Part 19 (1/2)
”It was awfully good of you to come out for us,” Nan said.
”Goodness! we couldn't do less, could we?”
”I guess Linda wouldn't have come if she had had her way.”
”Well! Grace isn't that kind,” said the brother, loyally. ”Of course, we would have done everything in our power to save you girls.”
”And we will never forget it!” Nan cried warmly. ”We would have drowned.”
”Never mind,” said Walter, in embarra.s.sment. ”It's all right now.”
”I--I guess the other girls don't think so,” said Nan, suddenly observing her chum and the other two. All three were violently sick. ”It is awfully rough.”
”We're catching these waves sideways,” Walter said. ”Wait till we get in the lea of Lighthouse Point. It won't be so bad then.”
This was a true prophecy, and the _Bargain Rush_ was soon sailing on even keel. Linda, as well as the other girls, recovered in a measure from the feeling of nausea that had gripped them. As soon as the vulgar girl regained her voice she began to scold again.
”We'd never been in all this trouble if you'd listened to me, Walter Mason! This is awful!”
”Oh, it's better now, Linda,” said Walter, cheerfully. ”We'll soon be at the Hall dock.”
”And that's where you should have landed Grace and me just as soon as the storm came up,” grumbled Linda.
”But we saw the canoe in trouble----”
”I didn't see it!” snapped the girl, crossly.
”But I did,” Walter said warmly. ”It would have been a wicked and inhuman thing to have turned away. We had to save Miss Sherwood and Miss Harley.”
”And risk _my_ life doing it!” cried Linda. ”I shall tell my father.”
”If you tell your father everything you promise to,” said Walter, with some spirit, ”he must be an awfully busy man just attending to your complaints.”
”Oh, my!” gasped Bess, with wan delight. Meek Walter Mason was beginning to show boldness in dealing with the purse-proud girl.
”You're a nasty thing!” snapped Linda to Walter. ”And I don't like you.”
”I'll get over that,” muttered the boy to himself.
”And your sister is just as bad!” scolded Linda, giving way to her dreadful temper as Nan and Bess had seen her do on the train. ”I'll show you both that you can't treat me in any such way. I've always stood up for your dunce of a sister. That's what she is, a dunce!”
”If you were a boy, I'd thrash you for saying that!” declared Walter, quietly, though in a white heat of pa.s.sion himself.
”Oh! oh!” shrieked Linda. ”So you threaten to strike me, do you? If I tell my father _that_----”
”Oh, tell him!” exclaimed Walter, in exasperation.
”Of all the mean girls!” murmured Bess, with her arm about Grace, who was crying softly and begging her brother to desist.
”Oh! I can see what's caused all this,” went on Linda, in her high-pitched voice. ”Grace was mighty glad to have me and my friends even look at her before Nan Sherwood and Bess Harley came to the Hall. I wish her all the benefit she may derive from a.s.sociating with _them_. I know one is a thief and the other is no better.”