CHAPTER XXIX
THE SUNKEN TREASURE
Wyn and Frank were in despair when they saw the last of the flames winkout and the balloon of smoke sail away upon the breeze. They were toofar away to be able to see the men struggling in the water--if they werestill there.
"Oh! suppose Mr. Jarley doesn't reach them in time?" cried the captainof the girls' club.
"He must! he must!" groaned Frank, beating the water as hard as shecould with her paddle.
"You'll have your canoe over!" exclaimed Wyn. "Look out, Frank!"
"I don't care! I don't care!" repeated the good-hearted Frances. "Oh,dear me! Suppose Mr. Lavine should be drowned? What would Bessie do? Andthey so much to each other!"
The girls saw the catboat round to suddenly, and Mr. Jarley drop thesail. The _Coquette_ seemed to drive straight across the spot wherethe burned motor boat had gone down.
They saw the boatman bend over the rail once--and then again. Each timehe lifted in--or helped lift in--some object; but whether it was the menhe picked up, or some of the floating wreckage, the girls could not see.
They drove their canoes on, however, and Mr. Jarley saw them when hebrought the catboat about. So he sailed down to pick them up likewise.
"Did you get them? Did you get them?" shouted Wyn, resting on herpaddle.
Frankie was crying--and she was not a "weepy" girl as a general thing.But the peril seemed so terrible that she could not control herself forthe moment.
Mr. Jarley--whose figure was all the girls could see in thecatboat--leaned over and waved his hand to the girls. Was it meant to bereassuring? They did not know until the _Coquette_ tacked so as torun down very close to them.
"Is that his girl with you, Miss Mallory?" demanded Polly's father.
"No. She did not come. She doesn't know," cried Wyn. "Oh, Mr. Jarley! ishe all right?"
At that Mr. Lavine's head and shoulders appeared above the rail.
"We're alive, girls," he called, hoarsely. "This brave fellow caught usjust in time. Where's Bess?"
"She doesn't even know it was you in the burning boat," cried Wyn. "ButFrank and I started out for you."
"You'd been awfully wet before ever we could have reached you, though,Mr. Lavine," choked Frank, quickly turning from tears to laughter, aswas her nature.
Mr. Jarley had dropped the sail again, and beckoned the girls toapproach.
"Come aboard," he said, gravely, "and I'll tow your canoes behind us.Shall I take this gentleman to your camp, Miss Mallory?"
But Wyn was thinking to good purpose. She saw that Mr. Jarley, like hisdaughter, wished to have nothing to do with the Lavines. She knew thatnow Mr. Lavine would be doubly grateful to the boatman and that the timewas ripe for the old friends to come to a better understanding.
"Why, Mr. Jarley," she said, "we haven't a thing at the camp he can puton--or the other man. No, sir. I don't know what we should do with themthere."
Jarley's face flushed and he glanced back at the Forge. But it was nearsunset already, and the Forge was much farther away than his ownlanding. The case was obvious.
"Well," he said, "I can take them home. Polly will find something forthem to put on while their clothing is being dried. Yes! that may bebest."
"And you take us girls right along with you and we'll paddle home fromthe landing," declared Wyn.
Wyn wanted to see Polly. After all, she believed, it lay with theboatman's daughter to make friends between the Jarleys and the Lavines.The captain of the Go-Ahead Club felt as though her long and excitingvacation under canvas would come to a very happy conclusion if she couldsee the two men who had once been such close friends, reunited.
Wyn was the first one ashore when the bow of the catboat touched thelanding. Polly came running from the cottage, for she had spied theirapproach.
"Oh, Wynnie!" she cried, "what was it? Did father get them safely?"
"He saved them both--the most wonderful thing, Polly Jolly!" cried Wyn.
"Not so wonderful," corrected Polly, with pride. "My father has savedthe lives of people from the lake before."
"But it _is_ wonderful," quoth Wyn, "because one of the men savedis Bessie's father."
"Mr. Lavine!" gasped Polly.
"Yes. Now he owes his life to your father, just as Bess owes hers toyou."
"Don't talk so, Wyn," begged Polly. "It's nothing."
"Nothing! It's everything! Don't stand in the way of your father andBessie's being good friends again."
"Why, Wynnie!" gasped Polly, with a deeper color in her cheek.
"Don't you dare to act 'offish,'" warned Wyn. "The Lavines feel verykindly toward you--you know it. And now I am sure Mr. Lavine will feelmore than kindly toward your father. Bring them together, Polly."
"You talk as though _I_ could do anything," responded the boatman'sgirl.
"You can. You can do everything! Show your father that you feel kindlytoward Mr. Lavine. That will break down _his_ coldness quicker thananything," declared the inspired young peacemaker.
Wet and bedraggled, Mr. Lavine and his companion stepped ashore.
"Hi, Polly!" shouted her father. "Take Mr. Lavine up to the house andsee if he can wear some of my things while his clothes are drying. I canfind something at the shed here, for Bill."
Polly hesitated just a moment. The eager Wyn gave her a little push frombehind. The boatman's girl ran forward to greet Mr. Lavine.
"Oh, sir!" she cried, timidly, "I am _so_ sorry you had thisaccident."
"I don't know yet whether I am sorry, or not," said Mr. Lavine, graspingher hand.
She turned and walked beside him and her other hand sought his arm in afriendly way. John Jarley stood on the landing and followed them withhis eyes. The expression upon his face pleased Wyn immensely.
She beckoned Frank away. "Come on! let's hurry back to the camp beforeit gets dark. Mrs. Havel will be worried about us."
"And leave Mr. Lavine here?" queried Frank.
"He couldn't be in better hands; could he?"
"I don't know that he could, Wyn!" cried her friend, suddenly. "What asmart girl you are!"
But Wyn would not accept that praise without qualifying it. "Theaccident was providential," she declared, gravely. "And without_my_ assistance I am sure Polly knows how to do the right thing."
Perhaps Polly did. At least she gave much attention to their visitor,and her father could not help but see that Polly and Mr. Lavine werevery good friends.
In half an hour Mr. Lavine appeared from the cottage dressed in Mr.Jarley's best suit of clothes. He shook hands with Polly, and thensuddenly drew her to him and kissed her on the forehead.
"You are a dear girl, Polly," he declared, with some emotion. "I have tothank you for my little girl's life; and now I am going to thank yourfather for _mine_."
He walked straight down to the landing where Mr. Jarley was apparentlyvery busy.
"Bill, here, says he will row you over to that camp if you care to go,Mr. Lavine," said the boatman.
"I don't want to see Bill, John," said the real estate man. "I want tosee _you_. I am going to take advantage of my position as yourguest, John. You cannot turn me off, or refuse to talk with me. Youalways were a gentleman, John, and I am sure you will listen to me now."
Mr. Jarley looked at him a good deal as Polly had looked (at first) atWyn Mallory.
"Come! don't hold a grudge, John, just because _I_ have been wickedenough to hold one all these years. I was wrong. I freely admit it. Comeand sit down here, old man, and let's talk all that old matter over andsee where our misunderstanding lay."
"Misunderstanding?"
"Aye," said the other, warmly. "Misunderstanding. For I am convinced nowthat a brave and generous man like you, John Jarley, would never haveknowingly done what--all these years--I have held you to be guilty of!"
He had put his arm through the boatman's. Together they walked aside andsat down upon an upturned skiff. And they were sitting there long afterit grew pitch dark upon the landing, with on
ly the glow of Polly's lampin the kitchen window and that uncertain radiance upon the lake whichseems the reflection of the distant stars.
Finally the two men stepped into a skiff and Mr. Jarley rowed it over toGreen Knoll Camp. They did not reach the camp until nearly bedtime, andthey came so softly to the shore that the girls did not hear thescraping of the boat's keel.
Lavine seized his old friend's hand before leaping ashore.
"Then it's understood, John? You're to get out of this place and comeback to Denton? I'm sorry Dr. Shelton is ahead of me in giving Pollysomething substantial; but you and I are going to begin just where weleft off in that Steel Rivet Corporation deal, John.
"About next month I'll have a bigger thing than _that_ in sight,and you shall have the same share in it that you would have had in theold deal. You used to be mighty good in handling your end of the game,John; I want you to take hold of it in just the same way again. Will youagree, old man?"
And Mr. Jarley gave him his hand upon it.
The girls put their visitor to sleep in the cook tent that night and thenext morning the whole party went over to Gannet Island to see the workof raising the sunken motor boat carried on. The Busters were as excitedas the girls themselves over the affair, and Cave-in-the-Wood Camp was alively place indeed that day.
Tubby Blaisdell was the only person in the party who wore an aggrievedair. At first he could hardly be made to believe that the girls had not"sicked" the goat upon him two days before when he had stolen away fromthe other boys for a nap in the woods. Tubby walked lame and could havedisplayed bruises for several days.
The derrick barge had been towed over to the place where the _BrightEyes_ was sunk, the evening before. The boys helped put the chainsaround the hull of the sunken boat, for they were all good divers--savethe fat youth, who remained on the invalid list.
Before noon the lost boat was raised to the surface and lashed to theside of the barge. Mr. Jarley very quickly tacked a tarpaulin over thehole in her bottom, and then she was pumped out. Further repairs weremade and by night the _Bright Eyes_ was riding safely to her ownanchor and Mr. Jarley pried open the rusted lock of the cabin.
Dr. Shelton had come over in the _Sunshine Boy_ and received fromMr. Jarley the box containing the silver images intact. It made PollyJarley very happy to hear what the quick-tempered doctor said to herfather; and it made Wyn Mallory blush to listen to what they _all_said to her!
"You can't get out of it, girlie!" laughed Frank Cameron. "What they sayis quite true. If it hadn't been for you they never would have found theboat, and of course the images would have remained hidden. You're_it_, Wyn Mallory--no getting away from that!"