Part 9 (2/2)
”Gee, whiz!” shouted Walter, ”look at that spray deluge Dray!”
”And she's missing,” added Ed, for the sounds from the _Dixie_ were distinctly out of time.
Suddenly Dray's boat slowed down, and the _Chelton_ shot so far ahead that it was plain something had happened to the _Dixie_.
Jack stood up and looked back. ”Something is wrong,” he said. ”We had better not get too far ahead. Dray is fussing with the carbureter.”
The race was over. The girls stood up from their hiding place and Jack turned the boat about. By this time Dray had turned off the gasoline and the _Dixie_ merely heaved up and down on the swells.
”What's the matter, Dray?” called Walter. ”Something given way?”
”I don't know,” answered Dray, ”she simply won't 'mote.'”
”Let me take a look at her,” suggested Denny, ever eager for a new adventure.
”Oh, there are Cora and Lottie!” exclaimed Belle. ”Can't we go in for them, and look after Dray's boat afterward?”
”That would be a nice way to treat a s.h.i.+p in distress,” said Denny, ”but excuse me,” and he showed regret at his remark. ”I shouldn't be thinkin' of a lad when the young girls are needin' help.”
”Oh, the girls are all right,” Jack a.s.sured the old seaman; ”but say, Dray,” he called, ”what's the matter, anyhow?”
”Just give me a line and tow me in, then we will hold a post mortem,”
replied Dray, good humoredly. ”I don't fancy taking her apart out here.”
”Good!” exclaimed Marita, ”then we can go for Cora and Lottie.”
Promptly the brand new rope of the _Chelton_ was tossed to the disabled boat and fastened, then the two boats started for sh.o.r.e.
Cora and Lottie were waiting. The latter had shed her wet ”garments of vanity,” as Belle described them, for a simple brown linen frock.
”What happened?” called Cora, as the boats neared sh.o.r.e.
”Mis-happened,” answered Dray. ”It was just fate. We couldn't expect to beat the motor girls.”
”Nice of you,” acknowledged Cora, ”but I am sorry if there is anything wrong with your beautiful boat.”
”It's the boat and not the boy,” remarked Ed. ”Well, we'll do as much for you some day, Cora. Wait until we get our little _La.s.sie_ out.
She, being a mere girl, may have a show.”
”What's the matter, Lottie?” asked Bess, as they landed and the girls noted that Lottie was remarkably quiet, and even a trifle pale.
”Not a thing,” Cora hurriedly answered, while she crushed her fingers on Lottie's arm. ”We were detained at the bungalow, that's all. We'll tell you all about it later on.”
The girls gathered around Cora and Lottie at this remark. But Cora, by some mysterious signal system, had warned Lottie not to say anything, and she soon joined the boys, who had already boarded the _Dixie_ to overhaul her.
They looked at the engine, at the spark plugs, at the cylinder, but Cora, who happened to have more room at the point where the carbureter was situated, suddenly exclaimed:
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