CHAPTER XIII
A SERIOUS ADVENTURE
Wyn Mallory was a pretty cool-headed girl; nor was this the first timeshe had been in an accident of this nature.
Naturally, in learning to handle the light cedar craft as expertly asthey did, the members of the Go-Ahead Club had much experience. Whilethe weather was good the girls plied their paddles up and down theWintinooski, but seldom was the river as rough as this open lake inwhich Wyn and Bessie Lavine had been so unexpectedly overturned.
"Oh! am I not the unluckiest girl that--that ever happened?" wailedBess, when she came up puffing.
"N-o-no more than _I_, Bess," stammered Wyn.
"Get your canoe, Wyn!" cried Bess.
"Oh, yes; but we can't turn them over in this sea. Oh! isn't thathorrid!" as another miniature wave slapped the captain of the club inthe face and rolled her companion completely over.
Bess lost her grip on her canoe. The latter floated beyond her reachwhile Wyn was striving to get her friend to the surface again.
"Why! we're going to be drowned!" shrieked Bess, suddenlyhorror-stricken.
"Don't you _dare_ lose your nerve," commanded Wynifred. "If we losecourage we certainly will be lost."
"Oh, but, Wyn----"
"Oh, but, Bess! Don't you dare. Here! get hold of the keel of my canoe."
"But it won't bear us both up," groaned Bessie Lavine.
"It's got to," declared Wyn. "Have courage; don't be afraid."
"You needn't try to tell me you're not afraid yourself, Wyn Mallory!"chattered her friend.
"Of course I am, dear; but I mean, don't lose your head because you_are_ afraid," said Wyn. "Come, now! Paddle with one hand and clingto the keel with the other. I'll do the same."
"Oh, dear, me! if we were only not so far from the shore," groaned Bess.
"Somebody may see us and come to our help," said Wyn, with moreconfidence in her tone than she really felt.
"The canoes couldn't live in this gale."
"It's only a squall."
"That's all very well; but they wouldn't dare to start out for us fromGreen Knoll."
"But the boys----"
"Their camp isn't in sight of this place, Wyn," moaned Bess. "Oh! we_will_ be drowned."
But Wyn had another hope. She remembered, just before the overturn, thatshe had caught a glimpse of the red and yellow cottage behind Jarley'sLanding.
"Oh, Bess!" she gasped. "Perhaps Mr. Jarley will see us. PerhapsPolly----"
Another slapping wave came and rolled them and the canoe over. The frailcraft came keel up, level full of water. The least weight upon it nowwould send it to the bottom of the lake.
"Oh, oh!" shrieked Bess, when she found her voice. "What shall we donow?"
They could both swim; but the lake was rough. The sudden and spitefulsquall had torn up the surface for many yards around. Yet, as they roseupon one of the waves, they saw the sun shining boldly in the westward.The squall was scurrying away.
"Come on! we've got to swim," urged Wyn.
THEY COULD BOTH SWIM, BUT THE LAKE WAS ROUGH. _Page146._]"That's so hard," wailed Bess, but striking out, nevertheless, in theway she had been so well taught by the instructor in Denton. All thesegirls had been trained in the public school baths.
"There's the other canoe," said Wyn, hopefully.
"But we--we don't want to go that way," gasped Bess. "It's away fromland."
Now Wyn knew very well that they had scarcely a chance of swimming tothe distant shore. In ordinarily calm weather--yes; but in this roughsea, and hampered as they were by their bloomers and other clothing--no.
The two girls swam close together, but Wyn dared not offer her comradehelp. She wanted to, but she feared that if she did so Bess would breakdown and become helpless entirely; and Wyn hoped they would get muchfarther inshore before that happened.
The squall had quite gone over and the sun began to shine. It seemed acruel thing--to drown out there in the sunlight. And yet the buffetinglittle waves, kicked up by the wind-flaw, were so hard to swim through.
Had the waves been of a really serious size the struggle would have beenless difficult for the two girls. They could have ridden over the bigwaves and managed to keep their heads above water; but every once in awhile a cross wavelet would slap their faces, and every time one did soBess managed to get a mouthful of water.
"Oh! what will papa do?" moaned Bess.
And Wyn knew what the poor girl meant. She was her father's closecompanion and chum. The other girls in the Lavine family were smallerand their mother was devoted to them; but Bess and Mr. Lavine were palsall the time.
Bess repeated this exclamation over and over again, until Wyn thoughtshe should shriek in nervous despair. She realized quite fully thattheir chance for life was very slim indeed; but moaning and groaningabout it would not benefit them or change the situation in the slightestdegree.
Wyn kept her head and saved her breath for work. She raised up now andthen, breast high in the water, and tried to scan the shore.
Suddenly the sun revealed Green Knoll Camp to her--bathing the littlehillock, with the tents upon it, in the full strength of his rays. Butit was quite two miles away.
Wyn could see no moving figures upon the knoll. Nor could her friendssee her and Bess struggling in the water at that distance. If theiroverset had not been sighted, Mrs. Havel and the four other members ofthe Go-Ahead Club would not be aware of their peril.
And, Wyn believed, the swamping of the canoes could only have beenobserved through a glass. Had anybody along shore been watching the twocanoes as the squall struck the craft and overset them?
In that possibility, she thought, lay their only hope of rescue.