Chapter XVIII: The Regatta

The late July morning that broke upon the scene of the last preparations for Honotonka regatta promised as fine a day as heart could wish.

There was a good breeze from early morning. This was fine for the catboat races and for the sailing canoes. Yet the breeze was not too strong, and there was not much "sea." This latter fact made the paddling less difficult.

The camps on Gannet Island and at Green Knoll were deserted soon after breakfast. The Busters took their canoes aboard the _Happy Day_, while Mr. Lavine's launch, the _Sissy Radcliffe_, carried the girls' canoes as well as the girls themselves.

They were two merry boatloads, and the boats themselves were strung with banners and pennants. As they shot up the sunlit lake they sighted many other craft headed toward Braisely Park, for some contestants had come from as far away as the Forge, at the head of the Wintinooski.

Suddenly Wyn, looking through the camp spyglass, recognized the patched sail of the _Coquette_, the little catboat in which Polly Jarley had come to the rescue of the two members of the Go-Ahead Club on that memorable day.

"Polly is aboard," she told Frank Cameron, passing the glass to her friend. "But who is the boy with her?"

"That's no boy!" declared the sharp-eyed Frankie. "Why! he's got a mustache."

"It's never Mr. Jarley himself?" exclaimed Wyn, in surprise.

"That's exactly who it is."

"I didn't think they'd both leave the landing at the same time. Do you suppose they have entered the _Coquette_ in the free-for-all catboat race?"

"I shouldn't wonder. She's a fast boat if she _is_ old and lubberly-looking. And Dr. Shelton has offered twenty-five dollars for the winning boat."

"It takes two to work a catboat properly, too. That is the understanding," said Wyn, thoughtfully: "a crew of two."

"Hope they win the race!" declared Frank, generously.

"So do I. And they've got Polly's birch canoe aboard. She will enter for the girls' canoe race, I am sure."

"All right," said Frank. "If you don't win the prize in _that_, my dear, then I hope Polly does."

"Why, I haven't a chance beside Bess, I am sure."

"That's all right. Bess is too erratic. One day she paddles well and the next she is 'way behind. It's her temperament. She's not a steady old warhorse like yourself, Wynnie."

"Thanks," laughed Wyn. "How about Polly? What do you call _her_?"

"I don't know. I admire her vastly," said Frank. "But Polly puzzles me. And I haven't seen her working at the paddle much. I only know that in a skiff she can out row any of the Busters."

"I fancy she can paddle some, too. And her canoe is as light as a feather. All those birchbarks are."

"The judges may handicap her, then. But, hullo! what's that Dave Shepard up to?"

Wyn turned to look at her next-door neighbor. Dave was writing upon a slip of paper. Once he looked across at Frank and Wyn and saw that the two girls were watching him.

He seemed confused, started as though to tear the paper up, and then hid it under a coil of rope at his feet. But he was very particular to hide every particle of the paper.

"What you doing there, Dave?" demanded Frank, with plain curiosity.

"Oh, nothing," responded the youth, and rose up, stretching his arms and yawning. It was plain that he did not wish to be questioned.

"What was that paper?" pursued Frank.

"Oh--that--er----It's of no consequence," declared Dave, and walked aft so as not to be further questioned.

"Now, he can't fool me!" cried Frank, under her breath. "It _was_ something of consequence. I--I'm going to see."

"I wouldn't," said Wyn.

"Why not?"

"Well--whatever it is, it isn't ours."

"Pooh!"

"And he evidently didn't want us to see it."

"For that very reason I am going to look," declared Frankie. And the moment Dave was out of sight she sprang across the deck and lifted up the rope enough to pull out the paper.

The moment she scanned it, Wyn saw Frankie's face turn very red. She looked angry, and stamped her foot. Then she burst into a giggle, and slid the paper back out of sight again.

She came back to her friend with a mixture of emotions expressed on her countenance. "What do you suppose?" she demanded.

"Suppose about what?" asked Wyn.

"What do you suppose Dave wrote on that paper?"

"I give it up. Something that didn't concern us, as I told you."

"You're wrong," cried Frank, divided between wrath and amusement. "And it's just the very _meanest_ thing!"

"Why, you excite my curiosity," admitted Wyn.

"That's what he did it for," declared Frankie.

"_What_ did he write?" cried Wyn. "Out with it."

"He wrote: 'I bet an ice-cream treat all around that your curiosity will not permit you to leave this alone.' Now! could anything be meaner?"

"Ha, ha!" chuckled Wyn.

"Don't you see? We can't claim the treat without giving ourselves away? I believe I'll join forces with Bess. There _is_ nothing meaner than a boy."

"Never mind," said Wyn. "I'll find some way of making Master Dave pay for the ice-cream treat, just the same. You see if I don't."

Soon after this the launches were sent to one side so as to leave the course clear, and the races began. The men's and boys' canoe races were very interesting, and Dave Shepard won a sweater, while one of the other Busters got the second prize of a dollar for quickness in overturning and righting a canoe.

Some "funny stunts" followed in the water, and then came a girls' swimming race. Here the Go-Ahead girls excelled, although there were more than a score of entries. Wyn Mallory won a two-hundred-yard, straightaway dash, while Frank was second and Grace Hedges third in the same race. The people who had come up from Denton cheered the girls enthusiastically. When the parents who had been so afraid for their daughters' safety saw how well able the girls were to take care of themselves, their anxiety was allayed.

After these swimming contests there was an interval of two hours for refreshments. A caterer had prepared tables of sandwiches and cold drinks, as well as ice cream and cake, on one of the bigger docks belonging to Braisely Park. In fact, it was Dr. Shelton's dock.

The catboat races were to follow the intermission and Wyn found that the Jarley _Coquette_ had been entered. She ran over to the dock from which the "cats" were to start for the line, and as she approached the spot she heard loud voices and saw a little crowd of excited people.

The _Coquette_ was almost the only catboat left. Dr. Shelton had backed Mr. Jarley up against a post on the wharf and, in a loud and angry voice, was telling the unfortunate boatman what he thought of him.

"_You_ have the cheek to be in this race, John Jarley?" cried the angry man. "I don't mind your daughter--I pity her. But I'm hanged if I'll let a thief take part in this race--and me offering the prize. Get out of here!"

"Hold on, Shelton!" exclaimed one of his friends. "You're going too far when you call Jarley a thief."

"Or else you are not going far enough," chimed in another. "If you believe Jarley stole those images--and the boat--why don't you go about it right? Report it to the county prosecutor and have the man arrested."

"Or, if Jarley is _not_ guilty," added another, "I advise him, as a lawyer, to sue you for damages."

"Let him sue and be hanged to him!" cried Dr. Shelton, who was a great, rough man, twice the size of the boatman, and with all the confidence of his great wealth, as well as his great muscle, behind him. "But he sha'n't sail in this race."

"We'll go back home, Father----Oh, let's go back!" cried Polly, from the cockpit of the dancing _Coquette_.

But Wyn Mallory knew that the Jarleys must have hoped to win the twenty-five dollar prize. The _Coquette_ was being mentioned as a possible winner among the knowing ones about the course.

"Dr. Shelton!" she cried, tugging at the angry man's arm. "Do you mind if Polly and I sail the boat instead?"

"Eh? _You_--a girl?" grunted the doctor, "Well, why not? I've got nothing--as I said before--against his daughter. It's the man himself who has no business at this end of the lake. I sent him word so a month and more ago. I ought to have him arrested."

Win thought it would be less cruel to do so, and have the matter thrashed out in the courts. Mr. Jarley was stooping from the wharf, whispering with Polly.

"I can help her," Wyn cried, turning to the abused boatman. "Let me--do!"

"You are very kind, Miss Mallory," said Jarley.

The captain of the Go-Ahead Club leaped lightly down into the _Coquette_.

"What's our number--sixteen?" she cried. "Pay off the sheet, Polly. We're off." Then she added, in a low tone, to the weeping girl in the stern: "Don't you mind the doctor, Polly--mean old thing! We'll win the prize in spite of him--you see if we don't."