"Lucky house," put in Jack. "But I don"t believe the cottage would mind it the least bit, would you?" and he put his ear to the wall.
"No, it says to go ahead. Yes? What"s that? Delighted? Of course, I knew it would be. Nice Clover," and he patted the plain, white wall.
"Of course, you want the girls to go out with us in that dandy little launch. I knew it! Now, girls, get ready. It is time to start."
"And no chaper--" they all protested.
"Quit!" shouted Walter. "I have it on good authority that when a girl"s brother is along, and when there are twins in the same party, and when there are two fellows, near twins, in aforesaid same party, that makes a cross-finger combination on the chaperon. She doesn"t have to come along."
Walter was looking his very best, which was always good, for the brown boy was now browner than ever, with the tan of beach sand and sun.
Bess wore a most becoming linen gown, with just a rim of embroidered pink around her plump neck, and she, too, looked charming. Then Belle--Belle always wore dainty things, she was so perfectly blonde and so bisquelike. Her gown was of the simplest silvery stuff that Jack described as cloudy. Cora, after her auto trip of the afternoon, had "freshed up" in dazzling white. She loved contrast, and invariably, after driving, would don something directly opposite to that required for motoring. Her dark hair looked blacker than usual against the fleecy white, and her face was strictly handsome. Cora Kimball had grown from pretty to handsome just as naturally as a bud unfolds into a flower, with the attending dignity.
"If Cora thinks it"s all right," weakened Bess.
"I don"t see why we shouldn"t go," replied Cora, "especially as the boys cannot have the launch for another evening. But I suppose that would mean a second change of dress," with a look at the flimsy costumes about her.
"Why?" asked Jack.
"These--in the evening on the water?"
"Why not? Wear shawls or something----"
"Yes," a.s.sented Belle. "It is all right to be dressed up in a launch when we don"t have to motor the boat."
"Oh, I"ll attend to the motoring," promised Ed. "I am the fellow who borrowed the boat."
"Has Nettie a key?" asked Cora.
"I guess so," replied Bess. "We can leave the cellar window----"
"We can do nothing of the sort, Bess Robinson," interrupted Belle, "and have that man sneak in? I guess not!"
"Oh, your man!" protested Jack. "Haven"t you forgotten him yet?
That"s what I call faithful."
"Well, at any rate, I am sure Nettie has her key," finished Bess. "And there is only one more train. If she does not come----"
"I"ll sleep in the hammock on the porch," volunteered Jack. "It would be heaps better than melting in the bungalow to-night."
"I thought that bungalow was perfection," remarked Belle.
"It is--on the catalogue. But after a day"s sun like to-day we just put our ham and eggs on the corrugated iron roof, and they are done to a turn in the morning, with nice little ridge patterns on them."
"If we are going sailing, we"d better be at it," Walter reminded them.
Whereat the girls ran off to get wraps, and shortly returned ready for the trip.
Nor were the wraps lacking in beauty or usefulness. Cora had a family shawl--the kind that defies description outside of the French-English fashion papers. It was of the Paisley order, and did not seem to be cut any place; at the same time it fell in folds about her arms and neck with some invisible fastenings. Her hood was made from a piece of the same wonderfully embroidered stuff--a big red star, with the points drawn in. Bess and Belle both wore pretty cloaks of eiderdown. Bess was in pink and Belle in blue.
"Take your guitar, Cora," suggested Ed. "We will have some singing."
"And you can play that piece--what is it? "Love"s Hankering?"" asked Jack.
""Love"s Triumph,"" corrected Bess, "and it"s the prettiest piece out this summer. Cora plays it beautifully."
"It is pretty," confirmed Belle.
"Yes, I like it," admitted Cora. "As long as you are bent on a romantic evening, we may as well have the little love song," and she slipped the strap of her guitar case over her arm as they started off.
Jack took his banjo. He, too, liked the new summer "hit;" in fact, every one was whistling it as well as they could, but it took tuned strings to give it the correct interpretation.
It was delightful on the water. The smaller bay opened into another and provided safe motor boating. The tide was slowly receding, and as the party glided along, little moonlight-tipped waves seemed to caress the launch. Jack and Cora were playing, Bess and Belle were humming, while Walter was "breathing sounds" that could scarcely be cla.s.sified, and Ed was content to run the motor.
"Now, isn"t that pretty?" asked Belle of Ed, as Cora and Jack finished the popular piece.
"Very catchy," replied the young man.
"But Cora has given it a twist of her own," said Jack; "the end goes this way," and he correctly played a few bars, "while Cora likes it thusly," and he played a strain or two more in different style.
Was it the moonlight on the baby waves? was it the murmur of that gliding boat? or was it something indefinable that so awakened the sentiments of the party of gay motorists?
For some moments no one spoke; then Jack broke the spell with a lively fandango, played in solo.
"This seems too good to last," prophesied Belle, with a sigh, "Do you think it was all right to leave the cottage alone?"
"Now, Tinkle," and Walter moved as if to take her hand, "haven"t we a.s.sured you that the cottage expressly desired to be left alone to-night, and that we fellows wanted your company?"
It was a pretty speech for Walter, and was not lost on the sensitive Belle.
"How about sand bars, Ed?" asked Jack. "Might we run onto one?"
"We might, but I guess I could feel one coming. The tide is getting away. We had better veer toward the sh.o.r.e."
"Oh! is there danger?" asked Belle, immediately alarmed.
"Not much," replied Ed, "but we wouldn"t like to walk home from this point." He was twisting the wheel so that the launch almost turned.
Then a sound like something grating startled them.
"Bottom!" exclaimed Jack, jumping up and going toward the wheel. "That was ground, Ed!"
"Sounded a lot like it, but we can push off. Get that oar there, Walter; get the other and----"
The launch gave a jerk and then stopped!
"Oh! what is it?" asked Bess and Belle in one voice.
"Nothing serious," Cora a.s.sured them. "You see, the tide has gone out so quickly that it has left us on a sand bar. I guess the boys can push off. They know how to handle oars."
But this time even skillful handling of oars would not move the launch.
Ed ran the motor at full speed ahead and reversed, but the boat remained on the bar, which now, as the tide rapidly lowered, could be plainly seen in the moonlight.
"What next?" asked Cora coolly.