The expedition started. Monty, who had Miss Peckham in the canoe with him--she being the only one who would ride with him--insisted upon going at the head of the procession. "I"ll paddle so much faster than the rest of you," he said airly, "that I"ll want room to go ahead. I don"t want to be held back by the rest of you when I shall want to put on a slight spurt now and then. That is the way I like to go, now fast, now slowly, as inclination dictates, without having to keep my pace down to that of others. I will start first, Uncle, and lead the line."
"All right," replied Dr. Grayson a trifle wearily. "You may lead the line."
The various canoes had been a.s.signed before, so there was no confusion in starting. The smallest of the canoes had been given to Monty because there would be only two in it. Conscious that he was decidedly ornamental in his speckless white flannels and silk shirt he helped Miss Peckham into the boat with exaggerated gallantry, all the while watching out of the corner of his eye to see if Pom-pom was looking at him. He had been trying desperately to flirt with her ever since his arrival, and had begged her to go with him in the canoe on the trip, all in vain.
Nevertheless, he was still buzzing around her and playing to the audience of her eyes. By fair means or foul he meant to get the privilege of having her with him on the return trip. Miss Peckham, newly graduated into the canoe privilege, was nervous and fussy, and handled her paddle as gingerly as if it were a gun.
"Ah, let me do all the paddling," he insisted, knowing that Pom-pom, in a nearby canoe, could hear him. "I could not think of allowing you to exert yourself. It is the man"s place, you know. You really mustn"t think of it."
Miss Peckham laid down her paddle with a sigh of relief, and Monty, with a graceful gesture, untied the canoe and pushed it out from the dock. Behind him the line of boats were all waiting to start.
"Here we go!" he shouted loudly, as he dipped his paddle. In a moment all the canoes were in motion. Monty, at the head, seemed to find the paddling more difficult than he had expected. He dipped his paddle with great vigor and vim, but the canoe only went forward a few inches at each stroke. One by one the canoes began to pa.s.s him, their occupants casting amusing glances at him as he perspired over his paddle. He redoubled his efforts, he strained every sinew, and the canoe did go a little faster, but not nearly as fast as the others were going.
"What"s the matter, Monty, is your load too heavy for you?" called out Miss Judy.
"Not at all," replied Monty doggedly. "I"m a little out of form, I guess. This arm--I strained it last spring--seems to have gone lame all of a sudden."
"Would you like to get in a canoe with some of the girls?" asked Dr.
Grayson solicitously.
"I would _not_," replied Monty somewhat peevishly. "Please let me alone, Uncle, I"ll be all right in a minute. Don"t any of you bother about me, I"ll follow you at my leisure. When I get used to paddling again I"ll very soon overtake you even if you have a good start."
The rest of the canoes swept by, and Monty and Miss Peckham soon found themselves alone on the river.
"Hadn"t I better help you paddle?" asked Miss Peckham anxiously. She was beginning to distrust the powers of her ferryman.
"No, no, no," insisted Monty, stung to the quick by the concern in her voice. "I can do it very well alone, I tell you."
He kept at it doggedly for another half hour, stubbornly refusing to accept any help, until the canoe came _to_ a dead stop. No amount of paddling would budge it an inch; it was apparently anch.o.r.ed. Puzzled, Monty peered into the river to find the cause of the stoppage. The water was deep, but there were many snags and obstructions under the surface.
Something was holding him, that was plain, but what it was he could not find out, nor could he get loose from it. The water was too deep to wade ash.o.r.e, and there was nothing to do but sit there and try to get loose by means of the paddle, a proceeding which soon proved fruitless. In some mysterious way they were anch.o.r.ed out in mid stream at a lonely place in the river where no one would be likely to see them for a long time. The others were out of sight long ago, having obeyed Monty"s injunction to let him alone.
Monty, in his usual airy way, tried to make the best of the situation and draw attention away from his evident inability to cope with the situation. "Ah, pleasant it is to sit out here and bask in the warm sunshine," he murmured in dulcet tones. "The view is exquisite here, _n"est-ce pas_? I could sit here all day and look at that mountain in the distance. It reminds me somewhat of the Alps, don"t you know."
Miss Peckham gazed unhappily at the mountain, which was merely a blur in the distance. "Do you think we"ll have to sit here all night?" she asked anxiously.
Monty exerted himself to divert her. "How does it come that I have never met you before, Miss Peckham? Really, I didn"t know that Uncle Clement had such delightful relations. Can it be that you are really his cousin?
It hardly seems possible that you are old enough. Sitting there with the breeze toying with you hair that way you look like a young girl, no older than Judith herself."
Now this was quite a large dose to swallow, but Miss Peckham swallowed it, and much delighted with the gallant youth, so much more appreciative of her than the others at camp, she sat listening attentively to his prattle of what he had seen and done, keeping her hat off the while to let her hair ripple in the breeze the way he said he liked it, regardless of the fact that the sun was rather hot.
In something over an hour a pair of rowboats came along filled with youngsters who thought it great sport to rescue the pair in the marooned canoe, and who promptly discovered the cause of the trouble. It was an iron kettle full of stones, fastened to the bottom of the canoe with a long wire, which had wedged itself in among the branches of a submerged tree in the river and anch.o.r.ed the canoe firmly.
"Somebody"s played a trick on us!" exclaimed Miss Peckham wrathfully.
"Somebody at camp deliberately fastened that kettle of stones to the bottom of the canoe to make it hard for you to paddle. That"s just what you might have expected from those girls. They"re playing tricks all the time. They have no respect for anyone."
Monty turned a dull red when he saw that kettle full of stones, and he, too, sputtered with indignation. "Low brow trick," he exclaimed loftily, but he felt quite the reverse of lofty. "This must be Cousin Judith"s doing," he continued angrily, remembering the subtle antagonism that had sprung up between his cousin and himself.
His dignity was too much hurt to allow him to follow the rest of the party now. Disgusted, he turned back in the direction of camp. By the time he arrived he began to feel that he did not want to stay long enough to see the enjoyment of his cousin over his discomfiture. He announced his intention of leaving that very night, paddling down the river to the next landing, and boarding the evening boat.
Miss Peckham suddenly made up her mind, too. "I"m going with you." she declared. "I"m not going to stay here and be insulted any longer. It"ll serve them right to do without my services as councilor for the rest of the summer. I"ll just leave a note for Mrs. Grayson and slip out quietly with you."
When the expedition returned the following day both Pecky and Monty were gone.
Bengal raised such a shout of joy when she heard of the departure of her despised councilor that her tent mates were obliged to restrain her transports for the look of the thing, but they, too, were somewhat relieved to be rid of her.
The reason of the double departure remained a mystery in camp until the very end, but there were a select few that always winked solemnly at one another whenever Dr. Grayson wondered what had become of his largest camping kettle.
CHAPTER XIV
REGATTA DAY
The long antic.i.p.ated, the much practiced for Regatta Day had dawned, bringing with it crowds of visitors to Camp. It was Camp Keewaydin"s great day, when the Avenue and the Alley struggled for supremacy in aquatics. The program consisted of contests in swimming and diving, canoe upsetting and righting, demonstrations of rescue work, stunts and small canoe races, and ended up with a race between the two war canoes.
Visitors came from all the summer resorts around, and many of the girls"
parents and friends came to see their daughters perform.
The dock and the diving platform were gay with flags; the tents had been tidied up to wax-like neatness and decorated with wild flowers until they looked like so many royal bowers; in Mateka an exhibition of Craft Work was laid out on the long tables--pottery and silver work and weaving and decorating. Hinpoha"s rose jar, done with infinite pains and patience after its unfortunate meeting with Cousin Egmont, held the place of honor in the centre of the pottery table, and her silver candlesticks, done in an exquisite design of dogwood blossoms, was the most conspicuous piece on the jewelry table.
"Hinpoha"ll get the Craft Work prize, without any doubt," said Migwan to Agony as they stood helping to arrange the articles in the Craft Work exhibit. "She"s a real artist. The rest of us are just dabblers. It"s queer, though, I admire that little plain pottery bowl I made myself more than I do Hinpoha"s wonderful rose jar. I suppose it"s because I made it all myself; it"s like my own child. There"s a thrill about doing things yourself that makes you hold your head higher even if other people don"t think it"s anything very wonderful. Don"t you feel that way, Agony?"
"I suppose so," murmured Agony, rather absently, her animation falling away from her in an instant, and a weary look creeping into her eyes.
"That"s the way you must feel all the time since you did that splendid thing," continued Migwan warmly. "No matter where you are, or how hard a thing you"re up against, you have only to think, "I was equal to a great emergency once; I did the brave and splendid thing when the time came,"
and then you"ll be equal to it again. O, how wonderful it must be to know that when the time comes you won"t be a coward! O Agony, we"re all so proud of you!" cried Migwan, interrupting herself to give Agony an adoring hug. "All the Winnebagos will be braver and better because you did that, Agony. They"ll be ashamed to be any less than you are."
"It wasn"t anything much that--I did," Agony protested in a flat voice.
Migwan, busy straightening out the rows of bracelets and rings, did not notice the hunted expression in Agony"s face, and soon the bugle sounded, calling all the girls together on the dock.
Only those who have ever taken part in Regatta Day will get the real thrill when reading an account of it in cold print--the thrill which comes from seeing dozens of motor boats filled with spectators lined up on the river, and crowds standing on the sh.o.r.e; the sun shining in dazzling splendor on the ripples; the flags snapping in the breeze, the starters with their pistols standing out on the end of the dock, the canoes rocking alongside, straining at their ropes as if impatient to be off in the races; the crews, in their new uniforms, standing nervously around their captains, getting their last instructions and examining their paddles for any possible cracks; the councilors rushing around preparing the props for the stunts they were directing; and over all a universal atmosphere of suspense, of tenseness, of excitement.
The Alleys wore bright red bathing caps, the Avenues blue; otherwise they wore the regulation Camp bathing suits, all alike. First on the program came the demonstrations--canoe tipping, rescuing a drowning person, resuscitation. Sahwah won the canoe tipping contest, getting her canoe righted in one minute less time than it took Undine Girelle, so the first score went to the Alley. The Avenue had a speedy revenge, however, for Undine took first honors in the diving exhibition which followed immediately after. Even the Winnebagos, disappointed as they were that Sahwah had not won out, admitted that Undine"s performance was unequalled, and joined heartily in the cheers that greeted the announcement of her winning. In the smaller contests the Avenue and the Alley were pretty well matched, and at the end of the swimming and small canoe races the score was tied between them. This left the war canoe race, which counted ten points, to decide the championship.
A round of applause greeted the two crews as they marched out on the dock to the music of the Camp band and took their places in the war canoes. Sahwah was Captain of the Dolphins, the Alley crew; Undine commanded the Avenue Turtles. Agony was stern paddler of the Dolphin, the most important position next to the Captain. Prominence had come to her in many ways since she had become the camp heroine; positions of trust and honor fell to her thick and fast without her making any special efforts to get them. If nothing succeeds like success it is equally true that nothing brings honor like honor already achieved. To her who hath shall be given.
Besides Sahwah and Agony the Dolphin crew consisted of Hinpoha, Migwan, Gladys, Katherine, Jo Severance, Jean Lawrence, Bengal Virden, Oh-Pshaw, and two girls from Aloha, Edith Anderson and Jerry Mortimer, a crew picked after severe tests which eliminated all but the most expert paddlers. That the Winnebagos had all pa.s.sed the test was a matter of considerable pride to them, and also to Nyoda, to whom they had promptly written the good news.
"I am not surprised, though," she had written in return. "I am never surprised at anything my girls accomplish. I always expect you to do things--and you do them."
Quickly the two Captains brought their canoes out to the starting line and sat waiting for the shot from the starter"s pistol. The command "Paddles Up!" had been given, and twenty-four broad yellow blades were poised stiffly in air, ready for the plunge into the shining water below. A hush fell upon the watching crowd; the silence was so intense that the song of a bird on the roof of Mateka could be plainly heard. A smile came to Sahwah"s lips as she heard the joyous thrill of the bird.
An omen of victory, she said to herself.
Then the pistol cracked. Almost simultaneously with its report came her clear command, "Down paddles!" Twelve paddles dipped as one and the Dolphin shot forward a good five feet on the very first stroke. The race was on.
The course was from the dock to Whaleback Island, around the Island and back to the starting point.
Until the Island was reached the canoes kept practically abreast, now one forging a few inches ahead, now the other, but always evening up the difference before long. As the pull toward Whaleback was downstream both crews made magnificent speed with apparently little effort. The real struggle lay in rounding the Island and making the return pull upstream.