The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay; or, The Secret of the Red Oar

by Margaret Penrose

  CHAPTER XVI

  A BAD CASE OF NERVES

  "Would the boys have anything in their camp, do you suppose?" askedBess, with a long sigh.

  "Anything for what?" asked Lottie, as she looked surreptitiously intothe mirror of her vanity box. Lottie was always worried about theeffect of late hours.

  "Is it something to eat?" asked Marita in her timid way. "If you wantthat, Bess, I'll go over and help you carry it."

  "Gracious, I hope we don't need anything in the food line," said Cora."I thought we stocked up with enough to last the rest of the week."

  "I want something for my nerves," went on Bess. "They're on the raggededge, and I jump at every sound."

  "And no wonder," agreed Belle, as she went over to a hammock suspendedbetween two trees. "Get something for mine, while you're at it, Bess.I think they use bromide, or something like that. But I doubt if theboys would have any. They don't seem to have a nerve in their bodies,though goodness knows they're 'nervy' enough at other times. Pardonthe colloquialism," she murmured as she sank back.

  It was the morning after Freda's return, and the night had been rathera troubled one. No one in the girls' camp felt much like eatingbreakfast, though they managed to nibble at a bit of toast and drinksome coffee.

  The alarm about Freda had giver the motor girls the keenest anxiety,and while Jack and the boys tried to make Freda and the girls believethe woman and the telephone message had been a joke, it looked to betoo serious a matter to be lightly passed off.

  The odd woman who had met Freda at the country junction had shown, byher questions, that she knew much about the disputed property. And hermanner had been, in a way, rather threatening. It was too unusual tohave been accidental, at any rate.

  But Freda had reached home in safety. The motor girls were glad ofthat, but they were all suffering from a bad case of nerves, though,so far, Bess and Belle had been the only ones to admit it openly.

  "I wouldn't take any of that bromide, if I were you, Bess," said Cora,as she straightened out some of the things in the living room. Theusually homelike apartment had taken on a most woebegone appearancesince the previous night. Everyone had left everything just where shehad happened to let it fall.

  "But I've got to do something!" declared the plump twin. "My handshakes--see, I can't hold it still," and in proof she held it out.

  "It does shake," spoke Marita, in an awed whisper. "Maybe she hadbetter have a doctor."

  "Doctor! Nonsense!" laughed Belle. "Her hand trembles because she hadher arm up so long this morning, trying to do her hair up that newway. Sit down, Bess, and you'll be all right in a few minutes."

  "But I can't sit still, that's the trouble. I'm so nervous!" and Besshastily arose from a chair in which she had seated herself, and beganpacing up and down the broad bungalow porch.

  "I have an idea!" exclaimed Cora.

  "Don't let it die of lonesomeness," suggested Belle, with a laugh."Think up another and have a pair of ideas."

  "I will," replied Cora, promptly. "I think if we go out for a littlespin in the boat it will do us all good. It's a lovely day--too lovelyto let our nerves get the best of us. What do you say?"

  "I'll do anything rather than sit here and think of what might havehappened," sighed Bess.

  "Oh, you're taking it entirely too seriously," put in Lottie, as sheused a buffer on her already pink and polished nails. "What could havehappened?"

  "Why, they might have taken Freda away!"

  "Who would?"

  "Those persons--men or women--or both--who are trying to getpossession of the Lewis property. And, in a way, we might have beeninvolved," went on Bess.

  "I don't see how," observed Cora.

  "Why, we've given advice to Freda and her mother, and if things wentwrong some persons might say we had an object in it."

  "Nonsense!" exclaimed Belle. "You've surely got a case of nerves, allright. Come on, let's do as Cora says and take a trip on the water."She got out of the hammock--Belle could accomplish this difficult featmore gracefully than anyone else, Cora always said.

  Then they all went down to the little dock where the _Chelton_ wastied, and Cora, with a quickness born of long experience, ascertainedthat there was plenty of gasoline and oil in the craft. She tested thevibrator and found the current good, though at times, when notsuffering from a fit of stubbornness, the engine had been known tostart with the magneto. But it was not safe to depend on it.

  "Are you all ready?" asked Cora.

  "I guess so," answered Bess. "I guess I won't have to have bromide,after all. I feel better already."

  "I thought you would," laughed Cora. "Marita, just straighten out thatstern flag, will you? Thank you. You're a dear!"

  "Look out!" laughed Belle. "When Cora begins calling names there is notelling when she will stop."

  "Don't worry," was Cora's answer, as she stooped over to crank themotor. It started on the first turn and soon the _Chelton_ waschugging a course over the sun-lit waters of Crystal Bay.

  "Do you see anything of the boys?" asked Cora, as she turned to theothers from her place at the steering wheel.

  "No, there's their boat--at least Jack's apology for one--tied to thestake," said Lottie. "Does that boat ever go out two days insuccession, Cora?"

  "I don't believe it does," answered Jack's sister. "It was a sort ofmakeshift, anyhow. Jack only got her running because someone said itcouldn't be done--it was a sort of dare. But the poor old boat seemsto suffer from some intermittent fever. It runs one day and rests thenext."

  "And the _Dixie_--she's resting, too," went on Bess, as she lookeddown the bay to where Dray Ward's fine racing craft was moored. "Theboys are not around yet."

  "Probably sleeping," murmured Belle. "The indolent creatures!"

  "Folks who live in glass houses--and all the rest of it," said Cora."It's nearly eleven, and we haven't been long away from the breakfasttable ourselves."

  "It's a case of carrying coals to Newcastle; isn't it?" asked Lottie,drying with her filmy handkerchief a drop of water on her dress.

  "You mean the pot calling the kettle black," laughed Cora. Lottienever could get her proverbs just right.

  "Oh, well, it's all the same as long as there's black in it,"responded Lottie. "I knew I had part of it right."

  On went the _Chelton_, and she had that part of the bay all to herselffor the time being. A little breeze ruffled the water, and the sunshone brightly. Under these calming influences of nature thegirls--even nervous Bess--felt themselves growing calm, and at peacewith the world. The trouble of the night before seemed to melt away,and assume a less sinister aspect. But Cora could not get over thefeeling that something akin to a tragedy had nearly happened.

  "And it may again," she thought. "I do wish we could help Freda andher mother, but I don't see how. Land troubles are always socomplicated."

  As Cora turned the wheel and swung the boat about in a wide circle,she was aware of another craft coming toward her. She did not rememberhaving seen it before, and as it drew nearer she noted that itcontained but a single occupant--a young man, who, as Lottie saidafterward, was not at all bad-looking.

  The young fellow guided his boat closer to the _Chelton_, and aftershe had done making mental notes of the new craft's characteristics,Cora had an idea that the stranger wanted to speak to them. Suchevidently was his intention, for he slowed down his engine, so as tomuffle the noise of the exhaust, and called out:

  "On which point is Bayhead, if you please?"

  "Over there," answered Cora, pointing to a promontory that jutted outinto the bay. "But be careful and go well out when you round it. Thereare some dangerous rocks at low tide. How much do you draw?"

  "Thirty-four inches."

  "That's too much to try the short cut."

  "Thank you for telling me," went on the young man. He certainly wasgood-looking. Even Cora, conservative as she always was, had to admitthat.

  "We are going over that way," went on Cora. "If you like, I will pilotyou."<
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  "You are very good," returned the young man. "If it will not be toomuch trouble, and not take you out of your way, I would like very muchto have you show me the course. I'm a stranger here."

  Cora and the motor girls had been on so many trips on land and waterthat they had learned how to meet and accept the advances ofstrangers, even when they were good-looking young men. There was, too,a sort of comradeship about a motor boat that lent a chaperonage tothe effect of girls talking to men to whom they had never beenintroduced. Cora's chums realized this and thought nothing of heroffer.

  "Follow me," Cora called, as she opened the throttle a little wider,and the _Chelton_ shot ahead. The other boat came right after, with apromptness that caused Cora to think it had more speed than she atfirst suspected.

  "My nerves are much better--now," said Bess in a whisper to Lottie, asshe stole a surreptitious glance at the young man.