The at the Seashore Part 6 (1/2)

”I guess we are,” said Dolly, with a sigh of satisfaction. ”It was about the most hopeless looking race I ever saw twenty minutes ago, but you never can tell.”

And now every minute seemed to make the issue more and more certain. Sometimes a little puff of wind would strike the Defiance, fill her sails, and push her a little nearer her goal, but the hopes that those puffs must have raised in Dolly's rival and her crew were false, for each died away before the Defiance really got moving again.

And at last, pa.s.sing within a hundred yards, so that they could see poor Gladys, her eyes filled with tears, the Eleanor slipped by the Defiance and took the lead. And then, by some strange irony of fate, the wind came to the Defiance--but it came too late. For the Eleanor, slipping through the water as if some invisible force had been dragging her, pa.s.sed through the opening and into the still waters of the cove fully two hundred feet in the lead.

”That certainly was your victory, Dolly,” said Eleanor. ”If you hadn't found that wind, we'd still be floundering around somewhere near the lighthouse.”

”I do feel sorry for Gladys, though,” said Dolly. ”It must have been hard--when she was so sure that she had won.”

CHAPTER IX.

THE SPY.

”That was bad luck. You really deserved to win that race, Gladys,” Dolly called out, as the Defiance came within hailing distance of the Eleanor again.

Gladys looked at her old friend but said not a word. It was very plain that the loss of the race, which she had considered already won, was a severe blow to her, and she was not yet able, even had she been willing, to say anything.

”That's very nice of you, Dolly,” called Mary Turner. ”But it isn't so at all. You sailed your boat very cleverly. We didn't think of going off after the wind until it was too late. I think it was mighty plucky of you to keep on when we had such a big lead. Congratulations!”

”Oh, what's the use of talking like that?” cried Gladys, furiously. ”It was a trick--that was all it was! If we had had a real wind all the way, we'd have beaten you by half a mile!”

”I know it, Gladys. It was a trick,” said Dolly, cheerfully. ”That's just what I said. We'll have another race, won't we? And we'll pick out a day when the wind is good and strong, so that it will be just the same for both boats.”

”Oh, you'd find some other trick to help you win,” said Gladys, sulkily. ”Don't act like that--it's easy enough for you to be pleasant. They'll all be laughing at me now for not being able to win when I had such a lead.”

”I'm ashamed of you, Gladys,” said Mary Turner, blus.h.i.+ng scarlet. ”Dolly, please don't think that any of the rest of us feel as Gladys does. If I'd known she was such a poor loser, I wouldn't have let her race with you at all. And there won't be another race, Gladys doesn't deserve another chance.”

”Gladys is quite right,” said Dolly, soberly. ”It's very easy to be nice and generous when you've won; it's much harder to be fair when you've lost. And it was a trick, after all.”

”No, it wasn't, Dolly,” said Eleanor, seriously. ”It was perfectly fair. It was good strategy, but it wasn't tricky at all. Gladys knew just as much about the wind as you did. If she had done as you did in time, instead of waiting until after she'd seen you do it, she would have won the race.”

”We're going to have trouble with that Gladys Cooper yet,” said Margery. ”She's spoiled, and she's got a nasty disposition to start with, anyhow. You'd better look out, Dolly. She'll do anything she can to get even.”

”I think this race was one of the things she thought would help her to get even,” said Bessie. ”She was awfully sure she was going to be able to beat you, Dolly.”

”I almost wish she had,” said Dolly. ”I don't mean that I would have done anything to let her win, of course, because there wouldn't be any fun about that. But what's an old race, anyhow?”

”That's the right spirit, Dolly,” said Eleanor. ”It's the game that counts, not the result. We ought to play to win, of course, but we ought to play fair first of all. And I think that means not doing anything at all that would spoil the other side's chances.”

”Oh, that's all right,” said Margery, ”but I'm glad we won.”

”I'm glad,” said Dolly. ”And I'm sorry, too. That sounds silly, doesn't it, but it's what I mean. Maybe if Gladys had won, we could have patched things up. And now there'll be more trouble than ever.”

While they talked they were furling the Eleanor's sails, and soon they were ready to go ash.o.r.e. Dolly had brought them up cleverly beside the skiff, and, once the anchor was dropped and everything on board the swift little sloop had been made snug for the night, they dropped over into the skiff and rowed to the beach. There the other girls, who had been greatly excited during the race, and were overjoyed by the result, greeted them with the Wo-he-lo song. Zara, especially, seemed delighted.

”I felt so bad that I cried when I thought you were going to be beaten,” she said. ”Oh, Bessie, I'm glad you won! And I bet it was because you were on board.”

Bessie laughed.

”You'd better not let Dolly hear you say that,” she said. ”I didn't have a thing to do with it, Zara. It was all Dolly's cleverness that won that race.”

”I'm awfully glad you're back, Bessie. I've had the strangest feeling this afternoon--as if someone were watching me.”

Bessie grew grave at once. Although she never shared them, she had grown chary of laughing at Zara's premonitions and feelings. They had been justified too often by what happened after she spoke of them.

”What do you mean, dear?” she asked. ”I don't see how anyone could be around without being seen. It's very open.”

”I don't know, but I've had the feeling, I'm sure of that. It's just as if someone had known exactly what I was doing, as long as I was out here on the beach. But when I went into the tent, it stopped. That made me feel that I must be right.”

”Well, maybe you're mistaken, Zara. You know we've had so many strange things happen to us lately that it would be funny if it hadn't made you nervous. You're probably imagining this.”

Though Bessie tried thus to disarm Zara's suspicions, she was by no means easy in her own mind. She felt that it would be a good thing to induce Zara to forget her presentiment, or feeling, or whatever it was, if she could. But, just the same, she determined to be on her guard, and she spoke to Dolly.

”She's a queer case, that Zara,” said Dolly, with a little s.h.i.+ver. ”If any other girl I knew said anything like that, I'd just laugh at her. But Zara's different, somehow. She seems sort of mysterious. Perhaps it's just because she's a foreigner--I don't know.”

”I spoke to you so that we could be on the look-out, Dolly. And I guess we'd better not say anything to anyone else. I think a lot of the girls would laugh at Zara if they knew that she had such ideas.”

Bessie and Dolly managed to find occasion to cover most of the beach before supper, and they went up to the spring at the top of the bluff that overlooked the beach. The water had been piped down, and there was no longer any need of carrying pails up there to get water, but it was still a pleasant little walk, for the view from the top of the path was delightful. And Bessie and Dolly remembered, moreover, that it was there that the men who had watched the camp on the night of the fire had hidden themselves. But this time they found no one there.

Supper was a merry meal. The race of the afternoon was, of course, the princ.i.p.al topic of conversation, and in addition there were adventures to be told by those who had missed it and gone into Bay City to shop.

But Bessie, watching Zara, noticed toward the end of the meal that her strange little friend, who happened to be sitting near the entrance of the tent in which they ate, was nervous and kept looking behind her out into the darkness as if she saw something. And so, with a whispered explanation to Dolly, she rose and crept very silently toward the door. As she pa.s.sed Zara, she let her hand fall rea.s.suringly on her shoulder, and then, gathering herself, sprang out into the night.

And, so completely surprised by her sudden appearance that he could not get out of the way, there was Jake Hoover! Jake Hoover, who was supposed to be in the city, telling his story to Charlie Jamieson! Jake Hoover, who, after having done all sorts of dirty work for Holmes and his fellow-conspirators, had told Bessie that he was sorry and was going to change sides!

”Jake!” said Bessie, sternly. ”You miserable sneak! What are you doing here?”

No wonder poor Zara had had that feeling of being watched. Jake's work for Holmes right along had been mostly that of the spy, and here he was once more engaged in it. Bessie was furious at her discovery. Big and strong as Jake was, he was whimpering now, and Bessie seized him and shook him by the shoulders.

”Tell me what you're doing here right away!” commanded Bessie. Gone were the days when she had feared him--the well-remembered days of her bondage on the Hoover farm, when his word had always been enough to secure her punishment at the hands of his mother, who had never been able to see the evil nature of her boy.

”I ain't doin' no harm--honest I ain't, Bessie,” he whined. ”I--jest wanted--I jest wanted to see you and Miss Mercer--honest, that's why I'm here!”

”That's a likely story, isn't it?” said Bessie, scornfully. ”If that was so, why did you come sneaking around like this? Why didn't you come right out and ask for us? You didn't think we were going to eat you, did you?”

”I--I didn't want them to know I was doin' it, Bess,” he said. ”I'm scared, Bessie--I'm afraid of what they'd do to me, if they found out I was takin' your side agin' them.”

Despite herself, Bessie felt a certain pity for the coward coming over her. She released his shoulder, and stood looking at him with infinite scorn in her eyes.

”And to think I was ever afraid of you!” she said, aloud.

”That's right, Bess,” he said, pleadingly. ”I wouldn't hurt you--you know that, don't you? I used to like to tease you and worry you a bit, but I never meant any real harm. I was always good to you, mostly, wasn't I?”

”Dolly!” called Bessie, sharply. She didn't know just what to do, and she felt that, having Jake here, he should be held. It had been plain that Charlie Jamieson had considered what he had to tell valuable.