CHAPTER XIX
PAUL'S MOTOR BOAT
The days flew by on wings and the girls were surprised to wake onemorning to find that they had been at Lighthouse Island over a week.
They had been bathing and boating and swimming till they were tanned abeautiful brown, the color not being confined to their faces, butcovering their arms and hands as well.
What with the exercise and Mrs. Danvers' wonderful cooking, they hadgained flesh so fast that they had begun to wonder a little anxiously ifthey were "bound for the freak show."
"Why, it's positively dreadful!" Laura declared one morning, feelingruefully of her waistline which she was quite certain had expanded atleast two inches. "I've simply got to stop eating, or something."
"Stop eating!" echoed Billie, taking up a handful of sand and letting itsift slowly through her fingers. "Well, maybe you can do it, Laura dear,but I certainly can't--not with Connie's mother doing the cooking."
"I don't intend to try, no matter how fat I get," declared Vi.
It was right after breakfast, and the girls had jumped into their bathingsuits, as they did at almost the same time every morning, and werewaiting impatiently for the hour to pass that Mrs. Danvers had insistedmust pass before they went in swimming after breakfast.
"Mother said she might come down this morning and go in with us," saidConnie, her eyes fixed dreamily on the horizon. Then suddenly she sat upstraight and stared.
"What's the matter?" asked Billie. "Seeing ghosts or something?"
"No. But look!" Connie clutched at her arm. "Isn't that a motor boat?"
"That" was a tiny spot that grew bigger as they looked and seemed to beheaded in their direction.
"It's a boat of some sort, I think," said Vi. "But you can't tell whetherit's a motor boat or some other kind of a craft."
"Of course you can," Laura broke in excitedly. "It's got to be a motorboat because there aren't any sails or anything. It is! It is! Oh, girls!could it be----"
"The boys?" finished Billie, shading her eyes with her hand and gazingeagerly out toward the speck that was growing larger every minute. "Oh,wouldn't it be wonderful?"
"But we're not a bit sure it's the boys," Connie reminded her. "Lots ofmotor boats come here in the summer."
"Oh, stop being a kill-joy," Laura commanded, giving her a little shake."I just feel it in my bones that the boys are in that boat. Where willthey land, Connie?"
"At the dock, of course," Connie answered, in a tone which said veryplainly: "You ought to have known that without asking."
"Well, let's run around there then," cried Billie, her cheeks red withexcitement. "They won't know what to do if nobody's there to meet them."
As always with Billie, to think a thing was to do it, and before thegirls had a chance to say anything she was off, fleet-footed, down thesand in the direction of the dock.
The girls stared for a minute, then Laura started in pursuit.
"Come on," she cried. "She's crazy, of course, but we've got to followher, I suppose."
Billie had almost reached the dock before they caught up with her. ThenLaura reached out a hand and jerked her to stop.
"Billie," she gasped, "be sensible for just a minute, please. Suppose itisn't the boys? Then we won't want to be waiting around as though wewanted somebody to speak to us!"
"Well, but I'm sure it is the boys. You said so yourself," retortedBillie impatiently, her eyes fixed on the mysterious spot dancing andbobbing on the glistening water. "And they certainly won't know what todo if there isn't a soul here to meet them."
"But we don't want to meet them in our bathing suits," said Vi, who, withConnie, had just come pantingly up. "It wouldn't be just proper, wouldit?"
Billie looked at her doubtfully a moment, then reluctantly shook herhead.
"No, I don't suppose it would," she admitted, adding with a stamp of herfoot. "But I did want to be here to meet them."
"Well, we can be, if we rush," broke in Connie. "The boat won't reach thedock for fifteen or twenty minutes anyway, because it's still a long wayoff. We may be able to throw some clothes on and be back by that time."
"'Throw' is right," Laura said skeptically, but Billie was already racingoff again in the direction of the cottage. With a helpless little laugh,the girls followed.
The boys would have declared it could not be done. But the girls provedthat it could. They were panting when they reached the house, stoppedjust long enough to explain to the surprised Mrs. Danvers and thenscurried upstairs, and with eager fingers tore off their bathing suitsand substituted their ordinary clothes.
"It's good we didn't go in bathing and get our hair all wet," Vi panted,but Laura put a hand over her mouth.
"Stop talking," she commanded. "You need your breath!"
As a matter of fact, they were pretty much out of the last-named articlewhen they reached the dock again. But the great thing was that they hadsucceeded in getting there before whoever was in that motor boat made alanding.
"Suppose after all this it isn't the boys?" panted Laura, and Connie gaveher a funny glance.
"Kill-joy," she jeered, paying her back.
Laura was about to retort, but Billie interrupted with a chuckle.
"Stop fighting, girls," she commanded, "and tell me something. Is my hairon straight?"
"No, it's too much over one eye," replied Connie in the same tone.
Then Vi claimed their attention.
"Look!" she cried. "They are coming around the other side of the dock.Oh, isn't that a perfectly beautiful boat?"
It was, but the girls were just then too much interested in finding outwho was in the boat to pay very much attention to its beauty. Thegraceful craft swung around toward them, the motor was shut off, and theboat glided easily in to the dock.
The girls were standing a little way back, so as not to appear toocurious, and that was the reason why the boys saw them before they sawthe newcomers.
There was a whoop from the deck of the motor boat, a shout of, "Say,fellows, look who's here!" and the next moment three sportily clad youngfigures leaped out on the dock and made a dash for the girls, leaving thefourth member of their party protesting vigorously.
The fourth member was none other than Paul Martinson, and, being theowner and captain of the handsome motor boat, he had no intention offollowing the other boys and leaving his craft to wander out to sea.
So he told the boys what he thought of them, which did not do a particleof good since they did not hear a word he said, and remained in the boatwhile he held on to the dock with one hand.
Meanwhile Chet had hugged his sister and Teddy had hugged his sister andFerd had declared longingly that he wished he had a sister to hug, itmade him feel lonesome, and there was laughter and noise and confusiongenerally.
It was Connie who reminded them of poor Paul grumbling away all byhimself in his boat, and the boys ran penitently over to him while thegirls danced after them joyfully.
"Oh, what a splendid boat!"
"Isn't she a beauty!"
"What good times you must have in her."
It was really an unusually handsome craft, and it was little wonder thatPaul regarded it with pride. He invited the girls on board, and they wentinto raptures enough over it to satisfy even him.
It was a good fifty feet in length and had a cabin in which one couldstand up if one were not very tall. There were bunks running along bothsides of the cabin that looked like leather-cushioned divans in thedaytime and could be turned into the most comfortable of beds at night.
There was a galley "for'ard," too, where the boys cooked their rathersketchy meals, and into this the girls poked eagerly curious heads.
"Oh, it's all just the completest thing I've ever seen!" cried Billie,clapping her hands in delight while Paul looked at her happily. "Thosecunning curtains at the window and--everything!"
"My mother did that," Paul admitted sheepishly, as he followed the girlsout on th
e deck. "And I didn't like to take them down."
"Well, I should say you wouldn't take them down!" said Connieindignantly. "The idea! Don't you dream of it! Why, they are just whatmake the cabin!"
"But isn't this some deck! Did your mother do this too, Paul?" askedLaura, her eyes traveling admiringly from the pretty wicker loungingchairs to the gayly striped awning and brilliant deck rail that shownlike gold in the dazzling sun. "Why, Paul, I never knew a motor boatcould be so pretty and comfy."
"Say, but you ought to see her go!" put in Chet eagerly. "She's as fast alittle boat as she is pretty. Oh, she's great!"
"Yes, it almost makes me wish I had done some studying at school," saidFerd Stowing, rubbing his head ruefully. "Maybe if I had my dad wouldhave given me an aeroplane or something."
After they had fastened the boat securely to the dock so that there wasno danger of its floating off they turned reluctantly away from the dockand started off toward the Danvers' cottage.
Then the girls tried to tell the boys all that had happened since theyhad last met and the boys tried to do the same, the result being hopelessconfusion and perfect happiness.
"Say, make believe that beach doesn't look good!" exclaimed Teddy toBillie, for they had fallen a little behind the rest. "And the good oldocean--say, what a day for a swim!"
"That's just what we were going to do when we saw you coming," Billieconfided, thinking how exceedingly handsome he looked in his whitetrousers and dark coat. Then she told him of the wild scramble they hadhad to get dressed, and she looked so pretty in the telling of it that hedid not hear much of what she was saying to him for looking at her.
"But what made you so sure it was us?" asked Teddy ungrammatically.
Billie chuckled and gave a little skip of pure happiness.
"Laura said she felt it in her bones," she said.