NEARLY WRECKED
The girls did not scream. Perhaps they were too frightened or perhaps
it was just natural pluck.
They did jump to their feet though as if with some wild thought of
leaping overboard. But there they remained, staring with fascinated
eyes at the fate that was bearing down upon them.
As for Betty, after one breath-taking minute when all the blood in her
body seemed to rush to her head, she simply sat there and tried in the
second that was given her to think what to do.
Almost automatically, she wrenched the wheel around, nearly capsizing
the boat with the sudden turn. At almost the same second, as though the
thing had been prearranged, the boys in the racing craft swung around
in the opposite direction.
A slight scraping as the side of the _Gem_ slid along the side of the
nearer of the racing craft, and they were safe, with no harm done with
the exception of a little paint scraped from the side of the boat.
It was a moment before the girls could realize what had happened to
them. Then a voice hailed them from the boat alongside. In a glance the
girls perceived that the voice belonged to no other than Percy Falconer
himself.
“Hello,” called Percy, adding boisterously as he recognized the girls:
“Well, by all that’s holy, if it isn’t the Outdoor Girls! Thought you
never came over to this side of the river.”
“We don’t,” Betty answered, the hand that still gripped the wheel
shaking nervously now that the danger was over. “And I don’t believe we
ever will again, either!”
“I say, your teeth are chattering,” cried Percy, looking at Betty in
open admiration. In the old days, Percy had tried hard to win favor in
Betty’s eyes, but the latter had always treated him with a good-natured
indifference not unmixed with contempt that had been very hard for the
young dude to bear. During the years he had still admired Betty from
afar and hated Allen Washburn for being the “lucky one.” So now he
hastened to make the most of what he thought was an opportunity.
“Come on over to the Point with me and Derby here,” indicating the
young fellow in the other racing craft who had drawn his boat up close
to them and was looking on with interest. “We will get you something to
steady your nerves a bit. We had a pretty narrow squeak that time, and
it’s no wonder it upset you a little.”
He was supposedly addressing all the girls, but his eyes were only for
Betty. As for her, she suddenly had a startlingly clear mental picture
of what her father would think were some one to tell him that his
daughter and her chums had been seen at the “Point” with Percy Falconer
and a friend of his.
In days gone by Percy had been very insipid, his mind entirely on his
clothes; now he had become a sport, and the report was that he caroused
around not a little.
Betty turned to the youth with a decided little shake of her head,
though her eyes were smiling.
“I think we shall have to go right back,” she said. “It looks as though
it were going to rain. Thank you just as much,” and she began to ease
her motor boat gently away from the other craft,
“Oh, I say,” Percy cried, disappointedly and a little angrily, for out
of the corner of his eye he could see that his friend was laughing at
him, “we would only keep you for a moment or two. You needn’t be afraid
of us. We won’t bite, you know.”
“We don’t know you well enough to be sure even of that,” said Mollie,
coming suddenly and flippantly into the conversation.
But Percy took not the slightest notice of her and, as Betty was slowly
but surely widening the distance between the _Gem_ and his boat, he
leaned forward eagerly.
“Betty, let me see you some time. How about to-morrow night?”
And because Betty was always kind to every one and was sorry for
Mollie’s flippant speech, she said, quite unexpectedly, even to
herself, “All right.”
Then she turned the _Gem_ around and started for home, conscious that
her chums were gazing at her in speechless amazement.
“Betty!” cried Grace, horrified. “You are never going to let Percy
Falconer come to see you, are you?”
But Betty turned on her irritably. She was tired and nervous and angry
at herself for having anything to do with that conceited dude, Percy
Falconer.
“You heard me say he could come, didn’t you?” she said in response to
Grace’s incredulous question, Amy’s wide-eyed stare, and Mollie’s grin.
“And if you are going to ask me why I said so,” she added desperately,
“I’m not going to tell you. And if anybody speaks to me before I get
back to the dock, I’ll! wreck ’em, that’s all.”
The girls exchanged glances and wisely decided to change the subject,
for the present at least. For the time they had plenty to do anyway,
just watching out that somebody else did not run into them!
By the time they reached comparatively clear water they were all tired
and they were glad for once when the _Gem_ scraped against the home
dock and the “cruise” was over.
“Well,” said Mollie as they climbed on to the dock, “we surely did have
some excitement, but we didn’t get what we started out for after all.”
“What’s that?” asked Grace, as she tied the ribbon round her candy box
and adjusted her hat at a more becoming angle.
“Ice-cream and a drink of ice water,” said Mollie ruefully. “I’ve just
remembered that I am dying of thirst.”
“Come on around to my house,” Betty invited. Her wrist was lame from
gripping the wheel so hard and she felt it gingerly. “Mother said she
would make a big pitcher of lemonade for us and leave it in the
refrigerator.”
“Whew,” whistled Mollie, taking Betty’s arm and hurrying her forward.
“By any chance did you girls hear what I heard? _Me_ for _it_, Betty
Nelson.”
The girls talked little an their way to Betty’s house, but they thought
a good deal. They were tired and disgruntled, and it seemed to them in
their pessimistic mood that everything they had tried to do that day
had gone wrong. And the climax of it all was their meeting! if it could
be called a meeting! with Percy Falconer. Worst of all, Betty was going
to allow him to call!
With something of this in her mind, Mollie glanced sideways at her chum
and, curiosity getting the better of her discretion, ventured to remark
upon it.
“I wonder what Allen will say,” she said, “when he learns about Percy.”
It was an unfortunate remark, as Betty very soon showed by turning upon
her chum angrily.
“I don’t know that Allen has a right to say anything at all about what
I do,” she said. “And as I don’t intend ever to see Percy Falconer
after to-morrow, I think we had better forget about him. But there,”
she added, bringing herself up short and giving Mollie’s hand a little
conciliatory squeeze, “I didn’t mean to be cross. I’m just kind of mad
about the whole thing! and tired, and hot!!”
“I know,” said Mollie generously. “I guess we all are! tired and hot, I
mean. We will feel better after we have had something cold to drink.”
Betty’s mother had left not only the lemonade but some sandwiches of
chopped nuts and cream cheese. Jubilantly the girls carried these
delicacies out on the front porch and proceeded to devour them without
further delay.
As they ate and drank, their ill-humor vanished and they began to feel
once more like their cheerful, optimistic selves. They even began to
laugh a little about the close shave they had had with Percy and his
friend.
“It was mighty clever work of yours, Betty, swerving around like that,”
Mollie said reminiscently, as she patted the Little Captain’s hand
approvingly. “I’m sure I would have been so scared I’d have gone right
ahead and then there would have been a nasty smash.”
“I do hope the folks don’t hear about it,” worried Grace. “It would
only make them nervous and they might even refuse to let us go out in
the _Gem_ any more.”
“I don’t see how the folks are going to know anything about it,” said
Amy calmly.
“Unless our dear friend Percy blabs it all over town,” added Grace.
“I think we ought to tell the folks,” Betty spoke up suddenly. “I know
they would rather hear about it from us than from any one else. Hello,”
she broke off, as her eye lighted on a newspaper lying on the table,
“this looks like the evening edition. Maybe it has some news of Allen’s
division.”
“My, just listen to her,” yawned Grace. “Allen’s division, indeed. As
though he were the only one we were interested in!!”
But her words were cut short by a startled exclamation from Betty.
“Oh, girls, look here!” she cried. “Look at these names. Oh, I hope it
isn’t true! I hope it isn’t!”