"Nick was afraid the boat was going to upset, and he saw a chance to save that red-cheeked little dumpling from a watery grave," Herb remarked, with a grin.
"Suppose something _had_ happened, Jack couldn"t have rescued them both.
But you can laugh all you want to, smarties, she waved her hand to me all the same, didn"t she, Jack?" appealed the fat boy, stubbornly.
"I saw her wave to somebody, so I suppose it was meant for you," replied Jack.
"Birds of a feather flock together," chanted Josh.
"That"ll do for you," Nick declared sternly. "She was a fine and dandy little lady, and I hope some time in the future I"ll see Sallie Bliss again."
"Bliss! Oh! what d"ye think of that, fellows?" roared George.
"Leave Buster alone, can"t you?" Jack said, in pretended indignation.
"He"s all right, and honest as the day is long. None of your Crafty Clarence in his makeup, you know, fellows."
Clarence Macklin was a boy who came from the same town as those around the camp fire. He was the son of a very rich man, who supplied him with almost unlimited spending money. Consequently Clarence was able to carry out any folly that chanced to crop up in his scheming mind.
Learning through trickery of the intention of the motor boat boys to cruise among the Thousand Islands, he had shipped his fast speed boat, called the _Flash_ thither, and succeeded in giving them more or less annoyance. He was accompanied by his pet crony, a fellow called Bully Joe Brinker, who usually did the dirty work Clarence allowed himself to think up.
"Say, speaking of that fellow, wonder what"s become of him?" George remarked; for there was a standing rivalry between his boat and that of the other, both being built solely for speed, and not comfort or safety.
"Didn"t he hint something about coming up in this region later on?" said Jack.
"I understood it that way," observed Herb. "And more than a few times, while we cruised along the southern sh.o.r.e of Ontario and Erie, I thought we"d see his pirate boat bob up."
"I hope we don"t run across that crowd again," observed Nick. "For they"re sore on us, and bound to do us a bad turn if they find the chance."
"Well, we can keep our eyes open," remonstrated George. "You know Clarence believes that _Flash_ can make circles around my bully boat, and I"m wanting to give him a chance to prove it."
"Chuck that, George," said Josh. "You know you beat him out once handsomely."
"Yes, but he said he hadn"t tried to do his level best. Anyhow, if the chance comes again I"m ready to race him."
"How long would we be gettin" up till the Soo now, Jack, darlint?" asked Jimmie; who being second "high notch" in the line of eaters in the crowd, had been too busy up to now to do any great amount of talking.
"That depends pretty much on the weather," replied the leader of the expedition, who studied his charts faithfully, and was always ready to give what information he picked up, to his chums. "We are now something like one hundred and fifty miles sou"-east-by-south from Mackinac Island, where we expect to stop over a few days. If we pick out a good morning we ought to navigate the head of Huron and the crooked St.
Mary"s river to the Soo in one day. The steamers do, and we can make about as fast time."
"Of course we have to hold up for the _Comfort_ pretty much all the way," said George; "not that I"m complaining, fellows, for I understand that it takes all sorts of people to make a world, and lots of different kinds of boats to please everybody. And in bad weather Herb and Josh fare better than the rest of us. Well, suppose we leave here tomorrow morning, if the weather lets us, Jack?"
"We will try and make Mackinac with just one more stop," Jack replied.
"That will be easy enough; though if the wind gets around and the waves increase, we"ll have to run for some snug harbor, George, because your boat and mine are hardly storm craft on these big lakes."
"It"s been a foine trip so far, I say," observed Jimmie, reaching for another baked potato, which Josh had cooked to a turn in the ashes of the fire, somehow keeping them from blackening, as is usually the case in camp.
"You"re right there, Jimmie," replied Herb. "And with no serious accidents to come, we"ll make a record to be proud of. Just imagine us sitting around the fire in our cozy club house that is right now building, while Jack reads the stirring log of our experiences up here.
It will make us live over the whole trip again."
"Yes," chimed in George, "and think of the _bliss_ that must bring."
Nick colored a little, as he felt every eye on him.
"Look at the moon just peeping up over yonder, fellows," he observed, meaning to distract their attention.
"Just about full too," remarked Jack. "Going to be a great night for a camp."
"Makes me think of that moonlight race we had with the _Flash_," George went on, his heart always set on the matter of speed and victories.
Night was just closing in, and the grand full moon was rising from the watery depths, so it seemed.
"There comes a motor boat down yonder," remarked Herb. "See what a fine searchlight she has. No need of that, though, as soon as the moon gets fairly up."
"Say, she"s just humping along to beat the band, I tell you!" declared Josh, as all eyes were turned to where the shadowy form of the advancing craft could be seen, growing plainer with every pa.s.sing second.
"Oh! I don"t know," instantly remarked George, who was unable to see much good in any small craft when his pet _Wireless_ was around. "I should say she was doing just fairly, you know; but then she doesn"t have to hold back for any elephant."
"That"s a mean hit, George," said Herb, though he never changed his mind about his comfortable boat because of any slurs cast by his mates, who might come to envy him in bad weather.
"Look at her cut through the water, would you?" Josh went on. "The fellows aboard don"t intend to turn in here to stop over. Must be in a hurry to get somewhere, I guess."
"There, she"s just pa.s.sing the rising moon. Why, I declare, fellows, seems to me she looks kind of familiar like!" Nick exclaimed.
Jack jumped up, and secured a pair of marine gla.s.ses. They were guaranteed for night work, and through them he could see the pa.s.sing motor boat splendidly.
"Is it, Jack?" asked George, eagerly; and the other nodded.
"That"s the same old _Flash_, all right," he said, looking around the circle.
"Gosh!" exploded Nick, "Crafty Clarence is on the trail once more, bent on revenge for the beat George gave his pirate motor boat. I see warm times looming up ahead of us, shipmates all. And ain"t I glad I know how to swim now!"
CHAPTER IV
CAUGHT BY THE STORM
"I wonder if they know we are camping in this place right now?" Josh ventured.
"The chances are, they do," replied Jack. "Both of those chaps possess eyes as sharp as they make them. And there"s another reason why I think that way."
"Then let"s hear it, old fellow," begged Nick.
"This is a nice, attractive place to haul in, and spend the night, when cruising along in a small motor boat. As evening has come, not one in ten would think of pa.s.sing the cove by; and you know it, boys," Jack went on, with emphasis.
"But they deliberately did that same thing," ventured Herb. "Yes, I get on to what you mean, Jack. They"d rather boom along, and take chances of being caught out on the open lake in the night, even with a storm in prospect, to stopping over near the camp of the motor boat club. Is that it?"