“Putt--putt--putt!” came the rhythmic throb of the motor as the little motor boat sped over the glassy surface of the lake, stirring up the water on either side of it and leaving a frothy white trail in its wake.
“How’s this for speed?” chortled the girl at the wheel, a pretty, dark-haired girl with dancing brown eyes. “I reckon we could beat any other boat on this old lake.”
“And then some!” agreed Mollie Billette, slangily. “I wish some one would come along and challenge us to a race.”
“It would provide some excitement, anyway,” sighed Grace Ford, as she lounged in the bow of the pretty little boat. “Looks like a pretty dull summer to me, so far.”
“How do you get that way, Grace Ford?” cried Betty Nelson, she of the dark hair and dancing eyes whom the girls fondly called “Little Captain.” “Tell ’em, Amy,” she added, to the quiet, sweet-faced girl who lounged beside Mollie Billette. “Tell ’em what you told me a little while ago.”
Grace Ford sat upright, a chocolate half-way to her mouth, while Mollie Billette’s black eyes regarded the “Little Captain” severely.
“Betty Nelson, what have you been holding back from us?” she demanded, but Betty was still looking at Amy Blackford.
“Tell ’em, Amy,” she repeated. “The news is too good to keep.”
“I’ll say it is,” agreed Amy, a smile lighting up her quiet face. “When Henry spoke of it to me at first I thought it was too good to be true. I supposed he was joking.”
“Told you what?” cried Mollie Billette, in an exasperated tone. “If you are not the most aggravating----”
“Hold your horses, old dear,” drawled Grace Ford, quietly helping herself to another piece of candy. “Amy has the floor----”
“The deck, you mean,” murmured Amy, then added hastily, as the girls threw impatient glances her way: “I’ll tell you just how it happened if you give me a chance. You see, Henry,” Henry was Amy’s older brother, “had a chance to take over an old shack near the upper end of Rainbow Lake in part payment for a debt. And now that he has the shack, he doesn’t know what to do with it.”
The girls leaned toward Amy eagerly.
“Then what?” asked Mollie.
“Why,” said Amy, with a smile of quiet enjoyment, “I told him I thought we girls might help him out, for the summer, anyway. I thought it would be a great lark to camp out there during vacation.”
“Amy, you are a wonder,” drawled Grace, but Mollie broke in impatiently.
“Is he going to let us have it?” she demanded.
“I should say so!” laughed Amy. “Said he would be glad to put it to some sort of use. He said it would make a mighty fine summer camp but that was about all it was good for.”
“It will be ideal,” broke in the Little Captain, happily, as she brushed a wind-blown strand of hair from her eyes. “Why, at the upper end of Rainbow Lake we’ll be as much alone as if we were in an African forest.”
“More so, I hope,” drawled Grace, adding with a little shudder: “For in an African forest they have wild animals for company while here----”
“We sha’n’t see anything wilder than a chipmunk,” chuckled the Little Captain.
“Suits me fine,” said Grace heartily. “Wolves and bears may be all right, but give me a chipmunk every time.”
“My, isn’t she brave?” said Mollie, admiringly, and the other girls chuckled.
“Tell us more about this little shack, Amy,” said Betty, after a while. “Is it very tiny, or is it big enough to contain us all without squeezing?”
“Henry said it is of fair size,” replied Amy, wrinkling her forehead in an attempt to remember details. “There are two rooms in it and the rooms are furnished in a rough sort of way, with home-made furniture.”
The Little Captain let go of the wheel long enough to clap her hands gleefully.
“Great!” she cried. “This gets better every minute. Think of it. A house ready-made for us, and furnished, at that.”
“Too much luxury,” drawled Grace.
It was the first day of July and the Outdoor Girls, never completely happy unless they were engaged in some outdoor sport, had embarked in their pretty motor boat Gem for a sail down the Argono river. Although the motor boat was really Betty’s property, the Outdoor Girls rather regarded it as their own. And indeed, when it is considered that none of the four ever used it without the other three, it was the same to them as though the ownership were actually theirs. As a matter of fact, what belonged to one of the Outdoor Girls automatically belonged to all of them.
Those who have kept in touch with Betty and her chums will need no introduction to the Gem, but for the benefit of those who do not know these Outdoor Girls so well, we will give a brief description of it. For in this story the trim little motor boat plays rather an important part.
First of all, the Gem had been given to Betty by an uncle of hers, a retired sea captain by the name of Amos Marlin. The old fellow had produced the best craft of its size that could be found anywhere. There was a large cockpit in the stern, and a tiny cooking galley. Also the little boat boasted a small trunk cabin and an unusually powerful and efficient motor. Altogether a snappy little craft, well meriting its name of Gem.
And now, as the girls putt-putted briskly down the river, the thrill of summer filling them with a fresh eagerness for adventure, it is no wonder that Amy’s suggestion of a summer camp on the banks of Rainbow Lake was greeted with enthusiasm.
So far, having made no plans for the summer months, they had about decided to spend a rather uneventful summer in Deepdale, the thriving and busy little town in which they had been brought up.
It might have been supposed, since Deepdale was situated so pleasantly on the banks of the Argono--the latter emptying some miles below into pretty Rainbow Lake--and since the bustling population of the town itself numbered something like fifteen thousand, that the Outdoor Girls would have been content to spend a summer there.
However, although they agreed that Deepdale was “the finest place in the world,” change and adventure were what they really hankered after, and Deepdale was too familiar a spot to offer them either.
But there was real adventure in the idea of camping out in the romantic little shack so recently acquired by Amy Blackford’s brother, and they welcomed it eagerly.
“I suppose we ought to run down there and look the place over,” said Grace, cautiously. Grace was the only one of the four Outdoor Girls who really considered comfort where adventure was concerned, and this trait of hers no amount of ridicule or impatience on the part of the other girls could overcome. For Grace, who was tall and slim and graceful, was very fond of her ease. Once she was assured that an outing was to be “comfortable,” then she could start in to enjoy herself.
So at this suggestion that they “run down there and look the place over” the girls exchanged a glance of martyrdom.
“Why, of course,” said Mollie sarcastically, “Grace will have to be sure she has a real hair mattress to sleep on and clean sheets twice a week. Maybe we could manage to get an easy chair aboard the _Gem_--one like the kind Betty’s dad uses.”
“A fine idea,” replied Grace, unabashed. “I never gave you credit for so much thoughtfulness, Mollie dear. Have a chocolate?”
