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Page 27
"I suppose you don't speak to people on the water whom you might be
persuaded to notice on land," called Tom Curtis reproachfully.
"O Mr. Curtis! how do you do?" laughed Madge. "You see, we are not
possessed with eyes in the backs of our heads, or we should have
recognized you. Goodness gracious! If there isn't my cousin, Jack
Bolling! I never dreamed you knew him. Why didn't you tell me? Jack,
where did you come from?"
Tom looked at Jack, and Jack looked at Tom. "Age before beauty, Mr.
Curtis," bowed Jack. "You answer first."
"To tell you the solemn truth, I did not know your cousin until this
morning," Tom explained. "But when I saw a not specially bad-looking
fellow mooning about our hotel as though lost I went over and spoke to
him. It wasn't long before I found out he knew you young ladies. I
told him about meeting you in the woods the other day, and we shook
hands on it. Now, Bolling, it is your turn. How did you happen to
turn up in this particular place?"
Jack was apparently looking at Lillian and Madge, but he had really
glanced first at Phyllis Alden, to see how she had borne the shock of
his presence. Jack had guessed correctly that Phyllis did not like
him. To tell the truth, she looked anything but pleased. She did not
like boys. She could do most of the things they could, and they were,
to her mind, a nuisance. They were always on hand, trying to help and
to pretend that girls were weaker than they were in order to domineer
over them. The worst of it was, Madge, Lillian and Eleanor might think
the newcomers would add to the fun. So, though Phyllis did not mean to
be rude either to Tom or to Jack, she was far from enthusiastic, and
could not help showing it.
"Of course, I had to come down to see what your houseboat looked like
after I got your note telling me where you were," explained Jack. "I
knew there was a hotel near here, so, as soon as school closed, I ran
down for a few days to see how you were getting on. You see, I was
really very much interested in the houseboat." Jack made this last
remark directly to Phyllis. She merely glanced carelessly away in the
opposite direction.
"We rowed up from the hotel to the houseboat, but we couldn't see a
soul aboard. 'The ship was still as still could be,'" declared Tom.
"Then we started for a row and found you." There was no doubt that Tom
was looking straight at Madge.
"We are rowing over to the island," remarked Lillian graciously.
"How strange! We were going over there, too, weren't we, Mr. Bolling?"
quizzed Tom.
"Then catch us if you can!" challenged Phyllis. With a sign to Madge
the two girls began rowing their boat through the water with the speed
of an arrow. The first spurt told, for the island was not far away,
and the girls' boat grated on the beach before the boys had time to
land. But Tom and Jack did jump out and run through the water to pull
the "Water Witch" ashore, much to Phil's disgust.
"I really have an errand to do on this island, Miss Morton," continued
Tom, as the party started up the beach. "I wanted first to ask you if
I could bring my mother to call on you and your chaperon this
afternoon? I am awfully anxious to have an all-day sailing party
to-morrow. And I thought perhaps you and your friends and chaperon
would go with us? There is an old fellow over here who takes people
out sailing, and I am anxious to have a talk with him. Don't think I
am such a duffer that I can't sail a boat myself, but my mother is so
nervous about the water that I take a professional sailor along to keep
her from worrying. She has had a great deal to make her nervous," Tom
ended. "I wonder if you and your friends would mind walking over to
the other side of the island with me to see this man? It is not a long
walk."
The party started off, Phyllis keeping strictly in the background.
Madge walked with Tom and Lillian with Jack, so she felt a little out
of it.
"If you don't mind," she proposed, after the party had walked a few
yards, "I will sit down here on the beach and wait until you come back
from your talk with the sailor man. I will stay right here, so you can
find me when you return."
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