CHAPTER XXII
THE BOAT RACE
If the boys were amazed at the way these strange mud-bespattered girls tumbled into their boat and took possession of it, they were well-bred enough not to betray surprise.
Besides, they were interested in the chase, and for the moment all lesser matters were relegated to the background. They must catch that boat.
But the first launch had a good start of them, and, just as they seemed to be gaining upon it, the smaller boat dodged about one of the islands and was completely lost to view.
"Oh, did you see that!" cried Nan, in dismay.
"Now what are we going to do?" added Jo distractedly.
"What it takes to find that boat, we've got," grinned the boy at the wheel. "Don't you worry."
But, as it turned out, the pilot was overconfident. The first boat with the two men in it, one of whom Jo was sure was Andrew Simmer, had disappeared. Though they searched for it for some time—Jo would not give up—they were finally forced to admit that the pursued had been too clever for them.
"I suppose we might as well admit defeat," said Jo reluctantly at last. "Though I'd have given a million dollars—supposing I had it—to have overhauled that boat."
On the way back to Huckleberry Island the young folks, so strangely met, introduced themselves to each other.
The three boys were camping not far from Laurel Hall.
"We had to take our vacation late," said Fred Fielding, the lad at the wheel, "and now we are going to make the most of it. We won't go home until Nature gives us the cold shoulder and drives us out."
"It seems to me it's getting colder now," said Sadie, shivering.
"That's because you're all wet," said Dodd Martyn, another of the three boys. "If you want to dodge a good cold it's my opinion you'd better be getting home quick."
On this point all agreed. The fright the chums had experienced in the huckleberry swamp and the excitement afterward brought intense reaction. They wanted nothing better than to get back to the Hall to exchange wet clothes for dry and revel in the luxury of being once more warm and safe.
Frank Gibbs, the third of the trio of nice boys, pointed out an excellent landing place on Huckleberry Island near the spot that the girls had chosen for their picnic grounds. Here the young folks parted, the boys urging that they meet again soon to talk over the exciting events of the day.
It was not until after they had gone off in their motor launch that Jo remembered that she had not explained to them her reason for pursuing the man who looked like Andrew Simmer.
"And they never even asked me about it!" she marveled. "That's what I call being perfect gentlemen!"
At that moment Jessie Robinson, Doris Maybel and Gladys Holt rushed down upon them, demanding to know what they had been doing and what they meant by "scaring us to death."
"Let's g-go home," said Jo, her teeth chattering. "We'll explain everything on the way."
They hastily packed what was left of the contents of the lunch baskets and left the island.
With the two boats as close together as it was possible to get them, allowing for the space that must be left for the swing of the oars, Sadie told of their dreadful experience in the swamp and Jo recounted to an interested audience her belief as to the identity of the man she saw in the launch and her reasons for wanting to lay hands upon him.
"But, Jo, are you sure it was Andrew Simmer?" asked Nan excitedly.
"Not as sure as I was at the time," Jo answered truthfully. "Still, I got a pretty good look at his face, and if one of those men in the boat wasn't Dad's missing clerk, then Andrew Simmer must have a double. Still, what's the use of talking," she added dolefully. "I've lost him now and I don't expect ever to see him again."
They rowed back to the Hall as quickly as they could, for it was growing cooler, and Jo, Sadie, and Nan were shivering in their wet clothes.
"I hope no one is about to see us land," Sadie said as they neared the dock.
"The only thing we need to make this day perfect is a meeting with Lottie and Kate just now," added Nan.
But in this they were fortunate. There were few girls on the campus when they landed at the dock and it was a comparatively simple matter to reach their room without attracting attention.
Jo was disconsolate.
"To think I came so near that Andrew Simmer," she mourned, "and then let him get away from me after all!"
She flung off her wet clothing, slipped on a dressing gown and sat down at the table near the window.
"What are you going to do?" Nan asked curiously.
"Write to Dad," Jo flung over her shoulder. "I'm going to tell him what I saw—or thought I saw—to-day and he can do as he thinks best about it."
Although Andrew Simmer—or the man Jo took to be him—formed the major part of the girls' conversation during the next few days, nothing came of that strange experience on the lake.
Meanwhile, Jo received letters from home that were anything but cheering. Her father was struggling heroically to save his business from utter ruin, and in the struggle was losing his health. That was what Jo read between the lines of her mother's resolutely cheerful letters and her father's brief scrawls. Neither of her parents seemed to attach much importance to her account of the man she had taken to be Andrew Simmer and as day followed day Jo herself began to believe that she must have been mistaken.
The good news came from Miss Emma. The latter wrote in glowing terms of improvement in the state of her health and her hope that before many months had passed she might be cured.
Then one day Jo received a cordial note of appreciation from Mrs. Harrison in which she said that Jo's weekly "journal" was playing an important part in the invalid's improvement, both physical and mental.
"She is living her own youth over again through you, my dear," wrote Nan's mother. "She actually seems to be growing younger. She reads your letters again and again and laughs like a girl over them. Each day she tries to stand, and yesterday, for the first time, succeeded. For a full moment she stood by herself without support and has been greatly excited over it ever since. We now hope for her ultimate recovery, and if such a happy thing should come to pass, you, my dear girl, will be largely responsible for it. You seem to have given our poor invalid a new interest in life, and we are very, very grateful to you."
"She is living her own youth over again through you, my dear," wrote Nan's mother. "She actually seems to be growing younger. She reads your letters again and again and laughs like a girl over them. Each day she tries to stand, and yesterday, for the first time, succeeded. For a full moment she stood by herself without support and has been greatly excited over it ever since. We now hope for her ultimate recovery, and if such a happy thing should come to pass, you, my dear girl, will be largely responsible for it. You seem to have given our poor invalid a new interest in life, and we are very, very grateful to you."
"As thoughIshouldn't be the grateful one!" thought Jo, as she folded the letter and put it back in the envelope. "They all seem to forget that!"
Meanwhile great preparations were being made for the boat races.
The contestants were divided into three classes—freshmen, sophomores and juniors. The seniors did not compete in these boat races, though they watched their under classmen with a great deal of interest.
Jo and Sadie were, of course, in the freshmen division, and as the day of the great test approached they became more and more determined to carry off the honors in their class.
On the afternoon before the day of the race Nan brought news.
"I overheard Lottie and Kate talking about to-morrow," she said. "Who do you think are going to enter the race—representing that crowd?"
"Who?" they asked together.
"Carol Haynes and Ruth Davis. They are the new girls that Kate and Lottie have won over to their side."
"That's so Kate can crow if Ruth and Carol win the race," Jo said, frowning.
"Sure!" chuckled Nan. "Kate can't win from me on the tennis courts, so she's getting some of her friends to beat you girls on the water."
"Well, it's up to us," said Jo, jamming her hands savagely into the pockets of her sport skirt, "to disappoint them!"
The morning of the great day dawned fair and rather cold.
"Just the day for a race!" Jo exulted. "Never felt in better form in my life!"
About two o'clock in the afternoon the girls turned out in full force to witness the boat race of the freshmen. The course of the race was from the boathouse to an island about half a mile distant; then around the island and back again to the starting point, making a little over a mile in all.
The girls in their bright-colored frocks were grouped along the shore of the lake like a border of fall flowers. They were talking and laughing in high spirits, calling gay greetings to each other.
Lily Darrow stood a little apart from the rest, so pale and quiet that more than once Kate spoke to her sharply and asked what she was "mooning" about.
Lily's reply to the last of these sharp queries was lost in a sudden cheering. The freshmen were lining up for the start.
"Go it, Jo! Go it, Sadie!" cried Nan.
Kate shot a venomous look at Nan and shrilled in a voice that carried above the rest:
"Beat 'em, Carol! Beat 'em, Ruth!"
"You can do it! Go to it!" added Lottie Sparks.