The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake | Page 9

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