MISSING: THE SHORT AND LONG OF IT
"Oh! Oh!" cried Dora. "I hope they're not burned."
"But they'll be drowned!" gasped her sister.
"Chetwood Belding and Lance Darby won't drown, that's sure," returned
Dora, but driving in her paddle vigorously.
"No, they can swim."
"And they won't let Prettyman Sweet drown, either."
The girls swept on at a splendid pace, paying no attention to the
runaway and burning launch. They were anxious to reach the struggling
boys.
"We can't take them aboard, Dora!" cried her sister.
"Of course not; but they can cling to the gun-wales----"
"And sink us."
"No, they won't."
"They'll tip us over. I don't want to get all wet," panted Dorothy.
"Here's another canoe!" cried Dora.
Out of a neighboring inlet shot a second cedar boat, also paddled by two
girls.
"It's Laura and Jess!" cried Dorothy.
"Goody! now we can get the boys to shore all right," said Dora, with
satisfaction. "Laura will know what to do. She always does."
Laura Belding, who was Chetwood Belding's sister, and who rejoiced in
the nickname at school of "Mother Wit," was a girl who possessed a very
quick mind. Her mates expected a good deal of her, therefore, and it was
not surprising that Dora and Dorothy Lockwood should consider that the
rescue of the three boys in the lake was a simple matter now that Laura
had appeared upon the scene.
In the first volume of this series, entitled "The Girls of Central High;
Or, Rivals for All Honors," Laura Belding's quick wit was displayed on
several occasions--notably in her solving the problem of a fire that was
discovered in the office of the principal of Central High School,
Franklin Sharp.
But in that initial volume was told, too, of the beginning of after-hour
athletics in Central High and of the interest the girls began to take in
all manner of sports and games approved by the Girls' Branch Athletic
League.
The girls of Central High had ever been loyal supporters of the boys'
games--had "rooted" at all baseball, football, and rowing matches, and
the like, for their particular colors; but now they were to take part
themselves in various lines of athletics and sports, and their real
interest in such things was, naturally, much increased.
But to properly develop the idea of the Girls' Branch Athletic League,
which was formed at Central High, the need of a modern girls' athletic
field was plain to both the girls themselves and their instructors.
Centerport, although a moderately wealthy town, could not supply fifty
thousand dollars, off-hand, for such a purpose; and that was the least
sum needed for the establishment of an up-to-date building and field for
winter bathing, basketball grounds, tennis courts, a cinder track, and a
dancing lawn.
Perhaps Laura Belding was no more interested in the establishment of
such a fine field than many other of the girls of the sophomore, junior,
and senior classes. Laura was a soph herself; but she saw ways and means
to an end more quickly than the others. By chance she interested a very
wealthy man--one Colonel Richard Swayne. The Colonel thought that little
Miss Belding was quite the quickest-witted girl he had ever met. And,
later, when Laura's bright thought chanced to aid the Colonel's invalid
daughter, the old gentleman began to take a deeper interest in the
things that interested Laura.
So that, finally, through Colonel Swayne's generosity, the idea of a
fine field for girls' athletics became a possibility. This coming
summer, during the long vacation, it would be built, and the girls of
Laura's class were very proud indeed of "Mother Wit."
Now the two canoes, propelled by the twins in one and Laura and her
chum, Jess Morse, in the other, dashed toward the three boys in the
water. The power launch, flaming merrily, was allowed to take its own
sweet will across the lake.
"Now, don't you tip either of those canoes over, Purt!" Chet Belding was
angrily shouting as the girls reached the trio of water-soaked voyagers.
"Easy! You're not drowned yet."
"But, mercy, Chet!" squalled Prettyman Sweet, splashing madly. "I--I've
swallowed--ugh!--so mu-mu-much water! Help!"
He went under again, for he could not swim. But Chet brought him up with
a jerk, having still a hand upon the boy's collar.
"Stay up here!" growled Laura's brother. "Keep your face out of the
water."
"But I want to, deah boy--dontcher know!" gasped Purt.
"Yes; you want to; but you want to talk, too. Keep your mouth shut, then
you won't get water-logged," snapped Lance Darby, coming up on the other
side.
"Oh! don't be harsh with him, boys," begged Dorothy Lockwood. "He's lost
his boat."
"And that's his own fault. He _would_ smoke a cigarette," said Chet,
"and I told him the gasoline leaked."
"I wouldn't go in the old boat with him again for a farm down East with
a pig on it!" declared Lance. "Now, easy! don't you dare swamp this
canoe."
They made the almost helpless Purt seize the sharp stern of Laura's
canoe with both hands. Then Chet swam beside him to keep him from
dragging the girls' craft down, as Laura and Josephine Morse paddled for
the shore of the island.
Lance followed on with the Lockwood canoe, and both reached the shore at
about the same time. The Sweet boy struggled out upon the shore and lay
down, almost overcome. But the other boys aided the girls in getting the
cedar boats onto the shore, and out of harm's way.
"Nice mess we're in," gasped Lance, flinging himself down upon the sod,
too. "Look at us! Not fit to appear on board the _Lady of the Lake_."
That was the little steamer that transported passengers from Centerport
to the amusement park at the west end of Cavern Island. Down at this end
of the island the land was hilly and wild; but around the boat landing a
park was laid out, with carrousels, a small menagerie, swings, and the
like.
"Lo--lo--look at Purt!" burst out Jess, unable to hold in her laughter
any longer. "What-what will his mo-mo-mother say when he gets home?"
Prettyman Sweet was, as Chet often declared, "the very niftiest dresser"
in Central High. And even when he went motor-boating he was the very
"glass of fashion." His fancy waistcoat would never be seen in its
pristine lustre again, and as for the gaudy striped shirt and cuffs he
had worn, the stripes were surely "fast" colors, in that they had
immediately run into the white ground-work of the garment!
"I--I do-do-don't care," chattered Purt. "What are clothes, anyway? I'm
dying of cold!"
"And in June," snorted Lance, with disgust.
"Let's build a campfire and warm him," suggested Laura.
"Haven't a dry match," declared her brother.
"I have. Don't catch me canoeing without a tightly corked bottle of
matches. I've been upset too many times," laughed Laura.
Chet and Lance gathered the wood; but Purt only lay and moaned and
shivered. The adventure was a serious matter for the exquisite.
"And I bet this settles Purt's motor-boating for all time," scoffed Jess
Morse. "Got enough, haven't you, Pretty?"
"Weally, Miss Morse, I am too exhausted to speak about it--weally!"
gasped Purt.
"And it was the only sport Purt would go into," grunted Chet. "He could
get somebody to run his boat for him, you see. All he had to do was to
sit tight and hold his ears on."
Purt felt affectionately for his ears--they stuck out like sails from
the side of his head, "trimmed flat across the masts"--and said nothing.
He could not retort in his present condition of mind and body. But his
schoolmates talked on, quite ignoring him.
"What were you two boys doing out in the _Duchess_ this afternoon,
anyway?" demanded Laura. "I thought you were going to see the game
between Lumberport and the East High team?"
"Why," said Chet, hesitating, looking at Lance, "if we tell you, you'll
keep still about it--all you girls?"
"Of course," said Jess.
"All of you, I mean," said Chet, earnestly. "No passing it around with
the usual platter of gossip on the athletic field this evening."
"How horrid of you, Chet!" cried Josephine Morse.
But Laura only laughed. "We can keep a secret as well as any crowd of
boys--and he knows it," she said.
"Well," said her brother, squatting before the campfire, that was now
burning briskly, and spreading out his jacket to the blaze, while the
legs of his trousers began to steam. "Well, it's about Short and Long."
"Billy Long!" gasped Dorothy, looking at her sister.
"Poor Billy!" added Laura. "What about him?"
"He's missing," said Chet, gravely.
"Missing: The Short and Long of It, eh?" chuckled Jess.
"This is no laughing matter, Jess," declared Launcelot Darby, sharply.
"Haven't you heard of the robbery?"
"At Stresch & Potter's department store?" cried Jess. "Of course. What's
that got to do with Short and Long?"
"Nothing!" declared Chet, vigorously.
"Anybody who says that Billy Long helped in that robbery deserves to be
kicked. He's not that kind of a fellow."
"But he's accused," said Laura, gravely.
"Somebody said they saw him hanging about the rear of the store with
some men Tuesday afternoon. The men appeared to be surveyors. They are
supposed to be the robbers, for nobody seems to know anything about them
at the city engineer's office," Chet continued.
"A small boy had to be put through the little basement window where a
screen was cut out. No man could have slipped through it and then opened
that door for the men. Short and Long is accused--at least, he is
suspected. A policeman went to his house Friday morning; but Billy had
gone away over night."
"That looks suspicious," declared Jess.
"No, it doesn't. It looks as if Billy was scared--as of course he was,"
exclaimed Chet. "Who wouldn't be?"
"That is so," murmured one of the twins.
"Well," sighed Chet, "we heard that he had been seen to take a boat at
Norman's Landing, and thought maybe he'd come over this way. So, as Purt
wanted a sail----"
"And a bath, it seems," chuckled Jess.
"We came over this way, looking into the coves and inlets for the boat
Billy is said to have borrowed. But we didn't see any sign of it, nor
any sign of poor Billy. Of course he is innocent; but he's scared, and
his folks are poor, and Billy was afraid to remain at home, I suppose,
thinking he would get his father into trouble, too."
"It's a mean shame," said Lance. "What if Stresch & Potter were robbed
of ten thousand dollars? They oughtn't to have accused a perfectly
innocent boy of helping in the robbery."
"But that's it!" exclaimed Laura. "How is Billy to disprove the
accusation if he runs away and makes it appear that he is guilty?"
"Don't we see that?" demanded her brother. "That's what we want to get
at Billy for. We want to catch and bring him back and make him face the
music. Then we'll all prove him innocent and make these Smart Alecks
take back what they've been saying about him. It's a shame!" cried Chet,
again.
"It _is_ a shame," agreed Laura.
But just then both the Lockwood twins burst out with:
"Maybe he _did_ come over to the island."
"Huh! What for? To hide?" demanded Lance.
"Perhaps," said Dorothy.
"Maybe to find the robbers himself. Perhaps they are hiding here," said
Dora.
"Likely," grunted Chet.
"We saw somebody hiding back yonder at the foot of Boulder Head,"
declared Dorothy.
"So we did! The lone pirate!" cried her sister.
"'The lone pirate'?" repeated Laura and Jess, in unison. "Who's that?"
The twins told them what they had seen----the bewhiskered man who had
hidden behind the boulder. But the boys scoffed at the idea of the
stranger having anything to do with the men who robbed the department
store safe, or anything to do with Billy Long.
"No," said Chet, wearily, "He's gone somewhere. But we don't know where.
And if the police catch him it will go hard with poor Short and Long."