THE SCOOTER
Sammy Pinkney had desired greatly to go with Neale and Agnes on the
smaller ice-boat; but they would not hear to the proposal. He struck
up an acquaintance with the "crew" of the big boat to which he was
assigned, and gave Ruth and Luke Shepard no trouble.
In the other large boat Mr. Howbridge, Mrs. MacCall and the two
smallest Corner House girls, as well as Tom Jonah, were very cozily
ensconced. Dot clutched the Alice-doll very tightly and Tom Jonah
barked loudly when the barge slithered out upon the lake and began to
gather speed as the fresh wind filled the big sail.
Mrs. MacCall continued to have her doubts regarding the safety of this
strange means of locomotion.
"There's one good thing about it," she chattered, as the sledge jarred
over a few hummocks. "There's nae so far to fall if we do fall out."
"It's perfectly safe, they tell me," Mr. Howbridge assured her.
"Aye. It may look so," the good woman admitted. "But 'tis like Tam
Taggart goin' to London."
"How was that?" the lawyer asked, smiling.
"Tam was one o' these canny Highlanders, and he made up his mind after
muckle thought to spend a week in London. He went to 'broaden his
mind,' as they call it. Truly, to prove to himself that London and the
English were quite as bad as he'd believed all his life.
"So he goes to London, and he comes home again--very solemn like.
Nobody could get a word out of him at first," pursued Mrs. MacCall.
"Finally the folks, they gathered around him at the post-office and
one says:
"'What ails ye, Tam? Ye've no told us anything aboot Lunnon. Is it nae
the fine place they'd have us believe?'
"'Oo, aye, 'tis nae so bad,' says Tam. 'But they are nae honest up
there.'
"'Whit way air they no honest, Tam?' asks his friends.
"'Weel,' says Tam, 'I aye had my doots all the time; but I made sure
the day I bought me a penny-packet of needles. On the outside o' it,
it said there was one thousand needles inside.'
"'Oh, aye?'
"'I coonted 'em,' says Tam, 'an'--wad ye believe it?--there was only
nine hundred and ninety-three!' And this boat-sliding may look all
right," concluded the Corner House housekeeper, "but, like Tam, 'I
have me doots!'"
As the boat gathered speed, following the one on which Ruth and her
companions sailed out into the open lake, the little girls squealed
their delight. Even Dot forgot her fears. And Tom Jonah "smiled" just
as broadly as he could.
"Oh, Tessie!" Dot gasped. "It _is_ like flying! My breath's too big
for my mouth--just like I was in a swing."
"I guess you must feel like poor Sandyface did when Sammy sent her
with her kittens from our house to his in the fly-a-majig. You
remember?" said Tess.
"I should say I did!" agreed Dot in her old-fashioned way. "What an
awful time that was, wasn't it? And Sammy got spanked."
"Sammy's always getting spanked," Tess said coolly.
"Ye-as. He is. But I guess he's never got used to it yet," responded
the smallest Corner House girl thoughtfully.
The wind, when they faced forward, almost took their breath. The
little girls cowered down under the warm robes, looking astern. So
their bright eyes were the first to catch sight of the scooter
shooting out into the lake behind them.
The wharves and dun-colored houses of Culberton were already far
astern. And how fast the town was receding!
The smaller ice-boat, however, overtook the big boats almost as though
the latter were standing still! The others caught sight of the
careening ice-racer soon after Dot and Tess first shouted. But neither
of the little girls nor the other members of the party realized that
Neale and Agnes were aboard the craft that came, meteor-like, up the
lake.
They had started sedately enough, Neale O'Neil at the stern with the
tiller ropes in his mittened hands and Agnes strapped into the seat on
the outrigger, with the bight of the running sheet in her charge.
Neale had told her plainly what to do ordinarily, and had instructed
her to look to him for orders in any emergency. It looked to be very
simple, this working out an ice-scooter that had in it the possibility
of sailing at any speed up to a hundred miles an hour!
Somebody had started the creaking boat with the purchase of a pike
pole at the rear. The peavy bit into the ice, and the scooter rocked
out from the wharf. The big sail was already spread. They had wabbled
out of the confinement of the dock slowly and sedately enough.
Suddenly the wind puffed into the sail and bellied it. The stick bent
and groaned. It seemed as though the runners stuck to the surface of
the ice and the mast would be torn from the framework of the craft.
Then she really started!
The powerful on-thrust of the wind in the sail shot the scooter away
from the shore. She swooped like a gull across the ice. The whining of
steel on ice rose to a painful shriek in Agnes' ears.
She was scared. Oh, yes, she was scared! But she would not admit
it--not for worlds! Faster and faster the scooter moved. The girl
looked back once at Neale and caught a glimpse of his confident smile.
It heartened her wonderfully.
"Hold hard, Aggie!" his strong voice shouted, and she nodded, blinking
the water out of her eyes.
They had headed up Long Lake as they left the shore, and they could
travel on the wind, and without tacking, for a long way. They
overhauled the two big barges in which the rest of the party sailed,
in a way that fairly made Agnes gasp. She had never traveled so fast
before in all her life.
The scooter struck a hummock in the ice. It was not six inches above
the general level of the crystal surface of the lake. But the impetus
it gave the ice-boat sent that seemingly fragile craft up into the
air! She left the ice for a long, breathtaking, humming jump. It
seemed to Agnes as though they were going right up into the air, very
much as an aeroplane soars from the earth.
Indeed, had the ice-boat a movable tail like an aeroplane, surely it
would completely take to the air. Next to piloting an aeroplane,
ice-boat racing is the greatest sport in the world.
Spang! The scooter took to the ice again and ran like a scared rabbit.
The stays sang a new tune. Had the sheet not had a simple cast about a
peg beside her, Agnes would surely have lost the bight of it.
But Neale had told her certain things to do, and she would not fail
him. Through half-blinded eyes she cast another glance at him over her
shoulder. The boy showed no evidence of panic, and Agnes was ashamed
to display her own inner feelings.
When Neale said, "You're a regular little sport, Aggie!" it was the
finest tribute to character that Agnes Kenway knew anything about. She
was determined to win his approval now, if never before.
Ruth saw them coming, but had no idea at first that the careening
ice-racer was the small boat that Neale and her sister had engaged for
the run up the lake. The schooner came on like, and with, the wind!
"See that boat, Cecile!" cried the oldest Corner House girl. "How
reckless it is to ride so fast. Suppose the mast should snap or a
skate should break? My!"
"But look how they fly!" agreed her friend.
"Hey!" exclaimed Luke. "That's Neale O'Neil steering that thing."
"Oh! Mercy! _Agnes!_" shrieked Ruth, her eyes suddenly opened to the
identity of the two on the scooter.
"Hoorah!" yelled Luke. "What speed!"
The party on the other big boat had recognized the two on the scooter.
The fur-trimmed coat and brilliant-hued hood Agnes wore could not be
mistaken.
"Stop them! Stop them!" moaned Ruth, really alarmed.
It seemed to her that the boat she was riding in was going much too
fast for safety; but the scooter flew up the lake at a pace that made
the big boats seem to stand still.
Neale plainly knew how to handle the racer. He passed the two barges
and then tacked, aiming to cross the bows of the bigger craft.
Instantly, as the boom swung around, Agnes' end of the crossbeam went
into the air! They saw her sail upward, the flashing steel runners at
least four feet above the ice!
The girl's wind-whipped face was still smiling. Indeed, that smile
seemed frozen on. As the racer rushed by Agnes looked down upon her
sisters and other friends and waved one hand to them.
Then, like a huge kite, the big-bellied sail raced off across the
lake, taking the reckless pair almost instantly out of earshot.