But who? Everyone wanted to take the trip on the _Chelton_.
"Let us take you up to the point," called Cora, "and we can wait for you to change and come back. Our trip would be spoiled with one of the party missing."
"Let"s shift," suggested Drayton, with a gracious smile at Cora. "Mine is probably the faster boat. You get in here with us, Miss Cora, and we will run up and down the bay while your friends are working off the oil smoke. That"s a neat little boat you have, a perfect little model," he finished, coming as close as possible to the _Chelton_.
"Yours is all right, too, Dray," replied Jack, "but it looks too good to be true. Doesn"t shoot up on land for a change, does it? I have heard of _Dixies_ doing that stunt."
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Lottie. "I am freezing to death. I guess I"ll go change my dress."
"Good idea," agreed Cora, who was ready to leave her boat and go back to the bungalow with Lottie. "Come on," and she jumped to the dock to which her boat had drifted. "I"ll run along with you."
"Nice way to treat a fellow," complained Drayton. "Well, fellows, I"ll race you while we are waiting for the ladies to return. What do you say, Jack?"
"I"m willing, as long as Cora has finally condescended to let me touch the wheel. Everybody sit down this time."
Without a word all hands, keen for a race as soon as one was suggested, took seats, and the two boats veered out into the bay and "lined up" for the start. Denny was the proudest engineer imaginable, and constantly looked over the fine mechanism.
"Ready!" shouted Ed, and at the word both throttles were thrown wide open and the boats shot up the bay, emitting clouds of smoke from their newly oiled works, and "chugging" so rapidly that the sounds were drowned in a roar. It was a pretty sight, for in the girls" boat a line of colored sweaters and waving caps lent life to the gray of the waters, while Drayton, in his glistening, highly-polished _Dixie_, only needed the glint that the sun lent to complete the picture afforded by his fine craft.
"Oh, isn"t this glorious!" exclaimed Marita. "I thought I should be frightened, but this is--lovely."
"Frightened!" repeated Belle. "I used to be so afraid of the water I couldn"t see anything but the bottom every time I came out; but now I just love it."
"Hey there, Dray!" shouted Ed. "You"re out of the course. Get in from sh.o.r.e!"
"He"s keeping his eye on those girls on the beach," laughed Walter.
"Those are the la.s.sies who have the white canoe." So saying he waved his own cap and a flutter of handkerchiefs from the beach came back in recognition.
"Turn at the island," ordered Denny.
Here a white flag fluttered, the stake left from some recent sailing races. Gracefully the _Chelton_ rounded the stake first. Drayton had lost time in running too close to sh.o.r.e. Only a minute later the _Dixie_ swayed after the _Chelton_, then the final stretch was taken up in earnest. Spectators on the bank might wave now, but the motorists had no eyes for them. A slight miss in the _Chelton"s_ explosion brought Denny and Ed to their feet--there should be no break in the rhythm of that chug.
"She"s all right," Ed called to the old sailor, "only too much oil."
Denny shook his head lest a word might interfere with the boat"s motion. Dray stood up and did something that caused the bow of his boat to shoot up, while the stern seemed to bury itself in the waves.
"His is a racer," Walter told Bess, who was as intent as any of the watchers on the result of the trial of speed.
"Maybe ours will turn out to be a winner," Bess responded. "We keep pretty close."
Jack never took his hand off the steering wheel, Denny was watching the engine, and the others were peering down the straight course ahead.
"Oh, I"m getting all wet," exclaimed Marita, for the spray was dashing in on all sides.
"Get down in the bottom," advised Walter, "we can"t slacken up now. Or go in the cabin if you like and close the ports."
This was a signal for all three girls to slip down to the floor of the boat and while they lost the good view afforded from the seats, they evidently enjoyed the change, and craned their necks to see over the sides.
"Of course Dray will win," complained Belle. "We couldn"t expect to beat the _Dixie_."
"We might," encouraged Bess. "Cora said this boat had remarkable speed for its size."
"Gee, whiz!" shouted Walter, "look at that spray deluge Dray!"
"And she"s missing," added Ed, for the sounds from the _Dixie_ were distinctly out of time.
Suddenly Dray"s boat slowed down, and the _Chelton_ shot so far ahead that it was plain something had happened to the _Dixie_.
Jack stood up and looked back. "Something is wrong," he said. "We had better not get too far ahead. Dray is fussing with the carbureter."
The race was over. The girls stood up from their hiding place and Jack turned the boat about. By this time Dray had turned off the gasoline and the _Dixie_ merely heaved up and down on the swells.
"What"s the matter, Dray?" called Walter. "Something given way?"
"I don"t know," answered Dray, "she simply won"t "mote.""
"Let me take a look at her," suggested Denny, ever eager for a new adventure.
"Oh, there are Cora and Lottie!" exclaimed Belle. "Can"t we go in for them, and look after Dray"s boat afterward?"
"That would be a nice way to treat a ship in distress," said Denny, "but excuse me," and he showed regret at his remark. "I shouldn"t be thinkin" of a lad when the young girls are needin" help."
"Oh, the girls are all right," Jack a.s.sured the old seaman; "but say, Dray," he called, "what"s the matter, anyhow?"
"Just give me a line and tow me in, then we will hold a post mortem,"
replied Dray, good humoredly. "I don"t fancy taking her apart out here."
"Good!" exclaimed Marita, "then we can go for Cora and Lottie."
Promptly the brand new rope of the _Chelton_ was tossed to the disabled boat and fastened, then the two boats started for sh.o.r.e.
Cora and Lottie were waiting. The latter had shed her wet "garments of vanity," as Belle described them, for a simple brown linen frock.
"What happened?" called Cora, as the boats neared sh.o.r.e.
"Mis-happened," answered Dray. "It was just fate. We couldn"t expect to beat the motor girls."
"Nice of you," acknowledged Cora, "but I am sorry if there is anything wrong with your beautiful boat."
"It"s the boat and not the boy," remarked Ed. "Well, we"ll do as much for you some day, Cora. Wait until we get our little _La.s.sie_ out.
She, being a mere girl, may have a show."
"What"s the matter, Lottie?" asked Bess, as they landed and the girls noted that Lottie was remarkably quiet, and even a trifle pale.
"Not a thing," Cora hurriedly answered, while she crushed her fingers on Lottie"s arm. "We were detained at the bungalow, that"s all. We"ll tell you all about it later on."
The girls gathered around Cora and Lottie at this remark. But Cora, by some mysterious signal system, had warned Lottie not to say anything, and she soon joined the boys, who had already boarded the _Dixie_ to overhaul her.
They looked at the engine, at the spark plugs, at the cylinder, but Cora, who happened to have more room at the point where the carbureter was situated, suddenly exclaimed: