The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake | Page 6

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