CHAPTER XXVII
IS IT THE "BRIGHT EYES"?
With a whirl and clash of paddles the little flotilla of canoes shot outto the diving float. The bateau was only a few yards away. The tworough-looking men in her were sounding the lake bottom, with long poles;but as yet they had not got around to the right spot.
Wyn breathlessly told the boys to move the raft to the place to whichshe paddled. The other girls were excitedly asking questions but neitherWyn nor Dave answered.
The captain of the Go-Aheads thought that if the raft could be heldstationary--anchored in some way--directly over the sunken boat, theprize would be safe until Mr. Jarley, or somebody else in authority,came to claim the _Bright Eyes_. Of course, providing this sunkenboat was she.
Polly had seemed so positive, and so eager to get her father startedafter the motor boat he had lost, that Wyn could not understand why theJarleys were not already on the spot.
"Hey, there! what are you boys doing?" demanded one of the bateau men,hailing Dave and his friends on the raft.
"Moving our float," replied the captain of the Busters, promptly.
"Well, don't you git in our way," said the man, crossly.
"Hel-_lo_!" exclaimed the saucy Ferd Roberts. "I've always wonderedwho owned Lake Honotonka, and now I know."
"You'll know a whole lot more if you don't look out, Young Fresh,"growled the other boatman.
"I shouldn't wonder," laughed Ferd. "But I'm not going to school to_you_, Mister."
"Do be quiet, Ferd," advised Dave. "Now, Wynnie! What do you say tothis?"
Meantime the boys had raised the two big stones that served the raft asanchors, and had poled the float near to Wyn's canoe.
"Oh! a little farther, Dave, please," cried the anxious girl.
"Say! I wanter know what you young ones are up to?" repeated the firstboatman.
"Can't you see?" returned Dave. "We're shifting our raft."
"What for?"
"Cat's fur! To make kittens' breeches of, 'cause we couldn't get dogfur--_now_ do you know?" snapped Ferd.
"Shut up, Ferd!" commanded Dave, again.
"He'd better shut up," growled the man, "or something'll happen tohim--the young shrimp!"
"Oh, dear me, Wyn!" cried Bessie Lavine; "let's go back to camp."
"You'd all better scatter--both gels and boys," said the boatman,threateningly. "We're busy here an' we don't want to be bothered byshrimps."
"I guess we'll stay a while longer, Mister," Dave said, boldly.
"We were here first," cried the irrepressible Ferd.
"You youngsters air in our way. Get out," commanded the Boatman.
He was working the bateau nearer to the raft, using one of the longsweeps for that purpose.
"Heave over the anchors again, fellows," said Dave, quietly. "Then standby with your paddles to repel boarders. We mustn't let 'em have theraft, or move it."
"Oh, Wyn!" begged Mina Everett, "let's go away."
The girls had all paddled near Wyn Mallory. Now they clustered about herin plain anxiety. The boys had climbed upon the raft and all five wereplainly intending to offer resistance to the ugly boatmen.
"Now, girls," begged the captain of the Go-Aheads, firmly, "let us show_some_ courage, at least. The boys are willing to fight ourbattle----"
"_Our_ battle?" gasped Bessie. "What do you mean?"
In a whisper Wyn explained to the wondering and frightened girls what itwas all about.
"Polly and I believe the lost motor boat lies right beneath us here. Wemust keep those men off, for they are hunting for the sunken boat, too,"concluded Wynnie.
"My goodness! how exciting!" cried Grace Hedges.
"And we'll actually win the prize your father offered us, Bess!" gaspedPercy Havel.
"I don't see that _we_ have had much to do with it," said Frank."Wyn made the discovery."
"What is for one is for all," declared Wynnie. "But we won't win Mr.Lavine's prize unless the boat is raised and the silver images aredelivered to Dr. Shelton. If those men get hold of the boat----"
Suddenly one of the boatmen--a long-legged fellow with a cast in one eyeand lantern jaws sparsely covered with sandy whisker--came forward tothe bow of the bateau and poised himself for a leap to the diving float.
"Keep off!" Dave warned him, swinging his paddle over his head. "Youjump over here and you'll catch this where Kellup caught the hen--rightin the neck! You let us alone and we'll let you alone."
The boatman told him, in no very choice language, what he would do toDave when he caught him; but the captain of the Busters did not appearto be much shaken.
"Hold, on, Eb!" yelled the other boatman. "I'll run that raft down andspill 'em all off."
"You try it and you'll likely smash your boat," shouted Dave. "I warnyou."
Mina Everett began to cry softly, for the suggestion of a pitched battlebetween the boys and the boatmen frightened her dreadfully. Bess beganto grow excited.
"Aren't those men just _mean_? I wish I had something to hit themwith--I do! I believe I'll get out on the raft with _my_ paddle."
"That wouldn't be a bad idea," said Grace. "I think the boys are as niceto us as they can be."
Suddenly, while the attention of all the others was held by the excitingsituation on the raft, Frank Cameron cried out:
"Who's this coming? Oh, girls! isn't that Polly? Look, Wyn!"
Wyn almost overturned her canoe in her eagerness to back out of thegroup and whirl her canoe about that she might see. Down upon the scenewas bearing one of the larger power boats from the other end of thelake.
"It's Dr. Shelton's _Sunshine Boy_!" cried Percy Havel.
"And that _is_ Polly Jolly in the bow," exclaimed Wyn. "Hurrah!"
She drove her paddle into the water and sent her canoe driving for theapproaching motor boat.
"Polly! Polly!" she called, long before the boatman's daughter couldhear her.
But Polly recognized her just the same, and waved her hand; there was agentleman pacing the deck, too, who came to lean on the rail and look atthe flying canoe. Wyn next saw Mr. Jarley, in his working clothes, puthis head out of the cabin that housed the motor.
"It's Dr. Shelton," Wyn thought. "Then he and Mr. Jarley have made itup. I'm so glad!"
But the motor boat was coming fast and Wyn drove her canoe as though shewere racing. Swerving the craft quickly, the girl brought it very nicelyinto a berth beside the motor boat. Polly leaned down and steadied thecanoe with the boat hook, and her friend hopped aboard. Then togetherthey hoisted over the rail the almost swamped canoe.
"What's all this? What's all this?" demanded Dr. Shelton. "You girls areregular acrobats. Hullo! This is the young miss who won the canoe raceand the swimming match for girls, the other day. Am I right?"
"Yes, sir," said Polly, presenting Wyn proudly. "This is Miss WynifredMallory, my very dear friend."
"The girl who thinks she has found our old motor boat--eh?" asked theburly doctor.
"I am sure she has found it, sir," declared Polly. "And what are Eb andhis chum, Billy Smith, trying to do there at the raft, Wyn?"
"They suspect something; but the boys have got the float right over thesunken boat and have promised to hold the bateau men off----"
Just then Dr. Shelton turned quickly, picked up a megaphone and bawledthrough it to the bateau men, one of whom had leaped aboard the boys,raft.
"Hey, you! Get off that raft and keep off it, or I'll put you both injail at the Forge. Understand me?"
It was evident that the boatmen _did_ understand the doctor, forthe trespasser aboard the raft leaped back into the bateau without ablow being struck, although the boys were ready for him. The big sail ofthe craft was immediately raised and she had borne off to some distancewhen the _Sunshine Boy_ was allowed to drift in close to the float.
"Now, boys," said Dr. Shelton, genially, "I understand you have found myold _Bright Eyes_ under water here and have been guarding it fromall comers. Is that right?"
"
No, Doctor," returned Dave. "We fellows have had mighty little to dowith it. It's the girls----"
"It's Wyn!" cried Frank, "and nobody else."
"Wyn did it all," agreed Bess.
"But those men, poking around here, might have found it and laid claimto it, sir, if the boys had not come to the rescue," declared thecaptain of the Go-Aheads, warmly.
"You seem to be a Mutual Admiration Society," laughed the doctor."However, if the boat is here and that express box intact, as Jarleysays, I certainly owe somebody something handsome for finding it."
"Oh, no, sir!" murmured Wyn, quickly, standing by his side. "You owe menothing. Mr. Lavine has promised our club a present, and Polly and herfather are going to be made very happy if it turns out all right._That_ is reward enough for us."
"Humph! you feel that way about it; do you, Miss Mallory?" queried thedoctor. "Just the same, if the _Bright Eyes_ really is sunk here Imust show my gratitude to somebody."
"Then do something for Polly," Wyn whispered. "Give her a chance to goto school--to Denton Academy with the rest of us girls. That would befine! She wouldn't let Mr. Lavine do that for her; but I know she'llaccept it from you, when her father has proved himself clear ofsuspicion."
"Ha! John Jarley is a better man than I am," grunted Dr. Shelton. "I hadno business to talk to him the way I did regatta day. I'm free to admitI was wrong, whether we recover the _Bright Eyes_ and the silverimages, or not!"
And the question, Is it the _Bright Eyes_? was the principalsubject of discussion among them all. The boys were just as eager aswere the girls over the affair.
"If the sunken boat is all right--and the images," said Dave Shepard,"you girls will be lucky enough to sail a motor boat of your own."
"And we'd never own it if you boys hadn't come forward as you did,"declared Wyn. "Isn't that so, Bess?"
Bess had to admit the fact, much as she disliked praising boys.
"Oh, we'll let you boys sail in our new boat once in a while," she said.
"Goodness me! I should say yes!" exclaimed Frank, suddenly. "For we'vegot to have somebody teach us how to run a motor boat; haven't we?"