THE CHALLENGE
"I declare, Miss Jenny Ann," declared Madge fervently, "I believe I was
born to live on a houseboat, I feel so perfectly at home. Do you think
I care so much for the sea because my father was a sailor?"
"I suppose you do, my dear," returned the chaperon, who sat listening
to Madge's animated chatter with an indulgent smile.
Several days had passed since the ball, and the girls had settled down
to a thorough enjoyment of their floating home. Madge, who was looking
particularly pretty in her sailor suit of blue serge, had been
energetically sweeping the decks. Now she paused for a moment to lean
on her broom and survey Miss Jenny Ann reflectively.
The "Merry Maid" now lay at anchor along a stretch of sandy beach, in a
cove formed by a point of land that jutted out into the bay. It was the
quietest spot Tom Curtis could find in the vicinity. But the landing
was so near the mouth of the great Chesapeake Bay that, should a storm
blow in from the Atlantic Ocean, the houseboat would probably be lashed
by the waves. There was no shade along the beach, so Mrs. Curtis had
transformed the houseboat into a charming Japanese pagoda. Mammoth
Japanese umbrellas were swung above the decks. The latter were covered
with pretty straw mats. There was a dainty green tea table securely
fastened near the stern, with half a dozen green chairs near it. The
window boxes around the upper deck of the boat had been refilled with
bright scarlet geraniums and nasturtiums, as they would bloom until
late in the autumn. Fresh draperies hung at the little cabin windows.
Wrought-iron lamps, holding beautiful yellow-tinted glass globes, were
attached to the outside cabin walls, so the entire deck of the
houseboat could be lighted at night. Indeed, "The Merry Maid" presented
a far more elaborate appearance than she had worn during the first of
the houseboat vacations.
It was small wonder that the four girls sighed from pure content. Mrs.
Curtis had not spent a great deal of money in re-decorating the little
boat, she did not wish her guests to feel under any obligation to her,
but she had made their holiday craft as attractive as possible, and had
stored their small larder with all the good things she could find to
eat.
"Miss Jenny Ann!" exclaimed Madge impulsively for the second time in
five minutes, "do you think it is wrong to dislike people very, very
much?"
The little captain's expression had entirely changed. She was frowning
as though recalling something unpleasant.
"I suppose it is," answered Miss Jones gravely. She knew that Madge's
likes and dislikes were not unimportant--they were so intense that they
were likely to change not only the course of the girl's whole life but
to influence the circumstances of the people about her.
"I am sorry," answered Madge, "because I have taken a dreadful dislike
to that Flora Harris whom we met at the ball the other night. I wish
that Tom had not asked us to invite her to the houseboat this
afternoon. I did not like to refuse him, but I wish that I never had to
see her again."
Madge returned to her sweeping with redoubled ardor. She acted as
though she were trying to sweep the objectionable Miss Harris off of
the houseboat.
"Don't take a rude speech so to heart, my dear," remonstrated Miss
Jenny Ann. "Really, Miss Harris isn't worth it. It's dreadful to have a
long list of grudges; it only hurts one to remember them."
Madge listened politely, though she didn't appear convinced by their
chaperon's remarks. Wilful Madge was never convinced except by
experience.
"I don't hate the Harris girl just because she made one rude speech,
Miss Jenny Ann," she returned; "I hate her because she is hateful! She
was impolite to us, and a sneak not to tell Tom Curtis what she had
said about us. Then she is very haughty and proud because her father is
a prominent officer at Fortress Monroe. She treated us as though we
were nobodies from nowhere!"
"Here, here, Madge!" cried Phyllis Alden, appearing suddenly with the
bread knife--she had been making sandwiches for their party--"them's my
sentiments to a T! I'll cut off Miss Harris's head with the carving
knife if you say so."
Madge laughed. "Oh, no, Phil, I suppose we shall have to be as sweet as
cream to her because her friends are our Mrs. Curtis's friends. Miss
Harris will probably be invited to all the parties we have while we are
here."
"Lieutenant Lawton is nice and interesting, at any rate," interposed
Phil. "Don't think that he talked to me about himself. He only said
that he was in the Navy. But Tom told me that Lieutenant Lawton was
working on a wonderful invention. I think it is something about a
torpedo-boat destroyer that will go twice as fast as any other torpedo
boat," Phil went on vaguely. "Lieutenant Lawton has a work-shop near
Fortress Monroe. It is kept absolutely private through fear that some
one will steal the model for the boat before Lieutenant Lawton has
completed it."
"You became very well acquainted with this young lieutenant, Phil,"
teased Madge. "I suppose he will be rich if he succeeds with his
invention."
Phil shook her dark head enthusiastically. "No; that is why I think he
is so splendid," she argued. "He will make no money, unless our
Government chooses to make him a gift, or to give him a higher rank in
the Navy. Tom says that several foreign countries have offered
Lieutenant Lawton thousands of dollars for his invention. There are
American ship-building companies, too, that would give him a great deal
of money for it. Two men are at Old Point now trying to tempt
Lieutenant Lawton to sell his secret. But Tom says nothing will
influence him; he is such a patriot!"
"Girls, it is time to dress for your tea-party," announced Miss Jenny
Ann.
For an instant she experienced a vague regret that her girls were about
to come in contact with so many fashionable people. She wished that she
could transplant them to the free outdoor life that had characterized
their first houseboat holiday. Here was sensible Phil, her head filled
with stories of wonderful secret inventions and young inventors. And
Phil had been the most dependable of her charges.
But Miss Jenny Ann was looking in the wrong direction for trouble. She
should have concerned herself with the naughty plan that was forming in
Madge's mind. It had never been worth while to pretend that the little
captain was always noble and high-minded. She was capable of generous
impulses and she loved her friends so dearly that she would do anything
in the world for them. But she was proud and a trifle vain. She hated
to be snubbed and treated as though she were absolutely of no
importance. So she had quite made up her mind to be revenged on Flora
Harris. Just at the time she could think of no better way than to make
friends with Flora's particular admirer, Alfred Thornton. He was an
extremely wealthy young man in prospect, his father being a Pittsburg
millionaire. Flora was a snob; she was only seventeen, but her mother
was a foolish, flighty woman, who allowed her daughter to think that
she was already grown-up. Although Flora was not out of school, her
mother never ceased to preach to her that she was not to marry a poor
Army officer, so the young girl was pleased to have a wealthy young man
as one of her admirers.
Madge knew that Alfred Thornton was snobbish and mean-spirited. She did
not like him. She decided that on the night of the ball. She had seen
him exchanging smiles with Miss Harris behind their backs before Tom
Curtis had introduced him as his friend. This merely confirmed her bad
opinion of him. But she realized that young Thornton had been attracted
by her, and she naughtily resolved to turn his attentions from the
elegant Miss Harris to herself. When she went into her cabin to dress
for their tea-party it was with the determination to teach the girl she
disliked that Madge Morton, country-bred though she might be, was a
force yet to be reckoned with.
At two o'clock that afternoon Miss Jenny Ann and the four girls
received their guests, and a little later tea was served on the deck at
the dainty tea table under the big Japanese umbrellas. Madge, looking
radiant in a little frock of white organdie dotted with tiny green
leaves, poured the tea.
Tom Curtis had brought with him four or five young men from the camp.
Flora Harris, looking utterly bored, a faint smile of cynical amusement
on her face, accompanied by her cousin, Alice Paine, had crossed the
bay in a steam launch with Jimmie Lawton. Never before had the
houseboat held so many visitors, and the young hostesses did all in
their power to entertain their guests.
* * * * *
"We have had a delightful afternoon," smiled Alice Paine as, later, the
two young women declared that they must go back to Old Point. "I think
the 'Merry Maid' is lovely, don't you, Flora?"
"The _boat_? Oh, yes," drawled Flora. Then with a touch of malice she
added, "You told me you made your houseboat from an old canal boat,
didn't you, Miss Morton?"
"Yes," returned the little captain briefly; then, as though unconscious
of any malice aforethought on the part of the other girl, she continued
a laughing conversation with Tom Curtis and Alfred Thornton.
"I should have guessed it," commented Flora Harris, shrugging her
shoulders. She frowned as she noted that Alfred Thornton appeared to be
enjoying himself immensely. Furthermore, no one had paid the slightest
attention to her malicious little thrust. Madge had answered her
without seeming to realize the insult her words contained.
Madge had fully realized, however, the hidden insolence of Flora
Harris's reply, but she would have died rather than allow the other
girl to know it.
"Did you say I didn't dare, Tom?" she exclaimed in answer to a laughing
remark on the part of the young man. "I don't see anything very daring
about your proposal. O Phil!" she turned to Phyllis, "Tom and Mr.
Thornton dare us to row against them in the camp regatta next week.
Will you do it?"
"Of course," agreed Phyllis, who would have cheerfully acquiesced to
almost anything Madge saw fit to propose. "We are likely to come in
last, but never mind a little thing like that. We are out of practice
though. I wonder if we can't persuade a number of other girls to enter
the race too?"
Flora Harris glanced disdainfully at Madge and Phyllis. She and Alice
had lived near salt water all their lives, and had been taught to row
by experts. It was too absurd to think of these two country girls
rowing against them! As for entering a racing contest with boys from
the camp--surely they were joking! But if they meant it seriously, she
and Alice were ready for them.
"Oh, yes, we will enter the race," she answered with a kind of amused
indifference. "I suppose Alice and I can row as well as your other
friends. But we really must be getting back to the Point. Lieutenant
Jimmy, we are sorry to interrupt you, but we have a long trip ahead of
us." Her significant tone caused Phyllis and that young man to flush.
It was quite true that Lieutenant Jimmy had devoted himself exclusively
to Phyllis, and that she had forgotten every one else in listening to
the stories of naval life which he had been relating to her. Still,
Flora Harris need not have directed the attention of the others to
their absorption in each other. The young lieutenant looked rather
sulky as he bade good-bye to his hostesses, with his eyes on Phil, and
helped Miss Harris and Miss Paine into the motor boat.
Alfred Thornton and Tom Curtis left the "Merry Maid" soon after
Lieutenant Lawton's launch steamed away, and when the five young women
were alone they looked at one another in silence. Each one of them was
possessed of the same thought. It was Phyllis who voiced it.
"I quite agree with you, Madge," she said, a note of anger in her
voice. "I think that Miss Harris is detestable. One thing is certain,
we must outrow those two girls in the race. I couldn't endure seeing
them win."
"Nor I, Phil," returned Madge. "We'll win that race just to spite that
hateful Miss Harris. I despise her snobbishness."
"That is a very ignoble spirit in which to enter it," reproved Miss
Jenny Ann.
"Remember, we are to race with a very ignoble person," retorted Madge.