PUSHING OFF
"Oh, Cora! Isn't this perfectly splendid!" exclaimed Bess Robinson.
"Delightful!" chimed in her twin sister, Belle.
"I'm glad you like it," said Cora Kimball, the camp hostess. "I
felt that you would, but one can never be sure--especially of Belle.
Jack said she would fall a prey to that clump of white birches over
there, and would want to paint pictures on the bark. But I fancied
she would take more surely to the pines; they are so strong--and,
like the big boys--always to be depended on. But not a word about
camp now. Something more important is on. My new motor boat has
just arrived!"
"Has it really?" This as a duet.
"And truly," finished Cora with a smile. "Yes, it has, and there is
not a boy on the premises to show me how to run it. Jack expected
to be here, but he isn't. So now I'm going to try it alone. I
never could wait until evening to start my new boat. And isn't it
lovely that you have arrived in time to take the initial run? I
remember you both took the first spin with me in my auto, the
Whirlwind, and now here you are all ready for the trial performance
of the motor boat. Now Belle, don't refuse. There is absolutely no
danger."
"But the water," objected the timid Belle.
"We can all swim," put in her sister, "and you promised, Belle, not
to be nervous this trip. Yes, Cora, I'm all ready. I saw the craft
as we came up. Wasn't it the boat with the new light oak deck and
mahogany gunwale? I am sure it was,"
"Yes, isn't she a beauty? I should have been satisfied with any
sort of a good boat, but mother wanted something really reliable,
and she and Jack did it all before I had a chance to interfere."
"I wonder what your mother will next bestow upon you?" asked Belle
with a laugh. "She has such absolute confidence in you."
"Let us hope it will not be a man; we can't let Cora get married,
whatever else she may do," put in Bess, as she shook the dust from
her motor coat, and prepared to follow Cora, who was already leaving
the camp. Belle, too, started, but one could see that she, though
a motor girl, did not exactly fancy experimenting on the water. It
was but a short distance to the lake's edge, for the camp had been
chosen especially on account of the water advantage.
"There she is! See how she stands out in the clear sunshiny water!
I tell you it is the very prettiest boat on Cedar Lake, and that is
saying something," exclaimed Cora, the proud possessor of the new
motor craft.
"Beautiful," reiterated the Robinson twins.
"But what do you know about running it?" queried Belle.
"Why, I have been studying marine motors in general, and have been
shown about this one in particular," replied Cora. "The man who ran
it up from the freight depot for me gave me a few 'pointers,' as he
called them."
She stepped into the trim craft and affectionately patted the
shining engine.
"'It is much simpler to run than a car, and besides, there isn't so
much to get in your way on the water," Cora went on.
"My!" exclaimed Bess as she stepped in after her hostess. "This is
really--scrumptious!"
"You take the seat in the stern, Belle, and Bess, you may sit here
near me," said Cora, "as I suppose you will be interested in seeing
how it works. Oh! There is the steamer from the train. Hurry!
Perhaps there are folks aboard we know. Let us act at home, and
pretend we have been running motor boats all our lives."
Cora took her place at the engine and before Bess or Belle had
really gotten seated she was turning on the gasoline.
"You see this is the little pipe that feeds the 'gas' from the tank
to the carburetor," she explained. "Now, I just throw in the
switch: that makes the electrical connection: then I have to give
this fly wheel--it's stiff--but I have to swing it around so!
There!" and the wheel "flew" around twice slowly and then began to
revolve very rapidly. "Now we are ready," and the engine started
its regular chug chug.
"How do you steer?" asked Bess anxiously, for the big steamer with
its cargo of summer folks seemed rather near.
"I can steer here," and Cora turned a wheel amidships, "or one may
steer at the bow. Suppose you take the forward wheel Bess, as I
may, have enough to do to look after the engine."
"Very well," acquiesced the girl, "but I hope I make no mistakes."
"Oh you won't. Just turn the wheel the way you want to go. Now
we'll hurry. I want to show off my boat."
Bess took up her place at the steering wheel and turned it so that
the boat started on a clear course. Everything seemed to work
beautifully, and presently Bess was so interested in the gentle
swerving of the craft, as the rudder responded to her slightest
touch, that she, too, thought it very much simpler than motoring on
land.
"There are the Blakes!" suddenly exclaimed Belle. "See, they are
waving to us."
"Yes," answered Cora as she snatched off her cap and fluttered a
response to the folks on the steamer. "Bess, keep clear out. The
landing is just over there! The steamer makes quite a swell."
Bess turned, but she did it too suddenly. A wave from the steamer
caught them broadside, and drenched the girls before they knew what
had happened.
"Oh!" screamed Belle, "--we are running right into the steamer!"
"Bess! Bess!" called Cora. "Turn! I can't connect--"
Shouts from the steamer added to their confusion. Would they be run
down on this, their very first attempt at navigation?
"They are the motor girls!" Cora heard some one on the steamer
shout, and while this much has been told it may be well to acquaint
the reader with further details of the situation. The Motor Girls
were friends whom we have met in the four previous volumes of this
series entitled respectively: "The Motor Girls," "The Motor Girls on
a Tour," "The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach," and "The Motor Girls
Through New England." In each of these volumes we have met Cora
Kimball, the handsome, dashing girl who conquers everything within
reason, but who, herself, is occasionally conquered, both in the
field of sports and in the field of human endeavors. It was she who
had the first automobile, her Whirlwind and while out in it she had
some very trying experiences.
In the first volume she managed to unravel the mystery of the road.
Bess and Bell, the Robinson twins, were with her, as they were again
in the second volume, the story of a strange promise. This promise,
odd as it was, all three girls kept, to the delight and happiness of
little Wren, the crippled child. Next the girls went to Lookout
Beach, where they had plenty of good fun, as well as time enough to
find the runaways, two very interesting young girls, who had
decamped from the "Strawberry patch." It was like a game of hide
and seek, but in the end the motor girls did capture the runaways.
Then in the story "Through New England," it was Cora who was hidden
away by the gypsies, and what she endured, and how she escaped were
assuredly wonderful. There were brothers and friends of course,
Jack Kimball being the most important person of the first variety,
while Walter Pennington and Ed Foster were friends in need and
friends indeed.
And now we find these same girls undertaking a new role--that of
running a motor boat, the gift of Mrs. Kimball to her daughter, for
that mother, in her days of widowhood, had learned how safe it was
to repose confidence in her two children, Cora and Jack.
The camp at Cedar Lake had been taken by Cora and her friends for a
summer vacation on the water, and now, after a day's run from
Chelton, the home town, in their auto, the Flyaway, the Robinson
girls had again joined Cora who had come up the day previous, with a
maid to get the camp to rights.
The steamer was indeed too close! Cora was frantically trying to
turn the auxiliary steering wheel, but Bess in her fright was
turning the more powerful bow wheel in the very direction of danger!
"Oh! Mercy!" shrieked Belle. "We are lost!"
Another wave almost submerged them. The passengers on the steamer
had all run to one side of their boat.
"Turn right!" shouted Cora as she jumped up and fairly jerked from
Bess the forward wheel. "Turn to the right!"