CHAPTER XI
THE GIRLS RETALIATE
“But why should we change our plans?” asked Cora, when, a little later, the boys had brought their own cars up in front of the hotels and had gone back for those of the girls. “I don’t see why Bess should ride with Walter.”
“No, but I see it,” said Walter, quickly. “I want to talk to her, and – ”
“Oh, that’s a different story,” admitted Cora, with a smile. “But what will Norton do?”
“I’d like to drive the Flyaway, if I might,” put in the latter. “There’s a bad stretch of road ahead, and perhaps Belle may not be equal to it.”
“Don’t you dare intimate there’s danger ahead,” cried Belle.
“Not exactly danger,” returned Norton, with a wink at the other boys, “but the road is rough. If Cora wants to I guess Ed could drive her car for her, too.”
“Thank you, I’ll wait until I see what sort of a road we are going to encounter, and if I can’t negotiate it, I’ll let Ed take the wheel,” assented Cora. “But I’ve driven over some very hard stretches myself; haven’t I, Jack?”
“Indeed you have, Sis. But it’s all right if Belle wants Norton to drive for her for a change.”
“Well,” began the Robinson twin, “it all came so suddenly. I don’t know yet whether I want Norton to drive for me. Of course I’d like to have him in the car, if Bess wants to go with Walter for a change, and – ”
“That’s it,” broke in Norton. “Just for a change. Hurry up now, girls, get in the cars and we’ll be off.” He ran here and there, helping lift in the luggage, and appeared anxious to make a start. In fact, the boys had seemed in a hurry ever since they brought up the girls’ cars, and this very haste might have made the motor maids suspicious, but it did not seem to.
Then came the proposal for the change in companionship for a time, and this took the attention of Cora and her friends. Jack had run his car close up to the rear of the Flyaway, so that the back of the tonneau was not easily seen.
“All aboard!” cried Ed. “We’re off!”
Quite a little throng had gathered on the sidewalk in front to see the start, and among the persons might have been noticed a certain number of boys, with paper bags concealed in their hands. These same boys might have been observed to be receiving signals–in the way of nods and winks from Jack and his chums, from time to time.
“I am sure those boys are up to something!” exclaimed Cora to Eline, as they took their places.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean some trick.”
“How can you tell?”
“Why, Jack’s so anxious to get us off. He paid the hotel bill for me, bought me a magazine and some candy. He never does things like that unless there is something queer about to happen. Does anything seem wrong? Do I look all right?”
“Perfectly charming, Cora. That’s a stunning sweater you have.”
“Yes, I like it. Then it can’t be me that he’s going to bother. I wish I could tell what it was.” She looked back to where Jack, with hurried politeness, was helping Belle into her car. He did not want her to have a glimpse at the rear of it.
“Well, we’ll see what develops,” spoke Cora, as she slipped in first speed, and prepared to set the clutch. She gave a last look back. The little cavalcade of autos was all ready to start. That of Norton, with Walter at the wheel, and Bess on the seat beside him, was directly behind Cora’s big maroon beauty, then came the machine of the twins and lastly that of Jack.
“Let her go!” shouted Jack.
Cora’s machine shot forward. Norton’s jumped as Walter let in the clutch. Then Jack, with a quick motion, pulled from the back of the Robinson car, that Norton was driving, a strip of white muslin. It left revealed another, containing the words:
ON THEIR HONEYMOON
“Let ’em have it!” cried Jack.
Instantly the urchins with the paper bags opened them and a shower of rice fell over Norton and Belle, being scattered liberally over Mrs. Fordam.
“Mercy!” cried the chaperone. “What is this? Stop it at once!” she ordered to the boys, but laughingly they persisted.
“Good luck!” cried the street lads.
“Hurray!”
“Send us a piece of wedding cake!”
Cora, turning, seeing the showers of rice and hearing the calls, guessed what had happened.
“This was Jack’s trick!” she exclaimed. “He’s given the impression that this is a big wedding party. Oh, wait until I get a chance to retaliate. Hurry up!” she cried back to Norton, who was grinning cheerfully, and trying to summon a blush to his cheeks to make him fit the part of the bashful bridegroom.
Walter shot Norton’s car ahead, and Norton guided that containing the placard out into the middle of the street. There the words were more plainly seen, and good-natured laughter came from the throng, who thought they understood the situation. The rice continued to fall, for the boys had bought liberally of it, and had bribed the street urchins to throw it.
“This is terrible!” exclaimed Bess, in the car with Walter, seeing what had happened.
“It’s only a joke,” he said. “But I was afraid you girls wouldn’t like it.”
“Like it? I should say not. I’m going to take that sign off our car at once.”
She made a motion as though to alight from the moving auto, but Walter detained her.
“We’ll take it off when we get around the corner,” he promised.
“What does this mean?” demanded Belle, rather indignantly, of Norton.
“I guess they take this for a wedding procession,” he replied.
“And who are – ”
She stopped suddenly.
“I see!” she exclaimed, as the meaning of the rice came to her. “Well, I don’t think this a bit nice. I’d rather have my sister back here with me,” she went on coldly. “Mrs. Fordam, is there anything on our car–any of those silly white satin ribbons, or – ”
“Old shoes?” suggested Norton, rather abashed at the way his joke had been received.
The chaperone looked over the rear of the tonneau.
“There’s a strip of cloth on here, with some letters on it,” she answered, “but I can’t read it upside down without my glasses. Surely – ”
She hesitated for a moment, and then cried:
“The rice! Oh, I see! Boys, you shouldn’t have done it!” but she laughed nevertheless, and Norton felt more relieved.
“It was only in fun,” he protested.
“A boy’s idea of fun, and a girl’s, often differ exceedingly,” spoke Mrs. Fordam. “I really think it had better be taken off.”
The crowd had been following along the sidewalk, tossing rice and showering congratulations on those in the “bridal-car.” Norton saw that Mrs. Fordam meant what she said. So he stopped the machine and got out to remove the placard, just as Cora was about to turn around to learn more of the cause of the merriment. Norton ripped off the lettered muslin and tossed it aside.
“It may do for someone else to play a joke with,” he remarked. “I guess I got myself in bad here. I’ll have to make up for it.”
“There, you needn’t get out–Norton is fixing it,” said Bess to Walter. “But I think I’ll ride in my own car, if you don’t mind,” and she prepared to get out as he put on the brakes.
“Not mad; are you?” he asked, and there was a note of anxiety in his voice.
“No, not exactly,” she replied with a smile.
Cora, who had made the turn, and had learned what had happened, said nothing. She looked at Jack rather reprovingly, however. Then, the crowd seeing no more chance for fun, began to drop back. The autos went on, the twins in their own, and Walter back with Norton, while Jack and Ed rode together, Cora being with Eline up ahead–a pacemaker.
There was a little coldness among the girls and boys–on the side of the girls–when they stopped for dinner at a country hotel. Nothing of moment had occurred on the road, save that Cora got a puncture, and Jack and the other boys had no little difficulty in getting off an old shoe that had not been removed in some time.
A little later something went wrong with the carbureter on the car of the twins. The boys took turns trying to adjust it, as they were far from a garage. It was Norton who discovered the trouble–a simple enough matter–and remedied it.
“Doesn’t that entitle me to a rebate of punishment?” he asked of Belle.
“I’ll see,” she answered, but her glance was not as stern as it had been, and she ventured to smile a little.
With the offending placard removed, the cars proceeded onward again. They had planned to take the trip leisurely, and to stop over night at another hotel. The day following that would bring them to Sandy Point Cove in good time to settle the bungalows before dark.
“We’re going to the theatre to-night,” Jack announced, shortly after the arrival in Duncan, where they were to spend the night. He had gone out after reaching the hotel, and purchased the seats for a popular comedy then running.
“Oh, are we?” asked Cora with a lifting of her eyebrows, a signal, that had Jack but known it, meant more than he suspected. “That’s awfully nice of you, really.”
“It’s a fine show,” declared Norton. “A friend of mine saw it in New York.”
“What time are we to be ready?” asked Belle, with a look at Cora.
“It begins at eight, if you start now putting on your hats you’ll be ready in time, it’s only a little after six,” remarked Ed.
“Smart!” exclaimed Bess. “We can be ready as soon as you!”
After supper–or dinner whichever you prefer to call it–the boys went to their rooms to get ready for the little theatre party. The girls, with much whispering and not a little laughter proceeded, apparently, with the same object.
But a little later the motor maids, accompanied by their chaperone, Mrs. Fordam, slipped down a rear stairway, out into the ladies’ parlor of the hotel, and thence into two big limousine cars that awaited them. The girls had on semi-evening dress, with some flimsy chiffon veils over their heads in place of hats, which might account for the speed with which they got ready.
“Isn’t it nice we met those boys!” exclaimed Eline.
“They came just in time to make it possible for us to retaliate,” remarked Cora. “And our boys need a lesson.”
In the somewhat luxurious autos that had drawn up in front of the hotel were four young men in evening dress. They greeted the girls enthusiastically.
“It’s awfully nice of you to come on such short notice,” said one to Cora.
“Oh, we were only too glad to” she answered.
CHAPTER XII
AT THE COVE
“Well, what do you know about that?”
“It–well, so long as there are none of ’em here I’ll say it–it’s the limit!”
“They got back at us all right!”
“And to think we never suspected.”
“What will we do with these theatre tickets?”
Four young men, in freshened attire after their auto ride, stood disconsolately in the hotel parlor. Jack was fingering a note that a bell boy had brought him. Walter, Ed and Norton, with the assistance of Jack, had given voice to the expressions with which we have begun this chapter. The note read:
“Dear Jack:
“We don’t seem to care about the theatre this evening. I met Harry Dunn, and his two cousins–also another young man–Ralph Borden–and they asked us to go to a little private dance. Mrs. Fordam is with us. We met Harry at Lake Como last year, you remember. He is that tall, dark, distinguished-looking fellow. So we thought we’d prefer the dance to the theatre, especially as Belle and Bess have seen the play. Sorry to have to waste so many good tickets, but perhaps you boys will have time to paint another honeymoon sign.
“Cora.”
It was this note which had been handed to Jack as he and his companions had been waiting in the parlor for the girls, that had caused all the trouble.
“So, that’s their game!” exclaimed Cora’s brother, as he crumpled the paper up in his hand. “They’ve played a trick on us all right!”
“To get back at us for that sign on the auto, and the rice,” added Ed.
“I wonder if they really did go off to a dance?” asked Walter.
“Oh, yes, I know this Dunn chap–not half-bad,” put in Jack. “Sis and I did meet him last year. His folks have a country place somewhere round here. But how did he meet the girls and get them to come?”
“I have it!” cried Norton.
“Pass it over!” commanded Walter.
“You know that time my car developed a kink,” he continued, “and you stopped yours, Jack?”
“Sure,” assented Cora’s brother.
“Well, the girls went on, you know, and when we caught up to them I saw a couple of autos speeding down the road, as though they had been acting as escorts. I guess those fellows must have met the girls on the road, proposed the dance, and the girls accepted.”
“That’s it!” declared Jack. And so it proved, as they found out later.
“Well, there’s no help for it,” sighed Walter.
“We’ll have to go to the show alone,” added Ed.
“If we could only find some nice girls,” spoke Norton.
“We don’t know a soul in town,” declared Jack. “If that Dunn fellow had been half-way decent he’d have made some arrangement about us after he stole away the girls. Well, there’s no use wasting all the tickets. Come on to the show.”
So the boys went, but they did not have a very good time by themselves, and there was some amusement among the audience over four good-looking boys occupying eight seats.
As for Cora and the girls, they had a delightful dance. It had turned out as Norton had said. The girls, proceeding on ahead with Mrs. Fordam, after Jack and the boys had stopped to look after Norton’s car, had met young Dunn and his companions out for a spin. Cora knew them at once, and the young men, delighted at the prospect of such charming partners at a dance they had almost elected to forgo, invited the motor girls to it.
Mrs. Fordam, who was a distant relative of young Dunn’s father, had consented to the arrangement. The girls and she slipped away after Jack came in with the theatre tickets, proceeded to attire themselves most becomingly, and had been met by their escorts, who lavishly hired big cars to take their friends to the affair. Then Jack and his chums had been handed the note which Cora left for them. It had all been very simple.
“Wasn’t it glorious!”
“The floor was just splendid!”
“And those boys knew so many nice fellows.”
“My card was filled almost before I knew it.”
“The music was lovely!”
Thus chattered the motor girls as they came back to the hotel rather late–or was it early? with Mrs. Fordam. They saw Jack sitting disconsolately in the parlor, trying hard to keep awake by reading.
“Well, so you’re back!” he exclaimed to Cora, rather shortly.
“Yes, brother mine!” she laughed tantalizingly.
“Well, it’s about time,” he growled.
“Why, how long have you been back?” she asked. “I hear that it was quite a long and–tiresome–show. I’m sorry we had to disappoint you, but really we had no other way of telling you where we were going. It was a lovely dance!”
“Yes,” said Jack, coldly.
“And we hope you had time to embroider another sign for our car,” added Bess. Really, she said later, she could not help it.
“Um!” grunted Jack. “I sat up for you,” he added to his sister.
“There was no need, Jack. We had Mrs. Fordam. It was a very pretty dance. I am glad the girls had a chance to go.”
The girls seemed glad too, and really looked quite effective in their party growns, which were carried in the trunks that were strapped on the autos.
“Oh, it was lovely!” sighed Bess.
“And that tall young fellow was such a fine dancer!” echoed Eline.
“Huh!” growled Jack. “I’m going to bed.”
“I guess we’re all tired enough to re-tire–joke!” exclaimed Cora. “Good-night, Jack. Sorry we couldn’t go with you, but we had a–previous engagement!”
The boys did not say much next morning, though the girls were enthusiastic about their affair.
“If we could only have one two or three times a week,” sighed Belle, who was a fine dancer.
“We may, at Sandy Point Cove,” spoke Cora. “There is a pavilion there–also moving picture shows, to which the boys can take us,” and she glanced at Jack. He said nothing.
Once more they were on their way. The roads were good, and save for the fact that they took a wrong one shortly after lunch, and went a few miles out of their route, nothing of moment happened.
“Ten miles to Sandy Point Cove!” read Jack, as they stopped at a cross-road, to inspect the signboards. “We’ll make it in an hour.”
“And then for a bath in the briny deep!” cried Walter.
“I hope the fishing is good,” remarked Ed. “I haven’t caught anything in a month.”
“I hope the Pet has arrived,” Cora exclaimed. “I am just dying for a motor boat ride.”
“Let us hope it has then; we don’t want you to expire,” came from Norton.
In less than an hour they had reached the shore road and were spinning down it toward the cove where they were to spend the summer. As they mounted the bluff, around the end of the cove, from which a magnificent view of the ocean could be had, Cora uttered a cry:
“Look, that sailboat has capsized!” she exclaimed. And she pointed to a small sloop that had jibed and gone over in a sudden squall. As the motor girls and boys looked they saw a girlish form clinging to the rounded side of the craft, her bright red bathing suit making her a conspicuous figure against the dark hull.
CHAPTER XIII
THE LIGHTHOUSE MAID
Jack Kimball had always said that his sister Cora only needed an opportunity to prove that she could think quickly in emergencies, and could demonstrate that she was courageous. Cora had done this on other occasions, and now at the sight of the overturned boat, and the figure of the girl clinging to it, there came the chance for Cora, as one of the motor girls, to prove that her ability in this direction had not lessened.
Without another word Cora turned her car down a slight slope that led to the sandy beach. It was a perilous road, rather too steep to negotiate in a heavy car, but Cora had seen that it was encumbered with sand that would act as a brake.
“Where are you going?” gasped Eline, gripping the sides of the seat until her hands ached.
“Down to rescue that girl!” explained Cora, pressing her lips tightly together. She was under a nervous tension, and she needed all her wits about her.
“But in the car–the water – ” faltered Eline.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to run my car into the bay. There’s a boat on shore–a rowboat–this was the quickest way to get down to it. Can you row?”
“Yes, Cora, but – ”
“You may have to!”
The auto plunged down the steep, sandy slope to the beach. The others in the motoring party had brought their machines to a stop, and were gazing in wonderment at Cora.
“What are you going to do?” cried Jack. “Come back! We’ll get her, Cora!”
But Cora paid no attention. She had reached the beach, and quickly shut off the power.
“Come on!” she exclaimed to Eline, leaping out.
The two raced over the sand to where a light rowing craft was drawn up. There were oars in it, and Cora knew she and Eline could launch it. The girl on the overturned sailboat was making frantic gestures and calling:
“Hurry! Hurry!”
“Her boat must be sinking,” gasped Eline, as she and Cora reached the rowboat.
“It can’t be that,” answered the motormaid, with a quick and critical glance at the sailboat. “Probably there is some one else with her, who is in danger. She isn’t in any particular trouble that I can see. She must swim!”
By this time Cora and Eline had the boat in the water. The stern was still on the pebbly beach.
“Jump in!” called Cora. “I’ll shove off!”
“But you’ll get your feet wet!”
“What of it? As if I cared!” Vigorously Cora pushed off the boat, and managed to get in, though not without getting rather wet. Then, seizing one pair of oars, while Eline took the others, they rowed hastily out to the capsized craft. Other boats were now hastening to the scene of the accident, but Cora Kimball was the first to reach it. Jack and the other boys and girls had left their cars on the main road, and were racing down the beach.
“Oh, I’m so glad you came!” gasped the girl on the sail boat. “I’m holding him, but I can’t seem to pull him up here. He’s so heavy!”
“Who is it?” gasped Cora. She was rather out of breath.
“My little brother Dick. He got in the way of the boom, and the main sheet fouled. That’s why I jibed. I’d never have done it by myself. We both went overboard, and I grabbed him. I got up here, but I can’t pull him up. Oh, please help me!”
“Of course I will,” cried Cora.
“Then pull around on the other side, and you can lift him into your boat. I can swim ashore.”
Directed by the girl on the sail boat, Cora and Eline sent their craft around so that they were opposite the half-submerged deck, which was now perpendicular in the water. There they saw the girl holding above the surface of the bay the head of a boy about seven years old. He seemed as self-possessed as though he were on shore, and calmly blinked at the rescuing girls.
“He’s so fat and heavy,” cried the girl in the bathing suit.
“I’m very fat,” confessed the boy in the water, calmly.
Indeed he did seem so, even though only his head and part of his shoulders showed. The wind was rising a little again, having subsided somewhat after capsizing the boat. The surface of the bay was broken into little waves, and they splashed into the face of the fat boy. But he did not seem to mind.
It was easier than Cora and Eline had thought it would be to get him in the boat, for the buoyancy of the salt water aided them, as did the rather large bulk of the boy himself, it being a well known fact that stout persons float much more easily in the water than do thin ones.
“Give yourself a boost, Dick!” directed the girl in the bathing suit, to her brother. He did so with a grunt that would have been laughable under other circumstances, and soon he was safe in the other boat, very wet, but otherwise not hurt.
“Did you swallow much water?” asked Cora, anxiously.
“Nope,” was the sententious answer.
“I guess he’ll be all right,” remarked his sister. “If you will kindly row him over there, I’ll swim in,” and she pointed to the lighthouse.
“Do you live there?” asked Cora, gazing at the tall stone tower. With its high lantern, which glistened in the sun, it stood on a point extending out into the bay, just behind some menacing rocks that jutted far out into the water in a dangerous reef that the light warned mariners against.
“Yes, Dick and I live there,” answered the girl. “My father, James Haley, is keeper of the light. My name is Rosalie.”
“And you look it,” said Cora, brightly, as she noted the damask cheeks of the bathing girl.
“Oh, thank you!” came quickly.
“Won’t you get in this boat–I don’t know whose it is–I just appropriated it,” said Cora. “There is no need of your swimming.”
“Oh, I want to. I’ve gone clear across the bay, though Daddy had a boat follow me. I’ve won prizes swimming. No, I’ll just swim over.”
“Will your brother be all right with us?” and Cora looked at the small dripping figure in the boat.
“Oh, yes, Dick is as good as gold. He’ll do just as you tell him. I guess he was rather scared when he went over. But he can swim, only I was rather afraid to let him try this time.”
“What about your boat?” asked Eline.
“She will stay here. The anchor fell out when she went over, so she won’t drift. I’ll get one of the men to tow her ashore and right her. She’s a good little old tub. She’s capsized before.”
With that the lighthouse maid made a graceful dive and was soon swimming alongside Cora’s boat. The latter and Eline now rowed to the lighthouse, the girl in the water following, and the autoists on shore breathing more freely.
“Wasn’t that splendid of Cora!” cried Belle.
“Just fine!” declared Bess.
“Sis was right on the mark!” exclaimed Jack, with pardonable pride. “I wonder who that girl in the red suit is?”
“She’s some swimmer; believe me!” declared Norton in admiration.
“She is that,” agreed Walter.
“Say, it’s going to be no joke to get Cora’s car up that hill of sand,” declared Ed, glancing back to it.
“We can pull her up with ropes if we have to,” said Jack. “I wonder where our bungles are, anyhow? Notice that ‘bungles’–patent applied for!”
“I fancy those over there,” remarked Mrs. Fordam, pointing to two that stood somewhat removed from a group of cottages. “Yes,” the chaperone went on, “I can see Aunt Susan in the door of one waving to us.”
“Me for Aunt Susan, then!” cried Jack. “I hope she has something to eat!”
“Eat!” gasped Belle. “Do you boys think that Aunt Susan is going to cook for you?”
“Yes, wasn’t that the arrangement?” inquired Jack, blankly.
“Indeed not!” was the quick answer. “You boys are to do your own providing.”
“Well, we can do it!” spoke Walter, quickly. “And, mind, don’t ask us for some of our pie and cake.”
“Don’t worry,” remarked Bess, with a shrug of her shoulders.
The little accident in the bay had not attracted much attention. Several who had run down to the water’s edge, now that they saw the two rescued, strolled away again, while the boats that had started toward the capsized one veered off as the occupants saw the one containing Cora move away, and noted the girl swimming.
Of course Cora and Eline could have reached the lighthouse much quicker than Rosalie Haley had they desired, but Cora was a bit diffident about rowing up to meet a strange man with his rescued son, leaving the daughter swimming out in the bay.
“We’ll just keep with her,” whispered Cora to Eline, nodding toward the swimmer, “and let her do the explaining.”
“Yes,” agreed Eline.
They rowed on for a time in silence, the recently submerged boy saying nothing. Then Cora called to Rosalie:
“Won’t your father be worried?”
“I don’t believe so. He knows both of us can swim.” She talked easily in the water for she progressed with her head well out, being, in fact, an excellent swimmer. “Besides,” she went on, as she reached forward in her side stroke, “poor Daddy has other things to worry about. His sister has disappeared–our Aunt Margaret.”
“Disappeared!” echoed Cora.
“Yes, gone completely. And not under the most pleasant circumstances, either; but Daddy believes that it’s all a mistake and will be cleared up some day. But he is certainly worried about Aunt Margaret, and he’s had the authorities looking all over, but they can’t find her. So that’s why I know he won’t worry over a little thing like this. He’s got a bigger one,” and she swam on.
Cora wondered where she had heard that name–Margaret–before. She was sure she had, and under peculiar circumstances, but so much had been crowded into the last few minutes that her brain did not act quickly. It was a puzzle that she reserved for future solution.