. Eel tangled up Percy’s line in the first place +until it seemed as though somebody must have been playing cat’s cradle +with it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141'></a>141</span>Percy shrieked +and finally bethought her to throw the whole thing overboard–tangled line, +rod, and Mr. Eel. In his native element, the slippery chap in some mysterious +way got off the hook; but the linen line was a mess, and that stopped the +fishing for that morning.</p> + +<p>They had a nice string, however, and when the odor of the frying fish on the +outdoor fire began to spread about Green Knoll Camp, Frank declared:</p> + +<p>“The angels flying overhead must stop to sniff–that smell is so +heavenly!”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense, child!” returned Grace. “That thing you see ’way +up there isn’t an angel. It’s a fish-hawk.”</p> + +<p>There were letters to take to the Forge that afternoon, and the girls all +expected mail, too. But after the fishing bout, and the heavy dinner they ate, +not many of the Go-Aheads cared to paddle to town.</p> + +<p>“The duty devolves on your captain,” announced Wyn, +good-naturedly. “Of course, if anybody else wants to go +along―”</p> + +<p>“Don’t all speak at once,” yawned Frank, and rolled over in +the shade of the beech.</p> + +<p>“It’s a shame! I’ll go with you,” said Bessie Lavine, +getting up with alacrity.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142'></a>142</span>“All +right, Bess,” said Wyn, cheerfully. “I am glad to have you +go.”</p> + +<p>The other girls had been a little distant to Bess since their return from the +fishing trip; but not Wyn. She had given no sign that she was annoyed by +Bessie’s demeanor towards Polly Jarley.</p> + +<p>Nor did she “preach” while she and Bess paddled to the Forge. +That was not Wynifred Mallory’s way. She knew that, in this case, taking +Bess to task for her treatment of Polly would do only harm.</p> + +<p>Bess had probably offered to come with Wyn for the special purpose of finding +opportunity to argue the case with the captain of the club. But Wyn gave her no +opening.</p> + +<p>The girls got to the Forge, did their errands, and started back in the +canoes. Not until they got well out into the lake did they notice that there +were angry clouds in the northwest. And very soon the sun became overcast, while +the wind whipped down upon them sharply.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear, me!” cried Bess. “Had we better turn back, +Wyn?”</p> + +<p>“We’re about as far from the Forge as we are from Green Knoll +Camp,” declared the other girl.</p> + +<p>“Then let’s run ashore―”</p> + +<p>But they had struck right out into the lake from the landing, and it was a +long way to land–even <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_143'></a>143</span> to the nearest point. While they were discussing +the advisability of changing their course, there came a lull in the wind.</p> + +<p>“Maybe we’ll get home all right!” cried Bess, and the two +bent to their paddles again, driving the canoes toward distant Green Knoll.</p> + +<p>And almost at once–her words had scarcely passed–the wind whipped +down upon them from a different direction. The surface of the lake was agitated +angrily, and in a minute the two girls were in the midst of a whirlpool of +jumping waves.</p> + +<p>In ordinary water the canoes were safe enough. But when Bess tried to paddle, +a wave caught the blade and whirled the canoe around. She was up-set before she +could scream.</p> + +<p>And in striving to drive her own craft to her friend’s assistance, Wyn +Mallory was caught likewise in a flaw, and she, too, plunged into the lake, +while both canoes floated bottom upward.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144'></a>144</span><a id='link_13'></a>CHAPTER XIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>A SERIOUS ADVENTURE</span></h2> + +<p>Wyn Mallory was a pretty cool-headed girl; nor was this the first time she +had been in an accident of this nature.</p> + +<p>Naturally, in learning to handle the light cedar craft as expertly as they +did, the members of the Go-Ahead Club had much experience. While the weather was +good the girls plied their paddles up and down the Wintinooski, but seldom was +the river as rough as this open lake in which Wyn and Bessie Lavine had been so +unexpectedly overturned.</p> + +<p>“Oh! am I not the unluckiest girl that–that ever happened?” +wailed Bess, when she came up puffing.</p> + +<p>“N-o-no more than <i>I</i>, Bess,” stammered Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Get your canoe, Wyn!” cried Bess.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes; but we can’t turn them over in this sea. Oh! +isn’t that horrid!” as another miniature wave slapped the captain of +the club in the face and rolled her companion completely over.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145'></a>145</span>Bess lost her +grip on her canoe. The latter floated beyond her reach while Wyn was striving to +get her friend to the surface again.</p> + +<p>“Why! we’re going to be drowned!” shrieked Bess, suddenly +horror-stricken.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you <i>dare</i> lose your nerve,” commanded +Wynifred. “If we lose courage we certainly will be lost.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, but, Wyn―”</p> + +<p>“Oh, but, Bess! Don’t you dare. Here! get hold of the keel of my +canoe.”</p> + +<p>“But it won’t bear us both up,” groaned Bessie Lavine.</p> + +<p>“It’s got to,” declared Wyn. “Have courage; +don’t be afraid.”</p> + +<p>“You needn’t try to tell me you’re not afraid yourself, Wyn +Mallory!” chattered her friend.</p> + +<p>“Of course I am, dear; but I mean, don’t lose your head because +you <i>are</i> afraid,” said Wyn. “Come, now! Paddle with one hand +and cling to the keel with the other. I’ll do the same.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear, me! if we were only not so far from the shore,” +groaned Bess.</p> + +<p>“Somebody may see us and come to our help,” said Wyn, with more +confidence in her tone than she really felt.</p> + +<p>“The canoes couldn’t live in this gale.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_146'></a>146</span>“It’s only a squall.”</p> + +<p>“That’s all very well; but they wouldn’t dare to start out +for us from Green Knoll.”</p> + +<p>“But the boys―”</p> + +<p>“Their camp isn’t in sight of this place, Wyn,” moaned +Bess. “Oh! we <i>will</i> be drowned.”</p> + +<p>But Wyn had another hope. She remembered, just before the overturn, that she +had caught a glimpse of the red and yellow cottage behind Jarley’s +Landing.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Bess!” she gasped. “Perhaps Mr. Jarley will see us. +Perhaps Polly―”</p> + +<p>Another slapping wave came and rolled them and the canoe over. The frail +craft came keel up, level full of water. The least weight upon it now would send +it to the bottom of the lake.</p> + +<p>“Oh, oh!” shrieked Bess, when she found her voice. “What +shall we do now?”</p> + +<p>They could both swim; but the lake was rough. The sudden and spiteful squall +had torn up the surface for many yards around. Yet, as they rose upon one of the +waves, they saw the sun shining boldly in the westward. The squall was scurrying +away.</p> + +<p>“Come on! we’ve got to swim,” urged Wyn.</p> + +<p>“That’s so hard,” wailed Bess, but striking out, +nevertheless, in the way she had been so well taught by the instructor in +Denton. All these girls had been trained in the public school baths.</p> + +<div class='figcenter'> +<a id='link_i3'></a><img src='images/illus3.jpg' id="imgi3" alt='' /> +<p class='center caption'> +THEY COULD BOTH SWIM, BUT THE LAKE WAS ROUGH. <i>Page 146.</i> +</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_147'></a>147</span>“There’s the other canoe,” said +Wyn, hopefully.</p> + +<p>“But we–we don’t want to go that way,” gasped Bess. +“It’s away from land.”</p> + +<p>Now Wyn knew very well that they had scarcely a chance of swimming to the +distant shore. In ordinarily calm weather–yes; but in this rough sea, and +hampered as they were by their bloomers and other clothing–no.</p> + +<p>The two girls swam close together, but Wyn dared not offer her comrade help. +She wanted to, but she feared that if she did so Bess would break down and +become helpless entirely; and Wyn hoped they would get much farther inshore +before that happened.</p> + +<p>The squall had quite gone over and the sun began to shine. It seemed a cruel +thing–to drown out there in the sunlight. And yet the buffeting little +waves, kicked up by the wind-flaw, were so hard to swim through.</p> + +<p>Had the waves been of a really serious size the struggle would have been less +difficult for the two girls. They could have ridden over the big waves and +managed to keep their heads above water; but every once in a while a cross +wavelet would slap their faces, and every time one did so Bess managed to get a +mouthful of water.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148'></a>148</span>“Oh! what +will papa do?” moaned Bess.</p> + +<p>And Wyn knew what the poor girl meant. She was her father’s close +companion and chum. The other girls in the Lavine family were smaller and their +mother was devoted to them; but Bess and Mr. Lavine were pals all the time.</p> + +<p>Bess repeated this exclamation over and over again, until Wyn thought she +should shriek in nervous despair. She realized quite fully that their chance for +life was very slim indeed; but moaning and groaning about it would not benefit +them or change the situation in the slightest degree.</p> + +<p>Wyn kept her head and saved her breath for work. She raised up now and then, +breast high in the water, and tried to scan the shore.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the sun revealed Green Knoll Camp to her–bathing the little +hillock, with the tents upon it, in the full strength of his rays. But it was +quite two miles away.</p> + +<p>Wyn could see no moving figures upon the knoll. Nor could her friends see her +and Bess struggling in the water at that distance. If their overset had not been +sighted, Mrs. Havel and the four other members of the Go-Ahead Club would not be +aware of their peril.</p> + +<p>And, Wyn believed, the swamping of the canoes could only have been observed +through a glass. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149'></a>149</span> +Had anybody along shore been watching the two canoes as the squall struck the +craft and overset them?</p> + +<p>In that possibility, she thought, lay their only hope of rescue.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150'></a>150</span><a id='link_14'></a>CHAPTER XIV<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE REPULSE</span></h2> + +<p>As the squall threatened in the northwest, it had been observed by many on +the shores of Lake Honotonka–and many on the lake itself, as well. Sailing +craft had run for havens. The lake could be nasty at times and there might be +more than a capful of wind in the black cloud that spread so quickly over a sky +that had–an hour before–been of azure.</p> + +<p>Had the two girls from Green Knoll Camp been observed by the watermen as they +embarked in their canoes at Meade’s Forge, they might have been warned +against venturing far from the shore in those cockleshells. But Wynifred and +Bessie had not been observed, so were not warned.</p> + +<p>The squall had come down so quickly that they were not much to be blamed. It +had startled other people on the lake–and those much more used to its +vagaries.</p> + +<p>In a cove on the north shore a small cat-rigged boat had been drifting since +noon-time, its single occupant having found the fishing very good. This <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151'></a>151</span> fisher was the +boatman’s daughter, Polly Jarley.</p> + +<p>She had now a splendid catch and she knew that, if the wind held true, a +sharp run to the westward would bring her to Braisely Park. At some one of the +private landings there her fish would be welcomed–she could get more for +them than she could at the Forge, which was nearer.</p> + +<p>But the squall gathered so fast that she had to put aside the thought of the +run down the lake. The wind would switch about, too, after the squall. That was +a foregone conclusion.</p> + +<p>She waited until the blow was past and then saw that it would be quite +impossible to make the park that afternoon and return to the landing in time for +tea. And if she was later her father would be worried.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jarley did not like to have his girl go out this way and work all day; +but there seemed nothing else to be done this summer. They owed so much at the +stores at the Forge; and the principal and interest on the chattel mortgage must +be found before New Year or they would lose their fleet of boats. And as yet few +campers had come to the lake who wished to hire Mr. Jarley’s boats.</p> + +<p>So by fishing (and none of the old fellows who had fished Honotonka for years +was wiser about the good fishing places than Polly) the girl added from one to +two dollars every favorable <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_152'></a>152</span> day to the family income. Sometimes she was off by +light in one boat or another; but she did not often come to this northern side +of the lake. This cove was at least ten miles from home.</p> + +<p>As the last breath of the squall passed, the wind veered as she had expected, +and Polly, having reeled in her two lines and unjointed the bamboo poles, stowed +everything neatly, raised the anchor, or kedge, and set a hand’s breadth +of the big sail.</p> + +<p>The canvas filled, and with the sheet in one hand and the other on the arm of +the tiller, the girl steered the catboat out of the cove and into the rumpus +kicked up by the passing squall.</p> + +<p>The girls of the Go-Ahead Club would surely have been frightened had they +been aboard the little <i>Coquette</i>, as the catboat was named. She rocked and +jumped, and the spume flew over her gunwale in an intermittent shower. But in +this sea, which so easily swamped the canoes, the catboat was as safe as a +house.</p> + +<p>Polly was used to much rougher weather than this. In the summer Lake +Honotonka was on its best behavior. At other seasons the tempests tore down from +the north and west and sometimes made the lake so terrible in appearance that +even the hardiest bateau man in those parts would not risk himself in a +boat.</p> + +<p>Polly knew, however, that the worst of the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_153'></a>153</span> squall was over. The lake would gradually subside +to its former calm. And the change in the wind was favorable now to a quick +passage either to the Forge or to her father’s tiny landing.</p> + +<p>“Can’t get any fancy price for the fish at Meade’s,” +thought Polly. “I have a good mind to put them in our trap and try again +for Braisely Park to-morrow morning.”</p> + +<p>As she spoke she was running outside the horns of the cove. She could get a +clear sweep now of the lake–as far as it could be viewed from the low +eminence of the boat–and she rose up to see it.</p> + +<p>“Nobody out but I,” she thought. “Ah! all those folk at the +end of the lake ran in when the squall appeared. And the girls and boys over +yonder―”</p> + +<p>She was peering now across the lake ahead of the <i>Coquette’s</i> +nose, toward the little island where was Cave-in-the-Wood Camp, and at Green +Knoll Camp, where the girls from Denton were staying.</p> + +<p>Her face fell as she focused her gaze upon the bit of high, green bank on +which the sun was now shining again so brilliantly. She remembered how badly she +had been treated by Bess Lavine only that morning.</p> + +<p>“I can’t go over there any more,” she muttered. “That +girl will never forget–or let the others <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_154'></a>154</span> forget–that father has been accused of being +a thief. It’s a shame! A hateful shame! And we’re every bit as good +as she is―”</p> + +<p>Her gaze dropped to the tumbling wavelets between her and the distant green +hillock. She was about to resume her seat and catch the tiller, which she had +held steady with her knee.</p> + +<p>But now her breath left her and for a moment she stood motionless–only +giving to the plunge and jump of the <i>Coquette</i> through the choppy +waves.</p> + +<p>“Ah!” she exclaimed again, after a little intake of breath.</p> + +<p>There were two round objects rising and falling in the rough water–and +far ahead. They looked like cocoanuts.</p> + +<p>But a little to one side was a long, black something–a stick of timber +drifting on the current? No! <i>An overturned boat.</i></p> + +<p>There was no mistaking the cocoanut-like objects. They were human heads. Two +capsized people were struggling in the lake.</p> + +<p>Polly, in thirty seconds, was keenly alive to what she must do. There was no +time lost in bewailing the catastrophe, or wondering about the identity of the +castaways.</p> + +<p>Who or whatever they were they must be saved. There was not another boat on +the lake. And the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155'></a>155</span> +swimmers were too far from land to be observed under any conditions.</p> + +<p>The wind was strong and steady. The wavelets were still choppy, but Polly +Jarley never thought of a wetting.</p> + +<p>Up went the sail–up, up, up until the unhelmed catboat lay over almost +on beam ends. The girl took a sailor’s turn of the sheet around the cleat +and then swung all her weight against the tiller, to bring the boat’s head +up. She held the sheet ready to let go if a warning creak from the mast should +sound, or the boat refuse to respond.</p> + +<p>But in half a minute the <i>Coquette</i> righted. It had been a perilous +chance–she might have torn the stick out. The immediate peril was past, +however. The great canvas filled. Away shot the sprightly <i>Coquette</i> with +the wind–a bone in her teeth.</p> + +<p>Now and then she dipped and the spume flew high, drenching Polly. The +boatman’s daughter was not dressed for this rough work, for she was +hatless and wore merely a blouse and old skirt for outside garments. She had +pulled off her shoes and stockings while she fished and had not had time to put +them on again.</p> + +<p>So the flying spray wet her through. She dodged occasionally to protect her +eyes from the spoondrift which slatted so sharply across the deck and <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156'></a>156</span> into the cockpit. The +water gathered in the bottom of the old boat and was soon ankle-deep.</p> + +<p>But Polly knew the craft was tight and that this water could be bailed out +again when she had time. Just now her mind and gaze were fixed mainly upon the +round, bobbing objects ahead.</p> + +<p>For some minutes, although the catboat was traveling about as fast as Polly +had ever sailed, save in a power boat, the girl could not be sure whether the +swamped voyagers were girls or boys. It might be two of the Busters, from Gannet +Island, for all she knew. She had made up her mind that the victims of the +accident were from one camp or the other. There were no other campers as yet on +the shore at this end of the lake.</p> + +<p>Then Polly realized that the heads belonged to girls. She could see the +braids floating out behind. And she knew that they were fighting for their +lives.</p> + +<p>They swam near together; once one of them raised up breast high in the water, +as though looking shoreward. But neither turned back to see if help was coming +from behind.</p> + +<p>With both hands engaged with sheet and tiller Polly could not make a +megaphone to carry her voice; but several times she shouted as loud as she +could:</p> + +<p>“Ahoy! Hold on! I’m coming!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157'></a>157</span>Her voice seemed +flung right back into her face–drowned by the slatting spray. How +viciously that water stung!</p> + +<p>The <i>Coquette</i> was traveling at racing speed; but would she be in +time?</p> + +<p>How long could those two girls bear up in the choppy sea?</p> + +<p>One of the heads suddenly disappeared. Polly shrieked; but she could do +nothing to aid.</p> + +<p>The spray filled her eyes again and, when she had shaken them free, Polly saw +that the other swimmer–the stronger one–had gotten her comrade above +the surface once more.</p> + +<p>Indeed, this one was swimming on her back and holding up the girl who had +gone under. How brave she was!</p> + +<p>The sun shone clear upon the two in the water and Polly recognized Wynifred +Mallory.</p> + +<p>“Wyn! Wynnie! Hold to her! Hold up!” cried the boatman’s +daughter. “I’ll help you!”</p> + +<p>But she was still so far away–it seemed as though the catboat never +<i>would</i> come within hailing distance. But before she turned over in the +water to swim with Bessie’s hand upon her shoulder, the captain of the +Go-Ahead Club beheld the catboat rushing down upon them.</p> + +<p>She could only wave a beckoning hand. She could not cry out. Wyn was +well-nigh breathless, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_158'></a>158</span> and Bessie’s only hope was in her. The +captain of the canoe club had to save her strength.</p> + +<p>Down swooped the catboat. Polly was shouting madly; but not for an instant +did she lose control of the boat or ignore the work she had in hand. She wanted +to encourage Wyn and the other; but she was taking no chances.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she let the sheet run and loosed the halliards. The canvas fluttered +down on the deck with a rustle and crash. The catboat sprang to even keel, but +shot on under the momentum it had gained in swooping down upon the swamped +girls.</p> + +<p>“Wyn! hold hard! <i>I’ve got you!</i>”</p> + +<p>But it was the other girl Polly grasped. Wyn had turned, thrust the +half-drowned Bessie before her, and Polly, leaning over the gunwale of the +tossing boat, seized her by the shoulders.</p> + +<p>In a moment she heaved up, struggled, dragged the other girl forward, and +together rescuer and rescued tumbled flat into the cockpit of the +<i>Coquette</i>.</p> + +<p>Polly shouted again:</p> + +<p>“Wyn! Wyn! I’ll come back for you―”</p> + +<p>“Give me a hand!” cried Wyn, hanging to the rudder. “Polly! +you old darling! If you hadn’t got here when you did―”</p> + +<p>Polly left Bess to her own resources and rushed to the stern. She helped Wyn +clamber into the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159'></a>159</span> +boat. Then she hoisted the sail again, and got way upon the boat. She raised the +canvas only a little, for she had risked all the weight she dared upon the mast +before.</p> + +<p>“Are you all right, Bess?” cried Wyn.</p> + +<p>“I–I’m alive. But, oh! I’m so–so sick,” +gasped Miss Lavine.</p> + +<p>“Brace up, Bess! We’re all right now. Polly has saved +us.”</p> + +<p>“Polly?” cried Bess, sitting up, the better to see the +boatman’s daughter as the latter sat again at the helm. “Oh, +Polly!”</p> + +<p>“You’d better both lie down till we get to the camp. I’ll +take you right there,” said the other girl, briefly.</p> + +<p>“We’d have been–been drowned, Wyn!” gasped Bess.</p> + +<p>“I guess we would. We are still a long way from shore.”</p> + +<p>“And Polly saved us? All alone? How wonderful!”</p> + +<p>But Polly’s face was stern. She scarcely spoke to the two Denton girls +as the <i>Coquette</i> swept across the lake. Wyn told her just how it all +happened and the condition of the two canoes when they lost sight of them.</p> + +<p>“I saw one; maybe the other can be found,” Polly said. +“I’ll speak to father and, if the moon <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_160'></a>160</span> comes up clear bye and bye, we’ll +run out and see if we can recover them.”</p> + +<p>But for Bess she had no word, or look, and when the other put out her hand +timidly and tried to thank her, as they neared the shore, Polly only said:</p> + +<p>“That’s all right. We’re used to helping people who get +overturned. It really is nothing.”</p> + +<p>She would not see Bessie’s hand. The latter felt the repulse and Wyn, +who watched them both anxiously, dared not say a word.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161'></a>161</span><a id='link_15'></a>CHAPTER XV<br /><span class='h2fs'>TROUBLE “BRUIN”</span></h2> + +<p>The other girls and Mrs. Havel were all down on the beach to meet the catboat +and her passengers. To see Wyn and Bessie returning across the lake in the +sailboat, instead of the canoes, forewarned the Go-Aheads that an accident had +happened.</p> + +<p>But although the girls were wet and bedraggled, the captain of the club made +light of the affair.</p> + +<p>“Where are your canoes?”</p> + +<p>“What’s happened?”</p> + +<p>“Who is it with you?”</p> + +<p>“What under the sun did you do–go overboard?”</p> + +<p>Wyn answered all questions in a single sentence:</p> + +<p>“We were capsized and lost the letters and things; but Polly picked us +up and brought us home.”</p> + +<p>Then, amid the excited cries and congratulations, her voice rose again:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_162'></a>162</span>“Isn’t she brave? What do you think of +my Polly Jolly <i>now</i>? Can you blame me for being proud of her?”</p> + +<p>“I tell you wh–what she is!” gasped Bessie. +“She’s the bravest and smartest girl I ever heard of.”</p> + +<p>“Good for you, Bess!” shouted Frank Cameron, helping the +castaways ashore. “You’re coming to your senses.”</p> + +<p>“And–and I’m sorry,” blurted out Bess, “that I +ever treated her so―”</p> + +<p>Polly shoved off the catboat and proceeded to get under way again.</p> + +<p>“Oh, <i>do</i> come ashore, Polly!” begged Grace.</p> + +<p>“I want to hug you, Miss Jarley!” cried Percy.</p> + +<p>“What? All wet as I am now?” returned the boatman’s +daughter, laughing–although the laugh was not a pleasant one. “You +make too much of this matter. We’re used to oversets on the lake. It is +nothing.”</p> + +<p>“You do not call saving two girls’ lives <i>nothing</i>, my +dear–surely?” proposed Mrs. Havel.</p> + +<p>“If I saved them, I am very, very glad of it,” returned Polly, +gravely. “Anybody would be glad of <i>that</i>, of course, But you are +making too much of it―”</p> + +<p>“My father will not think so!” exclaimed the <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_163'></a>163</span> almost hysterical Bess. “When he +learns of this he will not be able to do enough for you―”</p> + +<p>“Your father can do nothing for me, Bessie Lavine!” cried the +boatman’s daughter, with sharpness.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Polly!” said Wyn, holding out her arms to her.</p> + +<p>“He’ll–he’ll <i>want</i> to,” pursued Bess, +eagerly. “Oh! he will! He’d do anything for you +now―”</p> + +<p>“There’s only one thing Henry Lavine can do for me,” cried +Polly, turning an angry face now toward the shore. “He can stop telling +stories about my father. He can be kind to him–be decent to him. I +don’t want anything else–and I don’t want that as pay for +fishing you out of the lake!”</p> + +<p>She had got the sail up again and now the breeze filled it. The +<i>Coquette</i> laid over and slipped away from the shore. Her last words had +silenced all the girls–even Mrs. Havel herself.</p> + +<p>Bess burst into tears. She was quite broken down, and Wyn went off with her +to the tent, her arm over her shoulder, and whispering to her comfortingly.</p> + +<p>“I don’t care. Polly’s served her right,” declared +Frank Cameron.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164'></a>164</span>“I do not +know that Polly can be blamed,” Mrs. Havel observed. “But–but +I wish she was more forgiving. It is not for herself that she speaks, however. +It is for her father.”</p> + +<p>“And I’ll wager he’s just as nice a man as ever was,” +declared Frank. “I’m going to ask <i>my</i> father if he will not do +something for Mr. Jarley.”</p> + +<p>“Do so, Frances,” advised the chaperon. “I think you will +do well.”</p> + +<p>The accident cast a cloud over Green Knoll Camp for the evening. The girls +who had been swamped went to bed and were dosed with hot drinks brewed over the +campfire by Mrs. Havel. And when the boys came over in their fleet for an +evening sing and frolic, they were sent back again to the island almost at +once.</p> + +<p>The boys did not take altogether kindly to this rebuff, and Tubby was heard +to say:</p> + +<p>“Isn’t that just like girls? Because they got a little wet they +must go to bed and take catnip tea, or something, and be quiet. Their nerves are +all unstrung! Gee! wouldn’t that make your ears buzz?”</p> + +<p>“Aw, you’re a doubting Thomas and always will be, Tub,” +said Ferd Roberts. “You never believe what you’re told. You’re +as suspicious as the farmer who went to town and bought <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_165'></a>165</span> a pair of shoes, and when he’d +paid for ’em the clerk says:</p> + +<p>“‘Now, sir, can’t I sell you a pair of shoe trees?’</p> + +<p>“‘Don’t you get fresh with me, sonny,’ says the farmer, his +whiskers bristling. ‘I don’t believe shoes kin be raised on trees any more +’n I believe rubbers grow on rubber trees, or oysters on oyster plants, +b’gosh!’”</p> + +<p>“Well,” snarled the fat youth, as the other Busters laughed, +“the girls are always making excuses. You can never tell what a girl +means, anyway–not by what she <i>says</i>.”</p> + +<p>“You know speech was given us to hide our thoughts,” laughed +Dave.</p> + +<p>“Say! I’ll get square just the same–paddlin’ clear +over here for nothing. Humph! I know that Hedges girl is afraid there’s +bears in the woods? Say, fellers! I’ve <i>got</i> it! Yes, I’ve got +it!”</p> + +<p>When Tubby spoke in this way, and his eyes snapped and he began to look +eager, his mates knew that the fat youth’s gigantic mind was working +overtime, and they immediately gathered around and stopped paddling.</p> + +<p>As Dave said, chuckling, a little later, “trouble was bruin!”</p> + +<p>In the morning the girls found the two lost <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_166'></a>166</span> canoes on the shore below the camp. Polly and her +father had evidently gone out in the evening, after the moon rose, and recovered +them. Neither, of course, was damaged.</p> + +<p>“And we must do something nice to pay them for it!” cried +Grace.</p> + +<p>Bessie was still deeply concerned over Polly’s attitude.</p> + +<p>“I am going to write father at once, and tell him all about it,” +she said. “And I <i>am</i> sorry for the way I treated Polly at first. Do +you suppose she will ever forgive me, Wyn?”</p> + +<p>Just as Wyn had once said in discussing Bessie’s character: when the +latter realized that she was in the wrong, or had been unfair to anyone, she was +never afraid to admit her fault and try to “make it up.” But this +seemed to be a case where it was very difficult for Bessie to “square +herself.”</p> + +<p>The boatman’s daughter had shown herself unwilling to be friendly with +Bess. Nor was Polly, perhaps, to be blamed.</p> + +<p>However, on this particular morning the girls of Green Knoll Camp had +something besides Bessie’s disturbance of mind and Polly Jarley’s +attitude to think about.</p> + +<p>And this “something” came upon them with a suddenness that set +the entire camp in an uproar. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_167'></a>167</span> Grace, the dilatory, was picking berries before +breakfast along the edge of the clearing, and popping them into her mouth as +fast as she could find ripe ones.</p> + +<p>“Come here and help, Grace!” called Percy from the tent where she +was shaking out the heavy blankets. “I’m not going to do all my work +and yours, too.”</p> + +<p>“You come and help <i>me</i>. It’s more fun,” returned +Grace, laughing at her.</p> + +<p>Then the lazy girl turned and reached for a particularly juicy blackberry, in +the clump ahead of her. Percy saw her struck motionless for a second, or two; +then the big girl fairly fell backward, rolled over, picked herself up, and +raced back to the tents, her mouth wide open and her hair streaming in the +wind.</p> + +<p>“What <i>is</i> the matter?” gasped Percy.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Grace! you look dreadful! Tell us, what has happened!” +begged Bessie, as the big girl sank down by the entrance to the tent, her limbs +too weak to bear her farther.</p> + +<p>“What has scared you so, Grace?” demanded Wyn, running up.</p> + +<p>Grace’s eyes rolled, she shut and opened her mouth again several times. +Then she was only able to gasp out the one word:</p> + +<p>“Bear!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168'></a>168</span>The other girls +came crowding around. “What do you mean, Grace?” “Stop trying +to scare us, Grace!” “She’s fooling,” were some of the +cries they uttered.</p> + +<p>But Wyn saw that her friend was really frightened; she was not “putting +it on.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean that it was a <i>real</i> bear?” cried +Frank Cameron.</p> + +<p>“A bear, I tell you!” moaned Grace, rocking herself to and fro. +“I told you they were here in the woods.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” screamed Mina. “What shall we do?”</p> + +<p>“You didn’t <i>see</i> it, Grace?” demanded Wyn, sternly. +“You only heard it.”</p> + +<p>“I saw it, I tell you!”</p> + +<p>“Not really?”</p> + +<p>“Do–do you think I don’t know a bear when I see one?” +demanded Grace. “He–he’ll be right after us―”</p> + +<p>“No. If it was a real, wild bear he would be just as scared at seeing +you as you would be at seeing him,” remarked the decidedly sensible +captain.</p> + +<p>“He–he <i>couldn’t</i> be as scared as I am,” moaned +Grace, with considerable emphasis.</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe there’s a bear within miles and miles of +here!” declared Frank.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169'></a>169</span>“Well! I +declare I hope there isn’t,” cried Bess.</p> + +<p>“I’ll look,” offered Wyn. “Grace just thought she saw +something.”</p> + +<p>“A great, black and brown hairy beast!” moaned Grace. “He +stood right up on his hind legs and stretched out his arms to +me―”</p> + +<p>“Enamored of all your young charms,” giggled Frank.</p> + +<p>“It’s no joke!” gasped the frightened one.</p> + +<p>“It <i>might</i> be a bear, you know,” quavered Mina.</p> + +<p>The breakfast was being neglected. Mrs. Havel was down at the edge of the +lake washing out some bits of lace. She had not heard the rumpus.</p> + +<p>“I’m going to see,” announced Frank, and ran back over the +course Grace had come.</p> + +<p>She reached the berry bushes. She parted them and peered through. She began +to enter the jungle, indeed, in search of bruin.</p> + +<p>And then the girls all heard a sort of snuffling growl–just the sort of +a noise they <i>thought</i> a bear must make. Frank jumped out of those bushes +as though they had become suddenly afire!</p> + +<p>“Wha–what did I tell you?” screamed Grace.</p> + +<p>“He’s there!” groaned Mina.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170'></a>170</span>Then suddenly a +dark object appeared among the saplings and underbrush.</p> + +<p>“Look out, Frank! Run!” cried the other girls, in chorus; but +Miss Cameron needed no urging; she ran with all her might!</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171'></a>171</span><a id='link_16'></a>CHAPTER XVI<br /><span class='h2fs'>TIT FOR TAT</span></h2> + +<p>But instead of returning toward the tents she ran straight across the +clearing. Possibly she did not stop to think where she was going, for she came +against the underbrush again and that terrific growl was once more repeated.</p> + +<p>Frankie stopped as though she had been shot. Right in front of her loomed a +second black, hairy figure.</p> + +<p>She glared around wildly. At the back of the clearing was the opening into +the wood path leading from Windmill Farm down to the boat-landing at John +Jarley’s place. And in that opening, and for an instant, appeared likewise +a threatening form!</p> + +<p>“Come here! Come here, Frank!” shrieked Bess. +“There’s another of them–we’re surrounded.”</p> + +<p>The Cameron girl started again, and let out the last link of speed that there +was in her. She ran straight down to the shore where Mrs. Havel <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172'></a>172</span> just aroused by the +shrieks, was starting to return to camp.</p> + +<p>The other girls piled after her. But Wyn brought up the rear. She looked +around now and then. Three bears! In a place where no bears had been seen for +years and years! Wyn was puzzled.</p> + +<p>“There are bears in the woods, Mrs. Havel!” gasped Grace.</p> + +<p>“Nonsense, child!”</p> + +<p>“I saw ’em. One almost grabbed me,” declared the big +girl.</p> + +<p>“And <i>I</i> saw them, Auntie,” urged Percy Havel.</p> + +<p>“This way! this way!” cried Frank, running along the shore under +the high knoll on which the camp was pitched. “They can’t see us +down here.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Havel was urged along by her niece and Grace. Wyn brought up the rear. +Oddly enough, none of the bears came out of the bushes–that she could +see.</p> + +<p>The girls plunged along the sand, and through the shallow water for several +yards. Here the bushes grew right down to the edge of the lake. Suddenly Wyn +caught sight of something ahead, and uttered a sharp command:</p> + +<p>“Stop! every one of you! Do you hear me, Frank? Stop!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173'></a>173</span>“Oh, dear! +they can eat us here just as well as anywhere,” groaned Grace.</p> + +<p>“Now be quiet!” said Wynifred, in some heat. “We’ve +all been foolish enough. <i>Those were not bears.</i>”</p> + +<p>“Cows, maybe, Wynnie?” asked Mrs. Havel. “But I am quite as +afraid of cows―”</p> + +<p>“Nor cows, either. I guess you wouldn’t have been fooled for a +minute if you had seen them,” said Wyn.</p> + +<p>“What do you mean, Wyn?” cried Frank. “I tell you I saw +them with my own eyes―”</p> + +<p>“Of course you did. So did I,” admitted Wyn. “But we did +not see them right. They are not bears, walking on their hind legs; they are +just boys walking on the only legs they’ve got!”</p> + +<p>“The Busters!” ejaculated Frank.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Wyn! do you think so?” asked Mina, hopefully.</p> + +<p>“Look ahead,” commanded Wyn. “There are the boys’ +canoes. They paddled over here this morning and dressed up in those old +moth-eaten buffalo robes they had over there, on the island, and managed to +frighten us nicely.”</p> + +<p>“That’s it! They played a joke on us,” began Frank, +laughing.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Havel was angry. “They should be <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_174'></a>174</span> sent home for playing such a +trick,” she said, “and I shall speak to Professor Skillings about +it.”</p> + +<p>“Pooh!” said Wyn. “They’re only boys. And of course +they’ll be up to such tricks. The thing to do is to go them one +better.”</p> + +<p>“How, Wyn, how?” cried her mates.</p> + +<p>“I do not know that I can allow this, Wynifred,” began Mrs. +Havel, doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“You wish to punish them; don’t you, Mrs. Havel?”</p> + +<p>“They should be punished–yes.”</p> + +<p>“Then we have the chance,” cried Wyn, gleefully. “You go +back to the camp, Mrs. Havel, and we girls will take their canoes–every +one of them. We’ll call them the trophies of war, and we’ll make the +Busters pay–and pay well for them–before they get their canoes back. +What do you say, girls?”</p> + +<p>“Splendid!” cried Frank. “And they frightened me +so!”</p> + +<p>“Look out for the biscuits, Mrs. Havel, please,” begged Bess. +“I am afraid they will be burned.”</p> + +<p>The lady returned hurriedly to the camp on the top of the hillock. When she +mounted the rise from the shore, there was a circle of giggling youths about the +open fireplace and a pile of moth-eaten buffalo hides near by. Dave was messing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175'></a>175</span> with the Dutch +oven in which Bess had just before put the pan of biscuit for breakfast.</p> + +<p>“Ho, ho!” cried Tubby. “Where are the girls?”</p> + +<p>“Bear hunting, I bet!” cried Ferd Roberts.</p> + +<p>“Good-morning, Mrs. Havel,” said Dave, smiling rather sheepishly. +“I hope we didn’t scare <i>you</i>.”</p> + +<p>“You rather startled me–coming unannounced,” admitted Mrs. +Havel, but smiling quietly. “You surely have not breakfasted so +early?”</p> + +<p>“No. That’s part of the game,” declared another youth. +“We claim forfeit–and in this case take payment in eats.”</p> + +<p>“I am afraid you are more slangy than understandable,” returned +Mrs. Havel. “Did you come for something particular?”</p> + +<p>“Goodness! didn’t you see those girls running?” cried +Ferd.</p> + +<p>“Running? Where to?” queried the chaperone.</p> + +<p>Dave began to look more serious.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps they are running yet!” squealed Tubby, only seeing the +fun of it.</p> + +<p>“Bet they’ve gone for help to hunt the bears,” laughed +another of the reckless youngsters.</p> + +<p>“They’ll get out the whole countryside to find <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176'></a>176</span> ’em,” choked +Ferdinand Roberts. “That’s <i>too</i> rich.”</p> + +<p>“Are you sure the girls didn’t come your way, Mrs. Havel?” +asked Dave, with anxiety.</p> + +<p>“Oh, the girls will be back presently. I came up to see to the biscuit, +Mr. Shepard. About inviting you to breakfast–You know, I am only a guest +of Green Knoll Camp myself. I couldn’t invite you,” said Mrs. Havel, +demurely.</p> + +<p>The boys looked at each other in some surprise and Tubby’s face fell +woefully.</p> + +<p>“Ca-can’t we do something to help you get breakfast, Mrs. +Havel?”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Havel had to hide a smile at that, but she remained obdurate. “I +have really nothing to do with it, Sir Tubby. You must wait for the girls to +come,” she said.</p> + +<p>The boys began whispering together; but they did not move. They had scuttled +over from their own camp early with the express intention of “getting +one” on the girls, and making a breakfast out of it. But now the +accomplishment of their purpose seemed doubtful, and there was a hollow look +about them all that should have made Mrs. Havel pity them.</p> + +<p>That lady, however, remembered vividly how she had run along the shore in +fear of a flock <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177'></a>177</span> of +bears; this was a part of the boys’ punishment for that ill-begotten +joke.</p> + +<p>The biscuit were beginning to brown, the coffee sent off a delicious odor, +and here were eggs ready to drop into the kettle of boiling water for their +four-minute submersion. Besides, there was mush and milk. Every minute the boys +became hungrier.</p> + +<p>“Aren’t the girls ever coming?” sighed Tubby. “They +<i>couldn’t</i> be so heartless.”</p> + +<p>“They haven’t gone far; have they?” queried Dave Shepard. +“We saw their canoes on the beach.”</p> + +<p>Just then the laughter of the girls in the distance broke upon the ears of +those on the hillock. They were approaching along the shore–apparently +from the direction of Jarley’s landing.</p> + +<p>“They don’t seem to have been much scared, after all,” +grumbled Tubby to Ferd.</p> + +<p>“It was a silly thing to do, anyway,” returned young Roberts. +“Suppose we don’t get any breakfast?”</p> + +<p>At this horrid thought the fat youth almost fainted. The girls came in sight, +and at once hailed the boys gaily:</p> + +<p>“Oh! see who’s here!” cried Frank. “What a lovely +surprise!”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it?” said Bess, but with rather a vicious <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178'></a>178</span> snap. “We +couldn’t get along, of course, without having a parcel of boys around. +’Morning, Mr. Shepard.”</p> + +<p>Bess made a difference between Dave and the rest of the Busters, for Dave had +helped her in a serious difficulty.</p> + +<p>“Where’s the professor?” demanded Grace. “Isn’t +he here, too?”</p> + +<p>“He’s having breakfast all by his lonesome over on the +island,” said Ferd, and Tubby groaned at the word “breakfast,” +while Dave added:</p> + +<p>“We–we got a dreadfully early start this morning.”</p> + +<p>“Quite a start–I should say,” returned Wyn, smiling +broadly. “And now you’re hungry, I suppose?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, aren’t we, just?” cried one of the crowd, +hollowly.</p> + +<p>“How about it, Bess? Is there enough for so many more?”</p> + +<p>Bess was already sifting flour for more biscuit. She said: “I’ll +have another panful in a jiffy. Put in the eggs, Mina. We can make a +beginning.”</p> + +<p>“There’s plenty of mush,” said Mina. “That’s +one sure thing.”</p> + +<p>“But we can’t all sit down,” cried Grace.</p> + +<p>“You know, there are but six of these folding <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_179'></a>179</span> seats, and Wyn’s been sitting on +a cracker box ever since we set up the tents.”</p> + +<p>“Feed ’em where they’re sitting,” said Wyn, quickly. +“Beggars mustn’t be choosers.”</p> + +<p>“Jinks! we didn’t treat you like this when you came over to our +camp,” cried Ferd.</p> + +<p>“And we didn’t come over almost before you were up in the +morning,” responded Frank, quickly. “How did you know we had made +our ‘twilights’ at such an unconscionable hour?”</p> + +<p>The girls were all laughing a good deal. Nobody said a word about the +“bear” fright, and the boys felt a little diffidence about broaching +the subject. Evidently their joke had fallen flat.</p> + +<p>But the girls really had no intention of being mean to the six Busters. The +first pan of biscuit came out of the oven a golden brown. Grace and Percy set +them and the bowls of mush on the table, and handed around other bowls and a +pitcher of milk to the circle of boys, sitting cross-legged on the ground like +so many tailors.</p> + +<p>There was honey for the biscuits, too, as well as golden butter–both +from Windmill Farm. The eggs were cooked just right, and there were plenty of +them. Crisp radishes and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes added to the fare.</p> + +<p>“Gee!” sighed Tubby, “doesn’t it take girls <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180'></a>180</span> to live <i>right</i> in +camp? And look at those doughnuts.”</p> + +<p>“I fried them,” cried Mina, proudly. “Mrs. Havel showed me +how, though.”</p> + +<p>“Mrs. Havel, come over to Gannet Island and teach us how to +cook,” cried Dave. “We don’t have anything like +this.”</p> + +<p>“Not a sweetie except what we buy at the Forge–and that’s +baker’s stuff,” complained Tubby.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you think you boys had better be pretty good to +us–if you want to come to tea–or breakfast–once in a +while?” asked Wyn, pointedly.</p> + +<p>“Right!” declared Dave.</p> + +<p>“Got us there,” admitted Ferdinand.</p> + +<p>“<i>I’ll</i> see that they behave themselves, Wyn,” cried +Tubby, with great enthusiasm. “These fellows are too fresh, +anyway―”</p> + +<p>But at this the other boys rose up in their might and pitched upon Master +Blaisdell, rolling him over and over on the grass and making him lose half of +his last doughnut.</p> + +<p>“Now, now, now!” cried Mrs. Havel. “This is no bear-garden. +Try to behave.”</p> + +<p>The boys began to laugh uproariously at this. “What do <i>you</i> know +about a bear-garden, Grace?” Ferd demanded.</p> + +<p>“And wasn’t that growling of Dave’s awe-inspiring?” +cried another.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181'></a>181</span>“And +weren’t <i>you</i> scared, Frank Cameron?” suggested Tubby, grinning +hugely when his mates had let him up. “I never did know you could run so +fast.”</p> + +<p>“Why, pshaw!” responded Frank. “Did you boys really think +you had scared us with those moth-eaten old robes?”</p> + +<p>“How ridiculous!” chimed in Bess. “A boy is usually a good +deal of a bear, I know; but he doesn’t <i>look</i> like one.”</p> + +<p>“And–and there haven’t been any bears in this country +for–for years,” said Grace, though rather quaveringly.</p> + +<p>“Say! what do you know about all this?” demanded Dave, of his +mates.</p> + +<p>“Do you girls mean to say that you weren’t scared pretty near +into fits?” cried one lad.</p> + +<p>“Did we act scared?” laughed Wyn. “I guess we fooled you a +little, eh?”</p> + +<p>“You’re just as much mistaken,” said Frank, “as the +red-headed man was who went to see the doctor because he had indigestion. When +the doctor told him to diet, it wasn’t his hair he meant; but the +red-headed man got mad just the same. Now, you boys―”</p> + +<p>“Aw, come! come!” cried Dave. “You can’t say honestly +you were not scared. You know you were.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182'></a>182</span>“I am +afraid your joke fell flat, Davie,” laughed Wyn. All the girls were +enjoying the boys’ discomfiture. “Of course, I suppose you thought +you deserved your breakfast as a forfeit because you got a trick across on us. +But you’ll have to try again, I am afraid. Just because we ran +doesn’t prove that we did not recognize the combination of a boy and a +buffalo robe.”</p> + +<p>“Aw, now!” cried one of the boys. “What did you run +for?”</p> + +<p>“There’s a reason,” laughed Percy.</p> + +<p>“Wait!” advised Frank, shaking her head and her own eyes dancing. +“You will find out soon enough why we ran.”</p> + +<p>“‘He laughs best who laughs last,’” quoted Grace. +“Bears, indeed!”</p> + +<p>The boys were puzzled. Breakfast being over the girls went about their +several tasks and paid their friends of the opposite sex very little attention. +To all suggestions that they get out the canoes and go across to the island with +the boys, or on other junkets, the girls responded with refusals. They evidently +thought they had something like a joke themselves on the boys, and finally the +latter went off through the brush toward the spot where they had tied their +canoes, half inclined to be angry.</p> + +<p>They were gone a long while, and were very <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_183'></a>183</span> quiet. The girls whispered together, and kept right +near the tents, waiting for the explosion.</p> + +<p>“At least,” Wyn said, chuckling, “we gave them a good +breakfast, so they won’t starve to death; but if they want to go to the +island they will have to swim.”</p> + +<p>“We’ve given them ‘tit for tat,’” said Frankie, +nodding her head. “Glad of it. And <i>they’ll</i> pay the forfeit, +instead of us.”</p> + +<p>“If they don’t find the canoes,” whispered Grace.</p> + +<p>“They wouldn’t find them in a week of Sundays,” cried +Percy.</p> + +<p>“Then let’s set them a good hard task for payment,” +suggested Bess.</p> + +<p>“That’s right. They oughtn’t to have tried to scare us +so,” agreed Mina.</p> + +<p>“I guess it is agreed,” laughed Wyn, “to show them no +mercy. Ah! here they come now.”</p> + +<p>The Busters slowly climbed the knoll in rather woebegone fashion. Their +feathers certainly were drooped, as Frank remarked.</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Dave, throwing himself down on the sward, “we +must hand it to you Go-Aheads. You’ve got us ’way out on the limb, and if +you shake the tree very hard we’ll drop off.”</p> + +<p>“No, thanks!” snapped Bess. “We don’t care for green +fruit.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184'></a>184</span>“Oh, +oh!” squealed Ferd. “I bet that hurt me.”</p> + +<p>“Now, there’s no use quarreling,” said Dave. “We +admit defeat. Where under the sun you girls could have hidden our canoes I +don’t see. And your own haven’t been used this morning, that’s +sure.”</p> + +<p>Wyn and her mates broke into uncontrollable laughter at this.</p> + +<p>“Who’s the joke on now?” cried Bess.</p> + +<p>“What will you give to find your canoes?” exclaimed Frankie.</p> + +<p>“Aw–say–don’t rub it in,” begged Tubby. +“We own up to the corn. You beat us. Where are the canoes?”</p> + +<p>“Ahem!” said Wynifred, clearing her throat loudly, and standing +forth.</p> + +<p>“Hear, hear!” cried Mina.</p> + +<p>“Oh! you’ve got it all fixed up for us, I see,” muttered +Ferd.</p> + +<p>“The understanding always has been,” said Wyn, calmly, +“that if one party succeeded in playing a practical joke on the other, and +‘getting away with it,’ as you slangy boys say, the party falling for the +trick should pay forfeit. Isn’t that so?”</p> + +<p>“Go on! Do your worst,” growled Ferd.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_185'></a>185</span>“That’s right. You state the case +clearly, Miss Mallory,” said Dave, with a bow of mockery.</p> + +<p>“And they never paid a forfeit for the time Tubby slid down our +boathouse roof, plunk into the water,” cried Bessie.</p> + +<p>“Aw–that’s ancient history,” growled Tubby.</p> + +<p>“Let us stick to recent events,” agreed Wyn, smiling. “If +we girls were at all frightened by your ‘bear-faced’ attempt to frighten +us this morning, we have paid with a breakfast; haven’t we?”</p> + +<p>“And it was a good one,” agreed Dave.</p> + +<p>“It’s made me go right to cooking again,” said Bess. +“A swarm of locusts would have brought about no greater +devastation.”</p> + +<p>“Then, gentlemen,” said Wynifred, “do you admit that the +shoe is now on the other foot? You cannot find your canoes. Will you pay us to +find them for you?”</p> + +<p>“That’s only fair,” admitted Dave.</p> + +<p>“Say! how do we pay you?” demanded Ferd.</p> + +<p>“Shall I tell them what we demand, girls?” asked Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Go ahead!” “It’ll serve them right!” +“They’ve got to do it!” were some of the exclamations from the +Go-Aheads.</p> + +<p>“Oh, let the blow fall!” groaned Dave.</p> + +<p>“Then, gentlemen of the Busters Association, <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_186'></a>186</span> it is agreed by the ladies of the +Go-Ahead Club that while we remain in camp on Green Knoll this summer, you young +gentlemen shall cut and stack all the firewood we shall need!”</p> + +<p>“Ow-ouch!” cried Ferd.</p> + +<p>“What a cheek!” gasped Tubby, rolling his eyes.</p> + +<p>“<i>All</i> the firewood you use?” repeated one of the other +boys. “Why–that will be cords and cords!”</p> + +<p>“Every stick!” declared Wyn, firmly.</p> + +<p>“And I’d be ashamed, if I were you, to complain,” pursued +Bessie. “If you had been gentlemanly you would have offered to cut our +wood before. You know that that is the <i>one</i> thing that girls can’t +do easily about a camp.”</p> + +<p>“Gee! you have quite a heap of stove wood yonder,” said +Tubby.</p> + +<p>“That is what Mr. Jarley cut for us,” Wyn said. “But it +doesn’t matter what other means we may have for getting our firewood cut. +Will you accept the forfeit like honorable gentlemen?”</p> + +<p>“Why, we’ve <i>got</i> to!” cried Ferd.</p> + +<p>“We’re honestly caught,” admitted Dave Shepard. +“I’ll do my share. Two of us, for half a day a week, can more than +keep you supplied–unless you waste it.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187'></a>187</span>“And we +can have the canoes back?” demanded one of the other Busters, eagerly.</p> + +<p>And so it was agreed–“signed, sworn to, and delivered,” as +Frankie said. With great glee the girls led the Busters to the steep bank by the +waterside, over which a great curtain of wild honeysuckle hung. This curtain of +fragrant flowers and thick vines dragged upon the ground. There was a hollow +behind it that Wyn had discovered quite by chance.</p> + +<p>And this hollow was big enough to hide the six canoes, one stacked a-top of +the other. One passing by would never have suspected the hiding place, and in +hiding the craft the girls had left no tell-tale footprints.</p> + +<p>So, for once at least, the Go-Aheads got the best of the Busters.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188'></a>188</span><a id='link_17'></a>CHAPTER XVII<br /><span class='h2fs'>VISITORS</span></h2> + +<p>Bessie Lavine had written home, as she said she would, regarding her +adventure with Wyn when they were overturned by the squall, and all about Polly +Jarley. But the result of this letter–and the others that went along to +Denton with it–was not just what the girls had expected.</p> + +<p>Although Mrs. Havel, in charge of the Go-Aheads, reported regularly to her +brother-in-law, Percy’s father, the story of the overturn made a great +stir among the mothers especially, whose consent to the six girls living under +canvas for the summer had been gained with such difficulty.</p> + +<p>“What do you know about this, girls?” cried Frank, on next mail +day. “My mother and father are coming out here. They can stay but one +night; but they say they must see with their own eyes just how we are living +here.”</p> + +<p>“And my Uncle Will is coming,” announced Grace. “What do +you know about <i>that</i>? Mother has made him promise to come and see if I am +all right.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189'></a>189</span>“<i>My</i> +mother says,” quoth Mina, slowly, “that she doesn’t doubt Mrs. +Havel does the very best she can by us; but she and papa are coming up here with +Mr. and Mrs. Cameron.”</p> + +<p>Bessie began to laugh, too. “Pa’s coming,” she said. +“It’s a plot, I believe. He says he has hired the <i>Sissy +Radcliffe</i>, and all of our parents can come if they like. The boat’s +big enough. He will bring another sleeping tent and those who wish can sleep +under canvas while they remain. The boat has lots of berths in it. Say! maybe +we’ll have a great time.”</p> + +<p>“I expect,” said Mrs. Havel, looking up and smiling, from her own +letter, “that your mothers, girls, will not really be content until they +see for themselves how you are getting along. So we may as well make ready for +visitors. They will arrive on Saturday. Some will remain only over Sunday and +return by train from the Forge. But Mr. Lavine, I believe, and some of the +gentlemen, will be here on the lake for a week, or more.”</p> + +<p>“No more oversets, now, girls,” said Frankie. “That’s +what is bringing the mothers up here.”</p> + +<p>“<i>My</i> father is coming to see if he cannot do something for Polly +Jarley,” declared Bessie, with emphasis.</p> + +<p>But Wynifred Mallory was quite sure that the Lavines–no matter how good +their intentions <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190'></a>190</span> +now were toward the boatman’s daughter–would find Polly rather +difficult. Wyn had been down to the boatkeeper’s house several times alone +to see Polly; but the backwoods girl would not be shaken from her attitude. She +would not come to Green Knoll Camp any more, nor would she send any word to Bess +Lavine.</p> + +<p>Bess really was sorry for what she had said and the way she had treated +Polly. But the latter was obdurate.</p> + +<p>“I don’t want anything from those Lavines,” she replied to +Wyn’s urging. “Only that Mr. Lavine should treat my father kindly. +I’d pull the girl out of the lake again–sure! But I don’t want +her for a friend, and I don’t want to be paid for doing my duty. +<i>You</i> don’t offer to pay me, Wynnie.”</p> + +<p>“No, dear. I couldn’t pay you for saving my life,” Wynifred +admitted.</p> + +<p>“Neither can they!” retorted Polly, heatedly. “They think +they’re so much above us, because they have money and we have none. They +are like those millionaires at the other end of the lake–Dr. Shelton and +the others. I don’t want their money!”</p> + +<p>But Polly’s obstinacy was cutting the boatman’s daughter out of a +lot of fun. This fact became more pronounced, too, when the visitors <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191'></a>191</span> from Denton, in the +<i>Sissy Radcliffe</i>, came to Green Knoll Camp.</p> + +<p>The <i>Sissy</i> was a big motor launch, and there was a good-sized party +aboard. When the ladies had once seen how the girls and Mrs. Havel lived, they +were glad to take advantage of the tent Mr. Lavine brought. The gentlemen slept +aboard the launch, which was anchored at night off Green Knoll Camp.</p> + +<p>There were indeed gay times, for instead of acting as +“wet-blankets” to the young folks’ fun, the visitors entered +into the spirit of the outing and, with the Busters and Professor Skillings from +Gannet Island, made a holiday of the occasion.</p> + +<p>Both the girls and boys “showed off” in their canoes in the +shallow water under the bank, and in their bathing suits. They showed the more +or less anxious parents just how skillful they were in the management of the +tricky craft.</p> + +<p>When the canoes were overturned, the girls and boys were able to right them, +bail them out, and scramble aboard again. They could all swim and dive like +ducks–save Bessie and Tubby. But Bessie was improving every day, and Tubby +never <i>could</i> really sink, they all declared, unless he swallowed so much +of the lake for ballast that he would be able to wade ashore from the +middle.</p> + +<p>It was now the height of the camping season <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_192'></a>192</span> and the Busters and Go-Aheads, with their friends, +were not the only parties along the shores of Lake Honotonka. The Jarleys were +doing a good business, almost all their craft being in use most of the time. A +battalion of Boy Scouts went into camp about ten miles to the west of Gannet +Island and Dave and his mates had some friends among them.</p> + +<p>Several small steamboats plied the waters of the lake with excursion parties. +The people at Braisely Park often came down to Gannet Island and the +neighborhood of Green Knoll in their boats. Altogether there was considerable +intimacy among the campers and between them and the residents of Braisely +Park.</p> + +<p>This pleasant condition of affairs brought about the idea of the regatta, or +boating sports. Some of the wealthy men at the west end of the lake arranged the +events, put up the prizes for certain classes of boat trials and other aquatic +sports, had the necessary printing and advertising done, and</p> + +<div class='center'> +<p class='center'>HONOTONKA REGATTA DAY</p> +</div><!-- centered --> + +<p>became emblazoned on the billboards along the neighboring highways and +railroad lines.</p> + +<p>The events were entirely amateur and were confined to those actually camping +on, or living on, the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_193'></a>193</span> shores of the lake. Arrangements went ahead with a +rush, the date being set so close that most of the parents and friends who had +come up with Mr. Lavine from Denton were encouraged to stay over.</p> + +<p>Some of the Busters were going to enter for the canoeing events, and there +was a girls’ contest, too, that interested our friends. Bessie Lavine +could paddle a canoe as well as anybody, and she was eager to take part in one +or two of the races. So she got out early one morning, with Wyn and Grace, and +Mr. Lavine for referee, and they did some good work.</p> + +<p>They chanced to get well over toward the Jarley boat landing and suddenly Wyn +set up a shout:</p> + +<p>“Polly! Polly Jolly! I never knew you had a canoe. Come on over +here!”</p> + +<p>She had caught sight of the boatman’s daughter paddling near the shore +in an Indian canoe. It was of birchbark and Polly shot it along under the stroke +of her paddle as though it had the weight of a feather. And, indeed, it was not +so heavy by a good deal as the cedar boats of the Go-Ahead girls.</p> + +<p>Polly waved her hand and turned the canoe’s prow toward Wyn. Not until +she was right among the other canoes did she realize that in one of them sat +Bessie Lavine.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194'></a>194</span>“We are +very glad to see you, Polly,” declared Wyn. “Are you going to enter +for the girls’ races?”</p> + +<p>“Good-morning, Polly,” cried Grace, equally cordial. “What +a pretty boat you have!”</p> + +<p>Polly stammered some words of welcome and then looked from Bessie to Mr. +Lavine. Evidently the boatman’s daughter suspected who the gentleman +was.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lavine was a pleasant enough man to meet socially. It is true that both +he and his daughter were impulsive and perhaps prided themselves on being +“good haters.” This does not mean that they were haters of that +which was good; but that if they considered anybody their enemy the enmity was +not allowed to die out.</p> + +<p>“I am glad to see you again, Polly,” Bess said, driving her canoe +close to that of the boatman’s daughter. “Won’t you speak to +me at all?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Miss Lavine! I would not be so rude as to refuse to speak to +you,” Polly replied. “But–but it doesn’t do any +good―”</p> + +<p>“Yes, it does, Polly,” Bess said, quickly. “This is my +father and he wants to thank you for saving my life.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed I do!” exclaimed Mr. Lavine, heartily. “I +can’t tell you how much I appreciate what you did―”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195'></a>195</span>“Oh, yes, +sir,” said Polly, hurriedly. “I know all about that. You told me how +you felt in your letter. And I’m sure I am obliged to +you―”</p> + +<p>“For what?” demanded the gentleman, smiling. “I have done +nothing but acknowledge in empty phrases your bravery and good sense. I think a +deal of my Bessie, and I must show you in some more substantial way how much I +appreciate what you did for her.”</p> + +<p>“No, sir; you cannot do that,” declared Polly, very much flushed, +but with firmness, too.</p> + +<p>“Oh, come, now I My dear girl! Don’t be so +offish―”</p> + +<p>“You have thanked me sufficiently, sir,” declared Polly. +“If I did not know better than to accept anything more substantial myself, +my father would not allow it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, come now! Your father―”</p> + +<p>“My father, sir, is John Jarley. He used to be your friend and partner +in business. You have seen fit to spread abroad tales about him that he +denies–that are untrue, sir,” pursued Polly, her anger making her +voice tremble.</p> + +<p>“From you, Mr. Lavine, we could accept nothing–no charity. If we +are poor, and if I have no advantages–such advantages as your daughter +has, for instance–<i>you</i> are as much to blame for it as +anybody.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196'></a>196</span>“Oh! come +now!”</p> + +<p>“It is true. Your libelling of my father ruined his reputation in +Denton. He could get no business there. And it worried my mother almost to +death. So he had to come away up here into the woods.”</p> + +<p>“I really was not to blame for that, Polly,” said Mr. Lavine.</p> + +<p>“You were! Whether you realize it yourself, or not, you are the cause +of all our troubles, for they began with your being angry with father over the +Steel Rivet Corporation deal. I know. He’s told me about it +himself.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Lavine was putting a strong brake upon his temper. He was deeply grateful +to Polly; but he was a proud man, too.</p> + +<p>“Let us put aside the difference of opinion between John Jarley and +myself, my dear girl,” he said, quietly. “Perhaps he and I had +better discuss that; not <i>you</i> and I. Bessie, I know, wishes to be your +friend, and so do I. Had you not rescued her from the lake as you did, Polly, I +should be mourning her death. It is a terrible thing to think of!”</p> + +<p>Polly was silenced by this. But if she did not look actually sullen, she +certainly gave no sign of giving way.</p> + +<p>“So, my dear, you must see how strongly we <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_197'></a>197</span> both feel. You would be doing a kind +action, Polly, if you allowed Bessie to be your friend.”</p> + +<p>“That is true, Polly,” cried Bessie, putting out her hand again. +“Do, <i>do</i> shake hands with me. Why! I owe you my life!”</p> + +<p>“Don’t talk that way!” returned the boatman’s +daughter. But she gave Bess her hand. “You make too much of what I did. +And I don’t want to seem mean–and ungrateful.</p> + +<p>“But, truly, you can do nothing for me. No, Mr. Lavine; there is +nothing I could accept. You have wronged my father―”</p> + +<p>He put up his hand in denial, but she went on to say:</p> + +<p>“At least, <i>I</i> believe so. You can do nothing for me. I would be +glad if you would right the wrong you did him so long ago; but I do not want you +to do <i>that</i> in payment for anything I may have done for Miss Bessie.</p> + +<p>“No, sir. Right my father’s wrong because it <i>is</i> a wrong +and because you realize it to be such–that you were +mistaken―”</p> + +<p>“I do not see that,” Mr. Lavine returned, stiffly.</p> + +<p>“Then there is nothing more to be said,” declared Polly, and with +a quick flirt of her paddle, she drove her birchbark out of the huddle of other +canoes and, in half a minute, was out of earshot.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198'></a>198</span><a id='link_18'></a>CHAPTER XVIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE REGATTA</span></h2> + +<p>The late July morning that broke upon the scene of the last preparations for +Honotonka regatta promised as fine a day as heart could wish.</p> + +<p>There was a good breeze from early morning. This was fine for the catboat +races and for the sailing canoes. Yet the breeze was not too strong, and there +was not much “sea.” This latter fact made the paddling less +difficult.</p> + +<p>The camps on Gannet Island and at Green Knoll were deserted soon after +breakfast. The Busters took their canoes aboard the <i>Happy Day</i>, while Mr. +Lavine’s launch, the <i>Sissy Radcliffe</i>, carried the girls’ +canoes as well as the girls themselves.</p> + +<p>They were two merry boatloads, and the boats themselves were strung with +banners and pennants. As they shot up the sunlit lake they sighted many other +craft headed toward Braisely Park, for some contestants had come from as far +away as the Forge, at the head of the Wintinooski.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199'></a>199</span>Suddenly Wyn, +looking through the camp spyglass, recognized the patched sail of the +<i>Coquette</i>, the little catboat in which Polly Jarley had come to the rescue +of the two members of the Go-Ahead Club on that memorable day.</p> + +<p>“Polly is aboard,” she told Frank Cameron, passing the glass to +her friend. “But who is the boy with her?”</p> + +<p>“That’s no boy!” declared the sharp-eyed Frankie. +“Why! he’s got a mustache.”</p> + +<p>“It’s never Mr. Jarley himself?” exclaimed Wyn, in +surprise.</p> + +<p>“That’s exactly who it is.”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t think they’d both leave the landing at the same +time. Do you suppose they have entered the <i>Coquette</i> in the free-for-all +catboat race?”</p> + +<p>“I shouldn’t wonder. She’s a fast boat if she <i>is</i> old +and lubberly-looking. And Dr. Shelton has offered twenty-five dollars for the +winning boat.”</p> + +<p>“It takes two to work a catboat properly, too. That is the +understanding,” said Wyn, thoughtfully: “a crew of two.”</p> + +<p>“Hope they win the race!” declared Frank, generously.</p> + +<p>“So do I. And they’ve got Polly’s birch canoe <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200'></a>200</span> aboard. She will enter +for the girls’ canoe race, I am sure.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” said Frank. “If you don’t win the prize +in <i>that</i>, my dear, then I hope Polly does.”</p> + +<p>“Why, I haven’t a chance beside Bess, I am sure.”</p> + +<p>“That’s all right. Bess is too erratic. One day she paddles well +and the next she is ’way behind. It’s her temperament. She’s not a +steady old warhorse like yourself, Wynnie.”</p> + +<p>“Thanks,” laughed Wyn. “How about Polly? What do you call +<i>her</i>?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know. I admire her vastly,” said Frank. “But +Polly puzzles me. And I haven’t seen her working at the paddle much. I +only know that in a skiff she can out row any of the Busters.”</p> + +<p>“I fancy she can paddle some, too. And her canoe is as light as a +feather. All those birchbarks are.”</p> + +<p>“The judges may handicap her, then. But, hullo! what’s that Dave +Shepard up to?”</p> + +<p>Wyn turned to look at her next-door neighbor. Dave was writing upon a slip of +paper. Once he looked across at Frank and Wyn and saw that the two girls were +watching him.</p> + +<p>He seemed confused, started as though to tear <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_201'></a>201</span> the paper up, and then hid it under a +coil of rope at his feet. But he was very particular to hide every particle of +the paper.</p> + +<p>“What you doing there, Dave?” demanded Frank, with plain +curiosity.</p> + +<p>“Oh, nothing,” responded the youth, and rose up, stretching his +arms and yawning. It was plain that he did not wish to be questioned.</p> + +<p>“What was that paper?” pursued Frank.</p> + +<p>“Oh–that–er―It’s of no consequence,” +declared Dave, and walked aft so as not to be further questioned.</p> + +<p>“Now, he can’t fool me!” cried Frank, under her breath. +“It <i>was</i> something of consequence. I–I’m going to +see.”</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t,” said Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Why not?”</p> + +<p>“Well–whatever it is, it isn’t ours.”</p> + +<p>“Pooh!”</p> + +<p>“And he evidently didn’t want us to see it.”</p> + +<p>“For that very reason I am going to look,” declared Frankie. And +the moment Dave was out of sight she sprang across the deck and lifted up the +rope enough to pull out the paper.</p> + +<p>The moment she scanned it, Wyn saw Frankie’s face turn very red. She +looked angry, and stamped her foot. Then she burst into a giggle, and slid the +paper back out of sight again.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202'></a>202</span>She came back to +her friend with a mixture of emotions expressed on her countenance. “What +do you suppose?” she demanded.</p> + +<p>“Suppose about what?” asked Wyn.</p> + +<p>“What do you suppose Dave wrote on that paper?”</p> + +<p>“I give it up. Something that didn’t concern us, as I told +you.”</p> + +<p>“You’re wrong,” cried Frank, divided between wrath and +amusement. “And it’s just the very <i>meanest</i> thing!”</p> + +<p>“Why, you excite my curiosity,” admitted Wyn.</p> + +<p>“That’s what he did it for,” declared Frankie.</p> + +<p>“<i>What</i> did he write?” cried Wyn. “Out with +it.”</p> + +<p>“He wrote: ‘I bet an ice-cream treat all around that your curiosity +will not permit you to leave this alone.’ Now! could anything be +meaner?”</p> + +<p>“Ha, ha!” chuckled Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you see? We can’t claim the treat without giving +ourselves away? I believe I’ll join forces with Bess. There <i>is</i> +nothing meaner than a boy.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind,” said Wyn. “I’ll find some way of making +Master Dave pay for the ice-cream treat, just the same. You see if I +don’t.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203'></a>203</span>Soon after this +the launches were sent to one side so as to leave the course clear, and the +races began. The men’s and boys’ canoe races were very interesting, +and Dave Shepard won a sweater, while one of the other Busters got the second +prize of a dollar for quickness in overturning and righting a canoe.</p> + +<p>Some “funny stunts” followed in the water, and then came a +girls’ swimming race. Here the Go-Ahead girls excelled, although there +were more than a score of entries. Wyn Mallory won a two-hundred-yard, +straightaway dash, while Frank was second and Grace Hedges third in the same +race. The people who had come up from Denton cheered the girls enthusiastically. +When the parents who had been so afraid for their daughters’ safety saw +how well able the girls were to take care of themselves, their anxiety was +allayed.</p> + +<p>After these swimming contests there was an interval of two hours for +refreshments. A caterer had prepared tables of sandwiches and cold drinks, as +well as ice cream and cake, on one of the bigger docks belonging to Braisely +Park. In fact, it was Dr. Shelton’s dock.</p> + +<p>The catboat races were to follow the intermission and Wyn found that the +Jarley <i>Coquette</i> had been entered. She ran over to the dock from <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204'></a>204</span> which the +“cats” were to start for the line, and as she approached the spot +she heard loud voices and saw a little crowd of excited people.</p> + +<p>The <i>Coquette</i> was almost the only catboat left. Dr. Shelton had backed +Mr. Jarley up against a post on the wharf and, in a loud and angry voice, was +telling the unfortunate boatman what he thought of him.</p> + +<p>“<i>You</i> have the cheek to be in this race, John Jarley?” +cried the angry man. “I don’t mind your daughter–I pity her. +But I’m hanged if I’ll let a thief take part in this race–and +me offering the prize. Get out of here!”</p> + +<p>“Hold on, Shelton!” exclaimed one of his friends. +“You’re going too far when you call Jarley a thief.”</p> + +<p>“Or else you are not going far enough,” chimed in another. +“If you believe Jarley stole those images–and the boat–why +don’t you go about it right? Report it to the county prosecutor and have +the man arrested.”</p> + +<p>“Or, if Jarley is <i>not</i> guilty,” added another, “I +advise him, as a lawyer, to sue you for damages.”</p> + +<p>“Let him sue and be hanged to him!” cried Dr. Shelton, who was a +great, rough man, twice the size of the boatman, and with all the confidence of +his great wealth, as well as his great <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_205'></a>205</span> muscle, behind him. “But he +sha’n’t sail in this race.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll go back home, Father―Oh, let’s go back!” +cried Polly, from the cockpit of the dancing <i>Coquette</i>.</p> + +<p>But Wyn Mallory knew that the Jarleys must have hoped to win the twenty-five +dollar prize. The <i>Coquette</i> was being mentioned as a possible winner among +the knowing ones about the course.</p> + +<p>“Dr. Shelton!” she cried, tugging at the angry man’s arm. +“Do you mind if Polly and I sail the boat instead?”</p> + +<p>“Eh? <i>You</i>–a girl?” grunted the doctor, “Well, +why not? I’ve got nothing–as I said before–against his +daughter. It’s the man himself who has no business at this end of the +lake. I sent him word so a month and more ago. I ought to have him +arrested.”</p> + +<p>Win thought it would be less cruel to do so, and have the matter thrashed out +in the courts. Mr. Jarley was stooping from the wharf, whispering with +Polly.</p> + +<p>“I can help her,” Wyn cried, turning to the abused boatman. +“Let me–do!”</p> + +<p>“You are very kind, Miss Mallory,” said Jarley.</p> + +<p>The captain of the Go-Ahead Club leaped lightly down into the +<i>Coquette</i>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_206'></a>206</span>“What’s our number–sixteen?” +she cried. “Pay off the sheet, Polly. We’re off.” Then she +added, in a low tone, to the weeping girl in the stern: “Don’t you +mind the doctor, Polly–mean old thing! We’ll win the prize in spite +of him–you see if we don’t.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207'></a>207</span><a id='link_19'></a>CHAPTER XIX<br /><span class='h2fs'>UNDER WHITE WINGS</span></h2> + +<p>Already the catboats were getting off from the starting line, in rotation of +numbers and about two minutes apart. The course was ten miles (or thereabout) +straightaway to the stake-boat, set far out in the lake–quite out of sight +from the decks of the boats about the starting point–and turning that, to +beat back. The wind was free, but not too strong. The out-and-return course +would prove the boats themselves and the seamanship of their crews.</p> + +<p>Being a free-for-all race, there had been brought together some pretty +odd-looking craft beside the smart, new boats belonging to dwellers in Braisely +Park. But the Jarleys’ boat was by no means the worst-looking.</p> + +<p>However, it attracted considerable attention because it was the only catboat +“manned” by girls.</p> + +<p>Wynifred Mallory had done this on impulse, and it was not usual for her to +act in such a way. But her parents had gone home and she had nobody <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208'></a>208</span> to ask permission of but +Mrs. Havel–and she did not really know where the Go-Aheads’ +chaperone was.</p> + +<p>Beside, there wasn’t time to ask. The catboats were already getting +under way. The <i>Coquette</i> was almost the last to start. Wyn was not at all +afraid of the task before her, for she had helped Dave sail his cousin’s +catboat on the Wintinooski many times. She knew how to ’tend sheet.</p> + +<p>The Go-Aheads and Busters recognized Wyn, and began to cheer her and Polly +before the <i>Coquette</i> came to the line. Other onlookers caught sight of the +two girls, and whether they knew the crew of the <i>Coquette</i> or not, gave +them a good “send-off.”</p> + +<p>Polly had accepted Wyn’s help quietly, but with a look that Wyn was not +likely to forget. It meant much to the Jarleys if the <i>Coquette</i> won the +twenty-five dollars. They needed every dollar they could honestly earn.</p> + +<p>The boatman’s daughter did not stop then to thank her friend. Instead +she gave her brief, but plain, instructions as to what she was to do, and Wyn +went about her work in a practical manner.</p> + +<p>The catboat was sixteen feet over all, with its mast stepped well forward, of +course, carrying a large fore-and-aft sail with gaff and boom. A single person +<i>can</i> sail a cat all right; but to get <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_209'></a>209</span> speed out of one, and manœuver quickly, it +takes a sheet-tender as well as a steersman.</p> + +<p>“Sixteen!” shouted the starter’s assistant through his +megaphone, and Polly brought the <i>Coquette</i> about and shot towards the +starter’s boat.</p> + +<p>The boatman’s girl had held off some distance from the line. Number +Fifteen had just crossed and was now swooping away on her first tack toward the +distant stake-boat. The momentum the <i>Coquette</i> obtained racing down to the +line was what Polly wanted.</p> + +<p>“Go!” shouted the starter, looking at his watch and comparing it +with the timekeeper’s.</p> + +<p>The <i>Coquette</i> flashed past the line of motor-boats and smaller craft +that lined the course for some distance. The course was not very well policed +and one of the small steamers, with a party of excursionists aboard, got right +in the way of the racing boats.</p> + +<p>“Look out, Wynnie!” shouted Polly. “I’m going to tack +to pass those boats.”</p> + +<p>Wyn fell flat on the decked-over portion of the <i>Coquette</i>, and the boom +swung across. With gathering speed the catboat flew on and on. Although her sail +was patched, and she was shabby-looking in the extreme, the <i>Coquette</i> +showed her heels that day to many handsomer craft.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210'></a>210</span>The various +boats raced with each other–first one ahead, and then another. There were +not many important changes in the positions of the contesting boats, however, +until the stake-boat was reached.</p> + +<p>But Number Sixteen passed Thirteen, Fifteen, and Twelve for good and all, +before five miles of the course were sailed. The <i>Coquette</i>, when once she +had dropped an opponent behind, never was caught by it.</p> + +<p>Wyn was on the <i>qui vive</i> every moment. She sprang to obey Captain +Polly’s commands, and the latter certainly knew how to sail a catboat. She +never let an advantage slip. She tacked at just the right time. Yet she sailed +very little off the straight course.</p> + +<p>The motor boats and steamboats came hooting after the racing catboats that +their passengers might have a good view of the contest. These outside boats were +a deal of a nuisance, and two of the tail-enders in the race dropped out +entirely because of the closeness of the pleasure boats’ pursuit.</p> + +<p>“But they couldn’t win anyway,” Polly confided to Wynifred. +“Get a bucket of water, dear. Dip it right up. That’s right! Now +throw it on the sail. Another! Another! It will hold the wind better if it is +wet.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter'> +<a id='link_i4'></a><img src='images/illus4.jpg' id="imgi4" alt='' /> +<p class='center caption'> +THE <i>COQUETTE</i> SHOT OVER THE COURSE, LIKE A GREAT SWOOPING BIRD. <i>Page 212.</i> +</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211'></a>211</span>“What a +scheme!” cried Wyn. “Oh, Polly! I wish you lived in Denton and went +to our school and belonged to the Go-Ahead Club.”</p> + +<p>But Polly only shook her head. That was beyond the reach of possibility for +her, she believed. But she thanked Wyn for suggesting it.</p> + +<p>Neither girl let her attention to the present business fail, however. They +were on their mettle, being the only girls in the race.</p> + +<p>Some of the other crews had jollied them at the start; but the old +<i>Coquette</i> passed first one and then another of the competing boats, and +none of the other craft passed her.</p> + +<p>Because of the fact that the boats had started about two minutes apart it was +rather difficult to tell which was really winning. The leading boats were still +far ahead when the <i>Coquette</i> rounded the stake-boat.</p> + +<p>Polly took the turn as shortly as any craft in the race–and as cleanly. +The <i>Coquette</i> made a long leg of her first tack, then a short one. Whereas +it seemed as though at first the other craft were crowding Polly and Wyn close, +in a little while the <i>Coquette</i> was shown to be among the flock of leading +craft!</p> + +<p>“Only Numbers One, Three, Four, Seven, and Nine ahead of us, Polly +Jolly!” reported Wynifred. “And we’re Sixteen! Why, it’s +wonderful! <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212'></a>212</span> We are +sailing two lengths to one of some of them, I verily believe!”</p> + +<p>“But Conningsby’s <i>Elf</i>, and the <i>Pretty Sue</i> are good +sailers–I’ve watched ’em,” said Polly. “And the +<i>Waking Up</i> is splendidly manned. If our sail would only hold the wind! +It’s a regular old sieve.”</p> + +<p>Wyn splashed bucket after bucket of water into the bellying sail. On the long +tacks the <i>Coquette</i> shot over the course like a great, swooping bird. When +she passed near one of the excursion boats the spectators cheered the two girls +vociferously.</p> + +<p>Half-way back to the starting boat the <i>Happy Day</i>, into which the +Go-Aheads and all the Busters had piled, shot alongside the racing catboat +manned by the two girls, and from that point on their friends +“rooted” for the <i>Coquette</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>Coquette</i> passed Numbers Seven and Nine; It did seem as though she +must have sailed the course fast enough to bring her well up among the leaders, +so many higher numbers than her own had been passed.</p> + +<p>But Wyn and Polly were not sure, when they crossed the line, how they stood +in the race.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213'></a>213</span><a id='link_20'></a>CHAPTER XX<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE CANOE RACE</span></h2> + +<p>Dave Shepard, at the wheel of the <i>Happy Day</i>, ran directly behind the +judges’ boat and stopped.</p> + +<p>“Who won?” cried the boys, in chorus. “Where does Number +Sixteen stand?”</p> + +<p>“How can we tell you until all the boats are in?” returned one of +the gentlemen, smiling.</p> + +<p>“Of course we know,” declared Dr. Shelton. “And you are +quite right to cheer them, boys. The <i>Coquette</i> is ’way ahead of everything +else–those two girls are corkers!”</p> + +<p>Instantly the Busters and the Go-Aheads began to cheer anew. The older +members of their party aboard the <i>Sissy Radcliffe</i> took up the chorus. Wyn +Mallory and Polly Jarley had beaten out the other catboats in the dingy old +craft, and had won the twenty-five-dollar prize.</p> + +<p>“It’s all for you, dear,” cried Wyn, when Polly kissed and +thanked her. “Of course I don’t need the money, while you and your +father do. You’ll take it from me–for friendship’s sake, +dear?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214'></a>214</span>“Yes, Wyn. +From <i>you</i>,” returned the boatman’s daughter, with trembling +lips.</p> + +<p>“And now you are coming to try for the canoe prize, too? That will be a +five-dollar gold piece. But you will have to fight all us Go-Ahead girls for it. +I shall beat you myself, if I can,” laughed Wynifred.</p> + +<p>Dave had rushed the motor boat over to the landing and he got Wyn’s and +Polly’s canoes into the water. The whistle had blown for the girls’ +canoe race the minute before, and the other girls were out on the lake.</p> + +<p>Altogether there were forty-three canoes. Some were birchbarks like +Polly’s; but the large majority were cedar boats.</p> + +<p>“Birchbarks line up at Dr. Shelton’s landing!” bellowed the +starter’s voice through his megaphone. “Get me? Shelton’s +landing!”</p> + +<p>Polly and the few other girls who had the Indian canoes waved their hands and +got into position. They kept a pretty straight line.</p> + +<p>“Now at the starting line here for you cedars!” cried the man, +and Wyn, with her five mates, and the rest of the girl canoeists from all about +the lake, tried to obey the command.</p> + +<p>But there were so many of them that it was not altogether easy to get into +line. Nearly forty canoes were “some bunch,” to quote the slangy +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215'></a>215</span> Frank, who was, by +the way, just as eager as any of the other contestants.</p> + +<p>Although Frank believed that Wyn, and perhaps Bess, as well as Polly and +Grace, had a better chance than <i>she</i> of winning the race; there was, of +course, a chance of the very best canoeist getting a spill and so being put out +of the race.</p> + +<p>It is not always the best paddler who wins; there is too much uncertainty in +handling the “tippy” craft–especially in moments of +excitement, and among many other similar craft.</p> + +<p>So there was hope for any and all. The eager faces of the girls in the canoes +showed it. They scuffled somewhat to get place on the line; but the entries had +all been numbered, so it was merely a case of getting in right and leaving +enough space on either side of one’s bobbing canoe.</p> + +<p>One of the starters was pulled up and down the line in a skiff to criticise. +Not every girl was as fair-minded to her opponents as the girls from Green Knoll +Camp, and there was some little bickering before the starter shouted for the +whole crowd–both cedars and birches–to get ready.</p> + +<p>“At the shot, remember,” he cried through the megaphone. +“Once around the stake-boat, to the right, and return. The birchbarks +finish at this line, like the cedars. Now!”</p> + +<p>A moment later the pistol shot rang out. There <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_216'></a>216</span> was a splash of paddles–even a +clash of them, for some of the girls were too near each other and too eager.</p> + +<p>The spectators cheered–the boys from Gannet Island doing especially +well in that line. They were determined to root indiscriminately for the girls +of Green Knoll Camp.</p> + +<p>But within a very few minutes Dave Shepard shouted to his friends:</p> + +<p>“Look what’s coming up, fellows! See Polly!”</p> + +<p>“Polly Jolly!” yelled the excitable Ferd. “Is that her in +the first birchbark?”</p> + +<p>“Of course it is,” responded Tubby Blaisdell. “Well! did +you ever see a girl like that before? Look at those arms. She’s got better +biceps than <i>you</i> have, Dave, m’ boy!”</p> + +<p>For the girls were in their bathing dresses and Polly’s bare arms were +displayed to the best advantage as she flashed past the motor boat. Her face was +set–her eyes bright. And she weaved back and forth as she drove the paddle +with the steadiness of a machine.</p> + +<p>“Hooray for Polly Jolly!” yelled Ferd Roberts, again.</p> + +<p>The Busters took up the chorus. They could not restrain their enthusiasm, for +the pace at which Polly was overhauling the cedar boats was really +marvelous.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217'></a>217</span>Of course, it +was a foregone conclusion that some of the contestants would drop out. These +canoes Polly passed as though they were standing still.</p> + +<p>In the lead were Wyn, Bess, Grace, Frank, and half a dozen other girls from +about the lake. There were already two spills, and several slight collisions +followed. The handicap on the birch canoes was really greater than was expected, +for being in the rear, they had to dodge all the overset boats and the other +paddlers who did not know enough to keep out of the course.</p> + +<p>But Polly Jarley had taken the outside and she shot by all the trouble +easily. She was soon clinging to the skirts of the head canoes and it looked, +before the turn, as though she would soon be in the lead herself.</p> + +<p>Up ahead Wyn and Bess and Grace were struggling almost neck and neck with two +strange girls. The captain of the Go-Aheads wanted to win–she wanted to do +so very much. She was a good sport, and therefore a good loser; but that does +not necessarily mean that one <i>likes</i> to lose.</p> + +<p>Bessie Lavine was paddling splendidly for her–it was evidently one of +her good days. Frank Cameron had fallen behind–indeed, she had clashed +with another girl and both were out of the race.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218'></a>218</span>Grace Hedges was +almost as big and strong as Polly Jarley; but she lacked the training of the +boatman’s daughter. Polly was used to hard work every day of her life. +That is different from gymwork and a little paddling, or swimming, or other +athletic fun a few times a week.</p> + +<p>But Grace was doing finely and she even might have won had she not tried +unwisely to pass one of her rivals. Her paddle clashed with that of the other +girl. Both canoeists were straining hard–and their tempers were a bit +strained, too.</p> + +<p>“I wish you’d look where you’re going, Miss!” snapped +the other girl, and before Grace could return the compliment–had she so +wished–the two canoes crashed together and both girls were spilled into +the lake.</p> + +<p>There was no danger in these spills. Two motor boats followed behind and +picked up the swamped contestants.</p> + +<p>But before Grace was picked up she saw Polly Jarley flash by in the +birchbark. There were but three cedar boats ahead of the boatman’s +daughter, and all were coming down the return course, the paddlers straining to +do their very best.</p> + +<p>Wyn had a splendid, even stroke; Bess was getting heated, and bit her lip as +she paddled. It always hurt Bess when she lost. Up from the rear Polly urged her +birchbark with long, steady heaves <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_219'></a>219</span> that seemed to prove her magnificent muscles +tireless.</p> + +<p>The spectators began to shout for the boatman’s daughter. They saw that +she was making a magnificent attempt to win the race.</p> + +<p>But when Wyn heard them shouting for another number rather than her +own–she did not notice which!–she put forth every ounce of spare +strength she possessed.</p> + +<p>Bess was left behind by the captain of the Go-Ahead Club. Her canoe +quivering, her paddle actually bending under her work, Wyn dashed on. Bess and +the other girl were out of the race–hopelessly. It lay between Wyn and the +birchbark canoe.</p> + +<p>Polly did not withhold her paddle when she saw her friend dart ahead; it was +a perfectly fair race. But the boatman’s girl had done so well at first, +considering her handicap and all, that there was little wonder if she could not +keep up the gruelling work. She had no reserve force, as Wyn had.</p> + +<p>The latter dashed over the mark with undiminished speed. Polly only halted +long enough to congratulate her.</p> + +<p>“It’s dear of you to be glad, Polly, when I know you wanted the +prize,” cried Wyn. “But we couldn’t both have it.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220'></a>220</span>“You have +helped me enough to-day, Wynifred,” replied Polly, softly. “Now +father and I will go home. He told me how it would be, if he came down here; but +at least we won the big prize, thanks to you, and money means so much to us +now!”</p> + +<p>The day was not over yet for the Go-Aheads and the Busters, although the +races were finished. Somehow the news was spread among the campers on Gannet +Island and Green Knoll that there was to be a “grand treat” at the +ice-cream tables, and they gathered “like eagles to the kill,” +Frankie poetically declared.</p> + +<p>The waiter brought heaping dishes of cream, there were nice cakes, and +Tubby’s unctuous smile at one end of the table radiated cheer. They were +all very jolly and nobody asked who was to pay the piper until the waiter +gravely brought Dave Shepard the check and a slip of paper.</p> + +<p>“Hi! did <i>I</i> order this feed?” demanded Dave, startled by +the size of the check.</p> + +<p>“I was ordered to give the check to you–and the paper,” +quoth the waiter, calmly.</p> + +<p>“Gee, Dave! somebody’s stung you!” croaked Tubby, with his +mouth still full.</p> + +<p>Dave unfolded the paper slowly, and read in his own handwriting: “I bet +an ice-cream treat all <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_221'></a>221</span> around to the Go-Ahead girls that your curiosity +would not permit you to leave this alone.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t deny your own handwriting; do you, sir?” queried +the waiter, with a perfectly grave face. “I served the company on that +order, Mr. Shepard.”</p> + +<p>“That Wyn Mallory! She got me!” groaned Dave, and paid up like a +man.</p> + +<p>“But what’s the use of trying to put a joke over on those +girls?” he said to Tubby afterward. “They’re always turning +the tables on a fellow.”</p> + +<p>“Very good table, too–very good table,” agreed Tubby, +smacking his lips. “But you’re so reckless with your promises, +Dave.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Lavine’s man took the <i>Happy Day</i> and the canoes back to camp, +while the whole party of young folk piled aboard the larger <i>Sissy</i>. They +had a fine time sailing down the lake and reached the Cave-in-the-Wood Camp at +late supper time.</p> + +<p>There was still light enough on the water for the voyagers to see a boat +rocking on the waves in the little cove where Polly Jarley had first been +introduced to the two canoe clubs.</p> + +<p>“And that’s Polly and her father there now,” said Dave, +quickly.</p> + +<p>“Yes. It’s the <i>Coquette</i>,” agreed Wyn.</p> + +<p>“What are they doing in there?” asked <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_222'></a>222</span> Frankie. “See! he is standing up +and gesticulating–not to us. He’s talking to Polly.”</p> + +<p>“That is the place where he had the misfortune to lose Dr. +Shelton’s motor boat last winter,” said Wyn. “Don’t you +remember?”</p> + +<p>“You see,” Dave cried, “he is showing her the place where +the limb fell again–and the direction the boat must have taken in the +fog.”</p> + +<p>“A lot <i>he</i> knows where it went,” said Tubby, scornfully. +“He was swept overboard, and as far as he knows the <i>Bright Eyes</i> +might have gone right up into the air!”</p> + +<p>“But it didn’t explode, you see, nor did it have wings,” +laughed Wynifred. “So it took no aërial voyage–we may be sure of +that. I’d give anything to find where it sank.”</p> + +<p>“So would I, Wyn,” cried Dave. “If we could locate the +sunken boat, Mr. Jarley could easily prove he had neither stolen it nor the +silver images.”</p> + +<p>“I’d give something handsome to have the mystery explained, +myself,” said Mr. Lavine, suddenly.</p> + +<p>“What would you give, Father?” asked his daughter.</p> + +<p>“I’ll tell you,” he replied, smiling. “I understand +both of your clubs–the Go-Aheads and the Busters–are anxious to +really <i>own</i> a motor boat. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_223'></a>223</span> Frank Dumont, here, tells me he has got to go home +with the <i>Happy Day</i> to-morrow, as his vacation is ended.</p> + +<p>“Now, I’ll make you boys and girls an offer,” pursued Mr. +Lavine, more earnestly. “You’ll hunt in packs, anyway–the boys +together and the girls together. If the girls find the sunken boat I’ll +present them with a motor boat as good as the <i>Happy Day</i>; and if the boys +have the luck, then the boat shall belong to the Busters. What say?”</p> + +<p>“We say ‘Thanks!’” cried Dave, instantly.</p> + +<p>“<i>We</i> think it is very handsome of you, sir,” declared Wyn, +coming over to the gentleman and taking his hand. “And I know why you do +it, sir–so I thank you twice. If poor Mr. Jarley could be absolved of Dr. +Shelton’s accusation, it would help a whole lot.”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” muttered Mr. Lavine, “I heard Shelton going on +about Jarley myself to-day, and it made me ashamed–I’m free to own +it. I never <i>did</i> think John as bad as all that!”</p> + +<p>“It sounds different when you hear somebody else say it,” +whispered Dave in Wynifred’s ear.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lavine’s proposal, however, met with enthusiastic favor on the part +of both clubs. A motor boat would be just the finest thing to own! Both boys and +girls determined to find the lost <i>Bright Eyes</i> before the season was +out.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224'></a>224</span><a id='link_21'></a>CHAPTER XXI<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE WAY OF THE WIND</span></h2> + +<p>“Did you know,” said Professor Skillings, visiting Camp Green +Knoll with the Busters several days later, “that there are several +thousand Poles in the Wintinooski Valley?”</p> + +<p>“You surprise me,” remarked Mrs. Havel.</p> + +<p>“Fine things to grow beans on, Professor,” declared Dave, coming +up with a brimming bucket of water from the spring.</p> + +<p>“Not the right kind of poles, my boy–not the right kind of +poles,” said the professor, smiling gently, and offering Mrs. Havel a +cocoanut-cup of the sparkling water. “You see what a misunderstanding of +terms will do,” the professor added, in his argumentative way. “A +little knowledge–especially a little scientific knowledge–is a +dangerous thing.”</p> + +<p>“You are right, Professor,” cried Tubby, who was within hearing +distance. “Did you hear about what Dr. Mackenzie’s servant girl +did?”</p> + +<p>“Dr. Mackenzie is very erudite,” commented the professor, +dreamily.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_225'></a>225</span>“That’s right. Anyhow, the girl heard a +lot of talk about bugs, and grubs, and germs, and the like–and it proves +just what Professor Skillings says about the danger of knowing a little +science.”</p> + +<p>“How’s that, Tubby?” queried one of the interested young +folk.</p> + +<p>“Why, one day the doctor’s wife asked this servant for a glass of +water, and the girl brought it.</p> + +<p>“‘It has a very peculiar taste, Mary,’ said Mrs. Mackenzie.</p> + +<p>“‘Sure, ma’am, it’s all right, ma’am. There +ain’t a germ in it, for I ran it through the colander before I brought it +to you, ma’am!’ says Mary. Oh, Mary had picked up some scientific +notions, all right, all right!”</p> + +<p>“I believe there would be more breeze up on Windmill Farm,” +observed Wynifred Mallory.</p> + +<p>“Wish I was up there, then,” growled Tubby, who had quite +collapsed after telling his joke.</p> + +<p>“Let’s go!” suggested Frankie.</p> + +<p>“There will be plenty of wind bye and bye,” said Dave, +thoughtfully eyeing the clouds on the horizon.</p> + +<p>“Listen to the weather prophet,” scoffed Ferdinand.</p> + +<p>“I tell you!” cried Frankie, jumping up. “Let’s go up +into the windmill and see how far <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_226'></a>226</span> one can really <i>see</i> from that height. The +farmer’s wife says it is a great view–doesn’t she, +Wyn?”</p> + +<p>“I’m game,” responded Wyn. “We’ll be no warmer +walking than we are sitting here talking about the heat.”</p> + +<p>She and Frankie and Dave started off ahead; but Tubby would not come, nor +would Grace Hedges. The others, however, saw some prospect of amusement and were +willing to pay the price.</p> + +<p>They began to be paid for their walk as soon as they came out into the open +fields of Windmill Farm. A little breeze had sprung up and, although it was +fitful at first, it soon grew to a steady wind from across the lake.</p> + +<p>The distant haze was dissipated, and when the boys and girls reached the top +of the hill they were glad they had come.</p> + +<p>“I bet we have a storm bye and bye,” Dave said. “But +isn’t the air up here cool?”</p> + +<p>“Let’s climb up into the loft,” Frank urged. “The +farmer’s wife said we could.”</p> + +<p>“They’re all away from home to-day,” Wyn said. “But I +don’t believe they will mind. When we came up for the milk this morning +Mrs. Prosser told us they were going on a Sunday school picnic.”</p> + +<p>“I’d like to set the old thing to working,” <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227'></a>227</span> remarked the inquisitive +Ferdinand. “What do you know about it, Dave?”</p> + +<p>“It starts by throwing in this clutch,” replied the bigger boy, +just inside the door. “If the wind keeps on the farmer will probably grind +a grist when he comes back. You see, there are several bags of corn and wheat +yonder.”</p> + +<p>The girls were already finding their way up the dusty ladders, from loft to +loft of the tower. Frank got to the top floor first and called out her delight +at the view.</p> + +<p>“Come on up!” she cried. “There is plenty of room. +It’s bigger up here than you think–and the breeze is nice. There are +two windows, and that makes a fine draught.”</p> + +<p>The boys trooped up behind the Go-Aheads–all but Ferdinand. But none of +them missed him for some minutes.</p> + +<p>What a view was obtained from the window of the mill! The whole panorama of +Lake Honotonka and its shores, with a portion of the Wintinooski Valley, lay +spread like a carpet at their feet–woods and fields, cultivated land in +the foreground, the rocky ridges of Gannet Island, Jarley’s Landing, the +Forge, the steep shore of the lake beyond the Wintinooski, and so around to the +fine houses in Braisely Park and the smoke of the big city to the west.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228'></a>228</span>In the midst of +their exclamations there came a sudden jar through the heavily-timbered building +that startled them.</p> + +<p>“What’s that?” cried Mina.</p> + +<p>“An earthquake!” laughed Frankie.</p> + +<p>“It’s the sails!” yelled Dave, starting for the ladder. +“What are you doing down there, Ferd?”</p> + +<p>The groaning and shaking continued. The arms of the windmill were going round +and round–every revolution increasing their speed.</p> + +<p>“Stop that, Ferd!” shouted Dave again, starting to descend the +ladder.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t that just like a boy?” demanded Bess, in disgust. +“He just <i>had</i> to fool with the machinery.”</p> + +<p>“What do you suppose the miller will say?” queried Wyn, +anxiously.</p> + +<p>The roar of the whirling arms almost drowned their voices. The wind had +increased to a brisk breeze. With the sails so well filled the arms turned at +top-notch speed. The tower shook as though it were about to tumble down.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” moaned Mina, the timid one. “Let us get out +of here.”</p> + +<p>“Why doesn’t Dave make him stop it?” shouted Frankie.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229'></a>229</span>“Why +doesn’t the foolish Ferd stop it himself?” was Wyn’s +demand.</p> + +<p>The other boys were already tumbling down the ladder, and the girls followed +as fast as possible. It was rather dark below, and when they came to the ground +floor, it was full of dancing dust-particles. Dave and Ferd were busy over the +machinery near the door.</p> + +<p>“Can’t you stop it, Dave?” shrieked Percy.</p> + +<p>“The confounded thing is broken!” announced Dave, in disgust.</p> + +<p>“Goodness me!” cried Frank. “I want to get out of +here.”</p> + +<p>She started for the door; but Wyn grabbed her just in time. Past the open +door whirled the sails of the mill–one after the other–faster and +faster. And so close were the sails to the doorway that there was not room for +the very smallest of the Go-Ahead girls to get out without being struck.</p> + +<p>Dave stared around at the others. It was almost impossible to hear each other +speak–and what was there to say? Each boy and girl realized the situation +in which Ferd’s meddling had placed them.</p> + +<p>Until the wind subsided they were prisoners in the tower.</p> + +<p>Ferd Roberts subsided into a corner, and hid his <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_230'></a>230</span> face in his hands. He had done +something that scared his inquisitive soul to the very bottom.</p> + +<p>He had started the sails, and then, in trying to throw out the clutch, he had +started the millstones as well. <i>They</i> made most of this noise that almost +deafened them.</p> + +<p>Finally, however, Dave pushed the power belt from the flywheel, and the +stones stopped turning; but there was no way of stopping the sails. To step +outside the door was to court instant death, and until the wind stopped blowing +it seemed as though there would be no escape.</p> + +<p>“And the wind blows sometimes two or three days at a stretch!” +cried Frankie.</p> + +<p>“It’s lucky Tubby isn’t up here with us,” Dave said, +grimly. “He would want to cast lots at once to see which one of the party +should be eaten first.”</p> + +<p>“Ugh! don’t joke like that, Dave,” begged Mina. +“Maybe we <i>will</i> be dreadfully hungry before we get out of this +place.”</p> + +<p>“I’m hungry now,” announced Frankie.</p> + +<p>“It <i>is</i> near time for luncheon,” agreed Wyn.</p> + +<p>“‘Luncheon’! Huh!” ejaculated Dave. “I s’pose +that’s the feminine of ‘lunch.’ I could eat a stack of pancakes and +a whole can of beans right now. I’m too hungry for any mere +‘luncheon.’”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear! It’s so hot down here,” sighed <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231'></a>231</span> Percy. “If +we’ve got to stay, let’s go upstairs again, where there is some air +stirring.”</p> + +<p>“Let’s wave a signal from the window. Maybe somebody will see it +and come to our rescue,” suggested Frank.</p> + +<p>“And what could they do?” demanded Wyn, “These sails +can’t be stopped from the outside; can they, Dave?”</p> + +<p>“Not that I know of,” replied Dave. “If there was a tree +near, a fellow might tie a kedge rope to it, and then throw the kedge over one +of the arms. But that would tear the machinery all to pieces, I suppose, it +would stop it with such a jerk.”</p> + +<p>Just then Mina Everett uttered a shrill cry of alarm. “Look! +Look!” she cried. “It’s afire! We’ll burn up in here! +Oh, oh, Wynnie! what shall we do?”</p> + +<p>The others turned, aghast There <i>was</i> blue smoke spurting out around the +shaft above their heads.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232'></a>232</span><a id='link_22'></a>CHAPTER XXII<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE PRISONERS OF THE TOWER</span></h2> + +<p>“Fire!” cried Percy Havel. “Oh! what <i>shall</i> we +do?”</p> + +<p>“Well, your yelling about it won’t put it out,” snapped +Frank.</p> + +<p>But Dave Shepard had sprung up the ladder and immediately announced the +trouble.</p> + +<p>“The axle is getting overheated. See that can of oil yonder, Ferd? Come +out of your trance and do something useful, boy! Quick! hand me the +can.”</p> + +<p>But it was Wyn who got it to him. Dave quickly refilled the oil cups and +squirted some of the lubricant into the cracks about the shaft. The smoke +immediately drifted away.</p> + +<p>“The rest of you go up where it’s cooler,” he commanded. +“I will remain here and play engineer. And for goodness’ sake, pray +for the wind to die down!”</p> + +<p>The situation was really serious; nobody among the prisoners of the tower +knew what to do.</p> + +<p>While the wind swung the arms of the mill <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_233'></a>233</span> round and round, there was no chance to get out. +Not that they did not all cudgel their brains within the next hour to that end. +There were enough suggestions made to lead to a dozen escapes; only–none +of the suggestions were practical.</p> + +<p>It was less noisy, now that Dave had stopped the millstones; but the building +continued to tremble, and the great wheel to creak.</p> + +<p>“What a donkey the man was to let them cut his door right behind the +arms,” exclaimed Frankie.</p> + +<p>“And with no proper means of stopping the sails from inside, once the +wind began to blow,” added Percy.</p> + +<p>“No. That’s my fault,” admitted Ferdinand. “I broke +the gear some way.”</p> + +<p>“Well, if we only had an axe,” said one of the other boys, +“we might cut our way out of the building on the side opposite the +door.”</p> + +<p>But Dave had already searched the mill for tools. There wasn’t even a +rope. Had there been, they could have let themselves down from the high window +to the ground.</p> + +<p>“It should be against the law to build windmills without proper +fire-escapes,” declared Frank, trying to laugh.</p> + +<p>But it was hard to joke about the matter. It looked altogether too +serious.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234'></a>234</span>The wind +continued to blow steadily–a little harder, indeed, as time passed; but +the sun grew hotter. It came noon, and they knew that those at Green Knoll Camp +had long since expected them back.</p> + +<p>Finally a figure appeared upon the path far down the hill. They recognized +Tubby Blaisdell trudging painfully up the slope in the hot sun, evidently an +unwilling messenger from Mrs. Havel and Professor Skillings.</p> + +<p>They began to shout to Tubby, although they knew very well it was useless. He +couldn’t have heard their voices down there, even if the windmill +hadn’t made so much noise.</p> + +<p>But the girls fluttered their hats from the window and, bye and bye, the +stolid fat youth, glancing up while he mopped his brow, caught sight of the +signals. He halted, glared up at the window from under his hand, and then +hurried his steps.</p> + +<p>“Oh, you Tubby!” shouted Frank, at last, thrusting her tousled +curls out of the window. “Can’t you help us?”</p> + +<p>He heard these words, and looked more bewildered than ever.</p> + +<p>“Say! what do you want?” he bellowed up at them. +“Don’t ask me to climb up those ladders, for I can’t. And Mrs. +Havel and the prof. say <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_235'></a>235</span> for you to come back to camp. They think a storm is +coming. Besides–aren’t you hungry?”</p> + +<p>“Hungry! why, Tub,” yelled down Ferd, “if we could only get +at you, we’d eat you alive!”</p> + +<p>Tubby looked more than a little startled, and glanced behind him to see that +the way of retreat was clear.</p> + +<p>“Well, why don’t you come down and get your lunch, then?” +demanded young Blaisdell.</p> + +<p>“We can’t,” said Wyn, and she explained their +predicament.</p> + +<p>“Can’t stop those sails?” gasped Tubby. +“Why–why–Where’s the man who owns the old +contraption?”</p> + +<p>They explained further. Tubby went around to the other side and caught a +glimpse of Dave playing engineer. The chums shouted back and forth to each other +for some time.</p> + +<p>Tubby wanted to see if he couldn’t stop the sails by making a grab at +them.</p> + +<p>“You do it, Tubby, and the blamed things will throw you a mile through +the air,” declared Dave. “Besides, we don’t want to smash the +farmer’s mill. We have done enough harm as it is. So, there’s no use +in backing one of those heavy wagons into it and wrecking the sails. No. I guess +we’ve got to stand it here for a while.”</p> + +<p>They heard one of the girls calling, and Tubby <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_236'></a>236</span> lumbered around to see Frankie +gesticulating from the window.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Tubby! don’t leave us to starve–and we’re so +<i>awfully</i> thirsty, too,” cried Wyn, pushing her friend to one side. +“Get us a bucket of water from the well, first of all.”</p> + +<p>“Gee! how am I going to get it up to you–throw it?” cackled +the fat youth.</p> + +<p>“You get the bucket–and a rope,” commanded Wyn.</p> + +<p>“But if he can throw a rope up to us, we can get out of this +fix,” Ferdinand cried. “Can’t we, Dave?” he asked of his +captain, who had come up the ladders for a breath of fresh air.</p> + +<p>“Tubby couldn’t throw a coil of rope for a cent. He +couldn’t learn to use a lasso, you know.”</p> + +<p>“And we girls could not get down on a rope,” objected Bess.</p> + +<p>“We could lower you,” Ferd declared.</p> + +<p>“It would have to be a pretty strong rope,” said Dave. “And +maybe there isn’t anything bigger than clothes line about the +farm.”</p> + +<p>Which proved to be the case. At least, Tubby could find nothing else and +finally brought the brimming bucket and the line he had found on the drying +green behind the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>“I can’t throw the thing up so high,” complained Tubby, +after two or three attempts.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_237'></a>237</span>“Wait!” commanded Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Hold on! Wynnie’s great mind is at work.”</p> + +<p>“Everybody sit down and unlace his or her shoes. I want the +lacings,” declared Wynifred.</p> + +<p>“Hurray!” exclaimed Ferd. “Wait a bit, Tubby; don’t +wear your poor little self to a grease spot trying to throw that rope over the +mill.”</p> + +<p>Tubby, nothing loath, sat down and breathed heavily. The day <i>was</i> hot +in spite of the high wind.</p> + +<p>Wyn got all the shoe strings and tied them together, with a bolt fastened to +the lower end for a sinker, and let it down to the ground. There Tubby attached +the end of the clothes line and they pulled it up. It was long enough, and +strong enough, and Dave carefully raised the bucket of water–and oh! how +good it tasted to the thirsty prisoners.</p> + +<p>They were all provided with cups, for the Academy teachers and the Denton +mothers were rather insistent on that point.</p> + +<p>“But, oh, golly!” burst forth Frank, “if they’d only +made us always carry an emergency ration.”</p> + +<p>“We didn’t expect to be cast away on a desert island in this +fashion,” said Dave.</p> + +<p>But Wyn had another idea.</p> + +<p>“There are melons on the back porch. I saw <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_238'></a>238</span> them there this morning. Go get us a +lot, Tubby. Send ’em up by the bucket-full. And there are tomatoes in the +garden, and some summer apples on that tree by the fence corner. We’ll +make it all right with Mrs. Prosser. Why, say! we sha’n’t +starve.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll get you some eggs if you want ’em,” suggested +the willing youth. “I hear the hens cackling.”</p> + +<p>But all objected to raw eggs and thought the melons and fresh tomatoes would +suffice.</p> + +<p>“You go back to camp and report,” ordered Dave, through the +window. “The prof, and Mrs. Havel will be having conniption fits if these +girls don’t show up pretty soon. Tell ’em we’re all +right–but goodness knows we want the wind to stop blowing.”</p> + +<p>It did not seem, however, as though the wind had any such intention. After +Tubby Blaisdell departed it blew even stronger.</p> + +<p>It was hard to keep the whole party in good temper. The imprisonment was +getting on their nerves. Besides, the sky was growing darker, although it was +not yet mid-afternoon; and not long after the fat youth was out of sight, heavy +drops of rain began to fall.</p> + +<p>Rather, the wind whipped the raindrops in at the tower window. Patter, +patter, patter, they <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_239'></a>239</span> fell, faster and faster, and in the distance +thunder rumbled.</p> + +<p>The picnicking farmers should be home ahead of this storm; yet, if they came, +they could not stop the sails of the windmill. The shaft groaned and smoked, but +Dave kept the oil cups filled.</p> + +<p>Nearer and nearer came the thunder, and the lightning began to flash. Some of +the girls were frightened. Nor was this a pleasant place in which to be +imprisoned during an electrical storm. The tall, revolving arms seemed just the +things to attract the lightning.</p> + +<p>They all were glad–boys as well as girls–to retire to the ground +floor of the mill while the elements shrieked overhead and the rain pounded upon +the roof and the sails. It was really a most unpleasant situation.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240'></a>240</span><a id='link_23'></a>CHAPTER XXIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>WYN HITS SOMETHING</span></h2> + +<p>In the midst of the storm a voice hailed them from outside. Dave went to the +doorway and saw–through the falling rain–Farmer Prosser, standing by +his horses’ heads. He had just brought his family home from the picnic and +they had scurried into the house.</p> + +<p>“What are you doing in there?” demanded the farmer. +“Can’t you stop the sails?”</p> + +<p>Dave explained, making it as light for Ferd as possible.</p> + +<p>“Well! I’ve been expecting something like this ever since the +mill was put up. We can’t do anything about it now. But I believe the wind +will shift soon. And if it does, perhaps I can stop the sails from outside +here.”</p> + +<p>It was nearly dark, however, and quite supper-time, before the farmer’s +prophecy came true. Then the rain suddenly ceased to fall (the thunder and +lightning had long since rolled away into the distance) and the wind +dropped.</p> + +<p>The farmer and his man rigged a brake to fall <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_241'></a>241</span> against the narrow breadth of shaft +which extended outside of the mill wall, and so brought pressure to bear upon +the revolving axle. This helped bring the sails to a stop.</p> + +<p>How thankfully the Go-Aheads and the Busters got out of that tower, it would +be difficult to express. Professor Skillings had started up through the rain to +see what he could do; but on the way he had picked up a white pebble washed out +of the roadside by the rain, and there being something peculiar about it, he +stopped under a hedge to examine it by the light of his pocket lamp. Then he +must needs proceed with his ever-present geological hammer to break the stone in +two. Long after dark his electric lamp was flashing down there on the hillside +like some huge wavering firefly.</p> + +<p>Not that he could have done a thing to help his young friends. Mrs. Prosser, +the farmer’s wife, had the most practical idea of anybody; for, the minute +the boys and girls were out of the mill, she insisted that they troop into the +farmhouse kitchen and there sit down to her long table and “get outside +of” great bowls of milk and bread, with a host of ginger cookies on the +side.</p> + +<p>So the incident ended happily after all, though Ferdinand Roberts’s +spirits drooped for several days. It was well for him to suffer in <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242'></a>242</span> spirit–as Frankie +said: it might teach him a lesson. And he had to pay the farmer for the damage +he had done to the machinery.</p> + +<p>Ferdinand never had any money. He spent his allowance in advance, borrowing +of the other Busters whenever he could. When he got money from home he had to +sit down and apportion it all out to his creditors, and then had to begin +borrowing again.</p> + +<p>He had hard work scraping together the wherewithal to pay Mr. Prosser; but +the boys made it up for him, and the girls would have helped–only Dave +Shepard had instilled it into Ferd’s mind that it was not honorable to +borrow from a girl.</p> + +<p>However, having cleaned his own pocket and strained his credit to the +snapping point, Ferdinand was over at the Forge with Tubby a couple of days +afterward and beheld something in a store window that he thought he wanted.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Tubby!” he cried. “Lend me half a dollar; will you? I +must have that.”</p> + +<p>Tubby looked at him out of heavy-lidded eyes, and croaked: “Snow again, +brother; I don’t get your drift!”</p> + +<p>When Ferd went from one to the other of his mates they all refused–if +not quite as slangily as the fat youth, Ferd found himself actually a pauper, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243'></a>243</span> with all lines of +credit shut to him. It made him serious.</p> + +<p>“If all you fellows, and the old prof., should suddenly die on me up +here–what would I do?” gasped Ferd. “Why–I’d have +to walk home!”</p> + +<p>“Or swim,” said Dave, heartlessly. “You’d pawn your +canoe, I s’pose.”</p> + +<p>Speaking of swimming, that was an art in which several of the boys, as well +as Bessie Lavine and Mina Everett, needed practice. Beside the early morning +dip, both clubs often held swimming matches either at Green Knoll Camp, or off +the boys’ camp on Gannet Island.</p> + +<p>The boys built a good diving raft and anchored it in deep water after much +hard work. The good swimmers among the girls–especially Wyn and +Grace–liked to paddle over to the raft and dive from it.</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon the Go-Aheads had come to the raft in their canoes +dressed only in their bathing suits, and found that the boys had gone off on +some excursion, and that even Professor Skillings was not in sight at +Cave-in-the-Wood Camp.</p> + +<p>“Oh, goody!” exclaimed Bess, with satisfaction. “Now we can +have a good time without those trifling boys bothering us. I’m going to +learn to dive properly, Wyn.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_244'></a>244</span>“Sure,” returned her friend and captain, +encouragingly. “Now’s the time,” and she gave Bess a good deal +of attention for some few minutes.</p> + +<p>The other girls disported themselves in the deep water to their vast +enjoyment. Bessie learned a good bit about diving and finally sat upon the edge +of the float to rest.</p> + +<p>Wyn dived overboard.</p> + +<p>She had taken a long slant out from the float, but once under the surface she +turned and went deeper. She was like an otter in the water, and having stuffed +her ears with cotton she felt prepared to remain below a long time.</p> + +<p>Once she had opened her eyes while diving with Bess, and she thought she saw +a shadowy something on the bottom of the lake that was neither a boulder nor a +waterlogged snag.</p> + +<p>She beat her way to the bottom as rapidly as possible; but the light did not +follow her. She could see nothing when she opened her eyes. It seemed as though +something overshadowed her.</p> + +<p>The water was tugging at her; she could not remain below for long. But as she +turned to drift up again, her shoulder touched something. She struck out and +reached it. But the blow really <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_245'></a>245</span> pushed her away and she floated upward toward the +surface.</p> + +<p>When she paddled to the raft she was panting, and Frank demanded:</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter, Wyn? You look as if you’d seen a ghost +I believe you stay down too long.”</p> + +<p>“No,” gasped Wyn. “I–I hit something.”</p> + +<p>“What was it?”</p> + +<p>“Why–why, it looked like a wagon. ’Twas something.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose so!” laughed Frank. “Wagon with a load of hay on +it–eh?”</p> + +<p>Wyn said nothing more. She sat upon the float, with her knees drawn up and +hugged in her brown arms, and thought. The other girls could get nothing out of +her.</p> + +<p>She wasn’t dreaming, however. She was thinking to a serious +purpose.</p> + +<p>It <i>had</i> looked like a wagon–as much as it looked like anything +else. But, of course, she had seen it very dimly. She knew by the touch that it +was of wood; but it was no waterlogged tree, although there was slime upon it It +was not rough; but smooth.</p> + +<p>Of course, it wasn’t a wagon. Nor was it a huge box. Neither wagon nor +box could have <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246'></a>246</span> got +out here, fifteen or twenty rods off Gannet Island.</p> + +<p>Wyn glanced over toward the island and saw that she could look right into the +cove where John Jarley had met with his accident. According to the +boatman’s story, as he went overboard from the motor boat he gave the +wheel a twist that should have shot her directly out of the cove toward the +middle of the lake.</p> + +<p>“But suppose the boat didn’t respond, after all, to the twist of +the wheel?” Wyn was thinking. “Or, suppose the slant of the rudder +was not as great as he supposed?”</p> + +<p>She fixed in her mind about the spot where the thing lay she had hit, and +then glanced back to the tree on the bank of the cove, that showed the long scar +where the branch was torn off.</p> + +<p>The line between the two was clear. The motor boat might have run out exactly +on that course and missed the wooded point which guarded the entrance to the +cove.</p> + +<p>Suppose the thing she had hit when she dived was the <i>Bright Eyes</i>, Dr. +Shelton’s lost motor boat?</p> + +<p>Wyn was about to shout to the other girls–to call them around her to +divulge the idea that had come into her mind–when a hail from the water +announced the return of the Busters.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247'></a>247</span>She remembered +Mr. Lavine’s promise. The two clubs were rivals in this matter. +Wouldn’t it be a fine thing for the Go-Aheads to own a motor boat all by +themselves!</p> + +<p>Wyn got up and dived again. But she did not dive toward the mysterious +something that she had previously found. She swam stoutly instead to meet the +coming Busters.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248'></a>248</span><a id='link_24'></a>CHAPTER XXIV<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE NIGHT ALARM</span></h2> + +<p>Wyn Mallory had “another mind,” as the saying is, before the +Go-Aheads left the island and paddled swiftly for their own camp.</p> + +<p>She determined not to say anything to her girl friends of the club about the +sunken object she had hit under the water. Perhaps it was nothing of any +consequence; then they would laugh at her. If it <i>was</i> the lost motor boat, +to tell the girls might spread the story farther than it ought to be spread at +once.</p> + +<p>The Go-Aheads and the Busters were rivals. Mr. Lavine had promised the prize +to whichever club found the sunken boat and the box of silver images that Dr. +Shelton had accused John Jarley of stealing.</p> + +<p>“And it may not be anything, after all,” thought Wyn. “It +may be a false alarm. Then the <i>boys</i> would have the laugh on +us.”</p> + +<p>To make sure of what she had hit when she dived seemed to Wyn to be the +principal thing. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249'></a>249</span> +And how could she make sure of this without going down specially to examine the +mystery?</p> + +<p>“How under the sun am I going to do that without the boys seeing +me?” she mused. “And if I take the girls into my confidence they +will all want to be there, too–and then sure enough the Busters will catch +us at it. Dear me! I don’t know what to do–really.”</p> + +<p>She had half a mind to take Frank into her confidence; but, then, Frank was +such a joker. The girls and boys had often talked about hunting for the missing +motor boat; but since Mr. Lavine had gone back to Denton, after the regatta, +neither club had seriously attempted a search for the <i>Bright Eyes</i>.</p> + +<p>Polly had told Wyn how men from Meade’s Forge had searched for the boat +when she was first lost; and some of the bateau men had kept up the search for a +long time. Had the motor boat and the silver images been found, Dr. Shelton +might have been obliged to pay a large reward to obtain them, for not all of the +bateau men of the lake were honest.</p> + +<p>“Some of them bothered father a good deal while he was first laid up +from his accident, coming by night and trying to get him to give them details +which he hadn’t given to the other searchers. They thought he must know +just where the <i>Bright Eyes</i> <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_250'></a>250</span> was sunk,” Polly had told the captain of the +Go-Ahead Club. “But they got tired of that after a while. They saw he +really did not know what had become of the boat.”</p> + +<p>Polly! She was the one to confide in, Wyn decided. And the captain of the +Go-Ahead Club did not decide upon this until after the other girls in the big +tent, and Mrs. Havel, were all asleep. Wyn had been awake an hour wondering what +she would better do.</p> + +<p>Now, convinced that the boatman’s daughter would be a wiser as well as +safer confidante at this stage than Frank or the others, Wyn wriggled out of her +blanket and seized her bathing suit. It was a beautiful warm night. She was no +more afraid of the woods and lake at this hour than she was by daylight.</p> + +<p>So she slipped into the suit, got out of the tent without rousing any of the +others, selected her own paddle from the heap by the fireplace, and ran +barefooted down to the shore. It took but a minute to push her canoe into the +water.</p> + +<p>She paddled away around the rushes at the end of the strip of sand below the +knoll, driving the canoe toward the Jarley Landing. Out of the rushes came a +sudden splashing, and some water-fowl, disturbed by her passing, spattered +deeper into hiding.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251'></a>251</span>Wyn only +laughed. The warm, misty night wrapped her around like a cloak; yet there was +sufficient light on the surface of the lake for her to see her course a few +yards ahead.</p> + +<p><i>This</i> was a real adventure–out in her canoe alone in the dark. +And how fast she made the light craft travel through the still water!</p> + +<p>She reached the landing in a very short time. Hopping out, she hauled up the +canoe. Was that the water splashing–or was there a sound behind her on the +float? Was it a footstep–somebody hastening away?</p> + +<p>Now, for the first time, Wyn felt a little tremor. But she was naturally too +brave to be particularly disturbed by such a fancy. Who would be lurking about +the Jarleys’ place at this hour?</p> + +<p>So, after a moment, she shook off her doubt, and ran lightly up the float and +along the path to the little cottage. She knew Polly’s window well enough, +and dark as it was, she soon found the spot.</p> + +<p>It was shuttered, and the shutter was bolted on the inside; but Wyn scratched +upon the blind and after doing so a second time she heard a movement within.</p> + +<p>“Polly!” she breathed.</p> + +<p>She did not want to awaken Mr. Jarley. She just felt that she could not +explain to <i>him</i>. Of <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_252'></a>252</span> course, what she had hit under the water might have +nothing to do with the sunken boat, and Wyn shrank from disturbing the boatman +himself about it.</p> + +<p>“Polly!” she exclaimed, again in a whisper, “it’s +I–Wyn–Wyn Mallory.”</p> + +<p>At once she heard her friend’s voice in return. The shutter opened. +Polly blinked at Wyn through the darkness.</p> + +<p>“My <i>dear</i>! What do you want? What has happened?” asked the +girl of the woods.</p> + +<p>“Come on out–do, Polly. I’ve got something to tell you. +Just put on your bathing suit,” Wyn whispered.</p> + +<p>“For pity’s sake! What is it?”</p> + +<p>“Don’t awaken your father. Come.”</p> + +<p>“Just a minute,” whispered the sleepy Polly, and in not much +longer than the time stated she crept through the window.</p> + +<p>“I’d wake father if I went out by the door,” she said. +“Now come down to the landing. What are you doing ’way over here at this +time o’ night?”</p> + +<p>“I have the most surprising thing to tell you.”</p> + +<p>“What about?”</p> + +<p>“I wish you’d go over to Gannet Island with me and see if +I’m right. The moon will be up bye and bye; won’t it?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253'></a>253</span>“Yes. But +what do you mean? What is the mystery?” inquired Polly. Then she seized +Wyn’s arm and demanded that she “Hush!” although Wyn’s +lips were not open at the moment.</p> + +<p>“I declare I thought I heard something just then,” whispered +Polly.</p> + +<p>“You’re bound to hear things in the dark,” returned Wyn, +cheerfully.</p> + +<p>“But it was somebody coughing.”</p> + +<p>“A bird?” ventured Wyn. “I heard one splashing in the +sedges as I came along in the canoe.”</p> + +<p>“A bird clearing its throat?” laughed Polly. “Not +likely!”</p> + +<p>She did not bother about it again, but squeezed Wyn’s arm. “Tell +me what the matter is. It must be something very important to bring you ’way +over here alone at night.”</p> + +<p>“That’s right. It is,” replied Wyn, and she related to +Polly the thing that was troubling her.</p> + +<p>“And, oh, Polly! if that thing I hit under the water should be that +boat―”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Wyn! What would father say?”</p> + +<p>“He’d be delighted. So would we all. And we must find out for +sure.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll tell him in the morning. We’ll go there and +see―”</p> + +<p>But Wyn stopped her. She showed her how <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_254'></a>254</span> necessary it was for the matter to be looked into +secretly. Mr. Lavine had promised to give a motor boat to whichever club found +the sunken <i>Bright Eyes</i> and the silver images. And the Busters must not +know a thing about it until they were sure―</p> + +<p>“Then Mr. Lavine believes father’s story about the boat?” +burst in Polly.</p> + +<p>“I believe he does, Polly, dear. I think, Polly, that he would be very, +very glad to have Mr. Jarley cleared of all suspicion. He is sorry for your +father’s trouble. I think his attitude, toward your father has changed +from what it must have been at one time.”</p> + +<p>“It ought to be!” exclaimed Polly.</p> + +<p>“Of course. But we none of us always do all we ought to do,” +observed Wyn mildly.</p> + +<p>“If we are going to try and find that place where you dived to-day, +Wyn, we’d better be about it,” Polly urged.</p> + +<p>“You’ll go now?” cried Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Of course I will. The boys will be asleep up in their camp. We will +take the <i>Coquette</i>. There is a breeze.”</p> + +<p>“Let’s tow my canoe behind, then,” said Wyn, eagerly. +“Come on! I’m just crazy to dive for the thing again. If it +<i>is</i> the <i>Bright Eyes</i>―”</p> + +<p>Polly insisted upon hunting out a couple of old <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_255'></a>255</span> blankets to wrap about them if the wind +should turn chill.</p> + +<p>“And after you have been overboard you’ll want something to +protect you from the night air,” she said.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Polly! do you suppose I can find the place again?” cried +Wyn, infinitely more eager than the boatman’s daughter.</p> + +<p>“You say it’s right off the boys’ float? Well! we can look, +I guess.”</p> + +<p>“Feel, you mean,” laughed Wyn. “For <i>I</i> couldn’t +see anything down there even by daylight–it was so deep.”</p> + +<p>“All right. We’ll look with our hands. I shall know if it’s +a boat, Wyn, once I reach it.”</p> + +<p>“And I hope it <i>is</i>” gasped Wyn. “Not alone for +<i>your</i> sake, Polly. Why, if it is the <i>Bright Eyes</i>, the Go-Aheads +will own a motor boat their very own selves. Won’t that be +fine?”</p> + +<p>But Polly was too busy getting the catboat ready to answer. The +<i>Coquette</i> was moored just a little way off the landing, and the two girls +went out to her in Wyn’s canoe.</p> + +<p>There was a lantern in her cuddy and Polly lit it. Then they slipped the +buoyed moorings and spread a little canvas. There was quite a breeze, and it was +fair for their course to Gannet Island. Soon the catboat was laying over a bit, +and the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256'></a>256</span> foam was +streaking away behind them in a broad wake.</p> + +<p>“What a lovely night!” sighed Wyn. “And it will be the very +gladdest night I ever saw if that thing I hit proves to be the <i>Bright +Eyes</i>.”</p> + +<p>Polly had glanced behind them frequently. “Don’t you hear +anything?” she asked finally.</p> + +<p>“Hear what?”</p> + +<p>“Hush! that’s somebody getting up a sail. Can’t you hear +it?”</p> + +<p>Wyn listened, and then murmured: “Your ears must be sharper than mine, +Polly. I hear nothing but the slap of the water.”</p> + +<p>“No. There is another sailboat under weigh. Where can it be +from?”</p> + +<p>“You don’t suppose your father was aroused, and is coming after +us?” asked Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Of course not. Beside, the <i>Coquette</i> is the only sailing +boat–except a canoe–that we have at present. The other cat is loaned +for a week. And I heard the hoops creaking on the mast as a heavy sail went +up.”</p> + +<p>“Some crowd of fishermen?” suggested Wyn.</p> + +<p>“But where’s their light?”</p> + +<p>Wyn stared all around. “You’re right,” she gasped. +“There isn’t a single twinkling lantern–except +ashore.”</p> + +<p>Polly, sitting in the stern seat, reached for their <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_257'></a>257</span> own lantern and smothered its rays. +“We won’t show a gleam, either,” she muttered.</p> + +<p>“Why! who could it possibly be?” cried Wyn. “Do you think +somebody may be following us?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” returned Polly, grimly. “But I +thought I heard something back there at our house. We were talking loud. If +those silver images were worth all Dr. Shelton says they were, there are more +than us girls who would like to find them.”</p> + +<p>“My goodness me! I didn’t think of <i>that</i>,” observed +Wyn Mallory, with a little shiver. “Do you suppose we really are being +followed?”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258'></a>258</span><a id='link_25'></a>CHAPTER XXV<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE STRANGE BATEAU</span></h2> + +<p>Polly laughed a little. Yet she spoke seriously.</p> + +<p>“You needn’t be so worried, Wyn. I know most of the men who do +business on the lake. Some of them are mighty fine fellows, and others are just +the opposite; but I’m not afraid of the worst of them.”</p> + +<p>“If they followed us, and we <i>did</i> find the sunken motor boat, +couldn’t they grapple for the box of silver images, and steal them?” +demanded Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Not easily. You see, they don’t know where the box was stowed. +Father told nobody but me. The <i>Bright Eyes</i> was a good-sized boat, and +they’d have some trouble getting up the box without raising the boat +herself.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose that’s so,” admitted Wyn, less anxiously, as the +<i>Coquette</i> carried them swiftly toward Gannet Island. “But these men +you speak of might interfere with us.”</p> + +<p>“Yes. That’s so. But they’d get as good as <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259'></a>259</span> they sent, I +reckon,” said Polly, who didn’t seem to have a bit of fear.</p> + +<p>Wyn was no coward; she had shown that the time she and Bessie Lavine were +spilled out of their canoes in the middle of the lake. But she had not lived, +like Polly, in the woods with few but rough people for associates.</p> + +<p>Soon they passed Green Knoll Camp, lying peacefully in the light of the moon +that was just then rising above the Forge. Its rays silvered all the knoll and +made the camp a charming spot.</p> + +<p>“I hope none of them will wake up and find me gone,” remarked +Wyn, chuckling.</p> + +<p>Polly gave the tiller and sheet to her friend and stood up to get a better +view of the lake astern of them. At first she saw nothing but the dim shores and +the silvering water. Then, some distance out, Polly caught sight of a ghostly +sail drifting across the path of moonlight.</p> + +<p>“A bateau!” she exclaimed. “And–with the wind the way +it is–she must have come right out of our cove, Wynnie.”</p> + +<p>“Do–do you really think anybody was listening to us when we were +talking there on the landing, Polly?” Wyn asked. “And are they +aboard <i>that</i> bateau?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know. But I know I heard something then.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260'></a>260</span>“But that +boat isn’t following us.”</p> + +<p>“It may be. We can’t tell. They can watch us just as easily as we +can watch them.”</p> + +<p>But when the <i>Coquette</i> got around to the side of Gannet Island where +the boys’ camp was established, the shadow of the high, wooded ridge was +thrown out so far across the lake that the swimming raft and its neighborhood +were in darkness.</p> + +<p>The catboat, with her sail dropped and her nose just touching the edge of the +float, was quite hidden by this shadow of the island, which was all the darker +in contrast with the brilliant moonlight lying on the water farther out.</p> + +<p>“I’ll carry the kedge to the float,” whispered Polly, +“and then we’ll pay out the line till the <i>Coquette</i> floats +about over the spot where you think the thing you hit lies.”</p> + +<p>“Let’s get my canoe out of the way, too,” urged Wyn. +“Oh! I hope the boys will not wake up.”</p> + +<p>“What’s that light up there?” exclaimed Polly, +suddenly.</p> + +<p>“That’s the spark of their campfire. It’s in the rocks, so +no harm can come from it; they don’t trouble to cover it when they go to +bed.”</p> + +<p>“Now, Wyn–push the boat off.”</p> + +<p>They worked the catboat from the float for several yards. “Wait,” +whispered Wyn. “Let’s try here.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261'></a>261</span>“Are you +going to dive?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. It will make some splash; but I don’t believe I can reach +the bottom of the lake otherwise, it is so deep here.”</p> + +<p>“Careful!” cautioned Polly. “You may hurt yourself on +whatever is down there.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll look out,” returned Wyn, again filling her ears with +cotton. She slipped off the skirt of her bathing suit, too, so as to have more +freedom. Then she poised herself for a moment on the decked-over part of the +sailboat–a slim, lithe figure in the semi-darkness–and gradually +bent over with her arms outstretched to part the water.</p> + +<p>As she dived forward she thought she heard a quick exclamation from Polly; +but Wyn believed it to be an encouraging cry. At least, she gave it no attention +as she clove the water and went down, down, down into the depths of the +lake.</p> + +<p>She opened her eyes, but, of course, saw nothing but a great, shadowy mass +below her. Toward this mass she swam eagerly; the lake seemed much deeper than +it had by daylight.</p> + +<p>Struggling against the uplift of the water, she beat her way down into the +depths for more than a minute. That was a goodly length of time for the first +submersion. And she did not reach the bottom, nor find any object like the thing +she had struck against some hours before.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262'></a>262</span>It was necessary +for her to rise. As she turned over, a luminous spot appeared over her head, and +toward this spot she sprang. With aching chest she reached the surface, and +sprang breast high out of the water–some yards from the catboat. There was +a strong current here.</p> + +<p>“Polly!” she gasped.</p> + +<p>“Sh!” hissed her comrade’s voice, in warning.</p> + +<p>Surprised, Wyn obeyed the warning. Causing scarcely a ripple in the water, +she paddled to the boat. There she clung to the rail and listened. She could not +see Polly.</p> + +<p>“Dunno where they went to in that cat, Eb,” growled a hoarse +voice out of the darkness.</p> + +<p>Wyn darted a glance over her shoulder. There, looming gray and ghostly, was +the tall sail they had seen once before. The strange, square-nosed bateau was +drifting by, but at some distance. Evidently the catboat was well hidden in the +shadow of the island.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Polly reached over the edge of the boat and seized Wyn’s +shoulders. “Don’t try to climb in,” she whispered. +“They’ll see or hear the splash.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” breathed back the captain of the Go-Aheads.</p> + +<p>“It’s Eb Lornigan and some of his friends. Eb <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263'></a>263</span> is a disgrace to the +lake. He’s been in jail more than once,” whispered Polly.</p> + +<p>But Wyn’s shoulders began to feel cold. The night air, after all, was +not really warm. “I’m going down again,” she whispered.</p> + +<p>“Did–did you find it?” queried Polly.</p> + +<p>“No. But I will,” declared the other girl, confidently, and +slipped into the water.</p> + +<p>She ventured under the bottom of the catboat and, turning suddenly, braced +her feet against it, and so flung herself down into the depths.</p> + +<p>She descended more swiftly with the momentum thus gained, traveling toward +the bottom on a different slant than before. With her hands far before her she +defended her head from collision with any sunken object there might be down +here. And this time she actually did hit something again.</p> + +<p>She turned quickly and grabbed at it with both hands. It seemed like a sharp, +smooth pole sticking almost upright in the water. There was a bit of rag, or +marine plant of some kind, attached to it.</p> + +<p>She struggled to pull herself down by the staff, but she had been below now +longer than before. Just what the staff could be she did not imagine until she +had again turned and “kicked” her way upward.</p> + +<p>“It’s the pennant staff of the sunken boat!” <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264'></a>264</span> she gasped, as she came +to the surface and could open her mouth once more.</p> + +<p>“Hush! what’s the matter with you?” demanded Polly, in a +low voice, directly at hand.</p> + +<p>“Oh! have they gone?”</p> + +<p>“The bateau is out of hearing distance. But you <i>do</i> splash like a +porpoise.”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense! Let me climb up.”</p> + +<p>Polly gave her some help and in a few moments Wyn lay panting in the tiny +cockpit of the boat.</p> + +<p>“Did–did you find anything?” queried Polly, anxiously.</p> + +<p>Wyn told her what she believed she had found underneath the water, and the +position of the staff. “It must be lying bow on to us here,” she +said.</p> + +<p>“Oh! do you suppose it really <i>is</i> the <i>Bright +Eyes</i>?”</p> + +<p>“It’s something,” replied Wyn, confidently, pulling one of +the blankets around her.</p> + +<p>“I’m going down myself,” declared Polly, sharply.</p> + +<p>“All right. Maybe you can find more of the boat. It’s +there.”</p> + +<p>Polly sprang up into the bow of the catboat, poised herself for a moment and +then dived overboard. She could outswim and outdive any of the Go-Ahead +girls–and why not? She was in, or on, the lake from early spring until +late autumn.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265'></a>265</span>Polly was under +the surface no longer than Wyn; but when she came up she struck out for the +<i>Coquette</i> and scrambled immediately into the boat.</p> + +<p>“What is it? Am I right? Is it a boat?” cried the anxious +Wynnie.</p> + +<p>“Yes! It’s there. Oh, Wynifred Mallory! My father is going to be +so relieved! It’s–it’s just heavenly! How can we ever thank +you?”</p> + +<p>Wyn was crying softly. “I’m so delighted, dear Polly. It–it +is <i>sure</i> the <i>Bright Eyes</i>?”</p> + +<p>“It is a motor boat. I went right down to the deck, and scrambled +around it. There are surely not <i>two</i> motor boats sunk in Lake +Honotonka,” declared Polly.</p> + +<p>“Hush, then!” urged Wyn. “We’ll keep still about it. +It is my find and I’ll telegraph to Mr. Lavine as quick as I can. The +Go-Ahead girls are going to own a motor boat! Won’t that be +fine?”</p> + +<p>“Say nothing to any of the others. I’ll tell father,” said +Polly, beginning to haul in on the kedge line. “And he’ll know what +to do about raising the launch. He’ll have to go to the +Forge―”</p> + +<p>“Then he can send the message to Mr. Lavine for me. Tell him the girls +have found the sunken boat, and sign my name to it. That will bring +Bessie’s father up here in a hurry.”</p> + +<p>The girls got their anchor and the canoe, and <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_266'></a>266</span> put up the sail again. As the +<i>Coquette</i> shot away from the boys’ swimming float, the ghostly sail +of the strange bateau again crossed the path of moonlight at the other end of +the island.</p> + +<p>“I’d feel better,” muttered Polly, “if those, fellows +were not hanging about so close.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267'></a>267</span><a id='link_26'></a>CHAPTER XXVI<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE BOYS TO THE RESCUE</span></h2> + +<p>Wyn got into her canoe in sight of Green Knoll Camp, and leaving Polly to +work the <i>Coquette</i> home alone, paddled to the shore, drew out the canoe +and turned it over on the beach with the six other canoes belonging to the camp, +and so stole up the hill and prepared for bed again.</p> + +<p>Nobody seemed to have missed her, although it was now two hours after +midnight. The captain of the girls’ club felt a glow of satisfaction at +her heart as she composed herself for sleep. She believed she was going to have +a great and happy surprise for the girls of the Go-Ahead Club; and in addition +the Jarleys would be relieved of the cloud of suspicion that had hung over Mr. +Jarley ever since Dr. Shelton’s motor boat was lost.</p> + +<p>Wyn slept so late that all the other girls were up and had run down for their +morning dip ere Mrs. Havel shook her.</p> + +<p>“You must have had your bath very early, Wynnie,” said that lady. +“Here is your bathing suit all wet.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268'></a>268</span>“Yes, +ma’am,” responded Wyn, sleepily.</p> + +<p>“Now, rouse up. The whole camp is astir,” said Mrs. Havel, and +Wyn was fully dressed when the other girls came back. There were not too many +questions asked, so her secret remained safe.</p> + +<p>She became considerably disturbed, however, when the hours of the forenoon +passed and she neither heard from nor saw anything of the Jarleys.</p> + +<p>Once a big bateau went drifting by and disappeared behind Gannet Island, +under a lazy sail and with two men at the long sweeps, or oars. When it was lost +to view Wyn was troubled by the thought that it might be the same mysterious +craft that had followed the catboat the night before. Had it anchored off the +boys’ camp now?</p> + +<p>So, to calm her own mind, she suggested that they all paddle over to +Cave-in-the-Wood Camp and take their luncheon with them.</p> + +<p>“Goodness me, Wynifred!” exclaimed Bess, the boy-despiser, +“can’t you keep away from those boys for a single day?”</p> + +<p>“I notice we usually have a good time when the boys are around,” +returned Wyn, cheerfully.</p> + +<p>“Oh, they’re quite a ‘necessary evil,’” drawled +Frank. “But I feel myself like Johnny Bloom’s aunt when we get rid +of the Busters for a time.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269'></a>269</span>“What +about Johnny’s aunt?” queried Mina.</p> + +<p>“Why, do you know that Johnny belongs to the Scouts and one law of the +Scouts is that they shall each do something for somebody each day to make the +said somebody happy.”</p> + +<p>“Rather involved in your English, Miss, but we understand you,” +said Grace.</p> + +<p>“So far,” agreed Percy Havel. “But where do Johnny Bloom +and his aunt come in?”</p> + +<p>“Why, any day he can’t think of any other kindness to render his +friends,” chuckled Frankie, “he goes to see his aunt. She is so glad +when he goes home again–she detests boys–that Johnny feels all the +thrill of having performed a good deed.”</p> + +<p>“Now, Frank!” laughed Wyn, “you know it isn’t as bad +as all <i>that</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, it is,” chuckled Frankie. “You don’t know +Johnny Bloom as well as his neighbors do. He lives on my street.”</p> + +<p>“Humph! most boys are just as bad,” declared Bess. “Just +the same, if Wyn says ‘Gannet Island’ I reckon we’ll all have to +go.”</p> + +<p>“And we’ll have some fun diving,” Grace Hedges declared. +“I wish we had a diving float over here.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Havel preferred to remain at the camp and the six girls were a very +hilarious party as <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270'></a>270</span> +they set forth in their canoes and fresh bathing suits for the island.</p> + +<p>By this time every member of the Go-Ahead Club was as brown as a berry, +inured to exposure in the sun, and enjoying the outdoor life of woods and lake +to the full.</p> + +<p>Mina’s timidity had worn off, Percy was not so “finicky” in +her tastes, Bessie was more careful of other people’s feelings, Grace +really seemed almost cured of laziness, Frank was by no means so hoydenish as +she once was, and as for Wynifred, she was just as hearty and happy as it seemed +a girl could be. Their independent, busy life on Green Knoll was doing them all +a world of good.</p> + +<p>As the little squadron of canoes drew near to the easterly end of the Island +the girls were suddenly excited by a great disturbance in the bushes on the hill +above them. This end of the island was exceedingly steep and rocky.</p> + +<p>“Oh, what’s that?” cried Mina, as some object flashed into +view for a moment and then disappeared.</p> + +<p>“It’s one of the goats,” squealed Frankie.</p> + +<p>Gannet Island was grazed by a good-sized herd of goats, but they remained +mostly at this end and kept away from the boys’ camp at the other. The +girls had seldom seen any of the herd, although they had heard the kids bleating +now <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271'></a>271</span> and then, and +the boys had described the old rams and how ugly they were.</p> + +<p>Here, right above them, was going on a striking domestic wrangle, for in a +moment they saw that two of the rams were having a set-to among the bushes on +the side-hill, while several mild-eyed Nannies and their progeny looked on.</p> + +<p>The rams would back away a little in the brush and then charge each other. +When their hard horns collided, they rang like steel, and several times the +antagonists were both overborne by the shock and rolled upon the ground.</p> + +<p>“What a place for a fight!” exclaimed Frank. “What do you +know about <i>that</i>, girls?”</p> + +<p>“It’s a shame,” quavered Mina. “Somebody ought to +separate them.”</p> + +<p>“Sure! I vote that you go right up and do so, Miss Everett,” said +Grace, briskly.</p> + +<p>However, Frank’s criticism of the judgment of the combating goats was +correct. It was no place for a fair fight. One of the animals happened to get +“up hill” and at the next charge the lower goat was lifted +completely off its feet and came tumbling down the steep descent with the speed +of an avalanche.</p> + +<p>The girls screamed, the other goats bleated–while the conquering Billie +took a commanding position on a rock and gazed down upon his falling <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272'></a>272</span> enemy. The latter could +not stop. Twice he tried to scramble to his sharp little hoofs, but could not +accomplish the feat. So, then, quite helpless, he fell the entire distance and +came finally, with a mighty splash, into the deep water under the bank.</p> + +<p>“Oh! the poor creature will be drowned!” cried Wyn, in great +distress at this catastrophe, although some of the other girls were inclined to +laugh, for the goat <i>did</i> look more than a little comical.</p> + +<p>He had been battered a good deal and had received a wound upon one side of +his face that did not improve his looks at all. And while he had been so lively +and pugnacious up on the hillside, now he splashed about in the lake quite +helplessly.</p> + +<p>The shore of the island just here was altogether too abrupt to afford the +unlucky goat any foot-hold. And the goat is not naturally an aquatic animal.</p> + +<p>“Come on!” urged Bessie. “Let’s leave him. We +can’t do any good here.”</p> + +<p>“Of course we can help him,” cried Wyn. “Grab him by the +other horn, Frank!”</p> + +<p>She had driven her own canoe to the far side of the goat and now seized the +beast’s horn. He could not fight in the water and Wyn and Frank slowly +guided him along the shore until they reached a sloping piece of beach where he +could, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273'></a>273</span> at least, +get a footing. But he lay down, half in and half out of the water, seemingly +exhausted.</p> + +<p>“He can never climb that bank,” declared Mina.</p> + +<p>“We’ll boost him up, then,” said Frank, with confidence. +“Having set out to be twin Good Samaritans, we’ll finish the job +properly; eh, Wyn?”</p> + +<p>Her friend agreed, laughing, and both girls sprang ashore. They didn’t +mind getting a little wet, considering how they were dressed.</p> + +<p>The goat bleated forlornly as they seized upon him; he was quite all the two +girls could lift, and they actually had to drag him up the steeper part of the +hill by his legs.</p> + +<p>Their friends below chaffed them a good deal, for it was a ridiculous sight. +Soon, however, Wyn and Frank got their awkward burden to the mouth of an easily +sloping gully, that led toward the interior of the island. As soon as he could, +the animal scrambled upon his feet.</p> + +<p>Once firmly set, however, this ungrateful goat’s temper changed most +surprisingly. Or he may have felt that his dignity had been ruffled by the +treatment he had received at the hands of his rescuers.</p> + +<p>So he began stamping his little sharp hoofs and lowered his head, shaking the +latter threateningly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274'></a>274</span>“What did +I tell you?” called Bess, from below. “Next you two sillies know +he’ll butt you.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, come along, Wyn!” gasped Frankie. “Plague the goat, +anyway!” as she dodged the enraged animal’s first charge.</p> + +<p>The goat was headed up the gully, away from the shore, or he might have gone +head first into the lake again. As the girls escaped him, Wyn, laughing +immoderately, looked back. A big beech tree cropped out of the bank not far +away, and under this tree she descried a figure lying.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Frank!” she cried.</p> + +<p>Her friend turned and saw the figure, too.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Wyn!”</p> + +<p>Their ejaculations seemed to have attracted Mr. William Goat’s +attention to the same reclining figure. Outstretched upon the sward, with a +large handkerchief over his face as a protection from gnats and other insects, +and with his fat fingers interlaced across what Dave Shepard wickedly termed his +chum’s “bow-window,” lay the quite unconscious Tubby +Blaisdell.</p> + +<p>“Tubby!” shrieked the girls in chorus.</p> + +<p>The fat boy sat up as though a spring had been released. The handkerchief was +still over his face, and he grunted blindly.</p> + +<p>It was a challenge to Mr. Goat. He charged. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_275'></a>275</span> Amid the screams of the girls the goat hurtled +through the air, all four feet gathered beneath him, and landed head-and-horns +in the middle of poor Tubby’s waistcoat!</p> + +<p>It wasn’t a very big goat. ’Twas lucky for Master Blaisdell that this +was so. Tubby went back with an awful grunt, heels in the air, and the goat +turned a complete somersault. But the latter scrambled to his feet a whole lot +quicker than did Tubby.</p> + +<p>“Run–run, Tubby!” shrieked Frank.</p> + +<p>“Look out for him, Ralph!” cried Wyn.</p> + +<p>Back the goat came. This time he took Master Blaisdell from the rear and +butted him so hard that he actually seemed to lift the fat boy to his feet.</p> + +<p>The youth had scratched the handkerchief from his face, and now could see the +enemy. Tubby had emitted nothing but a series of excruciating grunts; but now, +when he saw the goat making ready for another charge, he met the animal with a +yell, leaping into the air with his legs a-straddle, so that the Billie ran +between them, and then Tubby footed it up the gully as fast as he could +travel.</p> + +<p>The goat, headed down hill again, saw his old enemies, the two girls, and +made as though to attack them. Wyn and Frank, almost dead with <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276'></a>276</span> laughter, managed to +roll down the bank and so get out of the erratic goat’s sight. The other +girls had only heard the noise of the conflict, and did not understand; nor +could Wyn and Frankie explain when they first scrambled into their canoes.</p> + +<p>“Poor Tubby! Poor Tubby!” was all Wyn could say. +“Let’s paddle around to the boys’ camp. He’s run for +home.”</p> + +<p>“It was a home run, all right!” gasped Frank.</p> + +<p>But three minutes later, when the canoes got into the cove where +Polly’s father had met with his accident in the <i>Bright Eyes</i>, Wyn +suddenly found something more serious than Tubby Blaisdell’s experience to +worry about. There was the big bateau, its sail furled, almost over the spot +where Wyn and Polly were sure the lost motor boat lay!</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” cried Bess. “Now we can’t have any fun +on the raft. Those men will be in our way. What do you suppose they are poking +around there in the water with those poles for?”</p> + +<p>Wyn began to paddle fast. She shot ahead of the other girls and aimed +directly for the bit of beach on which the boys’ canoes were drawn.</p> + +<p>The noise and laughter up at the camp assured her that Tubby had arrived and +that all the Busters were at home. Wyn had made up her mind quickly that, if she +must, she would rather take <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_277'></a>277</span> the boys into her confidence about the sunken boat +than let those bateau men find it.</p> + +<p>“Boys! Dave!” she hailed them from the water.</p> + +<p>Young Shepard appeared at once and, seeing Wyn, ran down to the shore.</p> + +<p>“Will you help us?” gasped Wyn. “Quick! get the boys! Move +your diving float where I tell you; those men will find it first, if you +don’t.”</p> + +<p>“Find what?” demanded Dave. “Are you sensible, +Wynnie?”</p> + +<p>The explanation tumbled out of Wyn Mallory’s lips then in rather a +jumbled fashion; but Dave understood. He turned and gave the view-halloa for his +mates. They all tumbled down the bank save Tubby.</p> + +<p>“Get a move on, fellows,” commanded the leader of the Busters. +“We’ve got to move that raft. Wyn will tell us where. And later +we’ll tell you <i>why</i>. But the word is now: Look sharp!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278'></a>278</span><a id='link_27'></a>CHAPTER XXVII<br /><span class='h2fs'>IS IT THE “BRIGHT EYES”?</span></h2> + +<p>With a whirl and clash of paddles the little flotilla of canoes shot out to +the diving float. The bateau was only a few yards away. The two rough-looking +men in her were sounding the lake bottom, with long poles; but as yet they had +not got around to the right spot.</p> + +<p>Wyn breathlessly told the boys to move the raft to the place to which she +paddled. The other girls were excitedly asking questions but neither Wyn nor +Dave answered.</p> + +<p>The captain of the Go-Aheads thought that if the raft could be held +stationary–anchored in some way–directly over the sunken boat, the +prize would be safe until Mr. Jarley, or somebody else in authority, came to +claim the <i>Bright Eyes</i>. Of course, providing this sunken boat was she.</p> + +<p>Polly had seemed so positive, and so eager to get her father started after +the motor boat he had lost, that Wyn could not understand why the Jarleys were +not already on the spot.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279'></a>279</span>“Hey, +there! what are you boys doing?” demanded one of the bateau men, hailing +Dave and his friends on the raft.</p> + +<p>“Moving our float,” replied the captain of the Busters, +promptly.</p> + +<p>“Well, don’t you git in our way,” said the man, +crossly.</p> + +<p>“Hel-<i>lo</i>!” exclaimed the saucy Ferd Roberts. +“I’ve always wondered who owned Lake Honotonka, and now I +know.”</p> + +<p>“You’ll know a whole lot more if you don’t look out, Young +Fresh,” growled the other boatman.</p> + +<p>“I shouldn’t wonder,” laughed Ferd. “But I’m +not going to school to <i>you</i>, Mister.”</p> + +<p>“Do be quiet, Ferd,” advised Dave. “Now, Wynnie! What do +you say to this?”</p> + +<p>Meantime the boys had raised the two big stones that served the raft as +anchors, and had poled the float near to Wyn’s canoe.</p> + +<p>“Oh! a little farther, Dave, please,” cried the anxious girl.</p> + +<p>“Say! I wanter know what you young ones are up to?” repeated the +first boatman.</p> + +<p>“Can’t you see?” returned Dave. “We’re shifting +our raft.”</p> + +<p>“What for?”</p> + +<p>“Cat’s fur! To make kittens’ breeches of, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_280'></a>280</span> ’cause we couldn’t +get dog fur–<i>now</i> do you know?” snapped Ferd.</p> + +<p>“Shut up, Ferd!” commanded Dave, again.</p> + +<p>“He’d better shut up,” growled the man, “or +something’ll happen to him–the young shrimp!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me, Wyn!” cried Bessie Lavine; “let’s go +back to camp.”</p> + +<p>“You’d all better scatter–both gels and boys,” said +the boatman, threateningly. “We’re busy here an’ we +don’t want to be bothered by shrimps.”</p> + +<p>“I guess we’ll stay a while longer, Mister,” Dave said, +boldly.</p> + +<p>“We were here first,” cried the irrepressible Ferd.</p> + +<p>“You youngsters air in our way. Get out,” commanded the +Boatman.</p> + +<p>He was working the bateau nearer to the raft, using one of the long sweeps +for that purpose.</p> + +<p>“Heave over the anchors again, fellows,” said Dave, quietly. +“Then stand by with your paddles to repel boarders. We mustn’t let +’em have the raft, or move it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Wyn!” begged Mina Everett, “let’s go +away.”</p> + +<p>The girls had all paddled near Wyn Mallory. Now they clustered about her in +plain anxiety. The boys had climbed upon the raft and all five <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_281'></a>281</span> were plainly intending +to offer resistance to the ugly boatmen.</p> + +<p>“Now, girls,” begged the captain of the Go-Aheads, firmly, +“let us show <i>some</i> courage, at least. The boys are willing to fight +our battle―”</p> + +<p>“<i>Our</i> battle?” gasped Bessie. “What do you +mean?”</p> + +<p>In a whisper Wyn explained to the wondering and frightened girls what it was +all about.</p> + +<p>“Polly and I believe the lost motor boat lies right beneath us here. We +must keep those men off, for they are hunting for the sunken boat, too,” +concluded Wynnie.</p> + +<p>“My goodness! how exciting!” cried Grace Hedges.</p> + +<p>“And we’ll actually win the prize your father offered us, +Bess!” gasped Percy Havel.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see that <i>we</i> have had much to do with it,” +said Frank. “Wyn made the discovery.”</p> + +<p>“What is for one is for all,” declared Wynnie. “But we +won’t win Mr. Lavine’s prize unless the boat is raised and the +silver images are delivered to Dr. Shelton. If those men get hold of the +boat―”</p> + +<p>Suddenly one of the boatmen–a long-legged fellow with a cast in one eye +and lantern jaws sparsely covered with sandy whisker–came forward <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_282'></a>282</span> to the bow of the bateau +and poised himself for a leap to the diving float.</p> + +<p>“Keep off!” Dave warned him, swinging his paddle over his head. +“You jump over here and you’ll catch this where Kellup caught the +hen–right in the neck! You let us alone and we’ll let you +alone.”</p> + +<p>The boatman told him, in no very choice language, what he would do to Dave +when he caught him; but the captain of the Busters did not appear to be much +shaken.</p> + +<p>“Hold, on, Eb!” yelled the other boatman. “I’ll run +that raft down and spill ’em all off.”</p> + +<p>“You try it and you’ll likely smash your boat,” shouted +Dave. “I warn you.”</p> + +<p>Mina Everett began to cry softly, for the suggestion of a pitched battle +between the boys and the boatmen frightened her dreadfully. Bess began to grow +excited.</p> + +<p>“Aren’t those men just <i>mean</i>? I wish I had something to hit +them with–I do! I believe I’ll get out on the raft with <i>my</i> +paddle.”</p> + +<p>“That wouldn’t be a bad idea,” said Grace. “I think +the boys are as nice to us as they can be.”</p> + +<p>Suddenly, while the attention of all the others was held by the exciting +situation on the raft, Frank Cameron cried out:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_283'></a>283</span>“Who’s this coming? Oh, girls! +isn’t that Polly? Look, Wyn!”</p> + +<p>Wyn almost overturned her canoe in her eagerness to back out of the group and +whirl her canoe about that she might see. Down upon the scene was bearing one of +the larger power boats from the other end of the lake.</p> + +<p>“It’s Dr. Shelton’s <i>Sunshine Boy</i>!” cried Percy +Havel.</p> + +<p>“And that <i>is</i> Polly Jolly in the bow,” exclaimed Wyn. +“Hurrah!”</p> + +<p>She drove her paddle into the water and sent her canoe driving for the +approaching motor boat.</p> + +<p>“Polly! Polly!” she called, long before the boatman’s +daughter could hear her.</p> + +<p>But Polly recognized her just the same, and waved her hand; there was a +gentleman pacing the deck, too, who came to lean on the rail and look at the +flying canoe. Wyn next saw Mr. Jarley, in his working clothes, put his head out +of the cabin that housed the motor.</p> + +<p>“It’s Dr. Shelton,” Wyn thought. “Then he and Mr. +Jarley have made it up. I’m so glad!”</p> + +<p>But the motor boat was coming fast and Wyn drove her canoe as though she were +racing. Swerving the craft quickly, the girl brought it very nicely into a berth +beside the motor boat. Polly leaned down and steadied the canoe with the boat +hook, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284'></a>284</span> and her +friend hopped aboard. Then together they hoisted over the rail the almost +swamped canoe.</p> + +<p>“What’s all this? What’s all this?” demanded Dr. +Shelton. “You girls are regular acrobats. Hullo! This is the young miss +who won the canoe race and the swimming match for girls, the other day. Am I +right?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” said Polly, presenting Wyn proudly. “This is +Miss Wynifred Mallory, my very dear friend.”</p> + +<p>“The girl who thinks she has found our old motor boat–eh?” +asked the burly doctor.</p> + +<p>“I am sure she has found it, sir,” declared Polly. “And +what are Eb and his chum, Billy Smith, trying to do there at the raft, +Wyn?”</p> + +<p>“They suspect something; but the boys have got the float right over the +sunken boat and have promised to hold the bateau men off―”</p> + +<p>Just then Dr. Shelton turned quickly, picked up a megaphone and bawled +through it to the bateau men, one of whom had leaped aboard the boys, raft.</p> + +<p>“Hey, you! Get off that raft and keep off it, or I’ll put you +both in jail at the Forge. Understand me?”</p> + +<p>It was evident that the boatmen <i>did</i> understand the doctor, for the +trespasser aboard the raft <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_285'></a>285</span> leaped back into the bateau without a blow being +struck, although the boys were ready for him. The big sail of the craft was +immediately raised and she had borne off to some distance when the <i>Sunshine +Boy</i> was allowed to drift in close to the float.</p> + +<p>“Now, boys,” said Dr. Shelton, genially, “I understand you +have found my old <i>Bright Eyes</i> under water here and have been guarding it +from all comers. Is that right?”</p> + +<p>“No, Doctor,” returned Dave. “We fellows have had mighty +little to do with it. It’s the girls―”</p> + +<p>“It’s Wyn!” cried Frank, “and nobody else.”</p> + +<p>“Wyn did it all,” agreed Bess.</p> + +<p>“But those men, poking around here, might have found it and laid claim +to it, sir, if the boys had not come to the rescue,” declared the captain +of the Go-Aheads, warmly.</p> + +<p>“You seem to be a Mutual Admiration Society,” laughed the doctor. +“However, if the boat is here and that express box intact, as Jarley says, +I certainly owe somebody something handsome for finding it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, sir!” murmured Wyn, quickly, standing by his side. +“You owe me nothing. Mr. Lavine has promised our club a present, and Polly +and her father are going to be made very happy if <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_286'></a>286</span> it turns out all right. <i>That</i> is +reward enough for us.”</p> + +<p>“Humph! you feel that way about it; do you, Miss Mallory?” +queried the doctor. “Just the same, if the <i>Bright Eyes</i> really is +sunk here I must show my gratitude to somebody.”</p> + +<p>“Then do something for Polly,” Wyn whispered. “Give her a +chance to go to school–to Denton Academy with the rest of us girls. That +would be fine! She wouldn’t let Mr. Lavine do that for her; but I know +she’ll accept it from you, when her father has proved himself clear of +suspicion.”</p> + +<p>“Ha! John Jarley is a better man than I am,” grunted Dr. Shelton. +“I had no business to talk to him the way I did regatta day. I’m +free to admit I was wrong, whether we recover the <i>Bright Eyes</i> and the +silver images, or not!”</p> + +<p>And the question, Is it the <i>Bright Eyes</i>? was the principal subject of +discussion among them all. The boys were just as eager as were the girls over +the affair.</p> + +<p>“If the sunken boat is all right–and the images,” said Dave +Shepard, “you girls will be lucky enough to sail a motor boat of your +own.”</p> + +<p>“And we’d never own it if you boys hadn’t come forward as +you did,” declared Wyn. “Isn’t that so, Bess?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287'></a>287</span>Bess had to +admit the fact, much as she disliked praising boys.</p> + +<p>“Oh, we’ll let you boys sail in our new boat once in a +while,” she said.</p> + +<p>“Goodness me! I should say yes!” exclaimed Frank, suddenly. +“For we’ve got to have somebody teach us how to run a motor boat; +haven’t we?”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_288'></a>288</span><a id='link_28'></a>CHAPTER XXVIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>A FRIEND IN NEED</span></h2> + +<p>It was early on the next day that Bessie received a message from her father +for the whole club:</p> + +<div class='bquote'> +<p>“Look for me in a few hours. Shall run up to see what Wyn has done as +soon as I can get away. If it is all right, you shall have new boat this +season.–Henry Lavine.”</p> </div><!-- block quote --> + +<p>A man brought it over from the Forge. The girls were delighted with the news. +A guard had been set over the spot where the sunken boat lay and Dr. Shelton and +Mr. Jarley were making arrangements to have a derrick barge towed up to Gannet +Island, so that the old <i>Bright Eyes</i> could be brought to the surface +quickly.</p> + +<p>Naturally the Busters were too much interested in these proceedings to come +over to Green Knoll Camp; and the girls had had so much excitement and exercise +of late that they were inclined to take matters quietly for the time being.</p> + +<p>Therefore, there was not a canoe on the lake <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_289'></a>289</span> when a fussy, smoky little motor boat, late in the +afternoon, came into the lake from the Wintinooski and puffed out into deep +water, evidently bound for either the Island or Green Knoll Camp.</p> + +<p>The deep cove, at the head of which the little red and yellow cottage of the +Jarleys was set, was like a big bay in the contour of the lake shore. It was out +here in this deep water that Wyn Mallory and Bess Lavine had been swamped by the +squall. From the docks at the Forge to the point east of Green Knoll, where the +girls’ camp was situated, was all of eight miles. When this little motor +boat had sputtered along until she was about half way between those two points, +she suddenly stopped.</p> + +<p>The girls had been lazily on the lookout for Mr. Lavine’s appearance +and earlier in the day had kept the camp spyglass busy. Now Frank suddenly +caught it up again and focused it almost at once on the stalled motor boat.</p> + +<p>“Oh! what’s that?” was her excited demand. “Girls! +there’s a boat we missed before.”</p> + +<p>“Where?” drawled Grace, lazily.</p> + +<p>“It isn’t father; is it?” demanded Bess.</p> + +<p>“How do I know? It’s a power boat―Goodness, what’s +that?”</p> + +<p>She jumped so that Wyn came to her side quickly. “Let me see, +Frank,” she begged.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_290'></a>290</span>“There’s–there’s a +fire!” gasped Frankie.</p> + +<p>The girls came running at her cry. Even Mrs. Havel left her seat and stepped +out of the shade of the beech tree to scan the water under her hand.</p> + +<p>“I see smoke!” cried Percy.</p> + +<p>“Dear me! is the boat really afire?” demanded Mina Everett.</p> + +<p>“Of course, it can’t be father,” declared Bess. “He +knows how to take care of a motor boat.”</p> + +<p>Through the glass Wyn, who now had it, saw the flames leaping from under the +hood of the boat, while a dense plume of smoke began to reel away on the breeze +that was blowing.</p> + +<p>“It is afire!” she gasped “Oh! it <i>is</i>! What can we +do?”</p> + +<p>“We could never reach it in our canoes before the boat burns to the +water’s edge,” cried Frankie.</p> + +<p>They could see two figures on the doomed boat. Through the glass Wyn could +see them so plainly that she knew one to be a waterman, while the other was much +better dressed. Indeed, she feared that she recognized the figure of this second +man.</p> + +<p>“Let me have the glass, Wyn,” said Bessie, eagerly.</p> + +<p>But Wyn, for once, was disobliging. “You can’t see +anything–much,” she said. “Come on, Bess! let’s try and +paddle out to them.”</p> + +<p>“And have them swamp our canoes if they <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_291'></a>291</span> tried to climb in,” said Miss +Lavine. “No, thanks!”</p> + +<p>“Come on!” cried Frank, joining in. “We ought to try and +help.”</p> + +<p>“What’s the use?” drawled Bessie, walking away. “And +you’re mean not to let me have the glass, Wyn.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, come on and take it!” gasped Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Don’t want it now,” snapped Bess, who took offense rather +easily at times. “You can keep the old thing.”</p> + +<p>Wyn sighed with relief. Then she whirled quickly and ran down to the beach, +with Frank right at her heels. They were the only two girls who launched their +canoes. Wyn had brought the glass with her.</p> + +<p>“Now I <i>know</i> Bess won’t see him,” she exclaimed, +almost in a whisper.</p> + +<p>“What’s that?” demanded Frankie, who overheard. “What +do you mean, Wyn?”</p> + +<p>“I believe that is Mr. Lavine out there,” said the captain of the +Go-Aheads. “Oh, Frank! paddle hard!”</p> + +<p>And it <i>was</i> Mr. Lavine. He had hired this little gasoline boat, with +its owner to run it, at Denton, and had paid the owner an extra five-dollar bill +to force the boat to its very highest speed (and that wasn’t much) all the +way up the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292'></a>292</span> +Wintinooski. Mr. Lavine was in a hurry; he was in too much of a hurry, as it +proved.</p> + +<p>Somewhere off Meade’s Forge he began to smell the gasoline all too +strongly. There was a leak somewhere; but the boat kept on.</p> + +<p>Finally even the reckless driver grew frightened and shut off the spark.</p> + +<p>“There’s a leak, boss,” he drawled. “Sure as aigs is +aigs!”</p> + +<p>Mr. Lavine tore up one of the boards under his feet in the cockpit. A man +with half an eye could have seen the scum of gasoline on the bilge in the +cockpit.</p> + +<p>“Leak!” he exclaimed, wrathfully. “I should say you had +been using the boat’s bottom for a gasoline tank. Why! we might have been +blown up a dozen times.”</p> + +<p>“I expect the leak’s in the feed pipe,” confessed the +boatman. “But I thought I’d got her fixed las’ +week.”</p> + +<p>“You’ve got <i>us</i> fixed,” snapped Mr. Lavine. +“’Way out here in the middle of Lake Honotonka, too–and I in a +hurry.”</p> + +<p>“Wal,” said the man, “I’ll putty up the leak and you +see if you kin swab out the boat. I wouldn’t dare try and ignite her again +with so much gasoline around.”</p> + +<p>“I–should–say–not!” gasped the gentleman, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293'></a>293</span> and removed his coat, +rolled up his sleeves and his trousers, and set to work.</p> + +<p>They both labored like beavers for half an hour and then the boatman did the +very silliest thing one can imagine. He had worked hard and, being a man +addicted to tobacco, he felt the need of a smoke.</p> + +<p>He pulled out his pipe, filled it, unnoticed by Mr. Lavine, who was still +trying to swab out the last of the bilge and gasoline, and scratched a match. He +was directly in front of the hood of the boat when he did it. The next moment +there was a flash, a roar, and the man was flung the length of the boat, against +Mr. Lavine in the stern, and the two almost went overboard.</p> + +<p>The foolish smoker lost his mustache, eyebrows, and lashes, and a lot of his +front hair. He was scorched quite severely, too; but the peril which menaced +them with the front of the boat in flames drove the thought of his burns from +the fellow’s mind.</p> + +<p>“And I can’t swim a stroke, boss!” he cried.</p> + +<p>“You have nothing on me there,” declared Mr. Lavine. “I +have never been able to master more than the first few motions in the art of +swimming.”</p> + +<p>But the flames were springing higher and they had nothing with which to throw +water on the fire. The man had not even a bailing tin in his moribund <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_294'></a>294</span> old craft. Mr. Lavine +had been using a swab and was covered with grease and dirty water.</p> + +<p>This became a small thing, however–and that within a very few minutes. +The boat was doomed and both knew it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lavine tried to tear up more of the grating under foot so as to make +something that would float and upon which they might bear themselves up in the +water. But the boards were too thin.</p> + +<p>Then he tried to unship the rudder (the singed boatman was no use at all in +this emergency) and so make use of that as a float. But the bolts were rusted +and the boat had begun to swing around so that the fire blew right into the +stern.</p> + +<p>They both had to leap overboard.</p> + +<p>It was a serious situation indeed. By Mr. Lavine’s advice they paddled +toward the bow, one on either side of the boat, for the flames were rushing +aft.</p> + +<p>The bow was a mere shell, however. The flames had already almost consumed it, +and soon the fire fairly ate through the bows at the water level. The water +rushed in and so sank the boat by the head.</p> + +<p>Not that the boat went straight down. The stern rose in the water and the two +men, in their desperate strait, gazed at the flames above their heads.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_295'></a>295</span>Had it been +night the fire would have been like a great torch in the middle of the +lake–and it would have brought help from all directions. As it was, the +black smoke first thrown off, and then the steam, attracted more than the girls +of Green Knoll Camp to the scene.</p> + +<p>At the landing Mr. Jarley was splicing some heavy rope which he expected to +use the next day when the sunken <i>Bright Eyes</i> would be actually raised. +Polly saw the smoke first from the cottage and ran out to tell him.</p> + +<p>“One of those motor boats is afire, Father!” she cried. Instantly +the boatman set about going to the rescue. It was a fair day, but there was a +good breeze blowing. Jarley took the <i>Coquette</i>.</p> + +<p>He had no idea to whom he was playing the friend in need when he sailed the +catboat down upon the scene of the disaster. It was a chance to help two fellow +beings and the boatman cared not who they were.</p> + +<p>Of course the sailing craft beat out the two frantically paddling girls from +Green Knoll Camp. Yet it was still a long way from the spot when the last of the +burning boat seemed to sink completely and the flames were snuffed out by the +waters of the lake.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_296'></a>296</span><a id='link_29'></a>CHAPTER XXIX<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE SUNKEN TREASURE</span></h2> + +<p>Wyn and Frank were in despair when they saw the last of the flames wink out +and the balloon of smoke sail away upon the breeze. They were too far away to be +able to see the men struggling in the water–if they were still there.</p> + +<p>“Oh! suppose Mr. Jarley doesn’t reach them in time?” cried +the captain of the girls’ club.</p> + +<p>“He must! he must!” groaned Frank, beating the water as hard as +she could with her paddle.</p> + +<p>“You’ll have your canoe over!” exclaimed Wyn. “Look +out, Frank!”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care! I don’t care!” repeated the +good-hearted Frances. “Oh, dear me! Suppose Mr. Lavine should be drowned? +What would Bessie do? And they so much to each other!”</p> + +<p>The girls saw the catboat round to suddenly, and Mr. Jarley drop the sail. +The <i>Coquette</i> seemed to drive straight across the spot where the burned +motor boat had gone down.</p> + +<p>They saw the boatman bend over the rail once–and then again. Each time +he lifted in–or <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_297'></a>297</span> helped lift in–some object; but whether it +was the men he picked up, or some of the floating wreckage, the girls could not +see.</p> + +<p>They drove their canoes on, however, and Mr. Jarley saw them when he brought +the catboat about. So he sailed down to pick them up likewise.</p> + +<p>“Did you get them? Did you get them?” shouted Wyn, resting on her +paddle.</p> + +<p>Frankie was crying–and she was not a “weepy” girl as a +general thing. But the peril seemed so terrible that she could not control +herself for the moment.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jarley–whose figure was all the girls could see in the +catboat–leaned over and waved his hand to the girls. Was it meant to be +reassuring? They did not know until the <i>Coquette</i> tacked so as to run down +very close to them.</p> + +<p>“Is that his girl with you, Miss Mallory?” demanded Polly’s +father.</p> + +<p>“No. She did not come. She doesn’t know,” cried Wyn. +“Oh, Mr. Jarley! is he all right?”</p> + +<p>At that Mr. Lavine’s head and shoulders appeared above the rail.</p> + +<p>“We’re alive, girls,” he called, hoarsely. “This +brave fellow caught us just in time. Where’s Bess?”</p> + +<p>“She doesn’t even know it was you in the burning <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_298'></a>298</span> boat,” cried Wyn. +“But Frank and I started out for you.”</p> + +<p>“You’d been awfully wet before ever we could have reached you, +though, Mr. Lavine,” choked Frank, quickly turning from tears to laughter, +as was her nature.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jarley had dropped the sail again, and beckoned the girls to +approach.</p> + +<p>“Come aboard,” he said, gravely, “and I’ll tow your +canoes behind us. Shall I take this gentleman to your camp, Miss +Mallory?”</p> + +<p>But Wyn was thinking to good purpose. She saw that Mr. Jarley, like his +daughter, wished to have nothing to do with the Lavines. She knew that now Mr. +Lavine would be doubly grateful to the boatman and that the time was ripe for +the old friends to come to a better understanding.</p> + +<p>“Why, Mr. Jarley,” she said, “we haven’t a thing at +the camp he can put on–or the other man. No, sir. I don’t know what +we should do with them there.”</p> + +<p>Jarley’s face flushed and he glanced back at the Forge. But it was near +sunset already, and the Forge was much farther away than his own landing. The +case was obvious.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he said, “I can take them home. Polly will find +something for them to put on while <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_299'></a>299</span> their clothing is being dried. Yes! that may be +best.”</p> + +<p>“And you take us girls right along with you and we’ll paddle home +from the landing,” declared Wyn.</p> + +<p>Wyn wanted to see Polly. After all, she believed, it lay with the +boatman’s daughter to make friends between the Jarleys and the Lavines. +The captain of the Go-Ahead Club felt as though her long and exciting vacation +under canvas would come to a very happy conclusion if she could see the two men +who had once been such close friends, reunited.</p> + +<p>Wyn was the first one ashore when the bow of the catboat touched the landing. +Polly came running from the cottage, for she had spied their approach.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Wynnie!” she cried, “what was it? Did father get them +safely?”</p> + +<p>“He saved them both–the most wonderful thing, Polly Jolly!” +cried Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Not so wonderful,” corrected Polly, with pride. “My father +has saved the lives of people from the lake before.”</p> + +<p>“But it <i>is</i> wonderful,” quoth Wyn, “because one of +the men saved is Bessie’s father.”</p> + +<p>“Mr. Lavine!” gasped Polly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_300'></a>300</span>“Yes. Now +he owes his life to your father, just as Bess owes hers to you.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t talk so, Wyn,” begged Polly. “It’s +nothing.”</p> + +<p>“Nothing! It’s everything! Don’t stand in the way of your +father and Bessie’s being good friends again.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Wynnie!” gasped Polly, with a deeper color in her +cheek.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you dare to act ‘offish,’” warned Wyn. +“The Lavines feel very kindly toward you–you know it. And now I am +sure Mr. Lavine will feel more than kindly toward your father. Bring them +together, Polly.”</p> + +<p>“You talk as though <i>I</i> could do anything,” responded the +boatman’s girl.</p> + +<p>“You can. You can do everything! Show your father that you feel kindly +toward Mr. Lavine. That will break down <i>his</i> coldness quicker than +anything,” declared the inspired young peacemaker.</p> + +<p>Wet and bedraggled, Mr. Lavine and his companion stepped ashore.</p> + +<p>“Hi, Polly!” shouted her father. “Take Mr. Lavine up to the +house and see if he can wear some of my things while his clothes are drying. I +can find something at the shed here, for Bill.”</p> + +<p>Polly hesitated just a moment. The eager Wyn <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_301'></a>301</span> gave her a little push from behind. The +boatman’s girl ran forward to greet Mr. Lavine.</p> + +<p>“Oh, sir!” she cried, timidly, “I am <i>so</i> sorry you +had this accident.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know yet whether I am sorry, or not,” said Mr. +Lavine, grasping her hand.</p> + +<p>She turned and walked beside him and her other hand sought his arm in a +friendly way. John Jarley stood on the landing and followed them with his eyes. +The expression upon his face pleased Wyn immensely.</p> + +<p>She beckoned Frank away. “Come on! let’s hurry back to the camp +before it gets dark. Mrs. Havel will be worried about us.”</p> + +<p>“And leave Mr. Lavine here?” queried Frank.</p> + +<p>“He couldn’t be in better hands; could he?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know that he could, Wyn!” cried her friend, +suddenly. “What a smart girl you are!”</p> + +<p>But Wyn would not accept that praise without qualifying it. “The +accident was providential,” she declared, gravely. “And without +<i>my</i> assistance I am sure Polly knows how to do the right thing.”</p> + +<p>Perhaps Polly did. At least she gave much attention to their visitor, and her +father could not help but see that Polly and Mr. Lavine were very good +friends.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_302'></a>302</span>In half an hour +Mr. Lavine appeared from the cottage dressed in Mr. Jarley’s best suit of +clothes. He shook hands with Polly, and then suddenly drew her to him and kissed +her on the forehead.</p> + +<p>“You are a dear girl, Polly,” he declared, with some emotion. +“I have to thank you for my little girl’s life; and now I am going +to thank your father for <i>mine</i>.”</p> + +<p>He walked straight down to the landing where Mr. Jarley was apparently very +busy.</p> + +<p>“Bill, here, says he will row you over to that camp if you care to go, +Mr. Lavine,” said the boatman.</p> + +<p>“I don’t want to see Bill, John,” said the real estate man. +“I want to see <i>you</i>. I am going to take advantage of my position as +your guest, John. You cannot turn me off, or refuse to talk with me. You always +were a gentleman, John, and I am sure you will listen to me now.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Jarley looked at him a good deal as Polly had looked (at first) at Wyn +Mallory.</p> + +<p>“Come! don’t hold a grudge, John, just because <i>I</i> have been +wicked enough to hold one all these years. I was wrong. I freely admit it. Come +and sit down here, old man, and let’s talk all that old matter over and +see where our misunderstanding lay.”</p> + +<p>“Misunderstanding?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_303'></a>303</span>“Aye,” said the other, warmly. +“Misunderstanding. For I am convinced now that a brave and generous man +like you, John Jarley, would never have knowingly done what–all these +years–I have held you to be guilty of!”</p> + +<p>He had put his arm through the boatman’s. Together they walked aside +and sat down upon an upturned skiff. And they were sitting there long after it +grew pitch dark upon the landing, with only the glow of Polly’s lamp in +the kitchen window and that uncertain radiance upon the lake which seems the +reflection of the distant stars.</p> + +<p>Finally the two men stepped into a skiff and Mr. Jarley rowed it over to +Green Knoll Camp. They did not reach the camp until nearly bedtime, and they +came so softly to the shore that the girls did not hear the scraping of the +boat’s keel.</p> + +<p>Lavine seized his old friend’s hand before leaping ashore.</p> + +<p>“Then it’s understood, John? You’re to get out of this +place and come back to Denton? I’m sorry Dr. Shelton is ahead of me in +giving Polly something substantial; but you and I are going to begin just where +we left off in that Steel Rivet Corporation deal, John.</p> + +<p>“About next month I’ll have a bigger thing than <i>that</i> in +sight, and you shall have the same share in it that you would have had in the +old deal. You <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_304'></a>304</span> used +to be mighty good in handling your end of the game, John; I want you to take +hold of it in just the same way again. Will you agree, old man?”</p> + +<p>And Mr. Jarley gave him his hand upon it.</p> + +<p>The girls put their visitor to sleep in the cook tent that night and the next +morning the whole party went over to Gannet Island to see the work of raising +the sunken motor boat carried on. The Busters were as excited as the girls +themselves over the affair, and Cave-in-the-Wood Camp was a lively place indeed +that day.</p> + +<p>Tubby Blaisdell was the only person in the party who wore an aggrieved air. +At first he could hardly be made to believe that the girls had not +“sicked” the goat upon him two days before when he had stolen away +from the other boys for a nap in the woods. Tubby walked lame and could have +displayed bruises for several days.</p> + +<p>The derrick barge had been towed over to the place where the <i>Bright +Eyes</i> was sunk, the evening before. The boys helped put the chains around the +hull of the sunken boat, for they were all good divers–save the fat youth, +who remained on the invalid list.</p> + +<p>Before noon the lost boat was raised to the surface and lashed to the side of +the barge. Mr. Jarley very quickly tacked a tarpaulin over the hole <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_305'></a>305</span> in her bottom, and then +she was pumped out. Further repairs were made and by night the <i>Bright +Eyes</i> was riding safely to her own anchor and Mr. Jarley pried open the +rusted lock of the cabin.</p> + +<p>Dr. Shelton had come over in the <i>Sunshine Boy</i> and received from Mr. +Jarley the box containing the silver images intact. It made Polly Jarley very +happy to hear what the quick-tempered doctor said to her father; and it made Wyn +Mallory blush to listen to what they <i>all</i> said to her!</p> + +<p>“You can’t get out of it, girlie!” laughed Frank Cameron. +“What they say is quite true. If it hadn’t been for you they never +would have found the boat, and of course the images would have remained hidden. +You’re <i>it</i>, Wyn Mallory–no getting away from that!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_306'></a>306</span><a id='link_30'></a>CHAPTER XXX<br /><span class='h2fs'>STRIKING CAMP</span></h2> + +<p>It was a glorious September morning–and no other month of all the year +can display such beauties of sky and landscape, such invigorating air, or all +Nature in so delightful a mood.</p> + +<p>It was a still morning. The newly-kindled fire on Green Knoll sent a spiral +of blue smoke mounting skyward. There was the delicious odor of pancakes and +farm-made sausage hovering all about the camp of the Go-Ahead girls. Windmill +Farm had supplied these first “goodies” of the autumn and the +members of the club enjoyed them to the full.</p> + +<p>“But, thanks be! there will be no more dishes to wash for a +while,” declared Grace Hedges.</p> + +<p>“Nor beds to make,” agreed her partner, Percy Havel.</p> + +<p>“Nor fires to kindle,” sighed Bessie Lavine.</p> + +<p>“Well!” exclaimed Frank Cameron, “an outing in the woods +isn’t <i>all</i> it’s cracked up to be, I admit. One might just as +well accept a situation as servant in a very untidy household. It would <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_307'></a>307</span> be about the same thing. +But my! we’ve had some fun between times.”</p> + +<p>“And such excitement!” declared Mina Everett. “Think of all +that’s happened to us since we paddled up from Denton two months and more +ago.”</p> + +<p>“And happened to the boys, too,” said Frank, “I understand +that Tubby Blaisdell has put on ten additional pounds of flesh since yesterday +morning.”</p> + +<p>“Now, Frank! how could he?” gasped Grace.</p> + +<p>“Nobody could be much fatter than Tubby already is,” added Bess, +laughing.</p> + +<p>“You never know till you try,” chided Mina. “You have put +on some flesh yourself, Miss Lavine.”</p> + +<p>“Bah! they’ll soon work it off of me when we’re back in +school,” groaned Bessie. “That’s the worst of a +vacation–there’s always work at the end of it.”</p> + +<p>“Lazy!” cried Percy. “I believe I’ll <i>love</i> +study when I’m back to the ‘scholastic grind.’”</p> + +<p>“You can have my share,” grumbled Bess. “But what about +Tubby’s additional avoirdupois, Frankie? He’s as big as a haystack +anyway.”</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>“‘All flesh is grass,’ the Scriptures say,<br /> So Tubby +B.’s a load of hay!”</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>chuckled Frank. “Is that it? And Tubby is all <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_308'></a>308</span> swelled up now–as big as a +barrel.”</p> + +<p>“That’s an awful fib, Frank,” declared Mina. “He +couldn’t be.”</p> + +<p>“Well, Ferd says he <i>looks</i> so. The boys found a bumble +bees’ nest and Tubby didn’t have any paddle to hit them with. So +they all went for poor Tubby and they stung him so that his face is twice as big +as usual–so Ferd says.”</p> + +<p>“Something is always happening to that boy,” said Bess, laughing. +“Hullo! where have <i>you</i> been, Wyn?”</p> + +<p>Wyn came up from the shore. “I know where she’s been,” +cried Frank. “She has been down there gloating!”</p> + +<p>“Gloating?” repeated Percy.</p> + +<p>“Over the boat. Is it all there, Wyn?”</p> + +<p>The girls ran to the brow of the bank. There, floating off their beach, was a +freshly painted motor boat, its brasswork shining, and everything spick and span +about it. A very commodious and handsome craft she was, with +“Go-Ahead” painted on either side of her bow and on her +stern-board.</p> + +<p>“Oh, she’s all there! nobody has run off with her in the +night,” laughed Wyn. “And Mr. Lavine couldn’t have found a +better boat if he had tried–Mr. Jarley says so.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_309'></a>309</span>“It was +good of Dr. Shelton to sell the <i>Bright Eyes</i> to father,” said Bessie +Lavine. “And they made a good job of it at the boatyard at the +Forge.”</p> + +<p>“She’s such a fine and roomy boat,” declared Frankie. +“We couldn’t have expected such a big one, otherwise.”</p> + +<p>“And it’s big enough for the Busters and Professor Skillings to +sail home with us, too,” said Percy. “Mr. Jarley is going to take +charge of the boys’ canoes, as well as ours, and ship them to +us.”</p> + +<p>“Bully! An all-day cruise on the lake and then down the Wintinooski by +moonlight to-night,” sighed Wyn. “It will be just +scrumptious!”</p> + +<p>“Come, then, girls,” warned Mrs. Havel. “We must strike +camp. Everything must be rolled up and secured, ready for shipment on the bateau +when it comes. I saw the sail of the bateau going past the point of Gannet +Island early this morning. I expect the boys are all ready before this +time.”</p> + +<p>“Let’s wait for them,” said the languid Bess. +“What’s the use of having boy friends if you don’t make use of +them?”</p> + +<p>“Listen to her!” exclaimed Wyn, with scorn. “Depend upon +the boys? I–rather–guess–not!”</p> + +<p>“Don’t be so independent, Miss,” returned <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_310'></a>310</span> Miss Lavine. +“You’ll be glad to have Davie at your beck and call again when we +get back home.”</p> + +<p>Wyn laughed. “It’s all right to have them within reach if need +should arise―”</p> + +<p>“Like a mouse, or a snake,” put in Frank Cameron.</p> + +<p>“Goodness!” drawled Grace. “After all the bugs, and worms, +and caterpillars, and other monsters we have faced–alone and +single-handed–here in the woods, I don’t believe I’ll +<i>ever</i> squeal if I put my hand upon a mouse in the pantry.”</p> + +<p>“Pshaw!” said Frank. “You only <i>think</i> that. +It’s the frailties of the sex we cannot get over. You all know very well +that a boy with a teenty, tinty garter-snake on the end of a stick could chase +this whole crowd either into the lake, or into hysterics.”</p> + +<p>“Shame!” cried Wyn. “That is rank treachery to the +‘manhood’ of us girls of the Go-Ahead Club.”</p> + +<p>“You are right, Wyn,” agreed Mina. “Why, we none of us have +any nerves now–but plenty of <i>nerve</i>, of course.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Frank, starting back suddenly. “See that! +Is it a spider over your head, Mina?”</p> + +<p>Miss Everett uttered an ear-piercing shriek and <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_311'></a>311</span> sprang up, to run madly from the spot. +Frank burst into laughter.</p> + +<p>“How brave! Such nerve! My, my! we’ll none of us ever be afraid +again―”</p> + +<p>They all pitched upon the joker, and Mrs. Havel had to come to her rescue +with the reminder that time was flying.</p> + +<p>“If you want to show the boys that you are really fit to camp out +alone, get to work!” she commanded.</p> + +<p>The next hour was a busy one for the Go-Aheads. But how much more handily +they went about the striking of the tents than they had about raising them two +months before!</p> + +<p>Life in the open had really done wonders for the girls from Denton. They knew +how to do things that they had never dreamed of doing at home. Most of them had +learned how to swing an axe, although the boys had faithfully paid their forfeit +by cutting the firewood for Green Knoll Camp all summer. The girls could use a +hammer, too, and tie workman-like knots, and do a host of other things that had +never come into their lives before.</p> + +<p>“It is well to be sufficient unto one’s self,” Mrs. Havel +told them. “A girl cannot always expect to find a boy at her beck and +call. It is nice to be waited on by the male sex–and it is good for <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_312'></a>312</span> boys to learn to attend +properly upon their girl friends; it is better, however, to know how to accept +favors gracefully from our boy friends, and yet not really <i>need</i> their +assistance.”</p> + +<p>So Green Knoll Camp presented a very orderly appearance when the boys and +Professor Skillings appeared ahead of the bateau that was to take all their +goods and chattels back to their home town.</p> + +<p>“Goodness! aren’t you girls smart?” cried Dave Shepard, the +first ashore. “Are you <i>all</i> ready?”</p> + +<p>“Every bit,” declared Wyn.</p> + +<p>“Then we can get off in the <i>Go-Ahead</i> at once?”</p> + +<p>“Right,” declared Frank, laughing. “And as soon as you can +teach Wyn and me how to manage the motor boat, we girls sha’n’t need +you boys at all.”</p> + +<p>“A fine lot of suffragettes you are going to make,” growled +Dave.</p> + +<p>“No; we’ll never be ‘suffering-cats,’ Davie,” +returned Frank, laughing. “We don’t need to. Let us alone for being +able to get the best of you Busters whenever we want to.”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t she right?” cried Ferdinand Roberts, admiringly. +“You can’t beat ’em!”</p> + +<p>“No, you can’t,” snarled Tubby Blaisdell, very <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_313'></a>313</span> puffy about his face, +and with a wry smile. “They even get the goats to help +’em.”</p> + +<p>“They got your goat, old man,” said Dave, chuckling, +“that’s sure. But you blame them for a crime they did not commit, I +believe. Remember how many times you have tried to trick <i>them</i>?”</p> + +<p>“Huh!” snorted the fat youth. “Did I ever +succeed?”</p> + +<p>“I hope,” said Mrs. Havel, breaking in upon this “give and +take” conversation, “that your parents will not blame me if you all +appear–both girls and boys–to have lost your good manners here in +the woods. Do simmer down. Remember, you return to civilization +to-day.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear! don’t remind us–don’t, dear Mrs. +Havel,” cried Frank.</p> + +<p>“Just think!” scoffed Ferd. “You girls will have to be all +‘dolled up’ on Sunday again. Won’t you <i>hate</i> it?”</p> + +<p>“Rather go around in a tramping skirt and without a hat,” +admitted Wyn, frankly.</p> + +<p>“The tastes of girlhood are much different now from what they were in +<i>my</i> day,” said the lady, with a sigh. “When I was young we +never thought of doing the things you girls do now.”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t that why you didn’t do them?” asked Frank, +slily. “Perhaps we girls of this generation have better-developed +imaginations.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_314'></a>314</span>“Oh, +sure!” cried Ferd, with sarcasm. “You girls are wonders–just +as smart as little Hen Rogers was last term when Miss Haley asked him if he +could name any town in Alaska.”</p> + +<p>“What did he say?” asked Frank, with interest.</p> + +<p>“He said, ‘Nome’–and she sent him to the foot of the +class,” chuckled Ferd.</p> + +<p>“Oh! aren’t you smart?” railed Bessie. “That joke is +the twin to the one about the boy who was asked by the professor in physics if +he knew what ‘nasal organ’ meant. And the boy said ‘No, sir’ and got +a ‘perfect’ mark.”</p> + +<p>“Come on, folks!” cried Wyn. “Stop telling silly jokes and +bear a hand here. All these things have to go into the boat.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Jarley and Polly joined them just then, Mr. Jarley to collect the canoes +and take them to the Forge, while Polly was to go with the two clubs aboard the +newly-named <i>Go-Ahead</i> to Denton.</p> + +<p>Polly, in a brand-new boating costume, was so pretty that the boys +couldn’t keep their eyes away from her. She was happy, too, and this fact +gave an entirely different expression to her face.</p> + +<p>She was to go home with Wyn, and in a few weeks her father would follow and +establish a home for them both in Denton. He was going, as Mr. Lavine declared, +to start in his old home town <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_315'></a>315</span> just where he had left off more than ten years +before. And Polly was to enter the academy with the girls of Green Knoll Camp on +the opening day.</p> + +<p>The party got under weigh on the <i>Go-Ahead</i> and were some miles down the +lake ere it was discovered that Professor Skillings had forgotten both his shoes +and his hat, for he had paddled over to the girls’ camp barefoot as usual. +It was too late to go back then, for the baggage had all been put aboard the +bateau.</p> + +<p>So the professor went home with a handkerchief tied around his head and a +pair of moccasins on his feet–the latter borrowed from Dr. Shelton, at +whose dock they stopped for luncheon.</p> + +<p>The bluff doctor insisted that the whole party come ashore and lunch with +him. He had arranged for Polly’s tuition at the Denton Academy, had bought +her text-books, and when the party left for home that day he thrust into Polly +Jolly’s hand a silver chain purse with more money in it than the +boatman’s daughter had ever possessed before.</p> + +<p>Polly Jolly was beginning to live up to the loving name that Wyn Mallory had +given to her. She was the very gayest of the gay as the <i>Go-Ahead</i> +proceeded down the lake and then down the Wintinooski to Denton.</p> + +<p>The last of the journey was taken after they <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_316'></a>316</span> had had a picnic supper, and under the brilliant +light of the September moon. The boys and girls sang and told stories, and +otherwise enjoyed themselves. But as they drew near home they quieted down.</p> + +<p>The summer was behind them. For more than two months they had skylarked, and +enjoyed themselves to the full on the lake and in the woods. They “were +going back to civilization,” as Frankie said, and it made them a bit +thoughtful.</p> + +<p>“I expect,” said Mina Everett, “that we have had just the +best time that we will ever have in all our lives.”</p> + +<p>“Why so?” demanded Bess. “Can’t we go camping +again?”</p> + +<p>“Sure we will!” declared Dave Shepard.</p> + +<p>“I see what Mina means–and I guess she is right,” Wyn +remarked, earnestly. “We may go camping again; but it will never be just +like this first time. For the girls, I mean. We had never done such a thing +before. And then–if we go next summer–we’ll be a whole year +older. And a year is a long, long time.”</p> + +<p>“Long enough to spoil some of you girls, I expect,” grumbled +Ferdinand.</p> + +<p>“Spoil us, Mister? How’s that?” snapped Bess, at once +taking up the gauntlet.</p> + +<p>“You’ll be wanting to put up your hair and let <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_317'></a>317</span> down your skirts, and +will be wearing all the new-style folderols by next summer,” retorted +Ferd.</p> + +<p>“Oh, won’t they, just!” groaned Tubby, in agreement.</p> + +<p>“You wait and see, Smartie!” cried Frank Cameron.</p> + +<p>“We are not like the girls you are thinking of,” declared Grace, +with some warmth.</p> + +<p>“No, indeed,” agreed Percy.</p> + +<p>“The Go-Aheads are going to fool you, Ferdie,” said Wyn, +laughing. “Just you watch us. <i>All</i> girls aren’t in a hurry to +grow up and ape their mothers and older sisters. We’re going in for +athletics and the ‘simple life’ strongly; aren’t we, +girls?”</p> + +<p>Her fellow club members agreed in a hearty chorus. “Besides,” +added Bess, “we can have all the fun the other kind of girls have as well +as our own kind. We can dance, and go to parties, and wear pretty frocks for +<i>part</i> of the time.”</p> + +<p>“What did I tell you?” demanded Ferd, grinning.</p> + +<p>“Never mind, Ferd, never mind,” said Dave, softly. +“We’ll be a bit that way ourselves before the winter’s over. +You know, Ferd, that your folks will insist on your keeping your hair cut and +your finger-nails manicured.”</p> + +<p>“And of course I’ll have a blister on my heel <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_318'></a>318</span> from wearing dancing +pumps before the season is over,” groaned Tubby. “Oh, well! +it’s not altogether our fault that we grow up so fast. Our folks make +us,” and he groaned again, for dancing school was one of the fat +youth’s pet aversions.</p> + +<p>“That is what youth is for,” advised Mrs. Havel, who overheard +all this. “It is a preparation for manhood and womanhood.”</p> + +<p>“Dear me! Dear me! let’s forget it,” cried Dave. +“This is no time for feeling solemn. Thank goodness, for two solid months +we have forgotten all about the ‘duty we owe to posterity,’ as the +professor expresses it. Maybe next year we can forget it again in our camps upon +the shores of Lake Honotonka.”</p> + +<p>“Well expressed, little boy–well expressed,” agreed +Wynifred, tweaking one of Dave’s curls that would <i>not</i> lie down, no +matter what he did to them. “My! but we <i>have</i> grown serious. This is +no way to end our camping days, girls. Come! another lively +song―”</p> + +<p>The motor boat drifted in to the boathouse landing to the lilt of a familiar +rowing song. Wyn’s camping days were over; the outing of the Go-Ahead Club +was at an end.</p> + +<p class='c mt20'>THE END</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c mb20'>SOMETHING ABOUT<br /><span class='fs12'>AMY BELL +MARLOWE</span><br />AND HER BOOKS FOR GIRLS</p> + +<p>In these days, when the printing presses are turning out so many books for +girls that are good, bad and indifferent, it is refreshing to come upon the +works of such a gifted authoress as Miss Amy Bell Marlowe, who is now under +contract to write exclusively for Messrs. Grosset & Dunlap.</p> + +<p>In many ways Miss Marlowe’s books may be compared with those of Miss +Alcott and Mrs. Meade, but all are thoroughly modern and wholly American in +scene and action. Her plots, while never improbable, are exceedingly clever, and +her girlish characters are as natural as they are interesting.</p> + +<p>On the following pages will be found a list of Miss Marlowe’s books. +Every girl in our land ought to read these fresh and wholesome tales. They are +to be found at all booksellers. Each volume is handsomely illustrated and bound +in cloth, stamped in colors. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York. A free +catalogue of Miss Marlowe’s books may be had for the asking.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs12 mb20'>THE OLDEST OF FOUR</p> + +<p>“I don’t see any way out!”</p> + +<p>It was Natalie’s mother who said that, after the awful news had been +received that Mr. Raymond had been lost in a shipwreck on the Atlantic. Natalie +was the oldest of four children, and the family was left with but scant means +for support.</p> + +<p>“I’ve got to do something–yes, I’ve just got +to!” Natalie said to herself, and what the brave girl did is well related +in “The Oldest of Four; Or, Natalie’s Way Out.” In this volume +we find Natalie with a strong desire to become a writer. At first she +contributes to a local paper, but soon she aspires to larger things, and comes +in contact with the editor of a popular magazine. This man becomes her warm +friend, and not only aids her in a literary way but also helps in a hunt for the +missing Mr. Raymond.</p> + +<p>Natalie has many ups and downs, and has to face more than one bitter +disappointment. But she is a plucky girl through and through.</p> + +<p>“One of the brightest girls’ stories ever penned,” one +well-known author has said of this book, and we agree with him. Natalie is a +thoroughly lovable character, and one long to be remembered. Published as are +all the Amy Bell Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale +by all booksellers. Ask your dealer to let you look the volume over.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs12 mb20'>THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM</p> + +<p>“We’ll go to the old farm, and we’ll take boarders! We can +fix the old place up, and, maybe, make money!”</p> + +<p>The father of the two girls was broken down in health and a physician had +recommended that he go to the country, where he could get plenty of fresh air +and sunshine. An aunt owned an abandoned farm and she said the family could live +on this and use the place as they pleased. It was great sport moving and getting +settled, and the boarders offered one surprise after another. There was a +mystery about the old farm, and a mystery concerning one of the boarders, and +how the girls got to the bottom of affairs is told in detail in the story, which +is called, “The Girls of Hillcrest Farm; Or, The Secret of the +Rocks.”</p> + +<p>It was great fun to move to the farm, and once the girls had the scare of +their lives. And they attended a great “vendue” too.</p> + +<p>“I just had to write that story–I couldn’t help it,” +said Miss Marlowe, when she handed in the manuscript. “I knew just such a +farm when I was a little girl, and oh! what fun I had there! And there was a +mystery about that place, too!”</p> + +<p>Published, like all the Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and +for sale wherever good books are sold.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs12 mb20'>A LITTLE MISS NOBODY</p> + +<p>“Oh, she’s only a little nobody! Don’t have anything to do +with her!”</p> + +<p>How often poor Nancy Nelson heard those words, and how they cut her to the +heart. And the saying was true, she <i>was</i> a nobody. She had no folks, and +she did not know where she had come from. All she did know was that she was at a +boarding school and that a lawyer paid her tuition bills and gave her a mite of +spending money.</p> + +<p>“I am going to find out who I am, and where I came from,” said +Nancy to herself, one day, and what she did, and how it all ended, is +absorbingly related in “A Little Miss Nobody; Or, With the Girls of +Pinewood Hall.” Nancy made a warm friend of a poor office boy who worked +for that lawyer, and this boy kept his eyes and ears open and learned many +things.</p> + +<p>The book tells much about boarding school life, of study and fun mixed, and +of a great race on skates. Nancy made some friends as well as enemies, and on +more than one occasion proved that she was “true blue” in the best +meaning of that term.</p> + +<p>Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers +everywhere. If you desire a catalogue of Amy Bell Marlowe books send to the +publishers for it and it will come free.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs12 mb20'>THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH</p> + +<p>Helen was very thoughtful as she rode along the trail from Sunset Ranch to +the View. She had lost her father but a month before, and he had passed away +with a stain on his name–a stain of many years’ standing, as the +girl had just found out.</p> + +<p>“I am going to New York and I am going to clear his name!” she +resolved, and just then she saw a young man dashing along, close to the edge of +a cliff. Over he went, and Helen, with no thought of the danger to herself, went +to the rescue.</p> + +<p>Then the brave Western girl found herself set down at the Grand Central +Terminal in New York City. She knew not which way to go or what to do. Her +relatives, who thought she was poor and ignorant, had refused to even meet her. +She had to fight her way along from the start, and how she did this, and won +out, is well related in “The Girl from Sunset Ranch; Or, Alone in a Great +City.”</p> + +<p>This is one of the finest of Amy Bell Marlowe’s books, with its +true-to-life scenes of the plains and mountains, and of the great metropolis. +Helen is a girl all readers will love from the start.</p> + +<p>Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers +everywhere.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs12 mb20'>WYN’S CAMPING DAYS</p> + +<p>“Oh, girls, such news!” cried Wynifred Mallory to her chums, one +day. “We can go camping on Lake Honotonka! Isn’t it +grand!”</p> + +<p>It certainly was, and the members of the Go-Ahead Club were delighted. Soon +they set off, with their boy friends to keep them company in another camp not +far away. Those boys played numerous tricks on the girls, and the girls +retaliated, you may be sure. And then Wyn did a strange girl a favor, and +learned how some ancient statues of rare value had been lost in the lake, and +how the girl’s father was accused of stealing them.</p> + +<p>“We must do all we can for that girl,” said Wyn. But this was not +so easy, for the girl campers had many troubles of their own. They had canoe +races, and one of them fell overboard and came close to drowning, and then came +a big storm, and a nearby tree was struck by lightning.</p> + +<p>“I used to love to go camping when a girl, and I love to go yet,” +said Miss Marlowe, in speaking of this tale, which is called, “Wyn’s +Camping Days; Or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club.” “I think all +girls ought to know the pleasures of summer life under canvas.”</p> + +<p>A book that ought to be in the hands of all girls. Issued by Grosset & +Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers everywhere.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs12'>THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH SERIES</p> + +<p class='c'>By GERTRUDE W. MORRISON</p> + +<p class='c b fs08 mb05'>12mo.  BOUND IN +CLOTH.  ILLUSTRATED.  UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.</p> + +<p>Here is a series full of the spirit of high school life of today. The girls +are real flesh-and-blood characters, and we follow them with interest in school +and out. There are many contested matches on track and field, and on the water, +as well as doings in the classroom and on the school stage. There is plenty of +fun and excitement, all clean, pure and wholesome.</p> + +<p>THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH<br /> Or Rivals for all Honors.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs08'>A stirring tale of high school life, full of fun, with a +touch +of mystery and a strange initiation.</p> + +<p>THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON LAKE LUNA<br /> Or The Crew That Won.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs08'>Telling of water sports and fun galore, and of fine times +in camp.</p> + +<p>THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH AT BASKETBALL<br /> Or The Great Gymnasium +Mystery.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs08'>Here we have a number of thrilling contests at basketball +and in +addition, the solving of a mystery which had bothered the high +school authorities for a long while.</p> + +<p>THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON THE STAGE<br /> Or The Play That Took the +Prize.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs08'>How the girls went in for theatricals and how one of them +wrote +a play which afterward was made over for the professional stage +and brought in some much-needed money.</p> + +<p>THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON TRACK AND FIELD<br /> Or The Girl Champions of +the School League</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs08'>This story takes in high school athletics in their most +approved +and up-to-date fashion. Full of fun and excitement.</p> + +<p>THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH IN CAMP<br /> Or The Old Professor’s +Secret.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs08'>The girls went camping on Acorn Island and had a delightful +time at boating, swimming and picnic parties.</p> + +<p class='c sc'>Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs12'>THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SERIES</p> + +<p class='c'>By LAURA LEE HOPE</p> + +<p class='c'>Author of “The Bobbsey Twins Series.”</p> + +<p class='c b fs08 mb05'>12mo.  BOUND IN +CLOTH.  ILLUSTRATED.  UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.</p> + +<p>The adventures of Ruth and Alice DeVere. Their father, a widower, is an actor +who has taken up work for the “movies.” Both girls wish to aid him +in his work and visit various localities to act in all sorts of pictures.</p> + +<p>THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS<br /> Or First Appearance in Photo Dramas.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>Having lost his voice, the father of the girls goes into +the movies +and the girls follow. Tells how many “parlor dramas” are filmed.</p> + +<p>THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM<br /> Or Queer Happenings While Taking +Rural Plays.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>Full of fun in the country, the haps and mishaps of taking +film +plays, and giving an account of two unusual discoveries.</p> + +<p>THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND<br /> Or The Proof on the Film.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>A tale of winter adventures in the wilderness, showing how +the +photo-play actors sometimes suffer.</p> + +<p>THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS UNDER THE PALMS<br /> Or Lost in the Wilds of +Florida.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>How they went to the land of palms, played many parts in +dramas +before the camera; were lost, and aided others who were also lost.</p> + +<p>THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH<br /> Or Great Days Among the +Cowboys.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>All who have ever seen moving pictures of the great West +will +want to know just how they are made. This volume gives every detail +and is full of clean fun and excitement.</p> + +<p>THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT SEA<br /> Or a Pictured Shipwreck that Became +Real.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>A thrilling account of the girls’ experiences on the +water.</p> + +<p>THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS<br /> Or The Sham Battles at Oak +Farm.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>The girls play important parts in big battle scenes and +have plenty +of hard work along with considerable fun.</p> + +<p class='c sc'>Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs12'>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES</p> + +<p class='c'>By LAURA LEE HOPE</p> + +<p class='c'>Author of the “Bobbsey Twin Books” and “Bunny +Brown” Series.</p> + +<p class='c b fs08 mb05'>12mo.  BOUND IN +CLOTH.  ILLUSTRATED.  UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.</p> + +<p>These tales take in the various adventures participated in by several bright, +up-to-date girls who love outdoor life. They are clean and wholesome, free from +sensationalism, absorbing from the first chapter to the last.</p> + +<p>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE<br /> Or Camping and Tramping for Fun and +Health.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>Telling how the girls organized their Camping and Tramping +Club, +how they went on a tour, and of various adventures which befell them.</p> + +<p>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE<br /> Or Stirring Cruise of the Motor +Boat Gem.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>One of the girls becomes the proud possessor of a motor +boat and +invites her club members to take a trip down the river to Rainbow +Lake, a beautiful sheet of water lying between the mountains.</p> + +<p>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR<br /> Or The Haunted Mansion of Shadow +Valley.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>One of the girls has learned to run a big motor car, and +she invites +the club to go on a tour to visit some distant relatives. On the way +they stop at a deserted mansion and make a surprising discovery.</p> + +<p>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP<br /> Or Glorious Days on Skates and Ice +Boats.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>In this story, the scene is shifted to a winter season. The +girls +have some jolly times skating and ice boating, and visit a hunters’ +camp in the big woods.</p> + +<p>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA.<br /> Or Wintering in the Sunny South.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>The parents of one of the girls have bought an orange grove +in Florida, and her companions are invited to visit the place. They take +a trip into the interior, where several unusual things happen.</p> + +<p>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW<br /> Or The Box that Was Found in the +Sand.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>The girls have great fun and solve a mystery while on an +outing along the New England coast.</p> + +<p>THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND<br /> Or A Cave and What it Contained.</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>A bright, healthful story, full of good times at a bungalow +camp on Pine Island.</p> + +<p class='c sc'>Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs13'>THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS</p> + +<p class='c fs11'>For Little Men and Women</p> + +<p class='c fs11'>By LAURA LEE HOPE</p> + +<p class='c fs09 mb05'>Author of “The Bunny Brown” Series, Etc.</p> + +<p class='c b fs08 mb05'>12mo.  BOUND IN +CLOTH.  ILLUSTRATED.  UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.</p> + +<p>Copyright publications which cannot be obtained elsewhere. Books that charm +the hearts of the little ones, and of which they never tire. Many of the +adventures are comical in the extreme, and all the accidents that ordinarily +happen to youthful personages happened to these many-sided little mortals. Their +haps and mishaps make decidedly entertaining reading.</p> + +<p>THE BOBBSEY TWINS</p> + +<p>THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY</p> + +<p>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE</p> + +<p>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>Telling how they go home from the seashore; went to school +and +were promoted, and of their many trials and tribulations.</p> + +<p>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>Telling of the winter holidays, and of the many fine times +and +adventures the twins had at a winter lodge in the big woods.</p> + +<p>THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>Mr. Bobbsey obtains a houseboat, and the whole family go +off on +a tour.</p> + +<p>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>The young folks visit the farm again and have plenty of +good +times and several adventures.</p> + +<p>THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME</p> + +<p class='ml10 fs09'>The twins get into all sorts of trouble–and out +again–also bring +aid to a poor family.</p> + +<p class='c sc'>Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wyn's Camping Days, by Amy Bell Marlowe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WYN'S CAMPING DAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 31419-h.htm or 31419-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/4/1/31419/ + +Produced by Roger Frank, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/31419-h/images/cover.jpg b/31419-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..98e441c --- /dev/null +++ b/31419-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/31419-h/images/illus1.jpg b/31419-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9ddf2e --- /dev/null +++ b/31419-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/31419-h/images/illus2.jpg b/31419-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..81c1c4d --- /dev/null +++ b/31419-h/images/illus2.jpg diff --git a/31419-h/images/illus3.jpg b/31419-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da1ce4b --- /dev/null +++ b/31419-h/images/illus3.jpg diff --git a/31419-h/images/illus4.jpg b/31419-h/images/illus4.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f275707 --- /dev/null +++ b/31419-h/images/illus4.jpg |
