The Camp Fire Girls at the Seashore; Or, Bessie King's Happiness

by Jane L. Stewart

  CHAPTER VIII

  THE RACE

  The sloop that was to represent the Halsted Camp Fire in the racearrived in the cove late in the morning, and from the shore there seemedto be no difference in size between the two little craft. They weredifferent, and one might prove swifter than the other, for no two boatsof that sort were ever exactly alike. But so far as could be judged, therace was likely to be a test rather of how the boats were sailed than oftheir speed, boat for boat.

  "I think you can sail on even terms, Dolly," said Eleanor. "I don'tbelieve there'll be any need for either of you to give away any time tothe other."

  "I'm glad of that, Miss Eleanor," said Dolly. "It seems much nicer whenyou're exactly even at the start."

  "Here's Miss Turner now," said Bessie. "I guess they must be about readyto start. I hope I'll do the right thing when you tell me, Dolly, butI'm dreadfully afraid I won't."

  "Don't worry about it, and you'll be much more likely to get alongwell," said Margery Burton, calmly. "And remember that this race isn'tthe most important thing in the world, even if Dolly thinks it is."

  "Oh, it's all right for you to talk that way now," said Dolly. "But waittill we're racing, Bessie. You'll find she's just as much worked upabout it then as I am--and probably more so."

  "Well, all ready, Nell?" asked Mary Turner, coming up to them then."Gladys seems to think she's about ready to start, so I thought I'd walkover and arrange about the details."

  "I think the best way to fix up the start will be for the two sloops toreach the opening in the bar together," said Eleanor. "They can startthere and finish there, you see, and that will save the need of havingsomeone to take the time. We really haven't anyone who can do thatproperly. If we're close together at the start you and I can call to oneanother and agree upon the moment when the race has actually begun."

  "All right," said Miss Turner. "I'd thought of that myself." She loweredher voice. "I didn't like to oppose this race, Nell," she said, speakingso that only Eleanor could hear her, "but I'm not at all sure that it'sgoing to be a good thing."

  "Why not? I thought it would be good sport."

  "It ought to be, but I don't know how good a sportsman Gladys is. If shewins, it will probably make her feel a lot better. But if she loses--!"

  "I hadn't thought of that side of it," said Eleanor. "But--oh, well,even so, I think it will probably be a good thing. Gladys has got a lotof hard lessons to learn, and if this is one of them, the sooner shelearns it, the better. You and I will be along to see fair play. Thatwill keep her from having anything to say if she does lose, you see."

  "We're in for it, anyhow, so I didn't mean to have you worry about it. Ithink anything that I might have done to stop the race would have donemore harm than the race itself can possibly do, in any case."

  "I'm quite sure of that, Mary. Well, we'll get aboard our yacht andyou'd better do the same. They're probably waiting impatiently for you."

  The flat-bottomed skiff that Bessie had despised proved handy forcarrying the _Eleanor's_ crew out to her. While the others climbedaboard, Dolly, who insisted upon attending to everything herself, whenshe possibly could, arranged a floating anchor that would keep the boatin place against their return, and a few moments later the _Eleanor's_snowy sails rose, flapping idly in the faint breeze.

  "Get up that anchor!" directed Dolly. "Bessie, you help Margery. She'llshow you what to do."

  Then a shiver shook the little craft, the wind filled the sails, and ina few moments they were creeping slowly toward the opening in the bar.Seated at the helm, Dolly looked over toward the other camp and saw thatthe other yacht was also under weigh.

  "What do they call their boat?" she asked.

  "The _Defiance_," said Eleanor.

  Dolly laughed at the answer.

  "I bet I know who named her!" she said, merrily. "If that isn't justlike Gladys Cooper! Well, I want a good race, and I can have just asmuch fun if we're beaten, as long as I can feel that I haven't made anymistakes in sailing the _Eleanor_. But--well, I guess I would like tobeat Gladys. I bet she's awfully sure of winning!"

  "She's had more experience in sailing boats like these than you have,Dolly," said Eleanor.

  "She's welcome to it," said Dolly. "I shan't make any excuses if I lose.I'll be ready to admit that she's better than I am."

  The two boats converged together upon the opening in the bar, and soonthose on one could see everything aboard the other. Gladys Cooper, likeDolly, sat at the helm, steering her boat, and a look of grimdetermination was in her eyes and on her unsmiling face.

  "She certainly does want to win," said Margery. "She's taking this tooseriously--score one for Dolly."

  "You think she'd do better if she weren't so worked up, Margery?"

  "Of course she would! There are just two ways to take a race or asporting contest of any sort--as a game or as a bit of serious work. Ifyou do the very best you can and forget about winning, you'll win a gooddeal oftener than you lose, if your best is any good at all. It's thatway in football. I've heard boys say that when they have played againstcertain teams, they've known right after the start that they were goingto win, because the other team's players would lose their tempers thefirst time anything went wrong."

  "We seem to be on even terms now," said Eleanor, and, cupping her hands,she hailed Mary Turner. "All ready? We might as well call this a start."

  "All right," said Mary. "Shall I give the word?"

  "Go ahead!" said Eleanor.

  Instantly Dolly, with a quick look at her sails, which were hanging limpagain, since she had altered the course a trifle, became all attention.

  "One--two--three--go!" called Miss Turner, clapping her hands at theword 'go.'

  And instantly Dolly shifted her helm once more, so that the wind filledthe sails, and the _Eleanor_ shot for the opening in the bar. Quick asshe had been, however, she was no quicker than Gladys, and the_Defiance_ and the _Eleanor_ passed through the bar and out into theopen sea together. Here there was more motion, since the short, choppywaves outside the bar were never wholly still, no matter how calm thesea might seem to be. But Bessie, who had been rather nervous as to theeffect of this motion, which she had been warned to dread, found it byno means unpleasant.

  For a few moments Dolly's orders flew sharply. Although the wind wasvery light, there was enough of it to give fair speed, and the sails hadto be trimmed to get the utmost possible out of it while it lasted. Bothboats tacked to starboard, sailing along a slanting line that seemedlikely to carry them far to one side of the lighthouse that was theirdestination, and Bessie wondered at this.

  "We're not sailing straight for the lighthouse," she said. "Isn't thatsupposed to be where we turn? Don't we have to sail around it?"

  "Yes, but we can't go straight there, because the wind isn't right,"explained Dolly. "We'll keep on this way for a spell; then we'll comeabout and tack to port, and then to starboard again. In that way we canbeat the wind, you see, and make it work for us, even if it doesn't wantto."

  Half way to the lighthouse there was less than a hundred feet betweenthe boats. The _Defiance_ seemed to be a little ahead, but theadvantage, if she really had one at all, was not enough to have any realeffect on the race.

  "Going out isn't going to give either of us much chance to gain, Iguess," said Dolly. "The real race will be when we're going back, withwhat wind there is behind us."

  But soon it seemed that Dolly had made a rash prediction, for when shecame about and started to beat up to port, the _Defiance_ held to hercourse.

  "Well, she can do that if she wants to," said Dolly. "Just the same, Ithink she's going too far."

  "It looks to me as if she were pretty sure of what she's doing though,Dolly," said Margery, anxiously. "Don't you think you tacked a littletoo soon?"

  "If I thought that I wouldn't have done it, Margery," said Dolly. "Don'tbother me with silly questions now I've got to figure on tacking againso as to make that turn with the least possible waste of time."

>   "Don't talk to the 'man' at the wheel," advised Eleanor, with a laugh."She's irritable."

  A good many of the nautical terms used so freely by the others mighthave been so much Greek for all Bessie could understand of them, but therace itself had awakened her interest and now held it as scarcelyanything she had ever done had been able to do.

  She kept her eyes fixed on the other boat, and at last she gave a cry.

  "Look! They're going to turn now."

  "Score one for Gladys, Margery," said Dolly, quietly. "She's certainlystolen a march on me. Do you see that? She's going to make her turn onthe next tack, and I believe she'll gain nearly five minutes on us. Thatwas clever, and it was good work."

  "Never mind, Dolly," said Margery. "You've still got a chance to catchher going home before the wind. I know how fast the _Eleanor_ is at thatsort of work. If the _Defiance_ is any better, she ought to be racingfor some real cups."

  "Oh, don't try to cheer me up! I made an awful mess of that, Margery,and I know it. Gladys had more nerve than I, that's all. She deservesthe lead she's got. It isn't a question of the boats, at all. The_Defiance_ is being sailed better than the _Eleanor_."

  "Margery's right, though, Dolly," said Eleanor. "The race isn't overyet. You haven't given up hope, have you?"

  "Given up?" cried Dolly, scornfully, through set teeth. "Just you watch,that's all! I'm going to get home ahead if I have to swamp us all."

  "That's more like her," Margery whispered to Bessie.

  And now even Bessie could see that the _Defiance_ had gained a bigadvantage. Before her eyes, not so well trained as those of the othersto weigh every consideration in such a contest, had not seen what wasreally happening. But it was plain enough now. Even while the _Defiance_was holding on for the lighthouse, on a straight course, the _Eleanor_had to come about and start beating up toward it, and the _Defiance_made the turn, and, with spinnaker set, was skimming gaily for home afull five minutes before the _Eleanor_ circled the lighthouse.

  In fact, the _Defiance_, homeward bound, passed them, and Mary Turnerlaughed gaily as she hailed Eleanor.

  "This is pretty bad," she called. "Better luck next time, Nell!"

  Marcia Bates waved her hand gaily to them, but Gladys Cooper, her eyesstraight ahead, her hand on the tiller, paid no attention to them. Therewas no mistaking the look of triumph on her face, however. She was sureshe was going to win, and she was glorying in her victory already.

  "I'll make her smile on the other side of her face yet," said Dolly,viciously. "She might have waved her hand, at least. If we're goodenough to race with, we're good enough for her to be decently polite tous, I should think."

  "Easy, Dolly!" said Margery. "It won't help any for you to lose yourtemper, you know. Remember you've still got to sail your boat."

  The _Defiance_ was far ahead when, at last, after a wait that seemed tothose on board interminable, the _Eleanor_ rounded the lighthouse in herturn.

  "Lively now!" commanded Dolly. "Shake out the spinnaker! We're going toneed all the sail we've got. There isn't enough wind now to make a flagstand out properly."

  "And they got the best of it, too," lamented Margery. "You see, Bessie,the good wind there was when they started back carried them well along.We won't get that, and we'll keep falling further and further behind,because they've probably still got more wind than we have. It'll die outhere before it does where they are."

  Dolly stood up now, and cast her eyes behind her on the horizon, and allabout. And suddenly, without warning, she put the helm over, and the_Eleanor_ stood off to port, heading, as it seemed, far from the openingin the bar that was the finishing line.

  "Dolly, are you crazy!" exclaimed Margery. "This is a straight runbefore the wind!"

  "Suppose there isn't any wind?" asked Dolly. The strained, anxious lookhad left her eyes, and she seemed calm now, almost elated. "Margery,you're a fine cook, but you've got a lot to learn yet about sailing aboat!"

  Bessie was completely mystified, and a look at Margery showed her thatshe, too, although silenced, was far from being satisfied. But nowMargery suddenly looked off on the surface of the water, and gave a gladcry.

  "Oh, fine, Dolly!" she exclaimed. "I see what you're up to--and I betGladys thinks you're perfectly insane, too!"

  "She'll soon know I'm not," said Dolly, grimly. "I only hope she doesn'tknow enough to do the same thing. I don't see how she can miss, though,unless she can't see in time."

  Still Bessie was mystified, and she did not like to ask for anexplanation, especially since she felt certain that one would beforthcoming anyhow in a few moments. And, sure enough, it was. Forsuddenly she felt a breath of wind, and, at the same instant Dollybrought the _Eleanor_ up before the wind again, and for the first timeBessie understood what the little sloop's real speed was.

  "You see, Bessie," said Margery, "Dolly knew that the wind was dying.It's a puffy, uncertain sort of wind, and very often, on a day likethis, there'll be plenty of breeze in one spot, and none at all inanother."

  "Oh, so we came over here to find this breeze!" said Bessie.

  "Yes. It was the only chance. If we had stayed on the other course wemight have found enough breeze to carry us home, but we would have goneat a snail's pace, just as we were doing, and there was no chance at allto catch Gladys and the _Defiance_ that way."

  "We haven't caught them yet, you know," said Dolly.

  "But we're catching them," said Bessie, exultingly. "Even I can seethat. Look! They're just crawling along."

  "Still, even at the rate they're going, ten minutes more will bring themto the finish," said Margery, anxiously. "Do you think she can make it,Dolly?"

  "I don't know," said Dolly. "I've done all I can, anyhow. There isn't athing to do now but hold her steady and trust to this shift of the windto last long enough to carry us home."

  Now the _Eleanor_ was catching the _Defiance_ fast, and nearing her moreand more rapidly. It was a strange and mysterious thing to Bessie to seethat of two yachts so close together--there was less than a quarter of amile between them now--one could have her sails filled with a goodbreeze while the other seemed to have none at all. But it was so. The_Defiance_ was barely moving; she seemed as far from the finish now asshe had been when Margery spoke.

  "They're stuck--they're becalmed," said Margery, finally, when fiveminutes of steady gazing hadn't shown the slightest apparent advance bythe _Defiance_. "Oh, Dolly, we're going to beat them!"

  "I guess we are," said Dolly, with a sigh of satisfaction. "It was aboutthe most hopeless looking race I ever saw twenty minutes ago, but younever can tell."

  And now every minute seemed to make the issue more and more certain.Sometimes a little puff of wind would strike the _Defiance_, fill hersails, and push her a little nearer her goal, but the hopes that thosepuffs must have raised in Dolly's rival and her crew were false, foreach died away before the _Defiance_ really got moving again.

  And at last, passing within a hundred yards, so that they could see poorGladys, her eyes filled with tears, the _Eleanor_ slipped by the_Defiance_ and took the lead. And then, by some strange irony of fate,the wind came to the _Defiance_--but it came too late. For the_Eleanor_, slipping through the water as if some invisible force hadbeen dragging her, passed through the opening and into the still watersof the cove fully two hundred feet in the lead.

  "That certainly was your victory, Dolly," said Eleanor. "If you hadn'tfound that wind, we'd still be floundering around somewhere near thelighthouse."

  "I do feel sorry for Gladys, though," said Dolly. "It must have beenhard--when she was so sure that she had won."