CHAPTER XIII.
A RACE ON THE LAKE.
To Frank's amazement, he found Rattleton reclining in a verycomfortable position, with the handkerchief bound about his head.
"Hello, old boy!" Merriwell cheerfully called. "I reckon you are allright, for you are able to do up your own wound."
"I say, Frank," came eagerly but weakly from Rattleton, "what hasbecome of her?"
"Her? Whom?"
"The fairy, the nymph, the beautiful queen of the woods! She was herea few moments ago--she was with me."
"By Jove! that crack on the head has knocked him daffy!" thoughtMerriwell. "He's off his trolley sure!"
"Why don't you answer me?" Harry impatiently demanded. "I closed myeyes but a moment, and when I opened them again she was gone."
"I hope you are not referring to the dwarf," laughed Frank, lightly."I hope you do not mean him when you talk about a fairy, nymph andbeautiful queen of the woods?"
"No, no! Of course I do not mean that horrible creature! I mean thegirl--the girl who was here!"
"There has been no girl here."
"What? I know there has! I saw her, although it seemed like a dream. Isaw her before I could fully open my eyes. She was kneeling herebeside me, and she was so beautiful!"
"My dear fellow," said Merriwell, gently, "that tap on the head hasmixed you somewhat--there's no doubt about it."
Harry made a feeble, impatient gesture.
"You think I am off," he said; "but I am not. I tell you I saw agirl--a girl with blue eyes and golden hair. Her cheeks were brown asberries, but the tint of health was in them. And her hands were sosoft and tender and warm!"
Frank whistled.
"I'm afraid you are hurt worse than I thought," he said, with no smallconcern.
"Oh, scrate Gott!" spluttered Harry. "I am not hurt at all! I tell youI saw her--do you hear?"
"Yes, I hear."
"But you don't believe me, and that is what makes me hot."
"Keep cool."
"How can I? Look here, look at my head."
"Yes, you did a very good job. I was about to do it up when I saw thatdwarf again, and I chased him."
"I didn't do it up at all."
"No?"
"Not on your retouched negative!"
"Then who----"
"The girl--the girl, I tell you! When I came to my senses, I felt someperson at work over me, and through my eyelashes I saw her kneelinghere at my side. I tell you, Frank, she was a dream--a vision! Ithought I was in heaven, and I scarcely dared breathe for fear shewould disappear."
Frank was watching Harry closely.
"Hanged if the fellow doesn't believe it!" muttered Merry.
Rattleton's ears were sharp, and he caught the words.
"Believe it!" he weakly shouted--"I know it! I not only saw her, but Ifelt her hands as she gently brushed back my wet hair and tied thisbandage in place. Look at it, Merry, old fellow; I couldn't have putit on like that--you know I couldn't."
"Well, it would have been quite a trick."
"I think she saw us thrown into the water, for she murmured somethingabout it. She must live near here, Frank."
Harry was fluttering with suppressed eagerness.
"If you saw such a girl, it is likely that she does."
"If I saw such a girl! Oh, smoly hoke! will you never be convinced?"
"Perhaps so," nodded Frank, as he examined the ground.
"What are you looking for?"
"Her trail."
"If you were an Indian, you might find it; but no white man could findit here, as the ground is not favorable."
"I think that is right," admitted Frank, as he gave over the attempt."If you saw such a girl, I have a fancy I know who she is."
Harry started up, shouting:
"You do?"
"Sure."
"Then you saw her when you visited the lake before?"
"No."
"How is it that you are sure you know who she is if you never saw herbefore?"
"You are little numb just now, Harry, or you would have thought of ityourself. She must be the buried heiress."
Rattleton caught his breath.
"Right you are!" he exclaimed. "Why, it must be her!"
"It strikes me that way," nodded Frank.
"By Jove!" palpitated Harry; "she is a peafect perch--I mean a perfectpeach! Merry, old chap, she takes the bun!"
Frank laughed.
"It's not often you get this way, Rattles," he said. "She must havehit you hard."
"Right where I live, old man. I'd like to win her."
"But you must not forget she is an heiress."
"Oh, come off! That doesn't cut any ice in this case. She was dressedlike anything but an heiress, and----"
"You know why. She is living like anything except an heiress, andstill she is one, just as hard."
"And that infernal dwarf is here searching for her!"
"Sure."
"We supposed he had gone East, with Bernard Belmont."
"Yes."
"Instead of that, Belmont sent him here to find the girl."
"Correct me, noble dook."
Harry started up, in great excitement.
"We must defend her, Frank--we must protect her from that wretchedcreature!" he cried. "I am ready."
"I see you are," smiled Merry. "The thought that she might be indanger has aroused you more than any amount of tonics. We can'tprotect her unless we can find her."
"And you said a short time ago that we would not fail to find her."
"We will not, and I hope we may be able to find her in time to be ofassistance to her. To begin with, we must get our bicycles out of thelake. It is a fortunate thing they fell in the water."
"Fortunate?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"It is pretty certain the dwarf would have smashed them if they hadnot."
"That's right. I never thought of it. He would have had a fineopportunity. It is fortunate."
"We can remove our clothes and hang them in the sunshine to dry whilewe are getting the wheels."
A look of horror came to Harry's face.
"No, no!" he cried, wildly. "We can't do that!"
"Why not?"
"The girl--she is somewhere near here. What if she should see us? Goodgracious; it hakes my mart--I mean it makes my heart stand still tothink of it!"
Harry's expression of horror and the way in which he uttered the wordscaused Frank to shout with laughter.
"Oh, my dear fellow!" he cried; "if you could do that on the stage! Itwould be great! You'd make a great hit!"
For once in his life Harry failed to see the humorous side of a thing,and he did not crack a smile.
"What's the use to 'ha-ha' that way, Merry?" he cried, "You wouldn'twant a thing of that kind to happen, and you know it."
"Of course not, old man, so we'll have to keep on part of our clothingwhile we are recovering the wheels."
They approached the edge of the bluff, and, as they did so, a canoeshot out from the mouth of a small cove nearly half a mile away.
There was a single person in the canoe and, immediately on seeing her,Harry cried:
"There she is--that is the girl!"
It was a girl, and she was handling the paddle with the skill of anexpert, sending the light craft flying over the bosom of the lake.
"We must call to her!" exclaimed Harry. "She must stop!"
"We can't stop her by shouting to her, Rattles," declared Frank,quickly. "It would frighten her, that's all."
"But--but what can we do?"
"Unless we can find a boat, absolutely nothing."
Rattleton was desperate.
"It's terrible, Frank!" he cried. "We may lose the only chance offinding her! At least, she should be warned!"
"Look!" directed Merriwell, who was watching the girl closely. "She islooking back! See her use the paddle now! She is alarmed! She makesthe canoe fly! She makes it spin along at great leaps! Surelysomethi
ng has frightened her! What is it?"
Harry's excitement grew.
"It's something, that's sure. She is using all her strength! Howbeautifully she handles the paddle! See the sunshine strike her hair!It is like gold! And now--look! look!"
Around a point just beyond the cove came a boat in which two men wereseated. Both men were paddling, but the boat was heavy, and they werenot gaining on the fleeing girl.
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Frank. "It is Apollo, the dwarf!"
"Yes; and the other--the other is----"
"Bernard Belmont!"
"Then he is here--he did not go East at all. That was a blind."
"Sure enough. They are here to find the girl."
"To put her out of the way, perhaps!"
"It would be like that man. If he gets hold of her, some terribleaccident is likely to happen to Mildred Morris. But they are notgaining; she is keeping the lead with ease."
"Yes," nodded Frank, satisfaction on his face; "she will not betaken."
The boys watched the race with great interest, seeing the girl drawfarther and farther from her pursuers, till, at last, they gave overthe attempt in disgust, although they still paddled along after her.
She headed for a distant shore, and Frank and Harry did not cease towatch till both boats had disappeared in the shadow of the mountainsand timber.
"There," said Merriwell--"over there somewhere must be the presenthome of that girl. It is a wild region, for I was there once myself,and I know. We will go there and see what we can find."
"But we must recover our wheels first."
"That is right; and now we can remove our clothes to do so, withoutfear of being seen. Come on."
It was no simple task to get the bicycles out of the lake, but thethought of the girl's possible danger seemed to have restored Harry'sstrength, and, between them, they succeeded, after many efforts, inaccomplishing their object.
In the meantime their clothes, which had been hung where sun and windwould reach them, had partly dried.
"We can't wait for them to get entirely dry," said Frank. "We'll putthem on just as they are. Nobody ever gets cold around Lake Tahoe atthis time of year."
Harry did not object, but the garments were just wet enough so it wasnot an easy thing to get into them. This, however, was done, after asevere struggle and a small amount of startling and highly picturesquelanguage from Rattleton.
"Woo!" said Harry. "If we had a fine road, we could get on our bikesand send them spinning at such speed that the breeze would soon dryus; but now--how do you propose to get over across this part of thelake, anyhow?"
"Well," said Frank, "you heard me speak of Big Gabe?"
"Of course."
"His cabin was not far from here."
"What of that?"
"He owned a sailboat."
"Wheejiz--no, jeewhiz! that's the stuff! That's what we want!"
"I rather thought so. With the aid of a sailboat we can get across thelake easily."
"Let's look for Mr. Big Gabe without delay."
Frank took the lead, and they went in search of the big hermit,trundling their wheels or carrying them, as was necessary.
The modern bicycle is so light, although it is strong and stanch, thatit may be carried almost anywhere, and so the task of taking thewheels along was not as difficult as it might have been.
Within half an hour they came in sight of Big Gabe's hut, which lay onthe shore of the little cove out of which the girl had sped in thelight canoe.
"It was from this very spot that I first saw that building," saidFrank. "I'll never forget it. Bart Hodge was with me. When we drewnearer, Big Gabe himself came out and threatened to shoot us, thinkingwe were trying to steal his boat, or something of that sort."
"Where is the boat now?"
"There it is, down where the tree overhangs the lake. See?"
They could see the single mast and stern of the boat.
"Good luck!" cried Rattleton. "With the aid of that, we won't do athing but make a lively cruise across the lake, for the wind isrising, and we'll have a fair breeze."
Frank was looking steadily toward the hut, and there was somethinglike a frown on his face, which his companion observed.
"What's the matter?" Harry asked.
"The hut looks deserted. The first time I saw it smoke was coming outof the chimney. Now the chimney is giving forth no smoke, and the doorstands open. It doesn't look as if any one had been around the placefor a year."
"That's right," admitted Harry, anxiously. "But the boat is there."
"It may be in bad condition, else why didn't Belmont and the dwarftake it?"
"There was no breeze a short time ago, and they could not have sailedit across the lake. Besides, they were in pursuit of the girl in thecanoe, and they hoped to overtake her with the aid of a boat theycould row or paddle."
"Your reasoning is all right, my boy. We will hope the sailboat is allright, too. Come on."