The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay; or, The Secret of the Red Oar

by Margaret Penrose

  CHAPTER III

  CRYSTAL BAY

  "Here we are!"

  "Where's the bungalow?"

  "Me for that motor boat of Cora's!" cried Jack.

  "No, you don't!" exclaimed his sister. "Not till I try her first."

  They had alighted at the station, and there was the confusion thatalways follows engaging a carriage and seeing that the baggage hassafely arrived. Cora found time to slip off for a minute and whisperwords of cheer to Freda. Then she rejoined her chums, and made readyfor the trip to the bungalow.

  The boys, with a fine disregard of housekeeping responsibilities, werealready making plans to go fishing that afternoon, having spied a manwho took out parties in his launch.

  But finally order came out of chaos. The girls found themselves attheir bungalow, surrounded by their belongings. The boys, after seeingthat their possessions were piled in the tent, slipped on their oldestgarments and began overhauling their fishing tackle.

  "Aren't you going to do anything toward getting a meal?" asked Cora ofJack, as she went over to the tent to borrow a corkscrew with which toopen some olives.

  "We thought maybe you'd ask us over," he answered, craftily, as headjusted a reel on his rod.

  "Oh, Jack!" she cried. "We can't! We've got so much to unpack.Besides, we're only going to have a light lunch now."

  "A _light_ lunch! Excuse me. I know--crackers, pickles and olives.Never! We'll go to the town delicatessen, sister mine!"

  "Thank goodness there is one," murmured Cora.

  She hastened back to the bungalow. And then began a series ofstrenuous happenings.

  Somehow trunks and suitcases were unpacked; somehow rooms were pickedout, rejected, taken again, and finally settled on. Then, between thenibblings at the crackers and pickles Jack had despised, the girlssettled down, and at last had time to admire the place they hadselected for their Summer stay.

  A woman had been engaged to open the bungalow for them, and she hadprovided most of the necessaries of life, aside from those the girlsbrought with them. Cora and her chums had been satisfied to have herattend to everything from buying food to providing an oil stove onwhich to cook it.

  There were a number of conveniences at Crystal Bay. Stores were notout of reach, and supplies could be procured with little trouble. Atrip across the bay brought one to the shores of a real village, withschool house, post-office and other accessories of civilization. Atrip down the bay opened into eel pots in August, bluefishing inSeptember and deep sea fishing later on, when the Summer colonists haddeparted.

  Very early in the morning after the arrival of the motor girls atCrystal Bay, house, tent and bungalow were deserted--it was all amatter of motor boat. Moored to the brand new dock, at Tangle Turn, abrand new motor craft heaved with the incoming waves and tugged at itsropes whenever a sufficiently strong motion of the water gave itexcuse to attempt an escape.

  This was the _Chelton_, the "up-to-datest" little-big motor boatpossible to own or acquire, according to the verdict of the young menfrom Chelton who had just now passed judgment, and the wise decisionof Cora and her girl friends who had actually bought the boat, afterhaving taken a post-graduate course in catalogs and hardwareperiodicals, to say nothing of the countless interviews they had foundit necessary to hold with salesmen and yacht agents.

  They were all there, even Freda, who declared she ought to be busywith other matters, but that the call of the colony was too strong forher that one morning, at least.

  "Of course we know how to run her," insisted Cora to Ed, the latterhaving expressed doubt as to the girls' ability to manage so importanta craft. "Didn't we run the _Pet_?"

  "Oh, yes, but this--this is a deep-sea boat," Ed explained, "and youmight run yourselves away to other shores."

  "And land on a desert island? What sport!" exclaimed Lottie, to whommotor boating was an entirely new experience. "I hope we make itHolland. I have always longed to see a real, live Holland boy. Thekind who are all clothes and wooden shoes."

  "We might make one up for you," suggested Belle. "I think Wallie wouldlook too cute for anything in skirty trousers and polonaise shirts.Just let his locks grow a little--Look out there, Bess! That's wateraround the boat. It only looks like an oil painting. It's real--wet!"

  Bess was climbing over the dock edge, and of course the boys could notallow her that much exercise without pretending that she was in dangerof going overboard. After Belle unhooked the hem of her sister's skirtfrom an iron bolt, thereby giving Bess a sudden drop to the deck ofthe _Chelton_, however, Bess declared she knew water when she saw it,and also the difference between a water color and an oil painting.

  "What did you call her _Chelton_ for?" asked Walter. "I thought youdecided to take the name from the first remark the first strangershould make about her."

  "Yes, and what do you think that was?" laughed Belle.

  "'Push'!" promptly answered Freda. "An old fisherman came along asJack was arranging the painter, and he just said 'push'!"

  "That would be a handy little name," commented Walter.

  "Next some boys, out clamming, saw her," said Jack, "and they said'peach.'"

  "Either of which would have done nicely," declared Ed. "Peach wouldhave been the very name--after the girls----"

  "_Chelton_ is dignified and appropriate," interposed Cora; "besides,if we should stray off to Holland they would know along the Dikes thatwe belonged in Chelton."

  "Now don't forget that the wheel is a sea wheel and turns opposite tothe direction you want to go," cautioned Jack.

  "How is that?" inquired Lottie, who had joined the other in examiningthe boat.

  She was shown with patience. The boys were plainly glad that one ofthe girls, at least, did not know all about running a motor boat.

  "And oh, what is that?" gasped Marita. "That cunning little playhouse!"

  "Playhouse!" repeated Cora. "That's our living room--our cabin. Thosefixtures are to cook with, eat with, live with and do all ourhousekeeping with."

  "Also die with," added Walter. "I think that electric toaster might beall right for fudge, but for real bread--Now say, Cora, can you reallycook pork and beans on that?"

  "These are the very latest, most improved and most expensive electricattachments on the market," answered Cora, with a show of dignity,"and when you boys take a meal here, if we ever invite you to, I thinkwe can easily prove the advantage of electrical attachments overcampfire iron pots."

  The cooking apparatus was examined with interest. A motor boat cabinfitted up with such a "kitchenette" was indeed a novelty.

  "You see," explained Cora, "we have two ways of getting power. We cantake it from the storage battery, or from the little dynamo attachedto the motor."

  "Lovely!" exclaimed Lottie, to whom a "current" meant little, but whowanted to seem interested.

  "That is to provide for the various kinds of cooking," Jack said,jokingly. "Now eggs are weak, they cook by storage; but a Welsh rabbitis done by the dynamo."

  "It means something else," Captain Cora remarked, "namely, if we havecompany for supper, and the storage current gives out, we will nothave to make it a progressive meal, extending into the next day. Thecourse can be continued from the extra current."

  "For the love of Malachi!" exclaimed Walter. "What's this?"

  "Our boiler," said Bess, who knew something about the boat's fittingup. "We have that for dishwater."

  "Dishwater!" repeated Ed. "You've got this down to domestic scienceall right. That rubber hose runs off the hot water from the cylinderjacket, and----"

  "Oh, never!" cried Jack. "They will be making tea with it."

  "Isn't it salty?" innocently asked Marita.

  "Likely," said Belle, for the girls had all taken an interest in thehousework-made-easy-plan, and had arranged to use the boiling water asit came from the motor after cooling the cylinder. "But it won't hurtdishes."

  "Now I call that neat," commented Ed, "and to think that mere girlsshould have thought of it."

  Fre
da gave Cora a meaning glance. "Girls ought to think of thehousework," she laughed with a wink at Belle. "Just look at the linenchest."

  She opened a small box and exhibited a goodly supply of suitablelinen. No table cloths; just small pieces, doilies and plenty of neat,pretty towels.

  "Let's board here," suggested Walter. "Our food was really rude thismorning."

  "Do we go out for a sail?" asked Ed, attempting to turn on thegasoline.

  "Oh, no indeed!" Cora answered quickly. "Not a box is unpacked in ourplace yet, and perhaps, if you boys are all to rights, you wouldn'tmind giving us a hand."

  "Oh, of course we're all to rights," replied Jack. "I had a bolt ofmosquito netting for my blanket last night and Wallie's bathrobe formy pillow."

  "And I made friends with a pretty, little, soft ground mole, Jack,"put in Ed, "and if the rest of our boxes do not arrive and unpackthemselves in time for your slumber this eve, that mole has agreed tocuddle up under your left ear. I believe you sleep on your left."

  "Thanks," Jack said, "but I see no reason why mere household truckshould keep us from a cruise. I am aching to try the _Chelton_, Cora."

  Cora and Freda were talking in whispers in the other end of the boat.It was no "mere household truck" surely that brought the seriousexpression to their faces.

  "It isn't far," Freda was heard to say, "and he promised to wait forus this morning."

  "And I do want to be with you," Cora answered. "But I won't let themtake the boat out the first time without me. It cost too much to runthe risk of damaging it by sky-larking."

  "Now what are you two up to?" demanded Jack. "Just because DraytonWard has not arrived, we are held up for his coming. I tell you, Sis,that chap may not put in an appearance at all, here. He knows--swellerplaces."

  "Oh, don't you mind him, Cora," Ed interrupted. "Dray is sure to come.He had his canoe shipped two days ago, besides sending to the covefor his motor boat. I expect some tall times when he gets here. Ourown innocent little _Lassie_ won't know how to skip over the wavesat all--she'll be that flustered when the swell, gold-railed,mahogany-bound, carpet-floored _Dixie_ gets here."

  "It would take more than a mere _Dixie_ to knock out our _Lassie_,"declared Walter, "but I should like to know why she is not on thescene yet. Didn't we plainly say Tuesday?"

  "We did, plainly and emphatically. But a boat builder, letter orseller has a right to make his own day in delivering the goods. We'llbe lucky if we get the barge at all without taking the sheriff up tothat shipyard."

  "Meanwhile we have the _Chelton_," said Ed, tugging at Cora's sleeve.

  "And we must get back to the bungalow," she observed. "Freda and Ihave an important appointment for eleven, and if you all promise notto follow us or attempt to go out in the _Chelton_, perhaps we willhave some interesting news for you this evening."

  The boys strolled away, talking about the motor boat they had hired.Money, for some reason, was not plentiful that Summer with Jack andhis chums, and they had to be content with a second-hand craft, thathad been patched and re-patched until there was little of the originalleft. They were not even sure the _Lassie_ would run, but they wereanxious to try her.