THE OUTDOOR GIRLSAROUND THE CAMPFIRE
“Putt—putt—putt!” came the rhythmic throb of the motor as the little motor boat sped over the glassy surface of the lake, stirring up the water on either side of it and leaving a frothy white trail in its wake.
“How’s this for speed?” chortled the girl at the wheel, a pretty, dark-haired girl with dancing brown eyes. “I reckon we could beat any other boat on this old lake.”
“And then some!” agreed Mollie Billette, slangily. “I wish some one would come along and challenge us to a race.”
“It would provide some excitement, anyway,” sighed Grace Ford, as she lounged in the bow of the pretty little boat. “Looks like a pretty dull summer to me, so far.”
“How do you get that way, Grace Ford?” cried Betty Nelson, she of the dark hair anddancing eyes whom the girls fondly called “Little Captain.” “Tell ’em, Amy,” she added, to the quiet, sweet-faced girl who lounged beside Mollie Billette. “Tell ’em what you told me a little while ago.”
Grace Ford sat upright, a chocolate half-way to her mouth, while Mollie Billette’s black eyes regarded the “Little Captain” severely.
“Betty Nelson, what have you been holding back from us?” she demanded, but Betty was still looking at Amy Blackford.
“Tell ’em, Amy,” she repeated. “The news is too good to keep.”
“I’ll say it is,” agreed Amy, a smile lighting up her quiet face. “When Henry spoke of it to me at first I thought it was too good to be true. I supposed he was joking.”
“Told you what?” cried Mollie Billette, in an exasperated tone. “If you are not the most aggravating——”
“Hold your horses, old dear,” drawled Grace Ford, quietly helping herself to another piece of candy. “Amy has the floor——”
“The deck, you mean,” murmured Amy, then added hastily, as the girls threw impatient glances her way: “I’ll tell you just how it happened if you give me a chance. You see, Henry,” Henry was Amy’s older brother, “had a chance to takeover an old shack near the upper end of Rainbow Lake in part payment for a debt. And now that he has the shack, he doesn’t know what to do with it.”
The girls leaned toward Amy eagerly.
“Then what?” asked Mollie.
“Why,” said Amy, with a smile of quiet enjoyment, “I told him I thought we girls might help him out, for the summer, anyway. I thought it would be a great lark to camp out there during vacation.”
“Amy, you are a wonder,” drawled Grace, but Mollie broke in impatiently.
“Is he going to let us have it?” she demanded.
“I should say so!” laughed Amy. “Said he would be glad to put it to some sort of use. He said it would make a mighty fine summer camp but that was about all it was good for.”
“It will be ideal,” broke in the Little Captain, happily, as she brushed a wind-blown strand of hair from her eyes. “Why, at the upper end of Rainbow Lake we’ll be as much alone as if we were in an African forest.”
“More so, I hope,” drawled Grace, adding with a little shudder: “For in an African forest they have wild animals for company while here——”
“We sha’n’t see anything wilder than a chipmunk,” chuckled the Little Captain.
“Suits me fine,” said Grace heartily. “Wolves and bears may be all right, but give me a chipmunk every time.”
“My, isn’t she brave?” said Mollie, admiringly, and the other girls chuckled.
“Tell us more about this little shack, Amy,” said Betty, after a while. “Is it very tiny, or is it big enough to contain us all without squeezing?”
“Henry said it is of fair size,” replied Amy, wrinkling her forehead in an attempt to remember details. “There are two rooms in it and the rooms are furnished in a rough sort of way, with home-made furniture.”
The Little Captain let go of the wheel long enough to clap her hands gleefully.
“Great!” she cried. “This gets better every minute. Think of it. A house ready-made for us, and furnished, at that.”
“Too much luxury,” drawled Grace.
It was the first day of July and the Outdoor Girls, never completely happy unless they were engaged in some outdoor sport, had embarked in their pretty motor boatGemfor a sail down the Argono river. Although the motor boat was really Betty’s property, the Outdoor Girls rather regarded it as their own. And indeed, when it is considered that none of the four everused it without the other three, it was the same to them as though the ownership were actually theirs. As a matter of fact, what belonged to one of the Outdoor Girls automatically belonged to all of them.
Those who have kept in touch with Betty and her chums will need no introduction to theGem, but for the benefit of those who do not know these Outdoor Girls so well, we will give a brief description of it. For in this story the trim little motor boat plays rather an important part.
First of all, theGemhad been given to Betty by an uncle of hers, a retired sea captain by the name of Amos Marlin. The old fellow had produced the best craft of its size that could be found anywhere. There was a large cockpit in the stern, and a tiny cooking galley. Also the little boat boasted a small trunk cabin and an unusually powerful and efficient motor. Altogether a snappy little craft, well meriting its name ofGem.
And now, as the girls putt-putted briskly down the river, the thrill of summer filling them with a fresh eagerness for adventure, it is no wonder that Amy’s suggestion of a summer camp on the banks of Rainbow Lake was greeted with enthusiasm.
So far, having made no plans for the summermonths, they had about decided to spend a rather uneventful summer in Deepdale, the thriving and busy little town in which they had been brought up.
It might have been supposed, since Deepdale was situated so pleasantly on the banks of the Argono—the latter emptying some miles below into pretty Rainbow Lake—and since the bustling population of the town itself numbered something like fifteen thousand, that the Outdoor Girls would have been content to spend a summer there.
However, although they agreed that Deepdale was “the finest place in the world,” change and adventure were what they really hankered after, and Deepdale was too familiar a spot to offer them either.
But there was real adventure in the idea of camping out in the romantic little shack so recently acquired by Amy Blackford’s brother, and they welcomed it eagerly.
“I suppose we ought to run down there and look the place over,” said Grace, cautiously. Grace was the only one of the four Outdoor Girls who really considered comfort where adventure was concerned, and this trait of hers no amount of ridicule or impatience on the part of the other girls could overcome. For Grace, whowas tall and slim and graceful, was very fond of her ease. Once she was assured that an outing was to be “comfortable,” then she could start in to enjoy herself.
So at this suggestion that they “run down there and look the place over” the girls exchanged a glance of martyrdom.
“Why, of course,” said Mollie sarcastically, “Grace will have to be sure she has a real hair mattress to sleep on and clean sheets twice a week. Maybe we could manage to get an easy chair aboard theGem—one like the kind Betty’s dad uses.”
“A fine idea,” replied Grace, unabashed. “I never gave you credit for so much thoughtfulness, Mollie dear. Have a chocolate?”
Mollie sniffed disdainfully.
“Keep your old chocolates,” she said. “The next time you offer me one I’ve a good mind to throw the whole box overboard.”
“Just try it,” said Grace, lazily. “You’d have to toss me over, too, you know.”
“Shouldn’t mind in the least,” said Mollie, at which the Little Captain laughed and Amy Blackford chuckled.
“Talk about wild animals,” cried Betty, gayly. “We won’t need any with you and Grace about, Mollie dear. Two wildcats are enough.”
“Did you hear what she called us?” asked Grace, feeling abused, but Mollie was looking the other way.
“We’ve gone a pretty long way down the river,” she said. “Look, Betty, isn’t that the new lake steamer, theGeneral Pershing?”
Betty, who had been too absorbed in plans for the summer to notice particularly where she was going, followed the direction of Mollie’s pointing finger.
Suddenly her breath caught in a gasp and a thrill of apprehension swept over her. The steamer was indeed theGeneral Pershing, the great shining new boat which plied up and down the lake and the river, and it was coming toward them at what, to the Little Captain, seemed an appalling rate of speed.
“Betty,” cried Mollie, leaning forward and catching Betty’s arm, “we’re right in the path of it! For goodness’ sake, sheer over.”
“I can’t—very far!” said Betty, tight-lipped. “It’s shallow, near the shore and—the rocks——”
Mollie took in the situation with a glance and a little groan of dismay escaped her. At this point the river was very narrow and the shore on either side bristled with cruel, jagged-looking rocks. A small boat like theGemwould be dashed to pieces upon them. Betty was right.It would be madness to encroach too far upon them.
And yet on the other hand the steamer menaced them with destruction. Bearing down full upon them, it could not fail to meet them squarely in the middle of that narrow channel!
Useless for Betty to stop the motor. They had no time to turn, speeding back to the safety of the wider water. If Betty kept her head, holding the boat away from the oncoming steamer and at the same time far enough from the rocks—
Amy and Grace, now fully alive to the peril of the situation, were leaning forward, their faces white, their breath coming in terrified gasps.
The Little Captain, her hand resolutely on the wheel, a prayer for guidance in her heart, watched the oncoming rush of the big steamboat.