Produced by Sean Pobuda

THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CEDAR LAKE

Or

The Hermit of Fern Island

CHAPTER I

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!"

CHAPTER II

THE HAUNTED ISLE

For some seconds no one seemed to know just what had happened.  The
steamer was clear, and the motor boat was running safely.  Three
very wet girls were thanking their good fortune that the water was
their only damage--and water in the shape of a shower of spray is
not much of a matter to complain of, after you escape a collision.

"What happened?" asked Belle, when she had the courage to uncover
her eyes.

"Bess turned wrong," said Cora.

"I couldn't tell which way to go," put in the frightened girl.  "I
was simply stage-struck.  But what saved us?"

"I jerked the wheel just enough to get a little to one side, and
then the steamer had a chance to turn away," replied Cora.  "I tell
you we had a close shave, but that makes our first trip all the more
interesting.  Bess, can I trust you now to take my place while I
look at that wheel?  The rope may have slipped?"

"Oh, don't do anything," pleaded Belle.  "Call to that boat over
there, and let us have help.  See, they are coming this way."

"Why, it's the boys--our boys!" exclaimed Cora.  "Why have they gone
out without telling me, when they knew I wanted to use my boat?"

In a canoe that looked like a big eel as it slipped over the water
could be seen Jack, Ed and Walter.

"Well!" called Jack.  "I like that!  Where did you get the--ocean
liner, Cora?"

"Don't say anything about the accident," she had a chance to whisper
to the girls before replying to her brother.  "I found my boat tied
up at the dock," she answered gaily.  "Isn't she a beauty?"

"What are you going to call her?" asked Walter.

"The Whirlpool, I guess," replied Cora, "that would go nicely with
my Whirlwind, don't you think?"

"Oh, no, don't," objected Belle.  "I should always feel that we were
going to be--"

"Whirlpooled?" finished Jack.  "Better make her the Petrel, Cora,
for two reasons.  We bought it from Mr. Peters, and she can walk on
the water like the old original sea-fowl.  Just see how she does
saunter along."

"All right.  Petrel will do, but it will be Pet for short," said
Cora as now she allowed the boat to drift a little way from beside
the boys' canoe.

"What was the matter with the steamer folks?" asked Ed.  "Thought I
heard something as we passed."

"Yes, you might have heard them talking about us if your ears had on
their long distance," replied Cora quickly.  "The Blakes are
aboard."

"I saw their trunks at the station," said Jack "and they were tagged
to The Burrow."

"That's the hole in the hill, isn't it?" asked Walter.  "Well, I'm
glad they have come up--the Benny Blakeses.  I like a lot of folks
around here.  It is apt to have a depressing effect upon me if
company is scarce and fishing shy."

"Or weather wet," put in Ed.  "But say, Cora, I'd like to try the
Pet."  He remembered he was in a blue bathing suit, ever the most
appropriate costume for a canoe.  "But I'll wait until later, though
I hate to.  We have, as a matter of fact, an engagement at Far
Island.  Have you heard?"

"No, what?" asked the girls in chorus.

"Just a suspicion yet, but it may be true.  We think--shall we give
it away boys?"

"No; sell it," suggested Jack.  "They sold us on this first trip,
why should we give them anything?"

"Oh, Jack!  You know I expected you to take me out the first time,"
said Cora reproachfully.

"Yes, and you know all about a boat, and start out without giving a
fellow the slightest warning."

"But why didn't you come up when you knew the boat had arrived?"
questioned the sister.

"Because--but that was what Ed was going to give away.  It's a
mysterious secret, and it is situated on Far Island.  So long girls,
I suppose you know how to land."

"Oh, yes indeed," said Cora in spite of the protest that was
trembling on Belle's lips.  "We started out, and we will get back
all right.  Wish you luck in whatever you are after," and she winked
at Bess, who was now beside her at the engine, as Cora had concluded
to guide the boat by the auxiliary steering wheel.

The boys veered off.

"I wonder what they are up to?" asked Cora.  "As soon as we can do
so, without being noticed, I think we will follow them.  There must
have been something important on, when Jack did not wait to take me
out."

"Oh, don't let us go farther out on the lake," begged Belle.  "I am
nervous yet."

"Then suppose we take you in?   Nettie is at the camp, and then Bess
and I can go out to the island.  There was really nothing the matter
with the boat, the mistake was all due to our own nervousness."

"Well, I would feel better not to sail any farther," admitted the,
pretty blond Belle, as she tossed back some of her breeze stray
curls.  "I am subject to sickness on the water, anyhow."

"On still water?" asked Bess archly.  "Well, we will take you in,
Twiny.  And we will then go out.  I want to redeem myself."

"Good for you, Bess," said Cora.  "There is nothing like courage,
unless it be gasoline," and after starting the engine, she turned
the boat toward the shore.  "There are the boys heading for the
other island!" she exclaimed a moment later.

"They are trying to fool us.  I wonder why?" asked Bess.  "See,
Belle.  There are Nettie and Mary an shore--two of the best maids on
the island.  You will be all right with them, won't you, dear?"

"Of course," replied the twin, rather confusedly.  "I don't need
attention."

"But you are tired," put in Cora, "and those girls have not done a
thing since lunch time.  Just command them."

"'Very well.  But do be careful, you two girls.  A bad beginning you
know."

"Oh, don't you worry about us," replied Cora confidently.  "I feel
as if this boat was a top in my hands.  It is so much easier to
handle than an auto.  No gears, differentials or things like that.
Good bye, Belle.  Have supper ready when we return," and she sounded
the small whistle that told of the start again.

"Good bye.  Be careful," cautioned Belle.  Then the two girls headed
the craft for the little island around which they had just seen the
boys disappear.

"I thought the boys looked very serious," said Bess, as she put her
hand on the wheel Beside Cora's.  "I wonder what is wrong?"

"Jack certainly had something very important on when he neglected
me," said his sister.  "I hope there is nothing really wrong.  There
are no people on that island, I believe."

"Then perhaps we had better not land?" suggested Bess.  "It might be
horribly lonely and we might not be able to find the boys."

"Well, when we get there we will be able to judge of all that,"
replied Cora.  "Doesn't the Petrel motor beautifully?"

"And this lake," added Bess.  "I never saw anything like it.  Why
some of those islands are big enough to inhabit."

"Yes, there is one island over there," answered Cora, pointing to
the extreme eastern shore of the water, "and since I have seen it I
am just dying to explore it.  They call it Fern Island, and the
store man tells the most wonderful tales about it.  But we will have
to wait until we all assemble.  When did Hazel say she would come?"

"Tomorrow or next day.  She has to take some special 'exams.'  I am
sorry that girl is so ambitious.  It always interferes with her
vacation."

"Hazel will make her mark some day, if she does not spoil it all by
having someone make it for her--on a flat stone.  But honestly Bess,
I do hope she will come up before the others.  Next to you and Belle
I count more on Hazel Hastings than on anyone else in our party."

"And not a little on her brother Paul?" and Bess laughed in her
teasing way.  "Now Cora, Paul Hastings is acknowledged to be the
most useful boy in all the Chelton set.  He can fix an auto, fix an
electric bell, fix an alarm clock--"

"And no doubt could overhaul a motor boat," finished Cora, as she
turned the Petrel toward land.  "Well, this is Far Island, and I am
sure the boys headed this way.  Let's shout."

Putting her hands to her mouth, funnel fashion, Cora sent out the
shrill yodel known to all of the motor girls and motor boys.  Bess
took up the refrain; but there was no answer.

"If they were ashore wouldn't their boat be about?" asked Bess.  "We
can see all this side of the island, but you said it was too rocky
to land on the other shore."

Cora looked about.  Yes, one edge was all sandy and the other rocks.
If the boys had come ashore they must have done so from the north
side.

"My, what a lot of boats!" exclaimed Bess.  "Cora, just see that
flock," and she pointed to a distant flotilla of various craft
across the lake.

"Yes, and so many canoes, we could hardly tell the boys in that
throng.  Do you suppose they are in that parade?"

"Oh, no.  They had only bathing suits on, and that really looks like
some fleet," replied Bess.  "Yes, see there is their club banner.
My!  I had no idea that Cedar Lake boasted of such style."

"We may expect water picnics every day now," said Cora.  "But just
see that old man in the rowboat towing that pretty canoe.  Do you
suppose he has it for hire?"

"Likely.  But how would anyone hire it out here?  Why not from
shore?" questioned Bess.

"Well, perhaps he is taking it to the dock," and Cora allowed her
boat to touch the island shore.  "At any rate if we are to find the
boys we had better be at it, for I want to start back before that
throng of boats gets in my way.  I feel sure enough, but I like
room."

Both girls stepped ashore as Cora caught the boat hook in the strong
root of a tree and pulled the craft in.  Then she shouted again.

"Jack!  Jack!" she called.  "Isn't it lonely here," she said
suddenly, realizing that while she had expected the boys to be on
the island, they might have gone to any of the other bits of land.

"Yes," said Bess.  "I never felt so far away from everything before.
On an island it is so different from being on real shore!"

"Yes, it is farther out," and Cora laughed at the description.
"Bess, I guess I was mistaken.  The boys do not seem to be here."

"Then do let's go back," pleaded Bess.  "I am actually afraid."

"Of what?  Not those 'jug-er-umms.'  Just hear them.  You would
think the frogs were trying to drive us away from their territory."

"I always did hate the noise they make," declared Bess.  "It sounds
like a dead, dark night.  Why do they croak in the daytime?"

"Night is coming," Cora explained, "and besides, it is so quiet here
they do not have to wait for nightfall.  But listen!  Didn't you
hear those dry leaves rustle?"

"Oh Cora, come!" and Bess pulled at her friend's skirt.  "It may be
a great--snake."

Cora stood and listened.  "No," she said, "that was no snake.  It
sounded like something running."

"Come on, Cora dear," begged Bess, so that Cora was obliged to
agree.  "See, all the boats have gone the other way.  And if
anything happened we might just as well be on this desert island as
on that desert water."

They had not ventured far into the wood, so that it was but a few
steps back to the boat.  Cora loosened the bow line and presently
the engine was chugging away.

"Oh," sighed Bess, "I felt as if something dreadful was going to
happen.  Ever since those gypsies took you, Cora, I am actually
afraid of everything in the country.  It did seem safe on the water,
but in those woods--"

"Now, Bess dear, you are to forget all about the gypsies.  I have
almost done so--that is, I have forgotten all the unpleasant part.
Of course, I occasionally hear from Helka.  Do you want to steer,
Bess?"

"I would rather not," confessed Bess, "for I am actually trembling.
Where do you suppose the boys could have gone?"

"Haven't the least idea, and we have no more time to speculate.
There!  Didn't you hear a strange noise on the island?  I declare,
that store man must be right.  Those islands are haunted!"

"Wasn't that a queer noise!  Oh!  I am so glad we are safe in our
boat," and Bess breathed a sigh of relief.  "I would have died if
that noise happened while we were there."

"But I should like to know what it is, and I will never be satisfied
until I find out," declared Cora.  "That was neither bird nor
beast--it was human."

But the motor boat, girls headed straight for shore--the sun seemed
falling into the lake as they reached the camp to be welcomed by
Belle.  The story of the trip to the island and the disappearance of
the boys was quickly told.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BOYS

"What can have happened to the boys?" murmured Belle. "I am afraid
they are drowned."

"All of them?" and Cora could not repress a smile.  "It would take a
very large sized whale to gobble them all at once, and surely they
could not all have been seized with swimming cramps at the same
moment.  No, Belle, I have no such fear.  But I am going right out
to investigate.  I know Jack would never stay away if he could get
here, especially when he knew this would be your first evening at
the lake.  Why, the boys were just wild to try my boat," and she
threw her motor cape over her shoulders.  "Come on girls, down to
the steamer landing.  There may have been some accident."

Belle and Bess were ready instantly.  Indeed the twins seemed more
alarmed than did Cora, but then they were not used to brothers, and
did not realize how many things may happen and may not happen, to
detain young men on a summer day or even a summer night.

"Oh dear!" sighed Belle, "I have always dreaded the water.  I did
promise mamma and Bess to conquer my nervousness and not make folks
miserable, but now just see how things happen to upset me," and she
was almost in tears.

"Nothing has happened yet, Belle dear," said Cora kindly, "and we
hope nothing will happen.  You see your great mistake comes from
what Jack calls the 'sympathy bug.'  You worry about people before
you know they are in trouble.  I feel certain the boys will be found
safe and sound, but at the same time I would not be so foolhardy as
to trust to dumb luck."

"You are a philosopher, Cora," answered the nervous girl, her tone
showing that she meant to compliment her chum.

"No, merely logical," corrected Cora, as they walked along.  "You
know what marks I always get in logic."

"But it all comes from health," put in Bess.  "Mother says Belle
would be just as sensible as I am if she were as strong."

"Sensible as you are?" and Cora laughed.  Bess had such a candid way
of acknowledging her own good points.  "Why, we have never noticed
it, Bess."

"Oh, you know what I mean.  I simply mean that I do not fuss," and
Bess let her cheeks glow at least two shades deeper.

"Well it is sensible not to fuss, Bess, so we will grant your
point," finished Cora as they stepped on the boardwalk that led to
the boat landing.  "Why, I didn't suppose they would light up with
that moon," she said.  "That's the old watchman over there."

A man was swinging a lantern from the landing.  He held it above his
head, then lowered it, and it was plain he was showing the light to
signal someone on the water.

Cora's heart did give a quickened response to her nerves as she saw
that something must be wrong.  But she said not a word to her
companions.

"What are they after?" asked Belle timidly.

"Probably some fishermen casting their nets for bait," Cora answered
evasively.  "You stay here, while I speak with old Ben."

Bess and Belle complied, although Bess felt she should have been the
one to ask questions.  What if anything had really happened to the
boys!  Jack was Cora's brother.

"Have you seen anything of some boys in a canoe?" Cora asked of the
man with the lantern.  "They set out this afternoon, and have not
yet returned."

"Boys in a canoe?" repeated Ben, in that tantalizing way country
folk have of delaying their answers.

"Yes, my brother and two of his friends went out toward Far
Island--"

"Fern Island?" interrupted the man.

"No, when we last saw them they were going away from Fern and toward
Far Island," said Cora.

"Well, if they're on Fern Island at night I pity them.  There ain't
never been anyone who put up there after dark who wasn't ready to
die of fright, 'ceptin' Jim Peters.  And the old boy hisself
couldn't scare Jim.  Guess he's too chununy with him," and the
waterman chuckled at his joke.

"But you have not heard of any accident?" pressed Cora.

"I saw them young fellers myself.  They was in a green canoe; wasn't
they?"

"Yes," answered Cora eagerly.

"Well, I asked Jim Peters if he had sawed 'em, and he said--but then
you can't never believe Jim."

"What did he say?" excitedly demanded Cora, as Bess and Belle
stepped up to where she was talking.

"He said they had tied their boat up at the far dock, and had gone
on the shore train to the merry-go-'round."

"But they were in their bathing suits!" exclaimed Cora.

"There!  Didn't I tell you not to take any stock in Jim's news!  I
knowed he was fibbin'.  But--say miss.  There's this about Jim.  He
don't ever take the trouble to make up a yam unless he has a motive.
Now I'll bet Jim knows something about them lads."

"Where does this man live?" asked Cora.

"He don't live no place in particular, but in general he stays at
the shanty, when he ain't on the water.  But he's a regular fish.
The young  'uns calls him a fish hawk."

"How could we get to his place?  Do you think he is at the shanty
now?" went on Cora, determined to find out something of the man, for
she had reason to believe that the dock-hand knew what he was
talking about.

"Bless you, child!  It ain't no place for young girls like you to go
to any time, much less at night.  But I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll jest take a look around myself.  I sort of like a girl who
knows how to talk to old Ben without being sassy."

"Thank you very much, Ben, but I really must hurry to trace the
boys.  I suppose you have no police around the island?"

"Wall, there's Constable Hannon.  He is all right to trace a thing
when you tell him where it is, but Tom Hannon hates to think."  Ben
raised the lantern above his head and then, as if satisfied that the
signaling was all finished, he placed the lantern on a hook that
hung over the edge of the dock.

"Oh, Cora," put in Bess, "it is almost eight O'clock.  We must hurry
along."

"I know, Bess dear, but I had to find out all this man knew.  Now I
am satisfied to start for the other end of the lake."

Cora's voice betrayed the emotion she was feeling in spite of her
outward calm.  The matter was now assuming a very serious aspect.

"One thing seems certain," she said to all who were listening, "they
could not all have been drowned.  They were all expert swimmers.
Nor would they go to any merry-go-'round and leave us waiting for
them.  The question now is, what could have detained them?"

"Well, here comes Jim now," said Ben.  "Just you keep quiet, and
I'll pump him."

A man came slouching along the dock.  He had the way of seeming much
younger than he pretended to be--that is he walked with his head
down although his shoulders were straight and broad as those of any
well trained athlete.  The three girls instantly decided that this
man had some strange motive in his manner.  He was shamming, they
thought.

"Hello there, Ben," he called to the dock hand jokingly.  "How's the
tide?"

"Not much tide on this here lake," replied Ben sharply.  "Never
knowed much about them tides, as I've lived at this hole most all my
born days.  But how was business to-day?  That was quite a fleet.
How'd you make out?"

"Oh, same as usual," and Jim Peters looked from under his big hat at
the girls.  "Got company?"

"Yes, a couple friends of the old lady's.  They're camping here."

"Oh," half-growled the man understandingly as he made his way to the
water's edge.

"Where're you goin' now?" asked Ben.

"Up the lake," replied the man.

"Oh, say," spoke Ben as if the thought had just occurred to him,
"where did you say them young fellers went?  The ones who started
out in a canoe?"

Now Cora saw that this was the man who had come down the lake with
the canoe trailing behind his rowboat.  He stepped into the
lantern's light, and both Bess and Belle must also have recognized
him, for they shot a meaning glance at Cora.

"What fellows?" drawled the man in answer to Ben's question.

"The ones I asked you about.  You said they went to the
merry-go-'round.  Did they?"

"Yep," replied the man sententiously.

"Where is that?" asked Cora, unable to restrain herself longer.

"At the Peak," he said vaguely.  Then he stepped into his rowboat
and before anyone could question him further he was pulling up the
lake.

"Well, I'll be hung!  Excuse me ladies, but I am that surprised,"
said Ben apologetically.  "Say, that fellow knows about the kids,
and we've got to follow him.  But how?"

"In my motor boat," proposed Cora quickly.  "We could overtake him
in that before he had any idea we were following him!"

"Have you a motor boat?  Good!  Where is it?  Here, I'll call Dan.
He kin run faster than a deer.  Dan!  Dan!  Dan!" shouted the old
man, and from a nearby rowboat, where, evidently, some boys were
having some sort of a harmless game, Dan appeared.  He was a tall
youth, the sort that seems to grow near the water.  "Hey Dan, I want
you to go where this girl tells you, and fetch her boat," said Ben.
"Quick now, we've got something to do."

"It's up at the new camp," said Cora.  "It's the new boat you must
have seen come up this afternoon."

"Oh, yes'm, I know it, and I know where it is," replied the lad, and
then he was off, his bare feet making no sound.  He called back
through the darkness "Got any oil or gas?"

"Yes," replied Cora, and away he ran.

"Ain't he a regular dock rat," said Ben with something like pride in
his voice.

"I hope we do not lose sight of that man," remarked Cora.

"Oh Jim can't pull as hard as he thinks, especially on a lazy day
when he has been out some," affirmed Ben.  "Now suppose you girls
just sit on this plank while you wait?  'Twon't cost you nothin'."

He dusted off the big plank with his handkerchief, and upon the
board, Cora, Bess and Belle seated themselves.

"I suppose Dan will haul the boat down," said Cora.  "It isn't
locked, but he may not want to start the motor."

"Oh, you can trust to Dan to get her here.  When he isn't a dock rat
he's a canal mule.  There!  Ain't that him?  Yep, there he comes and
he's got her all right," said old Ben proudly.

The boy could now be seen walking along the water's edge, as he
pulled the motor boat by the bow rope.  The girls were quick to
follow Ben to the landing, and there all three, with Ben, got
aboard.

The girls helped Cora light the port, starboard and aft-lights; then
they were ready to start.

"Better let me run her," said the man, "as I know all the spots in
this here lake.  Besides," and he touched the engine almost fondly,
"there ain't nothin' I like better than a boat, unless it's a fish
line."

"This is a very simple motor," explained Cora, showing how readily
the gas could be turned on and how promptly the engine responded to
the spark.

"It's a beauty," agreed Ben, as the "chugchug" answered the first
turn of the flywheel.

Belle and Bess sat in the stem and Cora went forward.  It was a
delightful evening and, but for the urgency of their quest, the
first night sail of the Petrel on Cedar Lake would have been a
perfect success.

"Isn't that a light?" asked Belle, loud enough for Cora to hear.

"Yes.  Ben see, there is a light.  Do you suppose that is on Jim's
boat?" asked Cora.

"Never," replied Ben, "he's too stingy to light up on a moonlight
night when the water's clear.  Of course the law says he must, but
who's goin' to back up the law?"

"Which way are you going?" she questioned further.

"See that track of foam over yonder?  That's Jim's course.  We'll
just pick his trail," said Ben.  "Now there!  Watch him turn!  He's
headin' for Far Island!"

At this Ben throttled down, and, a few minutes later he turned off
the gas and cut out the switch.

"We'll just drift a little to give him a chance to settle," he said.
"We don't want to get too close--it might spoil the game."

Belle and Bess were both too nervous to talk.  It seemed like some
pirate story, that they should be following a strange fisherman to a
wild island in the night, in hopes of finding the boys--possibly
captured boys!

Cora listened eagerly.  She, too, was losing courage--it was so
slight a hope that this man would lead them to where the boys might
be.

"There!  See that!" exclaimed Ben.  "He's talking to some one on
land."

"Yes, I heard Jack's voice," exclaimed Cora.  "Oh, I am so glad they
are safe!"

"But how do we know?" asked Belle, her voice trembling.

"Jack's voice told me," replied Cora, "for if they were in distress
he would not have shouted like that!"

"But he was mad," said Ben, and in this the old fisherman made no
mistake, for the voices of the boys, in angry protest, could be
heard, as they argued with some one, who succeeded in keeping his
part of the conversation silent from the anxious listeners.

CHAPTER IV

GETTING BACK

A few minutes later the rowboat of Jim Peters came out from Far
Island, and in it were the boys!

"If we have to bale her out all the way" Ed was saying, "I can't see
why we should pay you a quarter a piece.  Seems to me we are earning
our fare."

They were now almost alongside the drifting motor boat.

"Jack!  Jack," called Cora.  "We are here, waiting for you.  What
ever happened to you?"

"Well," exclaimed the boys in great surprise.  "Glad to see you
girls--never gladder to see anyone in my life.  Can you take us on?"

"Of course we can," replied Cora. "My!  We thought you were lost."

"Not us, but our boat," answered Walter.  "Some one stole our canoe
and left us on the island, high and dry."

"There," said Ben, "didn't I tell you?"

"Well, you fellows owe me just the same as if you went all the way,"
growled Jim Peters.  "I've lost my night hire waitin' fer you."

"How'd you know about them, Jim?" asked Ben, in a joking sort of
tone.  "Wasn't it luck you happened up this way to-night?"

The other man did not reply.  Cora had stepped down to the seat in
front of the engine where Ben sat.

"Do you think that man stole their canoe?" she asked.

"Hush!  'Taint no use to fight with Jim.  He'd get the best of you
sure, and besides, then he would be your enemy.  Just make a joke of
it, and I'll tell you more later," and Ben prepared to start as soon
as the boys, who were climbing into the motor boat, were ready.

"I'll pay you when we get to land," said Jack to the boatman, "I
have no money in my bathing suit."

"Well, see that you do," said the man in a rough voice.  "I'm not
goin' to leave my work to tow a couple of sports just for the fun of
it."

"Oh you'll get paid all right," Jack assured him, "and so will the
fellow who stole our boat--when we catch him."

"I'll chip in for that," said Walter.  "Never saw such a trick.
Hello Bess, also howdy Belle.   My, isn't it fine to be rescued from
a desert island by three pretty girls?"

"Wallie!  Wallie.  There's a stranger aboard," warned Cora.

"Oh yes, this is Ben--Ben--"

"Just Ben," interrupted the man at the wheel, with a chuckle.

"But he has been so kind," added Cora.  "Only for him we should
never have found out where you were."

"If you hadn't taken us off that old sieve," put in Ed, "I think we
would soon have had to swim back to the island.  We never could have
made the shore in that thing, neither could we swim that distance."

"S'long Jim!" called Ben, as the old rowboat was sent off in the
darkness.

"See, he isn't balin' her now," he told the boys.

"How's that?" all asked in chorus.

"Oh, that's a great boat--leaks to order," replied Ben, as he turned
over the fly wheel and Cora's craft shot swiftly away from the
island.

The boys were too busy talking to the girls, and the latter were too
busy asking questions, to go further into the matter of the leaking
boat, but Cora did not fail to notice that the craft must have
"leaked to order."  "What could that man have intended doing?  Did
he want to sink the boat?" she was wondering.

"Well, if we haven't had a pretty time of it," said Ed.  "First, we
had to go up trees to get out of the way of something--we are not
yet sure whether it was man or beast.  Then when we crawled down,
and made for the shore the canoe was gone clear out of sight."

"Haven't you any idea who took it?" Cora asked.

"Wish we had--I'll wager he would have to sleep out of doors
to-night," threatened Jack.  "It was the meanest trick."

Cora gave Bess the signal to keep still about having seen a canoe at
the back of Jim Peter's rowboat that afternoon.  Cora was convinced
that Ben knew what he was talking about when he warned her to be
careful of Jim Peters.

"But why did you go back to the island?" asked Cora.  "I thought you
were going to spend the afternoon with us girls?"

"We were, then again we couldn't," answered her brother.  "We had a
very important appointment at Far Island."

"Ben, don't you want one of us to run her?" asked Ed.  "We were to
have had a try--"

"Nope.  This here is the best fun I can have, and this boat is a
beauty," replied the old man.  "If I had one that could go like this
and carry so many passengers I'd give up the dock."

"Yes, a boat like this would earn its own living," agreed Jack.
"Run her as long as you like to, Ben.  It gives us a chance--ahem--"

"To sit nearer your sisters," finished Ben, with a sly laugh.

"All's well that ends well," quoted Belle to Ed, for she was
scarcely able yet to draw a free breath--her anxiety had been too
keen.  "I cannot believe that we are all here together again."

"Just pinch me," said Ed laughing, "and if I don't give our war
whoop you may be sure this is not me--I am still on the Robinson
ranch--there, that was an unpremeditated pun; I mean the old
Robinson Crusoe and I forgot that he was great-grandfather to the
present Robinson twins."

"Say, Ed," put in Walter, "what do you say if we buy a houseboat?
This has the camp beaten to a frazzle."

"It's all right on such a night," replied Ed, "but houseboats, I
believe, cost money, and our camp is rented to us for the season.
Oh fickle Wallie!  To fall in love with a motor boat, just because
her name is Pet."

Walter was talking to Cora before Ed had finished speaking to him.
That was Walter's irresistible way with the girls.

"No use talking, sis," said Jack, "this sail was worth being
stranded for.  If you are in no hurry, Ben, suppose we prolong it.
Take us some place where we haven't been.  You know the rounds of
Cedar Lake."

This plan was agreed to, and, though the boys were not dressed as
they would wish to have been, it was evening on the water, and their
jersey suits were not altogether out of place.

"But what I would like to get at," began Ed, not being able to
dismiss the subject, "is who stole our boat?"

"It may have drifted away," suggested Cora wisely.  "There was a
great fleet on the lake to-day, and any small boy might have let
your boat go."

"Well, if I should lay hold of such a chap," declared Jack grimly,
"he will grow up quickly.  He will never be a small boy again."

"Now I'll tell you," offered Ben obligingly.  "There's a lot of
strange things likely to happen to you young 'uns while you're at
this here lake.  So take my advice an' go slow.  Every one here goes
slow, and it's the best way.  If you suspicion a feller don't go at
him.  Just wait and he will walk right into your hands," and Ben
sounded a warning whistle as he turned a point.

"He'll eat out of my hands if I get training him," prophesied Jack.
"But all the same, Ben, I think that's first-rate advice.  It saves
us much trouble and that's the most important consideration.  It
takes time even to polish off such a specimen."

"And when you're done, you've got dirty hands," went on Ben in rough
philosophy.  "All the same, there is them that can't be otherwise
dealt with, and when the time's ripe I'd--help myself.   I know a
man or two I'd like first-rate to get at, and stay at till I'd
finished."

"Then, Ben," spoke Cora, "when you get your man we'll all help you,
and when we get ours you can return the compliment."

Cora had a way of joking that invariably turned out prophetic--and
this case was no exception.

"Well, if there ain't Dan sailin' around!" ex, claimed Ben suddenly.
"He's lookin' fer me.  Hey there, Dan!  What's up?" he cried as he
faced the boat with the brilliant lamp at the stern.

"Everything!" yelled back Dan.  "Come up to the dock!  There's
trouble!"

Ben swung around the timer to gain more speed in a spurt of the
motor.

"It's that Jim Peters, I'll bet," he declared, as they headed for
Center Landing.  "He's there ahead of us.  He cut through the
shallow channel."

Whether Jim Peters had taken leave of his senses or was simply
unreasonably angry, folks were never able to say with certainty.  At
any rate, now, on this evening, the man seemed furious about
something.  No sooner had the motor boat come up to the dock to
allow Ben to land, than Peters turned upon the young fellows he had
been arguing with at the island, and in unmeasured terms spoke
against all gasoline water craft.  He said he couldn't see why the
law allowed them to use the lake, for they made such a racket,
filled the air with vile odors, and scared all the fish.

"You all ought to be arrested and deported!" he stormed.  "The idea
of peaceful folks being bothered with such nuisances!  I'm not going
to stand it if there's a law in the land!  Why the idea!  It's not
right!  I'll--" He stopped for breath.

"Now look here, Jim, you just quit!" said Ben quietly, as the fellow
started off on another tirade, using still stronger language, and
almost boiling over with rage.  "Go easy," advised Ben.  "There's
that friend of yours, Tony Jones, comin'.  Take a jab at him for a
change."

As Ben got out, Jones sauntered along, and it was easy to see that,
personally, he was quite a contrast to Jim.  The situation seemed
somewhat relieved.

"It's all right now," spoke Cora in a low voice, and with an easier
air.  "Let's go."  With pleasant words for Ben and Dan she and her
friends prepared to start off again.  Walter gave the flywheel a few
vigorous turns, but there was only a sort of apologetic sigh from
the motor.

"Prime it a bit," suggested Ed.

With gasoline from a small oil can, Walter injected some of the
fluid into the cylinder through the pet cock.

"Now for it!" he exclaimed.  "Cross your fingers everybody," and
once more he did the street-piano act, as Ed termed it.  The engine
only sighed gently.

Walter gave a quick glance over his shoulder toward the bow.

"Is that forward switch in?" he asked a bit sharply.

"Oh!" exclaimed Cora, "I accidentally pulled it out when I removed
the bulkhead to look at the battery connections.  There," she added
after a quick motion, "it's in, Walter."

"Now for it!  Hold your breaths," ordered the engineer.  There was a
sudden motion to the wheel, a whizzing buzz, a churning of the water
under the stern and the boat moved away.

"We'll have to have a regular schedule--gasoline, switch,
ground-wire, pet-cocks primed--oil cups up, and all that sort of
thing," murmured Cora as they glided swiftly onward.  "I'll print it
on a card and hang it near the engine."

"Thanks," whispered Walter, as he took the wheel.  "Where to?" he
asked.

"The bath house," suggested Ed.  "Our togs are there."

Gracefully the craft approached the group of bath houses, whence the
boys had started in their canoe that afternoon.  But no lights
gleamed out to welcome the returning ones.

"My word!" exclaimed Walter a bit dubiously, "our togs are likely
locked up in the safe, and here we are, forty miles from the pile of
ready-to wear habiliments that hide behind Jack's trunk!  Eh, what?"

"Sure thing!" agreed Ed with a sigh.

"Oh, never mind," consoled Cora.  "Come over with us for a while,
anyhow, if only to report progress."

CHAPTER V

A MAN IN THE SHADOW

When the engine had been carefully covered, on arrival at the camp
dock, and the boat securely tied up for the night, the party were
all literally shaking hands in gratitude for the rescue.   It was
only a short distance along the shore path to where the lads
"bunked," but the young men shivered during the trip.  The girls
thought of their own coats and promptly offered them, for Walter, Ed
and Jack were really suffering in their bathing suits.

"But we have heavy dresses on," insisted Cora, "and really Jack it
is cool.  Please take our coats," for her brother had objected.

"Well, if you insist," replied Jack, "but it seems to me we have had
more than our share of bad luck for one day.  First our boat is
stolen, then our clothes are locked up.  Who would think that that
old boathouse man would go to bed so early."

"I am sure you are perfectly welcome to our coats," insisted Belle,
as she and her sister divested themselves of their long automobile
garments, "and they will look--"

"Lovely on us," put in Walter.  "Let me have the blue one, please.
It is so becoming."

Jack took Cora's heavy linen, Ed accepted the brown that Bess had
worn, while Walter got the blue.

"Not so bad," said Jack, thrusting his hands deep into the patch
pockets.  "Don't know but what I'll get one like this, Cora."

"And I rather like the empire effect," said Ed turning around so
that all, might admire the short-waisted coat he wore.  "This is the
Roman empire I believe, Bess; is it not?"

"No, the first Empire," corrected the girl.  "My but you do look
nice!  You have a wonderful--outline."

"Yes, my nurse always complimented me on my outline.  But do behold
Wallie!  Isn't he a peach?"

"He's a picture girl," declared Cora laughing.  "Well, it is a good
thing that we girls all wore coats when we went on the rescuing
expedition.  But say boys, what do you think was the trouble at the
wharf?  Ben seemed quite excited."

"I didn't like the looks of the fellow who offered us the boat
ride," commented Ed.  "And the queer part of it was, how did he know
we were on the island?"

"And then his boat leaked and stopped.  I'll bet his game was to
make us fear drowning, and then save us at so much more per save.
Like the philosopher and the ferryman, don't you know?"

"What philosopher?" asked Bess innocently.

"Oh, that old friend of mine who went to sea with his knowledge.
Don't you remember?"

"I never heard of him," declared Bess falling into the trap.

"Then let me tell you," and Ed slipped his arm within hers as they
walked along toward Cora's camp.  "There was once a boatman and at
the same time there was a philosopher.  The former took the latter
to sea, or to cross a small body of water, it doesn't really matter.
All the way as they sailed the philosopher would say: 'Did you ever
study astronomy?'  The ferryman had not.  'Then half your life is
gone,' said the philosopher.  'Did you ever study philosophy?  No?
Then another quarter of your life is gone.'  And so on he went,
Belle dear," continued Ed, "until suddenly the boatman interrupted
him with: 'Say, did you ever study swimming?'  And the philosopher
admitted that he had not.  'Then,' said the boatman, 'the whole of
your life is gone for this boat is sinking!'  So you see, Belle, our
boatman might have given us that little fairy story and charged
accordingly."

"Yes, indeed!" put in Jack.  "I think it was the luckiest thing that
you girls came along.  And Ben!  We must give Ben a banquet or
something fit."

"Ben is a great friend of mine," declared Cora.  "I feel we would
all have gone astray but for him.  We girls would never have known
enough--"

Then she stopped.  She had no idea of telling the boys that they had
followed Jim Peters with the hope of finding the missing ones
whither he would lead them.  Bess and Belle also had taken pains not
to betray their story to the boys, for, as Cora said, Jim Peters was
not a man to quarrel with, and the stolen boat was not a matter to
joke about.

"Here comes Nettie!" exclaimed Belle.  "I wonder what's her hurry."

"You've got company, miss," the maid said as she came up to the
party walking toward the camp.  "Miss Hasting and her brother have
been waiting all evening."

"Hazel and Paul!" exclaimed Cora, almost running to the bungalow.
"Oh, isn't that splendid!"

"And us in these!" wailed Walter.  "Do you think Hazel will like me
in baby blue?"

The boys really did look funny in the girls' long coats, but it all
added to the merry-making.  Paul Hastings was waiting outside the
bungalow.  He stood where the porch light fell upon him, and the
girls all secretly agreed that he had grown handsomer since they had
last seen him.  Hazel, too, looked very attractive in her plain blue
dress, with its turn-over collar and Windsor tie.

"What a pleasant surprise!  We were afraid you would not come for
some days Hazel!" said Cora in greeting.

"Oh, Paul had to come up here.  Of course he has taken a position."

"What did I tell you!" cried Jack, folding the cloak about him in
dramatic style.  "Paul Hastings for the enterprise.  Cedar Lake is
the field; eh, Paul?"

"Well, I had a fine offer," said Paul modestly.  "And I have been
wanting to get out this way.  They say there are all sorts of things
to do in this locality."

"Looking for work!  What do you think of that!  Why, Paul dear, we
are looking for a camp cook.  Wallie nearly poisoned us on pancakes
today," said Ed, "and if you would accept--"

"Come in doors," interrupted Cora.  "We have had rather a strenuous
afternoon, and I am almost tired.  How did you get up from the
train?  Or did you come by boat?" she asked the new arrivals.

"A fellow rowed us up--"

"Yes and charged us fifty cents each," interrupted Hazel.  "Wasn't
that outrageous!"

"Some one like Jim Peters, I'll bet," said Ed.  "But as Cora
advised, let's go in doors.  We really haven't dined!"

"Oh! you poor boys," cried Belle.  "We almost forgot that you were
stranded.  Let me help Nettie fix up something."

"Yes, do.  Fix up a lot of something," urged Jack.  "That's the way
I feel about it.  But do we dine in these?"

By this time Hazel and Paul saw the queer attire of the three young
men.  Then a part of the situation was explained.  The bungalow was
one of those roomy affairs, built with a clear idea of affording
every summer comfort.  Cora was to be the hostess, and with her was
the trusted maid, Nettie.  There the girls were to visit as they
chose, while the boys had taken a camp for themselves near the
fishing grounds of the big lake.

"Now, make that coffee strong, girls," called Jack as the odor of
the beverage came from the kitchen.  "We are almost, if not quite,
frozen."

He cuddled up on a big couch and threatened to do damage to Cora's
pretty cloak.

"There's someone on the porch," suddenly whispered Bess, for a step
sounded, so soft and stealthy, that she imagined someone was trying
to look in the window.

"Yes, I heard it," said Ed, getting up and going to the door.  A man
stood in the shadow, stepping out quickly at the sight of the youth.

"I came for my money," he muttered.  "You fellers ain't got no right
to try to do me that way."

"Who tried to do you?" answered Ed, in no pleasant tones.  "See
here, Peters!  This is not our camp, and we don't carry money in our
bathing suits as we told you before.  If you can't wait until
to-morrow for the seventy-five cents you know what you can do."

"Oh I'll give it to you, Ed," said Cora, fearful that the man might
become abusive.  "I have plenty of small change."

She went into her room and got her purse.  It was a pretty little
affair, too frail to have been brought to camp, and too good to have
left in the locked-up Chelton house.  As she went back to Ed she
held out the purse.  "Here," she said, "take it and help yourself.
My coffee will boil over."

Ed and Peters were standing near the edge of the porch.  As Ed put
his hand out to take Cora's purse it fell over the rail.

"Well," he exclaimed, "that's too bad.  I must get a match."

At this Ed stepped to the door to ask for a box, while Peters
hurried down the steps to look for the missing trinket.  When Ed
came back with a light Peters was looking industriously for the
purse, but declared he had not seen it.

"Now see here, Peters," cried Ed angrily.  "You have picked up that
purse, and I want you to hand it right over here," and Ed dropped
the cloak from his shoulders.  "If you don't I'll teach you a
lesson."

"Oh, you will, eh?" sneered the man.  "Well you'd better get at it,
kid," and with that he struck Ed a tantalizing blow on the cheek.

Ed clutched the man by the arm.  By this time the confusion had been
heard within doors, and the other boys hurried out.

"What's up?" asked Jack, just as Ed, with all his strength, almost
bent the older man over backward.

Jim Peters was fairly roaring now.  He was strong, but this young
giant was a surprise to him, and after the way of the cowardly
class, as soon as he found out he would be bested he "quit," and
begged off.

"Hand me back that purse," demanded Ed.  "I know you've got it as
well as if I had seen you take it."

"What's that over there?" snarled Peters, pointing to something
bright in the grass.

Ed picked it up.  It was the purse, but it was empty.  Ed's
exclamation told them that.

"My ring," cried Cora.  "I had my ring--oh no.  I forgot--that was
not the purse," and Cora went in doors, presently returning with
some small coins.  "Here, Ed," she said, her voice trembling.  "Do
pay that man, and let him go.  I--I am so frightened!"

"Cora," whispered Bess, "was your ring in that purse?"

"Hush," cautioned the other girl.  "Let us try to make things
brighter.  Since that man sailed down the lake to-day with our boys'
canoe we have had nothing but mishaps.  Now let him go.  I'll manage
to reckon with him without endangering the life of anyone.  He's too
desperate a character to deal with in the ordinary way.  Remember
what Ben told us."

CHAPTER VI

CORA EXPLOITING

There had been three delightful days at Camp Cozy.  Cora managed
most of the delight, with the able assistance of Belle and Bess,
while Hazel did much toward discovering things that she declared all
the girls ought to know, for Hazel's happiness was ever in obtaining
knowledge.

The boys had almost lost hope of getting back their canoe.  They had
searched the lake from shore to shore, offered rewards and had gone
through the rest of the lost formula, but the boat was not returned.

Cora kept to herself her suspicions about Jim Peters.  She also said
nothing of the ring that was in the purse when it left her hands,
but not in it when the purse was returned to her.

It was a splendid morning for a trip on Cedar Lake, and although
Belle and Hazel had planned a trip to the woods, Cora and Bess were
going out in the Petrel.

Passing Center Landing, Cora called a pleasant good morning to Ben,
who sat on the end string piece, his feet aiming at the water and
his broad brimmed hat caught on halo fashion at the back of his
neck.

"Oh, I must ask him something," said Cora, suddenly turning her boat
toward the wharf.  She drew near enough to speak quietly.

"Ben," she said, "where is that shanty you told me about--Jim
Peter's place?"

"Lands sake miss! you ain't goin' there?" asked the man in some
alarm.

"Why not?" demanded Cora.  "Can't I take care of myself in broad
daylight?"

"But you don't know how ugly that feller can be," insisted Ben.  "I
tell you miss, I'd give him plenty of room, if I war you."

"Don't go," urged Bess.

"But, Ben," argued Cora, "I am afraid you have all let Jim Peters
bully you.  I am going to try him another way.  Where does he live?"

"Well a hour ago he went up the lake.  He goes up there every
mornin' regular.  Like as if he had some important business on the
island.  When I asked him about it he said there was a fellow who
had some dangerous disease, and was campin' out there, and Jim
allowed that he had to fetch him things."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Cora.  "That's a queer story for a man like
Peters.  But I'm going to his shack first, even if he is not at
home.  It would suit me just as well to find him out on my first
visit."

"But that young feller who lives with him?  He's just as sassy as
Jim, when he's around the shack.  Of course he don't stay there
always, as Jim does."

"Who is he?" questioned Cora. "I hadn't heard of such a person."

"Oh, he gives the name of Jones but it don't fit him fer a cent.  I
wouldn't be surprised if his real name was Macaroni or even Noodles.
He's foreign, sure."

Cora laughed.  "And he's young, you say?"

"A lot younger than Jim, but he could be that and yet not be very
young, fer I guess Jim has lost track of time," replied Ben.  "Yes,
Jones is a swell, all right."

"But the shack?  Where is it?  I must be off," insisted Cora.

"It's quite a trip down the lake.  Then you come to a point.  Go to
the left of the point, and when you come to a place where the
willows dip into the lake, get off there.  The shack is straight
back in the deepest clump of buttonball trees."

"All right Ben, and thank you," said Cora as she started up the
motor.  "I feel like exploring this morning, and your directions
sound interesting.  I will come back this way to show you that I am
safe and sound," and with that she sheered off.

"I hope it will be all right," faltered Bess.  "Cora, are you never
afraid to risk such things?"

"What is there to risk?  The land is public, and we have as much
right to follow that track as has Jim Peters or Mr. Jones.  I wonder
what Mr. Jones is like?"

"Maybe he would be very nice--a complete surprise," ventured Bess,
at which remark Cora laughed merrily.

"You little romancer!  Do you imagine that anyone very nice would
chum in with Jim Peters?  Isn't there something in your book about
birds of the same quills?"

"It's aigrettes, in my book," retorted Bess.  "But it all applies to
the same sort of birds.  Just the same, I am interested in Mr.
Jones."

"I fancy perhaps that we are," said Cora.  "But there is the point
Ben spoke of.  We are to turn to the left."

Gracefully as a human thing, the boat curved around and made its
path through the narrow part of the lake.

"And there are the willows," announced Bess, as she saw the great
green giants dipped into the water's surface.

"Yes.  I thought it would be much farther on.  But this is an ideal
spot for hiding.  One could scarcely be found here without a
megaphone."

"Hear our voices echo," remarked Bess.  "An echo always makes me
feel desolate."

"Don't you like to hear your own voice?" asked Cora lightly.  "I
rather fancy listening to mine.  An echo was always a delight to
me."

"There's a man sitting under that tree!" almost gasped Bess.

"So there is, and I am glad of it.  He will be able to direct us.  I
shouldn't be surprised if he were Mr. Jones," said Cora turning the
Petrel to shore.

Under a big willow, in a sort of natural basket seat, formed by the
uncovered roots of the big trees, a man sat, and as the boat grazed
the shore, he looked up from some papers he held in his hands.  Cora
could see that he was very dark, and had that almost uncomfortable
manner of affecting extreme politeness peculiar to foreigners of
certain classes, for, as she spoke to him, he arose, slid the paper
into his pocket, and bowed most profusely.

"I am looking for the cabin of Mr. Peters," said Cora, stepping
ashore toward the tree.  "Can you direct me to it?"

"The cabin of Mr. Peters?" and when the man spoke the foreign
suspicion was confirmed.  "Why, who might Mr. Peters be?"

"Jim Peters; don't you know him?" asked Cora determined not to be
thrown off the track.  "He lives just in here--I should think in
that grove--"

"Oh, my dear miss no!  You are mistaken.  No one lives around here.
I am simply a rustic, looking about.  But Jim Peters?"

"Are you not Mr. Jones?" blurted out Cora.

In spite of himself the man started.

"Mr. Jones?" he repeated.  "Well, that name will do as well as any
other.  But allow me to tie your boat.  Then I will take pleasure in
showing you one of the prettiest strips of land this side of
Naples."

"Oh, thank you.  I have secured it," said Cora.  "But I would like
to explore this island."

Bess tugged at Cora's elbow.  "Don't go too far.  I am afraid of
that man," she said in a whisper.

"Were you drawing as we came up?" Cora asked the stranger.  "This is
an ideal spot for sketching."

"Yes, I was drawing," he replied.

"Couldn't we see your picture?" asked Cora.  "I do so love an
outline."

"Oh, indeed it is not worth looking at.  I must show you something
when I have what will be worth while.  This is only a bare idea."

"Well," said Cora starting off through the wood, "I must look for a
cabin, or something like it.  I have particular business with Jim
Peters."

"But you will only hurt your feet miss," objected the man.  "Allow
me to show you the island," and he bowed again.  "Such wild swamp
flowers I have never seen.  It is the everglades, and well worth the
short journey."

There was something about his insistent civility that betokened a
set purpose, and since Ben (what a wonder Ben was) had told Cora
that a man named Jones "hung out" with Jim Peters, Cora instantly
guessed that this was the man, and that he was determined to keep
her away from the shack.  The situation gave zest to her purpose.
Bess was fairly quaking as Cora could see, but what danger could
there be in insisting upon finding that shack?

"I have only a short time to be out," objected Cora, "and perhaps
some other time I will come to see your everglade.  Come, Bess, I
see a path this way, and I fancy if we follow it we will find an end
to the path," she concluded.

"But may I not have the pleasure of your name?" the man called after
her.  "Perhaps we might meet--"

"Don't," whispered Bess.  "Pretend you did not hear him."

"Oh, just see those flag lilies!" Cora called to Bess, covering the
man's question without answering it.  "Let us get some."

"Oh, aren't they beautiful!" replied Bess, in a strained voice.  "I
certainly must secure some of those."

They hurried away from the dark-browed man.  He took his hand out of
his pocket and upon the smallest finger his eyes rested.  He sneered
as he looked at a diamond ring that glittered on that slim brown
finger.

"Foolish maid," he said aloud, and then the web of a strange force
threw its invisible yet unbreakable chains over the summer life of
Cora Kimball.

CHAPTER VII

DEEP IN THE DARK WOOD

"Cora, dear, please do not go any farther.  Somehow I am afraid that
man will follow us."

"Why, Bess!  I thought you were going to be interested in Mr.
Jones," and Cora stooped to pick up a wonderful clump of flag
lilies.

"Jones!  How could he be a Jones?  He's a Spaniard."

"I thought so myself, Bess.  But we do not have to plant his family
tree.  Now don't be a baby, girlie," and Cora squeezed the plump
hand that hung so close to her own.  "Let us get to the shack, and
see if the boys' boat is about there.  I am determined to run down
Jim Peters."

Bess sighed. When Cora was determined!  But the man had left the
water's edge.

"Cora, see!" said Bess.  "He is getting into a boat!"

"Yes and the boat belongs to Peters.  There!  He is surely the one
who helps Jim out in all his affairs.  Now we may seek the shack in
safety," said Cora, as she watched the man at the water's edge push
off.  "I know the shack is over there, for I smell smoke in that
direction.  But we will turn the other way until he has cleared
off," finished Cora as she and Bess stepped lightly over the dainty
ferns that nestled in the damp earth.

"He is quite a boatman," remarked Bess, watching the man ply his
oars, and make rapid progress up the lake.

"Yes, he must have been brought up near the water," replied Cora.
"They say such skill as that is not accomplished on dry land.  Jack
always declared he could tell a fellow at college who had ever been
near the water when a lad.  They take to it like a duck."

"You can easily see that he is a foreigner," went on Bess with her
speculations.  "He must either be an Italian or a Spaniard."

"Now we may turn up the path.  Yes this is a path, for everything is
trodden down on it," declared Cora.  "I hope the hut will not be too
deep in the wood."

"We won't go if it is," objected Bess.  "I don't fancy being taken
captive by any wild woods clan."

"There," exclaimed Cora.  "I just caught sight--of--it's a woman's
skirt!"

"Yes, and there is a woman in it," added Bess.  "See, here she
comes."

"No, I don't think she does.  I think she is standing still.  We
must have frightened her."

"What a looking--woman!"

"Great proportions," described Cora.  "I guess wherever she lives
they must feed her well."

Cora led the way, and Bess timidly followed.

"Don't go too near," whispered the latter.

"Why, she cannot eat us," replied Cora, smiling over her shoulder to
the timid one.

"Well, what do you want?" roared the woman, as soon as she could be
heard by the young ladies.

"We are looking for Jim Peter's shack," replied Cora bravely.  "I
have been sent here to speak with him."

"Have, eh?  Well go ahead.  Speak with me.  I'm Mrs. Jim Peters,"
said the woman with a sneer.

"My business is with him," again spoke Cora, not in the least
frightened by the voice which she knew was made coarser just to
scare her.

"Well, he don't have no business that ain't mine," said the woman,
"'specially with young 'uns like you, so you kin just clear off here
before I--"

"Come on Cora," begged Bess.  "I am shaking from head to foot."

"All right, dear," replied Cora, in a voice for Bess alone.  "But,
Mrs. Peters, can you tell me when your husband will be about here?
I have some work to do on a boat and I understand he does that sort
of thing."

The woman's face changed.  "If that's what you want I'll tell him.
You see it is always best to let the woman know first, fer Jim does
do some foolish things.  But just now he's got one boat to do?"

"I wonder if he might have a canoe to sell?" interrupted Cora, as
the thought of thus trapping the woman occurred to her.

"He will have one in a few days," the other 'answered.  "But it has
to be fixed up."

"Could I see it?" asked Cora. "I may not be able to get over here
again."

"Well, the shack is locked and I couldn't show it to you, but when
Jim comes I'll tell him.  Who will I say?"

Cora hesitated.  "I hardly think it will be worth while really to
order it," she said, "as I must have my brother look it over.  I
have a motor boat."

"I heard it chuggin' and I thought that lazy Tony had got a new way
of wastin' his time.  Tony is all right at writin' letters but he's
a lazy bones else ways."

"Who's Tony?" asked Cora as if indifferently.

"He's Jim's side partner.  Say, girl, I'll just tell you.  I came up
here a few weeks ago from a newspaper advertisement.  I never knowed
Jim Peters before, but if them two fellers think I'm goin' to cook
in that hut and never go no place off this dock they're foolin'
themselves.  They don't know all about Kate Simpson."

Both girls were utterly surprised by her change of manner.  Cora was
quick to take advantage of it.

"You are quite right," she said.  "This is no place for a lone
woman, and some day when I have my brother along I will fetch my
boat, and show you the big islands about here.  It would do you good
to get out in the clear--away from these dense woods."

"That it would, and I'm obliged to you miss," said the woman while
Bess fairly gasped.  "I want to go to one island--Fern Island they
call it.  Have you ever been there?"

"I know where it is," replied Cora, wondering what the woman's
interest in that place might be.  "I have been all around it."

"They say it's haunted," and the woman laughed.  "It's a great game
to put a haunt on a place to keep others off."

"Well, some day when you can leave your work, I'll take you over
there," and Cora meant it, for she had not the slightest fear,
either of the woman or her rough ways.

Besides, she felt instinctively that the woman's help would be
valuable in the possible recovery of her ring and of the lost canoe.

"I'll be goin' back to the shackt fer if Jim comes along held raise
a row fer me talkin' to strangers.  You'd think I was looney the way
he watches me."

"And is he a stranger to you?"

"Well, to tell the truth my mother and Jim's was cousins, but I
never knowed him to be such a poor character as he is, or I'd never
have come up here.  But I don't have to stay all summer,"' she
finished significantly.

"Well, good-bye, and I'll see you soon again," said Cora turning
toward her boat.

"Good-bye, miss, but say," and she half whispered, "is that girl
dumb?"

Cora burst out laughing.  Bess a mute!

"No indeed, but she always lets me do the talking," answered Cora
with a sty look at the blushing Bess.

"She has good sense, fer you know how to do it," declared Kate
Simpson.

They could hear her bend the brush as she passed up the narrow way.

"What a queer creature," remarked Bess, when she felt that it was
safe to try her voice.

"She is queer, but I think she knows a lot about things of interest
to us.  What did you think of her remark about Fern Island?  To that
pretty little spot we will make our next voyage," declared Cora,
pulling on her thick gloves and taking her place in front of the
motor.  "Turn out into the open lake," she told Bess as they started
off.  "We will make a quick run and get back to the bungalow before
the others have done the marketing.  I am glad it is not our turn to
get the lunch for I want to make a trip to Fern Island directly
after we have had a bite.  Seems to me," and she increased the speed
of the engine a little, "it takes more time to get a meal at camp
than it does at home.  The simple life certainly has its own
peculiar complications."

"Oh, there comes that man back!  I am so glad we are away from that
place," exclaimed Bess, as the boat of Jim Peters, with the smiling
foreigner called "Jones" floated by.

CHAPTER VIII

THE HAUNT OF FERN ISLAND

The four motor girls started out in the Petrel.  Never had the lake
seemed so beautiful, nor had the sky appeared a deeper, truer blue.
The pretty Placid lake was dotted all over with summer craft, the
sound of the motor boat being almost constant in its echoing,
"cut-a-cuta" against the wonderful green hills that banked shore
and, island.

Hazel was steering, and of course Cora was running the engine.  The
pennant waved gaily from the bow of the boat, and of the many colors
afloat it seemed that those chosen by the motor girls shone out most
brilliantly on the glistening, silvery waters.

"I'm not a bit afraid now," admitted Belle, "I do think it is all a
matter of getting used to the water.  I thought I should never
breathe again after that first day we went out."

"Yes," said Cora, "the water has a peculiar fascination when one is
accustomed to it, and I am sure Belle will want to live on a
houseboat before we break camp.  There go the boys!  What a fine
motor boat!"

"Yes," said Hazel, "that's one from Paul's garage.  Paul promised
Jack he would speak to Mr. Breslin, the owner, about letting it out
for the summer, as the Breslin family is not coming out here until
later.  It's the Peter-Pan, and the fastest boat on the lake."

"See them go!  I guess they don't see us,"' remarked Belle.

"I am glad they do not," Cora said, "for I want to do some
exploring, and if the boys came along they would be sure to have
other plans for us.  Now, Hazel, run in there.  That is Fern
Island."

"Oh, there's a canoe!" exclaimed Belle.  "See! and a girl is
paddling.  What a queer looking girl!"

"Isn't she!" agreed Bess.  "Why she has on a man's hat!"

"She sees that we are watching her.  Look how she is hurrying off,"
remarked Cora.  "I wonder how far this cove goes in?"

"We had better not try to find out," cautioned Belle.  "I think we
have had enough of happenings around here.  This is where the boy's
boat was stolen from; isn't it?"

"No, it was over there, but I guess we will put in at the front of
the island, as there is no telling how deep the cove is," said Cora.
"But see that girl go!  Why she's actually gone!  Where can she have
disappeared to?"

"This ought to be called the 'disappearing' land," suggested Hazel.
"I was sure that little canoe was directly in front of us, but now
it is out of sight."

"Maybe that is the 'Haunt Girl of Fern Island,'" ventured Cora with
a laugh.  "I got a pretty good look at her, and I am willing to say
she looked neither like a summer girl nor a winter girl--that is,
one who might live here the year around.  But just what sort of girl
she might be I shouldn't like to speculate.  Her hair got loose as
she hurried, and she reminded me of some wild water bird."

"Be careful getting out," Belle cautioned Bess.  "This new boat is
new to slipperiness."

"Oh, I will get hold of a tree branch," Bess replied.  "Then, if the
boat drifts out, I can swing to safety."

All were ashore but Bess, and as such things often happen when they
are looked for, the Petrel did careen from the waves of a passing
launch, and just as Bess grasped an overhead willow branch, the boat
swung out and she sprang in.  Everybody laughed, but Bess lost her
breath, a condition she disliked because it always added to the deep
color of her plump cheeks.

"There!" cried Belle.  "Didn't I tell you?"

"I wish that next time, Twin, you would leave me to guess!"
exclaimed the other twin, rather pettishly.

"Isn't this perfectly delightful!" exclaimed Hazel, running over the
soft earth where ferns were matted, and wild flowers grew tangled in
their efforts for freedom.  "I never saw such dainty little flowers!
Oh! they are sabatial I have seen them in Massachusetts," and she
fell to gathering the small pink blooms that rival the wild rose in
shade and perfume.

"Here are the Maiden Hair ferns," called Cora.  "No wonder they call
this Fern Island."

"Let us see how many varieties of fern we can gather," suggested
Belle.  "I have ferns pressed since last year, and they look so
pretty on picture mats."

At this the girls became interested in the number of ferns
gatherable.  Belle went one way, Bess another, and so on, until each
had to call to make another hear her.

Cora ran along fearlessly.   She was diving very deep into the ferny
woods, and she was intent on coming out first, if it were only in a
race to get ferns.

Suddenly she stopped!

What was that sound?

Surely it was some one running, and it was none of the girls!

Standing erect, listening with her nerves as well as with her ears,
Cora waited.  That running or rustling through the leaves was very
close by.  Should she call the girls?

But before she could answer herself, she saw something dart across a
big rock that was caressed by a great maple tree that grew over it.

"Oh!" she screamed involuntarily.  Then she saw what it was.  A man,
a wild looking man, with long hair and a bushy beard.

He had stopped just long enough to look in the direction of Cora.
She saw him distinctly.  Oh! if he should run toward Bess or Belle!
Hazel would not be so easily alarmed but surely this was a wild man
if ever there was such a creature.

"That is the ghost of Fern Island," Cora concluded.  "I must get
back to the girls."

She turned and hurried in the direction from which she had heard
voices.  "If they have not seen him," she reflected, "I will not say
anything until we get back to camp."

"I have ten different kinds of ferns," suddenly called Belle, in a
voice which plainly said that no wild man had crossed her path.

"I've got eight," said Hazel.  "How many have you, Cora?"

Cora glanced at her empty hands.  She had dropped her ferns.

"I have tossed away mine.  I was afraid of black spiders," she said
evasively.

"Isn't that too bad," wailed Bess, "and none of us picked any maiden
hair because we thought you had it.  Let us go and get some."

"Oh, I think we had best not this time," said Cora quickly.  "I
really want to get to the post office landing before the mail goes
out.  We can come another time when I have something to kill spiders
with.  I never saw such huge black fellows as there are around
here."  This was no shading of the truth, for indeed the spiders
around Cedar Lake did grow like 'turtles', Jack had declared.

"Oh, all right," agreed Belle. "But this is the most delightful
island and I am coming out here again.  I hope the boys will come
along, for there are such great bushes of huckleberries over there
that we simply couldn't climb to them alone."'

"We will invite them next time," said Cora, and when she turned over
the fly wheel of her boat her hands that had held the ferns were
still trembling.  She looked uneasily at the shore as they darted
off.

"What's the matter, Cora?" asked Hazel.  "You look as if you had
seen the ghost of Fern Island."

"I have," said Cora, but the girls thought she had only agreed with
Hazel to avoid disagreeing.

"What boat is that?" asked Bess a moment later, looking at a small
rowing craft just leaving the other side of the island.

"It's Jim Peters'" replied Cora, "we were lucky to get back into
ours before he saw it.  I wouldn't wonder but what he might like to
take a motor boat ride in the Petrel."

"Do you suppose he really would steal a boat?" exclaimed Belle.

"He might like to try a motor, I said," replied Cora.  "They say
that Jim Peters tries everything on Cedar Lake, even to running a
shooting gallery.  But see!  He is reading a letter!  Where ever did
he get a letter on this barren island?"

"Maybe he carries the mail for the ghost," said Hazel, with a laugh.

CHAPTER IX

JACK AND CORA

"Cora, where is your ring?"

The sister looked at her finger.  "Oh Jack," she replied, "I will
get it--but not just now.  Why?"

"I thought you always wore that ring when you put on your frills,
and I haven't seen you so dressed up since you came to camp.
Somehow, Cora, I feared you might have lost it."

"I did," she said simply.

"Your new diamond!"

"Yes, but I feel sure of finding it.  Now, Jackie dear, please don't
cross question me.  I shouldn't have taken it off, but I did, so and
that is how I came to lose it.  But I want to tell you something
while we are alone.  I saw the ghost of Fern Island to-day."

"Nonsense!  A ghost?" sneered Jack.  "Why, Cora, if the other girls
said that I should laugh at them."

"Well I want to tell you. We were on the island-the girls and I--and
I got a little away from them when suddenly the wildest looking
man rushed across the path.  He had a beard like Rip Van Winkle and
looked a lot like him too."

"Rip might be summering out this way, though I rather thought he had
taken a trip in an airship," said Jack.  "But honestly, Cora, what
was the man like?  Paul had a story of that sort. He declares he,
too, saw this famous ghost."

"Do you suppose he might have taken the canoe?  The wild man I mean.
We saw a strange looking girl in a canoe and somehow she vanished.
We could see her boat and then we couldn't, although we could not
make out where she went to.  It was the queerest thing.  There must
be some strange curves on those islands."

"Oh there are, lots of them.  They are as curvy as a ball-twirler's
best pitch.  But the ghost.  That is what interests me, since--ahem--since
he has a daughter.  Was she pretty?"

"I should say she was rather pretty," replied Cora, quite seriously,
"but she did have a wild look too.  I do believe she is a daughter
to the wild man, whoever he may be."

"Well, everyone around here declares that is land is haunted, but
fisher-folk are always so superstitious.  Yet we must hunt it up.  I
will go out with you the next time you go.  Did the other girls see
him?" went on the brother.

"No, and I decided not to tell them.  You know how timid Bess and
Belle are, and if they thought there was such a creature about the
island I would never get them to put foot on shore there again, and
I do so want to investigate that matter.  I believe Jim Peters has
something to do with it for I saw him coming away from there with a
letter.  Now what would he be doing with a letter out on a barren
island?"

"Oh Jim is a foxy one.  I wouldn't trust him as far as the end of my
nose.  But here come the others.  Will you go over to the Casino
this evening."

"Yes, we had planned to go.  That is why I am dressed up.  Hazel may
have to go to town to-morrow, and I want her to see something before
she goes," replied Cora, just as the girls, and Walter, Ed and Paul
strode up to the bungalow.

"Oh! we have had the greatest time," blurted out Bess.  "Cora, you
should have been with us.  Ben got angry with Jim Peters, and he and
Dan threatened to throw Jim overboard, and--"

"Jim seems to have a hankering after fights," put in Ed.  "I haven't
settled with him yet."

"Ed, you promised me you would call that off," Cora reminded him.
"You know it was all about me, and you have given me your promise
not to take it up again.  That Jim Peters is an ugly man."

"All the same we heard that you were not afraid of him," said Walter
with a tug at Cora's elbow.  "Didn't you beard the lion in his den?"

"Who said I did?" asked Cora flushing.

"I promised--crossed my heart not to tell," said Walter.  "But all
the same the folks at the landing are talking about the pretty girl
who went all the way up the cove, and stopped at the place where
Peters and his pal land.  I would advise you to be careful.  They
say that tribe is not of the best social standing," went on Walter
quite seriously.

"I won't go there again," put in Bess.

"What!  Were you along?" demanded Jack.  "Then you must have been
the pretty girl referred to at the landing."

"I was a pretty scared girl," declared Bess.  "I tell you, I don't
want to meet any more Peters or Joneses or Kates," she finished.

"But what was the trouble between Jim and Ben?" asked Cora.

"Let me tell it," Belle exclaimed.  "We were just standing by the
boathouse, watching some men fish, when Jim Peters, came along.  He
stopped and took a paper out of his pocket.  The wind suddenly blew
up--"

"And took the paper out of his hand," interrupted Hazel.  "It blew
across to where Dan was standing, and what was more natural than
that Dan should pick it up?"

"And did Jim get angry at that?" inquired Cora.

"Angry!  He fairly fell upon poor Dan," put in Walter, "and when Ben
saw him--I tell you Ben may stand a lot of trouble on his own
account, but, when it comes to anyone trying to do Dan, Ben is right
there to fight for him.  Didn't he almost put Jim over the rail?"

"There must have been quite a lively time," said Jack.  "Sorry I
missed it.  There is so little excitement around here that we need
all we can get.  And what was the answer?"

"Jim took his old letter and slunk off," finished Belle.  "And Dan
said he couldn't have read even the name on the out side if he had
tried.  He said it must have been written in Greek," and Belle
laughed at the idea of the classics getting mixed up in any such
small affair.

"Seems to me," said Cora thoughtfully, "that Jim had some very
important reason for fearing that one might see that letter."

"Yes," declared Hazel, "that struck me right away.  I shouldn't be
surprised if it had been addressed to--the ghost!"

"Well, if you young ladies intend to see what is going on at the
Casino this evening," Ed reminded them, "we had better make a start.
This is amateur night, I believe."

"And the Blake girls are going to sing," announced Jack.  "Then I
shall have a chance to clap my hands at pretty Mabel," and he went,
through one of those inimitable boys' pranks, neither funny nor
tragic, but just descriptive.

"I think it is awfully nice of the Blake girls to take part," said
Cora, "for in this little summer colony everyone ought to be
agreeable."

"But I notice you are not taking part," Ed said with a laugh.  "Just
fancy Cora Kimball on the Casino platform."

"Don't fancy anything of the kind," objected Bess.  "We are willing
to be sociable but we have no ambition to shine."

"Come along," called Jack, who was on ahead with Hazel, "and mind,
if anything brushes up against you, it is apt to be a coon, not a
cat, as Belle thought the other night."

They started off for the path that led to the public pavilion on the
lake shore.  Cora was with Ed, Walter had Belle on one side and Bess
on the other, because he declared that the twins should always go
together to "balance" him.  Jack and Hazel led the way.

At the pavilion the seats were almost all occupied, for campers from
all sides of the lake flocked there on the entertainment evenings.
A band was dreaming over some tune, each musician evidently being
his own leader.

The elder Miss Blake, Jeannette, who sat on an end seat, arose as
they entered and made room for the Chelton folks to sit beside her,
meanwhile gushing over the prospect of the evening's good time, and
the good luck of "meeting girls from home."

Walter allowed Bess and Belle to pass to the chairs beyond Miss
Blake and thus placed himself beside the not any too desirable
spinster.

He made a wry face aside to Jack.  He liked girls but the elder Miss
Blake!

"Mabel is going to sing 'Dreams,'" she said sweetly.  "I do love
Mabel's voice in 'Dreams.'"

"Yes, I think I should too," said Walter, but the joke was lost on
Jeannette.  "Who is that dark man over there?" he asked.

"Oh that's a foreigner.  They call him Jones, but that's because his
name is so unpronounceable.  Isn't he handsome?" asked the lady.

"Rather odd looking I should say," returned Walter, "but it seems to
me he is attracted in this direction.  Why should he stare over this
way so?"

"He knows me," replied Miss Blake, bowing vigorously to "Jones" who
was almost turned around in his chair in his determination to see
the Chelton party.

"He's mighty rude, I think," Walter complained again, leaning over
to speak to Cora who was just beyond Bess.  "Do you feel the draft
from that window, Cora?" he asked.

"Oh I--" then she stopped.  Something in Walter's voice told her
that it was not the window draft he was referring to.  She glanced
across the room, and her eyes fell upon the man she had met at Jim
Peter's landing place.

"I think those seats over there--up near the stage are much
pleasanter," said Jack, who also saw that something was wrong.
"Suppose we change?"

"All right" assented Cora, taking the cue.  "There are just four."

"I will stay here with Hazel, while you and Wallie go over there
with the girls," suggested Jack.  "And say Wallie," he whispered,
"if I catch you fanning that young lady in the row ahead I'll--duck
you on the way home."

Walter apologized profusely for leaving Miss Blake.  She evidently
was sorry that the window had been open for she was "so enjoying
talking of dear old Chelton."  The place had only been thus
mentioned by herself.

"Who is that dark man?" Hazel inquired of Jack, for, as if his eyes
were magnets, every girl in the group felt they were riveted upon
her.

"I don't know," replied Jack, "but he seems to be very much
interested in someone here.  There, he is watching Cora.  I wonder
who the fellow is?"

The curtain rising interrupted the speculation.  A man cushioned
like a cozy corner laughed at himself while waiting for his audience
to do so.  Then he gave a yell and started to sing a ridiculous song
about the milkmaid and the summer boarder.  When he had finished one
verse he took another "fit" of laughter, but somehow the audience
did not see it his way, and when he tried it again, he broke off
with an explanation.  He felt sure that the people did not quite
understand the joke, and he tried to tell them how very funny it
was.  To relieve the situation another person came on.  One side of
the figure was draped in the evening garb of a lady, while the other
wore the full dress suit of a gentleman.  The illusion was not at
all bad, especially when the "person" waltzed with himself, with his
arms around the other side of the evening dress the effect was
really funny.

"That's Spencer," declared Jack to Hazel.  "He did that at college.
Isn't it great?"

"Very funny," admitted Hazel, while the man made in halves bowed on
one side first, then on the other, to his applause.

"Mabel is going to sing now," announced Miss Blake getting a firmer
hold on her chair.  "I just love to hear Mabel sing."

Jack said he did also, then outside the dropped curtain stepped
Mabel.

She was pretty, a little thing with brown eyes and brown hair.  She
wore the most babyish dress made in empire, and it was evident she
knew something about making up for good effect on the stage.

Applause instantly greeted Mabel, and Jack was not the one who first
tired of clapping his hands.  This pleased Miss Jeannette immensely,
and she did not fail to express her pleasure to those about her.

The dark man in the seat across the aisle glanced first at the stage
and then at the seat where the elderly lady sat.  Jack was watching
him, and noted his peculiar glances.  Presently Mabel started to
sing.  Her voice was sweet, and her stage manners attractive.

"Isn't she lovely!" exclaimed Bess to Ed.  "I do believe she is
studying for the stage."

"Shouldn't wonder," replied the young man under his breath.  Then
the girl finished the song and bowed with such pretty piquancy that
everybody demanded more of her talent.

Jack was still watching the dark man.  As the girl left the platform
the latter left his seat and went outside of the pavilion.

Presently a messenger tapped Miss Blake on the shoulder, "Your niece
wishes to speak to you," the boy said, and at that Jeanette Blake
also left her seat and the room.

"Something mysterious about that," said Jack to Hazel, "and I
propose seeing it out if I can.  I will take you over to the others,
and run outside."

Just as he said that, a boy appeared on the platform and announced that
owing to an important message Miss Blake was obliged to leave the hall
and could not accommodate with her second number, but that some one
else would try to fill her place.

A murmur of dissent arose from the audience.

"How could she get an important message here," Cora asked Ed.
"Where in the world could it come from?"

Jack pushed a chair for Hazel in line with the others.

"I am going outside for a moment," he said.  "Take care of the girls
until I come back."

"All right," agreed the other young men.

"But don't run after Mabel," put in Walter with a laugh.

But that was exactly what Jack Kimball did.

CHAPTER X

MYSTERY UPON MYSTERY

Cora, healthy though she was, did not sleep well that night.  Jack
did not return to the hall, and had left word with the doorkeeper
that he could not get back in time to see his sister but would run
up from his bungalow early the next morning.  It was early now, and
next morning, but Jack had not kept his word.

No one but Cora and Hazel had any idea that this might mean anything
important.

"It was so strange, the way that man acted," said Hazel to Cora, as
the two made their way to the spring for fresh water.  "First he
watched you, then when Mabel Blake appeared he kept his eye on her.
And such eyes!  I believe he could hypnotize any one."

"I hope he did not hypnotize Mabel," replied Cora.

"Or Jack," added Hazel.

"No fear of the latter," declared the sister.  "Jack is too
level-headed to take any cue in that direction."

"That's just the way I feel about Paul," spoke Hazel.  "Isn't it
lovely to have such splendid brothers?"

"Nothing could be more satisfactory," declared Cora, "unless it
would be having a sister besides.  I have often wondered what I
should have done if I had not had such splendid girl friends.  Do
you feel as if a sister would have made your life more complete?"

"I have never thought of it," said Hazel.

"But Cora!  Look at that woman!"

Almost creeping through the tall grass the form of a woman could be
distinguished.  She had evidently come from a boat that was lying
along shore--a rowboat.  Seeing the girls, the woman stood up.

"It's Kate Simpson!" exclaimed Cora, "and she seems to be looking
for our camp!"

"Miss!" called the woman, her voice shaking.  "Wait, wait for poor
Kate!  Oh! I'm droppin' down!"

"What is it, Kate?" asked Cora kindly.  "You seem exhausted."

"Oh, indeed I am that," replied the woman, brushing the straggling
hair from her forehead.  "I am all but dead!"

"What has happened?" asked Cora further.

"I can't tell you here.  They might find me, and they'd know the
boat."

"We can hide the boat in the bushes, and you may come up to the
camp," suggested  Cora.  "That boat is not hard to lift."

"If you only could, but I'm too done up to help," faltered the
woman.

Cora and Hazel easily shifted the light canoe up into the deep
grass.  Kate got on her feet again, and, following the girls, all
made their way to a spot entirely closed in with heavy hemlock
trees.

"We may talk here," suggested Cora.  "This is what we call our
annex--the annex to our camp."

"It's better than the shack I've been living in," murmured the
woman. "I'm done with that.  Here," and she slipped her hand in her
dress, carefully taking from a patched place in her skirt a small
article.  "This is yours--I know it!"

"My ring!"

Cora's eyes sparkled akin to the gem at which she was gazing.  Hazel
looked on dumbfounded.

"Yes, it's your ring, but don't ask me how I got it," said Kate,
"though I'm pretty sure you can guess."

"I knew who had it, and I felt I would get it back," Cora replied,
"but I never dreamed how I might recover it.  Mother gave it to me
on my last birthday."

"Well I'll tell you this much, miss," and Kate Simpson glanced
furtively around her, to make sure that no one might be approaching.
"If there ever was two bigger villains than Jim Peters and Tony
whatever-his-other-name-is-if-he's-got one, then I never heard tell
of them.  They're up to some new trick every day and another new one
every night.  But the worst--"

She seemed afraid to go on.  Evidently even a woman so used to
hardship as this one could be frightened.

"The worst?" asked Cora.

"Is the one that goes on at Fern Island," almost whispered the
strange creature.

"Goes on?" exclaimed Hazel, who had hitherto been silent, too
interested to interrupt.

"Yes, miss, it goes on, and it will go on I'm afraid while them
villains live."

There was a shout from the camp.  The others were looking for Hazel
and Cora.  The familiar yodel was sent back, then Cora told Hazel:

"You run over, Hazel, and do something to interest them, while I
take Kate up the back way.  I want to get her some of those things
the last maid left, and I want to refresh her a little."

"But I couldn't wait, dear," sighed Kate.  "If I don't get a train
or boat away from this place soon, they'll be sure to catch me."

"But you have done nothing wrong!  Why shouldn't you go or come as
you want to?" asked Cora.

"I can't tell you, miss, but them men seem to have some power and I
want to get away from it.  Where might I find a train or a boat?"

"If you have to go, I'll take you to the landing in my motor boat,"
replied Cora.  "It has a canopy and you will not be seen on the
water."

"If you could.  I'd be very thankful.  You see I'm not much used to
the water, and rowing over from the shack nearly did me up."

"But I want to give you something for getting me my ring," insisted
Cora.  "It is quite valuable, you know."

"I heard them say so, and now that the other girl is gone I'll tell
you this much.  Never you go over to that shack again," and the
woman raised a warning finger.  "It was a good thing you met me
instead of Jim Peters the day you did go over.  They'll be like
tigers when they find I've got the ring.  It was last night that
gave me the chance.  They had been out very late, and Tony didn't
have any letters to copy so he fell asleep and--and I slipped away
with it.  I slept a bit under a tree, but indeed I was glad to see
daylight."

"And you have been out all night?  You must not think of taking a
journey without first having something to eat.  If you are afraid to
come up to camp I'll have something put in the boat for you,"
declared Cora.  "But let me ask you, did you overhear anything about
a girl named Miss Blake?  I saw Jones leave a hall where she was
singing last night, and I suspect he met her as she went out.  My
brother followed, but I have not seen him since.  He stops at the
boys' camp," Cora explained.

"Blake?  So that was the pretty girl who sang.  Well, she had better
be careful that she doesn't join the ghosts at Fern Island," said
the woman, mysteriously.

"I know the girl.  She's from my home place.  And that is why my
brother went to see that nothing happened to her," Cora said.

"Well, you are good people, one can see that," declared Kate.  "But
wait.  I can't read much, but I picked this up to wrap the ring in."

She handed Cora a soiled and crumpled telegram blank.  Upon it was
made out, in message form, these words:

"Can place your friend at twenty-five week.  Answer at once."
       BENEDICT.

Cora pondered for a moment.  "Who could have sent Jones such a
message?" she asked.

"Sent it?" repeated Kate.  "He sends his own messages.  He can copy
any handwriting.  I heard him say the trick worked," she finished.

The truth flashed into Cora's mind.  That man somehow knew the
Blakes.  He was pretending to place little vain Mabel with some
theatrical company.  When he left the Casino it was to show her the
bogus message.  And Jack must have been somewhere around within
hearing distance.  Surely things were getting complicated and
mysterious in the summer colony.  But Cora had her ring back, and
for the rest she felt certain that the "ghost" of  Fern Island, also
the wild looking girl of whom they had gotten a glimpse, were in
some way being wronged by Jim Peters and his associate, the
handwriting expert.

CHAPTER XI

THE RACES

"Of course we will enter," declared Cora.  "I know my boat and I
think it is as good as any little motor craft on the water."

"But suppose we should get stuck away out in the lake," objected
Bess.  "Then what would we do?"

The girls and boys were talking together a few days after Cora had
helped mysterious Kate to get away, and had entered the water
contest.

"There would be plenty of boats to give us a tow," replied Cora, "but
I have not the slightest idea of getting stuck.  My engine works
splendidly."

She found an opportunity to whisper to her brother: "What about Miss
Blake?"

"I'll tell you later, sis," he whispered back.  "It isn't very
important.  Don't ask me now," and then he went on fussing over the
engine and oil cups.

"If we only had our canoe," wailed Jack.

 "That was different from any boat I have seen here.  It was built
on racing lines.  Funny what became of it."

"Funny?" repeated Ed.  "Tragic I think!" and he gave his sleeves
another upward turn just to be doing something.

"Deplorable," added Walter.  "I think I looked just sweet in that
canoe.  Don't you, Hazel?"

"Well, when I saw you--you did," she admitted, "but three boys in a
canoe are not quite as attractive--"

"As one girl and one boy," he put in.  "Well, that is my own
opinion, but Jack and Ed are so inartistic.  I never can get them to
see things my way."

"We will race in the Peter Pan," Ed announced.  "Of course she
cannot be beaten.  But it is not half as much fun to depend upon an
engine as to rely upon muscle.  The canoe for me."

"But the glory!" exclaimed Belle.  "That boat is beautiful."

"The boat is!  Look at us," and Jack stood almost on his head.
"Boats are all right, but in the beauty class we come first."

"What time do they start?" Cora inquired.  "I've forgotten."

"Motors at three, smaller craft earlier.  I am going over to the
Point to see the hand-boats," said Jack.  "Of course everybody is
interested in them."

"Then girls," advised Cora, "get ready.  We will have an early
lunch, and go out for the afternoon.  Perhaps we will bring the cup
back."

"Lucky if you bring your boat back," Jack cautioned.  "Don't you
want me to look the engine over, Cora?"

"No, indeed.  That would be a dangerous thing to do, for I now have
every part clear.  I have put on a bigger oil cup, have had the
water circulation increased so the engine can not heat so, I have
had a throttle control put up at the steering wheel so that I can
slow down from there, and I tell you, Jackie, I have worked out the
secrets of that engine until there are no more."

"I should say you had, sis. I never knew there were so many
attachments.  Well, I know I can depend upon you to keep up the
honor of the Kimball family.  Come along fellows.  Let's see that
the Peter Pan is not done by the 'Peter Petrel.'  I noticed she was
puffing out a lot of oil this morning as we came over."

"Then," said Cora, "you want to be careful.  Your oil will run out
and the best engine made will stop short if that happens."

"Whew!" exclaimed Ed.  "Suppose we get Cora to look over our boat?
She seems to know."

"Better have Paul do it," suggested Cora.  "That boat is worth three
thousand dollars, and I wonder they ever allowed you boys to rent
it."

"They would not if Paul had not vouched for them," Hazel explained.
"They have a great regard for Paul's skill."

"And is he not going in the races?" asked Bess.

"I haven't heard him say," replied the sister.

"Bet he'll be a dark horse," suggested Ed.  "Well, we can't wish
Paul any too much good luck, but I do wish he would not stick so
dose to his boats and tools.  We scarcely see anything of him."

"Nor do I," agreed Hazel with a sigh.  "I miss him dreadfully."

"Poor child," and Walter affected to put his big brown arm around
the girl.  "Let me make up for Paul.  Does he kiss you very often?"
and he brushed her cheek.

"Walter Pennington!" gasped the circumspect Hazel, "Do have sense!"

"That's what Cora taught me--to help the needy," he floundered.

"Come now, no more nonsense," ordered Cora.  "If we are to race we
have to get ready."  A few hours later Cedar Lake was alive with
craft.  The rowboats and canoes were lined up first and our friends
from Chelton, the girls in the Petrel and the boys in the Peter Pan,
kept a sharp look out for the lost canoe.  Of course they knew it
would be repainted, but the lines being different from those of
other boats they hoped to be able to distinguish it, should it
appear for the races.

The judges had taken their places.  The platform at the Point was
gaily decorated for the occasion, and all sorts of banners were
flying.  The course was to cover one mile, and it ran clear out into
the open lake so that the delightful view was unobstructed.

Of all the canoes a bright red craft with a girl in Indian garb
attracted most attention.  The girl had her hair flying and was
indeed a striking figure in the brilliant bark.

There were many green boats, all having Indian names, and there were
those of wood in the natural color.  Girls vied with boys in point
of numbers, and had it all their own way in point of attractiveness.

"They are all ready," Cora told her friends, as the man on the bench
who held the pistol allowed it to glimmer in the sunlight.  The next
moment a crack rent the air and the boats shot off.

For some moments no one spoke.  All attention was riveted on the
graceful canoes that so motionlessly covered the deep blue lake.
The dip of the paddles was the only sign of movement although the
dainty boats were making good time in covering the courses.
Suddenly when all others had left and were off a light canoe shot
out from some place, and a girl with her hair flying, and dressed
most peculiarly, started off after them all.

"She gave them a handicap," said Cora, then something occurred to
her.  The same thought came to the others for each held her breath.

"The ghost girl!" whispered Belle, finally.  "However did she get
in?"

"It surely is!  See her go!  And there--there is that man from
Peters'," exclaimed Bess to Cora, "and he, too, is in the race."

"They can beat anything on the lake," declared Hazel.  "See her go!"

"See him go!"

In a few seconds those who had so mysteriously entered, the race
were far up in the line with those who had first started.  The girl
was wonderfully graceful, and the man showed marked skill at the
paddle.  He was trying to keep close to her, that was evident, but
at a cheer from the shore and from the outlying boats the girl shot
ahead and was soon out of hearing of the man, who evidently was her
companion.

"She will beat him--she will beat them all!" declared Cora, and this
was the opinion of most of the thousands of spectators.

"But if she does," faltered Belle, "do you suppose she will go to
the stand dressed like that to receive the prize?"

"We shall see," said Cora.  "At any rate this combination is far
more interesting than the real race."

A red canoe was alongside the girl in the light one.  For a few
moments it seemed she would be outdone.  Then, with a clever light
dip of her paddle, that scarcely seemed to touch the water, the Fern
Island girl was again ahead.

The first course had been covered and the boats were turned back for
the final run.

"The man has dropped out," said Belle, "See there he is just
floating along."

"He wouldn't be beaten, I suppose," Cora surmised, "Any one could
see that the girl would come in first."

"They are coming back and she has not started," said Belle, who had
the marine glasses.

"But she will," declared Cora.

"Yes, there she comes!  Oh isn't it exciting!  To have the queer
girl beat all those who pride themselves on their skill.  I wonder
who or what she can be?" queried Hazel.

"Here come our boys," said Belle, as the beautiful golden Peter Pan
motored over to the smaller Petrel.

"What do you think of that?" called Jack.  "Look at the Wild Duck!"

"Isn't she a--bird!" confirmed the voice of Ed.

"A Sea Gull," added the more polite Walter.  "I say, girls, do you
happen to know her?"

"Yes," called back Cora, "We have met her."

Then there was an exchange of words understandable only to those
expressing them, and to those for whom they were expressed, but any
one might have guessed that the boys in the Peter Pan were asking
the girls in the Petrel to let them "meet" the wild bird of the
light canoe.

"They are almost in," said Bess, breathlessly.  "Oh I hope she does
not back out."

"No danger," said Cora.  "One can see that she is making for the
finish line."

"There are two boys who have been saving themselves," Hazel
remarked.  "I shouldn't wonder if they could beat our friend."

"Oh, I hope not," exclaimed Belle.  "I should be so disappointed."

"And it would be impolite of them," added the innocent Bess, whereat
every one laughed.

The boys had been saving their strength.  Now they paddled off and
their craft, one of brown and one green, seemed equal to any of the
others.

"Hello there!" called Jack.  "Did you notice?"

"What?" asked Cora.

"The canoe--the Gerkin?"

"He means it has lines like the lost boat," said Cora.  "I have not
seen it enough to know," she finished, but at the same time she took
the glasses to look at the new rival of the wild girl.

"Yes it has, I remember," said Bess.  "I had a good look at it the
afternoon that they lost it.  I was waiting for you to fix up your
boat Cora, and I saw the boys' canoe."

"Well, I suppose they could never be certain, as there must be more
than one boat built even on those lines," said Cora.  "My!  See how
close they are--the girl and the boys!"

"She's ahead!" exclaimed Belle, clapping her hands.  "How I hope she
wins!"

"We all do!" declared Hazel.

Then they were silent.  The first canoe was almost in, and it was
the one called the Gerkin, paddled by the boys.

"Go it girl!" screamed the boys from the Peter Pan.

"Beat them, girlie!" called the girls from the Petrel.

For one brief second the wild-looking girl turned in the direction
from which the voices had come.  Hats were waved to her,
handkerchiefs flaunted and then she paddled--paddled straight ahead
and came into the finish first!

"Hurrah!  Hurrah!" went up shout after shout.

"I knew it!" cried Cora joyously.  "Now let us watch her."

"There's that dark man!" Bess told them.  "Oh! I just wish he would
keep away from her."

But he did not.  The girl in the light canoe turned from the
spectators as if she had been deaf and dumb.  And it was the dark
man--the fellow called Tony Jones--who went up to the judges to get
their verdict.

CHAPTER XII

ONE WAY TO WIN

"We have no time now," Jack told Cora, "but as soon as the races are
over I will ask what that fellow told the judges.  Certainly he must
have said that he had a right to, the girl's prize, or they would
not have given it to him."

"But how the poor thing hurried off!  Why, she hardly had a chance
to know that she won," replied the sister.  "I think it a shame that
the creature should be treated like something really wild," and she
turned to watch the foamy wake that the little canoe was tracing, as
the girl from Fern Island hurried to hide herself again where ever
she might go.  The signal precluded the possibility of further
interest just then in the strange case, but indeed Cora's mind was
not so readily shifted.  She wanted to know about that girl.

The speed boats were next to be tried out.  What a splendid showing!
Who would have dreamed that such handsome craft were on the waters
of Cedar Lake?  Of course they were all private boats, and their
flags flaunted proudly before the spellbound spectators.

The Peter Pan was among the very finest.  In this were our boy
friends from Chelton, and as they lined up the admiration expressed
was unstinted.  The Sprint was another splendid speed boat, built
with torpedo stern and a queer spray hood at the bow.  This was
being run by a girl--a young lady noted for her skill at any sort of
motor.

"Oh, I hope our boys win," exclaimed Bess, as if that hope needed to
be made known.

"They have a good chance," argued Cora.  "Of course so many things
may happen that there is absolutely no surety of any machinery on
the water."  She looked to see that the oil cup levers of the Petrel
were down to prevent the lubricant flowing before it was needed and
also gave a critical survey of the little wire that connected on the
cylinder.  It emitted a clear "fat" spark as she touched it to the
metal, and this seemed to satisfy her.

"I guess ours is all right; isn't it?" asked Hazel.  "Wouldn't it be
fine if we won something!"

"I fully intend to," declared Cora.

"That means that we will," responded Belle.  "If Cora intends!"

"They're off!" called out Hazel, "look at Jack!"

He was standing over the engine evidently making sure that even at
the start he should not loose a single atom of the power that
twirled the propeller.  Ed was at the steering wheel.  Walter was at
the side, and with him was Paul Hastings.

"There's Paul!" exclaimed Bess, when they could make out that the
fourth figure in the boat was that of the boy's friend.  "I thought
he would run another boat."

"He wouldn't want any other to beat the Peter Pan," explained Hazel,
"and at the same time he would not take the glory of it from the
boys who have it for the season.  That's Paul," she finished
proudly.

The first "leg" of the course had been covered, and the three best
boats, the Peter Pan, the Sprint, and the Lady B. were all in line.
A dozen others were trailing, and while they showed less speed it
was not safe to say that they could not catch up with the three
stars.  From buoy to buoy over the triangular course the boats
fairly shot, and a beautiful sight they made on the green-hilled
basin of Cedar Lake.

The course was covered once and then the second round was started by
the boats that had qualified.  These were only five in number, one
of them being a very queer looking craft, built high on the sides
like a huge box and showing at the bow a double point, like a pair
of slippers.  This of course attracted considerable attention, and
it shot past the Sprint, which was run by the young lady who had
hoped to meet with no rival such as a home-made boat, to say the
least.

"Can't that go? Look at it!" the spectators were exclaiming.

"See, Paul is at the Peter Pan's engine!" said Cora, as the color
of that boy's cap made it plain that he had taken Jack's place. "I
hope Jack has not strained his wrist, or done anything like that."

"Very likely Paul is just seeing if everything is right," said
Hazel. "See, there, Jack has his place again."

During the second and third trials all interest was centered on the
Peter Pan, the Hague, (the home-made boat), and the Sprint. Now this
would be ahead, and now that, until it seemed that there could be
but little difference in the merits of any of the three. Of course
most of the sympathy was with the Sprint, because a girl was
striving to outdo the boys. At the same time, the Hague, being such
an oddity, and the lake folks knowing that this had been built by
the boys who were running it, came in for its share of applause.

"There is not a boat on the lake that can fairly beat the Peter
Pan," Hazel declared almost feverishly, for the others were
threatening to do so.  "I have heard Paul say so."

"He ought to know," said Cora with a sly wink, "but that big tub,
the Hague, is something new.  Perhaps it has the power of a
destroyer."

"It is big and clumsy enough to have any sort of power," remarked
Belle.  "I should just be sick if it did win."

"All's fair, in a fair race," remarked Cora.  "See the Hague is
ahead!"

One more course was to be made, and every eye and every mind was
centered on this, the final test.

The Peter Pan shot out bravely and safely.  The Sprint made a
splendid second!  Then the Hague!  Something seemed wrong.  It was
"missing."  That could plainly be heard from the girl's boat.  Away
they flew, yard after yard being made in wonderfully short time.
The Sprint was doing well with the Peter Pan.  The Hague suddenly
shot forward, passed every thing--passed the Sprint--passed the
Peter Pan and won!

"Hurrah for the tub!" yelled the crowd.  "Hurrah for home talent!"
shouted the throng.  But the young lady in the Sprint throttled down
and her boat drifted over to the boys.

"How was that?" she asked breathlessly.

"I don't know," replied Paul "but I'm going to find out.  We were
second and you made a splendid run--but I'm going to look into the
glories of the Tub!"

So keen was the disappointment of the girls in the Petrel that they
seem to have lost heart for their own race, which came next.  But
when Ed and Jack called out to them, and Paul waved his cap in his
own quiet way, the encouragement dispelled their lost of interest.

Cora spun the flywheel, and the boat took its place.  She looked
every inch a girl to win, while Hazel kept close to the steering
wheel and the twins did their part in just looking pretty.  The
motor girls' boat was the cynosure of every eye, as it happened to
be the only boat in that class run by girls.

The signal was given and they started off.

"Steady!" Jack called.  "Go it, sis!"

He should hardly have done this, but his boyish love for the girls
and their boat could not be restrained.  Then they waved, and the
maroon and white flag stood out tense and defiant like some animate
thing.

Not a word was spoken by the girls.  It seemed so important to pay
all attention to the machine upon which depended the loss or gain of
a victory--if we may say that a victory can be lost.

"Look out!" called Hazel suddenly and a boat crossed their path so
closely that Cora was obliged to throttle down, and Hazel had to run
straight for a buoy to avoid a collision, and the craft hit the
course marker.  Then the Petrel stopped short!  It simply wouldn't
move!

"Oh!" sighed Belle and Bess in one voice, but Cora jumped up and
tried for a spark.  None came!

She looked at the connections.  They seemed all right.

"Maybe it's in the gas," she said nervously, while the other boats
were passing them by.

She yanked down the bulkhead board that hid the gasoline tank.  Then
she saw the cause of the trouble.

"Short circuited!" she exclaimed.   "That happened when we struck
the buoy.  It jarred the battery wires together," and the next
instant she had adjusted the difficulty and the engine, glad to be
off again, seemed to try to make up for the lost seconds.

Every one in the Petrel breathed a sigh of relief.  The anxiety had
been intense.

"I was certainly afraid we would have to row to shore," Belle said,
taking a more comfortable position.

"We will make up for it," declared Cora, throwing on full speed and
directing Hazel as to the best way to hold the wheel exactly
straight and in doing so to get all possible distance out of each
explosion of the engine.

They finished in a tie over the first course.  This was encouraging,
for the little Mischief, their closest opponent, was acknowledged a
fine boat.

Two more courses were to finish the race, unless there was another
tie.  The girls scarcely noticed the frantic efforts of the boys in
the Peter Pan who were encouraging and directing at the top of their
lungs.  The young men in the Mischief were anxious.  They could
never stand it to be beaten by a couple of country girls!  But, on
the second trial Cora's boat won, and then came the final test.

Up the lake they went again!  Now the Petrel was ahead and now the
Mischief until the closeness of the two became absorbing.

"The best race of the day!" the judges were declaring.  "Neither has
it all her own way!"

"Plucky girls," said another of the men at the stand.  "Whatever
happened when they stopped they must have been well able to handle,
from the way they caught up again.  I thought they were out of it
that time!"

"We all did," put in some one else, "but I have seen that little
girl on the lake before.  She knows something about a motor boat."

"Here they come!" Jack yelled.  "Just look at Cora!  Isn't she
fine!"

"And Hazel!" put in Paul with a smile.

"How about Bess and Belle?" asked the fickle Walter. "I think they
look just sweet!"

Only two more "legs," and the Petrel was still ahead!

One was covered, with the Mischief so close that only those in the
best position could tell which one led.

"Steady, Hazel!" cautioned Cora.  Straight as an arrow she directed
the wheel.

Then there was a splash from a nearby motor boat.  A shout and
screams!

"Overboard!" yelled the frantic onlookers.  "A child overboard!"

It was just at the side of the Petrel!

"Hazel!  The engine!  Bess, the wheel!" shouted Cora, and before any
one knew what she was about, she had jumped into the water and was
making for the spot were the child had gone under.

The boys in the Mischief did not stop.  Hazel took the engine and
Bess the wheel, realizing that Cora meant for them to finish.

Presently she came up with the child in her arms!

"Go it, girls!" she called, "Win!  Win!"

The Mischief was close alongside.  Cora was clinging to the side of
the boat from which the child had dropped, while the almost fainting
mother was recovering her little one.  The others assisted Cora in,
and forgot all about her race.

But Cora stood spellbound in the cockpit, dripping wet.  She stood
there ignoring the thanks poured out on her.

"Steady, Hazel!" she called.  "Win--win for me!"

That was enough.  The motor girls, those in the Petrel, realizing
that their leader was safe, now determined to "win for her."

The Mischief had gained in the time that Cora swung overboard, and
now was just abreast of the Petrel.  The slight change of course
also told in the last few yards, but now Hazel and Bess forgot
everything but the call of Cora to win, and their boat, like a
flash, sprang up to its opponent and passed it by the closest record
made in any of the races.

"Hurrah!  Hurrah!" rang out in their ears.

"A double victory!" shouted one of the judges.  Then the Petrel was
turned back to get Cora who was in the other motor boat.

The boys in the Peter Pan had not seen Cora dive over for the child,
but as quickly as they heard the report, that was now being spread
about, they made for the boat from which the accident occurred.

Back with them went the boat of the accident crew, and when Cora
finally returned to her own craft she had an escort of honor to the
judges stand.

"First prize for the Petrel!" announced the head judge.  "And the
honor medal for life-saving to Miss Cora Kimball, the leader of our
brave little crew of motor girls."

CHAPTER XIII

VICTORS AND SPOILS

"Wasn't it exciting!" Belle was saying to the little party that had
gathered around Cora as she received their praise and congratulations
after it was all over.  "I never dreamed that boat races could furnish
so many kinds of excitement."

"I don't call it all delightful," objected Bess putting her arms
around the still wet form of the girl who had made the rescue, "and
I don't want to see Cora jump overboard that way again.  I shall
never forget it."

"A good way to find out how much folks think of me" replied Cora.
"I really didn't mind it a bit, once I knew that I could get the
child before she got under a boat.  That was all that worried me."

"Your cup is a beauty though, sis," said Jack, who was examining the
trophy.  "I think it's prettier than the one we lost.  Paul is not
satisfied that we lost fairly though, and he's up there now
disputing it."

"What good can that do now?" asked Belle.

"No telling.  Paul knows what he is about," replied Jack.  "But say,
did you know that the wild girl in the canoe is deaf and dumb?"

"No!" exclaimed all the girls in one voice.

"Yes that's what the dark fellow who was trailing her told the
judges, and that is why, I guess, she scampered off so.  Too bad!
She is pretty too."

"And did the man take her prize?" asked Cora.

"Sure thing," replied the brother.  "He said he was her guardian."

Cora thought for a moment.  "Seems to me," she said finally, "that
she turned towards us when we shouted to her."

"Sometimes deaf people know such things by instinct," Jack offered
as an explanation.  "I thought too, that she gave us a knowing
glance."

"Pure conceit," said Ed.  "Wallie claimed the glance, but I saw her
hair float in my direction."

"She's a star canoeist," declared Jack, "and I should like to be
better acquainted with her."

"Can you talk with your fingers?" asked Belle.  "I know a little of
the sign language, but I would not be too sure that I could carry on
a conversation."

"But you could introduce one," insisted Jack, "and once she knew I
wanted to know her--I might depend upon--true love to make known all
the rest."

"Here!  Here!  Jackie!" cautioned Cora, "you are not to talk of
love--until mother comes home.  You have promised to look after me."

"As if Ed and Walter couldn't do that ten times better than I can.
But hello!  Here comes Paul--the Paul."

"It's ours," called Paul, before he was dose enough to talk in the
regulation tones.  "Come on up!  The judges want to see the crew of
the Peter Pan!"

"Ours!" echoed Jack, Ed and Walter.

"It certainly is ours.  Those fellows had the gasoline doped?"

"What's that?" asked Ed.

"They had camphor and some other stuff in their gas," went on Paul,
"and the engine nearly kicked out of the boat."

"Did they admit it?" inquired Ed.

"Not until I charged them with it," replied Paul.  "I knew there was
something up when they got ahead on that jump.  Then I asked if I
might take a look at that freak engine, and they allowed me to do
so.  I smelled camphor the minute I stepped aboard.  They even had
not sense enough to hide the bottle, and it's against the present
racing rules on this lake to doctor gas.  So I taxed them with it,
and they finally admitted it and we went together to the judges.
They were pretty decent chaps and did not seem to mind, very much,
relinquishing the prize.  You know what it is, don't you?"

"Certainly, it's a dandy canoe," said Jack, "And you really mean
that it is to be ours?"

"If you don't hurry along some one else may claim it," said Paul.
"It isn't mine, it's yours."

"And to think that we and our boys both got prizes!" exclaimed
Hazel.  "Isn't it too good to be true?"

"And too good to be false," answered Paul.  "Now, boys, let's run
along.  I have something to do before evening."

"And I had better make for camp," said Cora.  "These togs are wet."

"Of course," said Belle with sympathy in her voice.  "But when do
you get your medal, Cora?"

"I believe it comes from Philadelphia.  Some wealthy man has it
stored there waiting to be claimed."

"It's a wonder the mother of that little girl didn't want to adopt
you, Cora," said Jack, as the boys started off with Paul.  "I
thought from the way she hung on to you she had intentions.  Well,
so long.  We will give you first ride in our new canoe, and let us
hope we will have better luck with this one than we had with the
other," and then the boys went off for the prize.

"I can't get over that girl being deaf and dumb," said Hazel, as the
girls made their way to the camp.  "I can scarcely believe it."

"Well, now we have a double interest on Fern Island," Cora answered.
"If there is really such an unfortunate creature hid or hiding there
she ought to be rescued.  I cannot understand, either, how that
foreigner can be her guardian."

"That Jones?" asked Bess, as innocently as if she had not seen the
girl race and heard about the man claiming her prize.

"Why, yes, of course," replied Cora.  "And he says she is deaf and
dumb.  Who's calling?  Didn't you hear some one?"

"Yes, there's Mabel Blake hurrying after us," said Belle.  "She
looks excited."

The girl who was running along the path did indeed "look excited."
The motor girls waited.

"Oh, I thought I would never catch up to you!" Mabel panted.  "You
do walk at such a pace!"

"Why, how are you, Mabel?" asked Cora graciously.  "I heard you had
gone back to Chelton."

"We did intend to--but we haven't," she faltered.  "Jeannette has
been ill."

"Ill!" exclaimed more than one voice.

"Yes, that's what I want to see you about.  I don't know what to
do," and Mabel's pretty brown eyes filled to the lashes.

"Can we help you?" Cora asked.

"I would like to speak with you alone, Cora," she said.  "But I know
what you did this afternoon, and I see you have still to change your
clothing."

"They are almost dry now," Cora replied.  "Yet if you could wait
five minutes I could easily change in that time.  Here we are.  Home
again.  And there!  Nettie has heard all about our victories;
haven't you Nettie?"

"Indeed yes, Miss Cora.  But I was afraid for you," replied the
maid.  "The child's father sent a message up here to ask when he
might see you?"

"Oh, they make too much fuss over a trifle," replied Cora.  "Sit
here on the porch with the girls, Mabel.  I will be out soon."

Finally Mabel pressed her handkerchief to her eyes and murmuring
some sort of unintelligible excuse she rushed indoors.

She was met in the hall by Cora.

"Why, what is it, Mabel?" she asked, putting her arms about the
sobbing one.

"Oh, I cannot stand it," wailed Mabel.  "The disgrace!"

"What disgrace?"

"The--that--man!" she stammered.  "But I must go back to Jeannette.
I am afraid she is losing her mind.  Of course, you could not go
with me, Cora.  It would be too much after your hard afternoon.  But
Jeannette got your letter."

"Yes?  I hope she understood it."

Mabel tried to dry her eyes.  "I suppose she did if any one could
understand such a thing," she replied.  "But to think it is in the
Chelton paper!"

"When was it in?" Cora asked.

"It will be out to-morrow!" replied the tearful one.

"To-morrow," Cora repeated thoughtfully.  "Perhaps Jack could stop
it.  He is well acquainted with the editor."

"Oh, if he only could," and Mabel brightened up.  "That's what makes
Jeannette feel so dreadfully."