"Don"t you _dare_ lose your nerve," commanded Wynifred. "If we lose courage we certainly will be lost."
"Oh, but, Wyn----"
"Oh, but, Bess! Don"t you dare. Here! get hold of the keel of my canoe."
"But it won"t bear us both up," groaned Bessie Lavine.
"It"s got to," declared Wyn. "Have courage; don"t be afraid."
"You needn"t try to tell me you"re not afraid yourself, Wyn Mallory!"
chattered her friend.
"Of course I am, dear; but I mean, don"t lose your head because you _are_ afraid," said Wyn. "Come, now! Paddle with one hand and cling to the keel with the other. I"ll do the same."
"Oh, dear, me! if we were only not so far from the sh.o.r.e," groaned Bess.
"Somebody may see us and come to our help," said Wyn, with more confidence in her tone than she really felt.
"The canoes couldn"t live in this gale."
"It"s only a squall."
"That"s all very well; but they wouldn"t dare to start out for us from Green Knoll."
"But the boys----"
"Their camp isn"t in sight of this place, Wyn," moaned Bess. "Oh! we _will_ be drowned."
But Wyn had another hope. She remembered, just before the overturn, that she had caught a glimpse of the red and yellow cottage behind Jarley"s Landing.
"Oh, Bess!" she gasped. "Perhaps Mr. Jarley will see us. Perhaps Polly----"
Another slapping wave came and rolled them and the canoe over. The frail craft came keel up, level full of water. The least weight upon it now would send it to the bottom of the lake.
"Oh, oh!" shrieked Bess, when she found her voice. "What shall we do now?"
They could both swim; but the lake was rough. The sudden and spiteful squall had torn up the surface for many yards around. Yet, as they rose upon one of the waves, they saw the sun shining boldly in the westward.
The squall was scurrying away.
"Come on! we"ve got to swim," urged Wyn.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THEY COULD BOTH SWIM, BUT THE LAKE WAS ROUGH. _Page 146._]
"That"s so hard," wailed Bess, but striking out, nevertheless, in the way she had been so well taught by the instructor in Denton. All these girls had been trained in the public school baths.
"There"s the other canoe," said Wyn, hopefully.
"But we--we don"t want to go that way," gasped Bess. "It"s away from land."
Now Wyn knew very well that they had scarcely a chance of swimming to the distant sh.o.r.e. In ordinarily calm weather--yes; but in this rough sea, and hampered as they were by their bloomers and other clothing--no.
The two girls swam close together, but Wyn dared not offer her comrade help. She wanted to, but she feared that if she did so Bess would break down and become helpless entirely; and Wyn hoped they would get much farther insh.o.r.e before that happened.
The squall had quite gone over and the sun began to shine. It seemed a cruel thing--to drown out there in the sunlight. And yet the buffeting little waves, kicked up by the wind-flaw, were so hard to swim through.
Had the waves been of a really serious size the struggle would have been less difficult for the two girls. They could have ridden over the big waves and managed to keep their heads above water; but every once in a while a cross wavelet would slap their faces, and every time one did so Bess managed to get a mouthful of water.
"Oh! what will papa do?" moaned Bess.
And Wyn knew what the poor girl meant. She was her father"s close companion and chum. The other girls in the Lavine family were smaller and their mother was devoted to them; but Bess and Mr. Lavine were pals all the time.
Bess repeated this exclamation over and over again, until Wyn thought she should shriek in nervous despair. She realized quite fully that their chance for life was very slim indeed; but moaning and groaning about it would not benefit them or change the situation in the slightest degree.
Wyn kept her head and saved her breath for work. She raised up now and then, breast high in the water, and tried to scan the sh.o.r.e.
Suddenly the sun revealed Green Knoll Camp to her--bathing the little hillock, with the tents upon it, in the full strength of his rays. But it was quite two miles away.
Wyn could see no moving figures upon the knoll. Nor could her friends see her and Bess struggling in the water at that distance. If their overset had not been sighted, Mrs. Havel and the four other members of the Go-Ahead Club would not be aware of their peril.
And, Wyn believed, the swamping of the canoes could only have been observed through a gla.s.s. Had anybody along sh.o.r.e been watching the two canoes as the squall struck the craft and overset them?
In that possibility, she thought, lay their only hope of rescue.
CHAPTER XIV
THE REPULSE
As the squall threatened in the northwest, it had been observed by many on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Honotonka--and many on the lake itself, as well.
Sailing craft had run for havens. The lake could be nasty at times and there might be more than a capful of wind in the black cloud that spread so quickly over a sky that had--an hour before--been of azure.
Had the two girls from Green Knoll Camp been observed by the watermen as they embarked in their canoes at Meade"s Forge, they might have been warned against venturing far from the sh.o.r.e in those c.o.c.klesh.e.l.ls. But Wynifred and Bessie had not been observed, so were not warned.
The squall had come down so quickly that they were not much to be blamed. It had startled other people on the lake--and those much more used to its vagaries.
In a cove on the north sh.o.r.e a small cat-rigged boat had been drifting since noon-time, its single occupant having found the fishing very good.
This fisher was the boatman"s daughter, Polly Jarley.
She had now a splendid catch and she knew that, if the wind held true, a sharp run to the westward would bring her to Braisely Park. At some one of the private landings there her fish would be welcomed--she could get more for them than she could at the Forge, which was nearer.
But the squall gathered so fast that she had to put aside the thought of the run down the lake. The wind would switch about, too, after the squall. That was a foregone conclusion.
She waited until the blow was past and then saw that it would be quite impossible to make the park that afternoon and return to the landing in time for tea. And if she was later her father would be worried.
Mr. Jarley did not like to have his girl go out this way and work all day; but there seemed nothing else to be done this summer. They owed so much at the stores at the Forge; and the princ.i.p.al and interest on the chattel mortgage must be found before New Year or they would lose their fleet of boats. And as yet few campers had come to the lake who wished to hire Mr. Jarley"s boats.