The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake | Page 4

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