Wyn's Camping Days Part 41

"Did--did you find it?" queried Polly.

"No. But I will," declared the other girl, confidently, and slipped into the water.

She ventured under the bottom of the catboat and, turning suddenly, braced her feet against it, and so flung herself down into the depths.

She descended more swiftly with the momentum thus gained, traveling toward the bottom on a different slant than before. With her hands far before her she defended her head from collision with any sunken object there might be down here. And this time she actually did hit something again.

She turned quickly and grabbed at it with both hands. It seemed like a sharp, smooth pole sticking almost upright in the water. There was a bit of rag, or marine plant of some kind, attached to it.

She struggled to pull herself down by the staff, but she had been below now longer than before. Just what the staff could be she did not imagine until she had again turned and "kicked" her way upward.

"It's the pennant staff of the sunken boat!" she gasped, as she came to the surface and could open her mouth once more.

"Hus.h.!.+ what's the matter with you?" demanded Polly, in a low voice, directly at hand.

"Oh! have they gone?"

"The bateau is out of hearing distance. But you _do_ splash like a porpoise."

"Nonsense! Let me climb up."

Polly gave her some help and in a few moments Wyn lay panting in the tiny c.o.c.kpit of the boat.

"Did--did you find anything?" queried Polly, anxiously.

Wyn told her what she believed she had found underneath the water, and the position of the staff. "It must be lying bow on to us here," she said.

"Oh! do you suppose it really _is_ the _Bright Eyes_?"

"It's something," replied Wyn, confidently, pulling one of the blankets around her.

"I'm going down myself," declared Polly, sharply.

"All right. Maybe you can find more of the boat. It's there."

Polly sprang up into the bow of the catboat, poised herself for a moment and then dived overboard. She could outswim and outdive any of the Go-Ahead girls--and why not? She was in, or on, the lake from early spring until late autumn.

Polly was under the surface no longer than Wyn; but when she came up she struck out for the _Coquette_ and scrambled immediately into the boat.

"What is it? Am I right? Is it a boat?" cried the anxious Wynnie.

"Yes! It's there. Oh, Wynifred Mallory! My father is going to be so relieved! It's--it's just heavenly! How can we ever thank you?"

Wyn was crying softly. "I'm so delighted, dear Polly. It--it is _sure_ the _Bright Eyes_?"

"It is a motor boat. I went right down to the deck, and scrambled around it. There are surely not _two_ motor boats sunk in Lake Honotonka,"

declared Polly.

"Hush, then!" urged Wyn. "We'll keep still about it. It is my find and I'll telegraph to Mr. Lavine as quick as I can. The Go-Ahead girls are going to own a motor boat! Won't that be fine?"

"Say nothing to any of the others. I'll tell father," said Polly, beginning to haul in on the kedge line. "And he'll know what to do about raising the launch. He'll have to go to the Forge----"

"Then he can send the message to Mr. Lavine for me. Tell him the girls have found the sunken boat, and sign my name to it. That will bring Bessie's father up here in a hurry."

The girls got their anchor and the canoe, and put up the sail again. As the _Coquette_ shot away from the boys' swimming float, the ghostly sail of the strange bateau again crossed the path of moonlight at the other end of the island.

"I'd feel better," muttered Polly, "if those, fellows were not hanging about so close."

CHAPTER XXVI

THE BOYS TO THE RESCUE

Wyn got into her canoe in sight of Green Knoll Camp, and leaving Polly to work the _Coquette_ home alone, paddled to the sh.o.r.e, drew out the canoe and turned it over on the beach with the six other canoes belonging to the camp, and so stole up the hill and prepared for bed again.

n.o.body seemed to have missed her, although it was now two hours after midnight. The captain of the girls' club felt a glow of satisfaction at her heart as she composed herself for sleep. She believed she was going to have a great and happy surprise for the girls of the Go-Ahead Club; and in addition the Jarleys would be relieved of the cloud of suspicion that had hung over Mr. Jarley ever since Dr. Shelton's motor boat was lost.

Wyn slept so late that all the other girls were up and had run down for their morning dip ere Mrs. Havel shook her.

"You must have had your bath very early, Wynnie," said that lady. "Here is your bathing suit all wet."

"Yes, ma'am," responded Wyn, sleepily.

"Now, rouse up. The whole camp is astir," said Mrs. Havel, and Wyn was fully dressed when the other girls came back. There were not too many questions asked, so her secret remained safe.

She became considerably disturbed, however, when the hours of the forenoon pa.s.sed and she neither heard from nor saw anything of the Jarleys.

Once a big bateau went drifting by and disappeared behind Gannet Island, under a lazy sail and with two men at the long sweeps, or oars. When it was lost to view Wyn was troubled by the thought that it might be the same mysterious craft that had followed the catboat the night before.

Had it anch.o.r.ed off the boys' camp now?

So, to calm her own mind, she suggested that they all paddle over to Cave-in-the-Wood Camp and take their luncheon with them.

"Goodness me, Wynifred!" exclaimed Bess, the boy-despiser, "can't you keep away from those boys for a single day?"

"I notice we usually have a good time when the boys are around,"

returned Wyn, cheerfully.

"Oh, they're quite a 'necessary evil,'" drawled Frank. "But I feel myself like Johnny Bloom's aunt when we get rid of the Busters for a time."

"What about Johnny's aunt?" queried Mina.

"Why, do you know that Johnny belongs to the Scouts and one law of the Scouts is that they shall each do something for somebody each day to make the said somebody happy."

"Rather involved in your English, Miss, but we understand you," said Grace.

"So far," agreed Percy Havel. "But where do Johnny Bloom and his aunt come in?"