"It was awfully good of you to come out for us," Nan said.
"Goodness! we couldn't do less, could we?"
"I guess Linda wouldn't have come if she had had her way."
"Well! Grace isn't that kind," said the brother, loyally. "Of course, we would have done everything in our power to save you girls."
"And we will never forget it!" Nan cried warmly. "We would have drowned."
"Never mind," said Walter, in embarrassment. "It's all right now."
"I--I guess the other girls don't think so," said Nan, suddenly observing her chum and the other two. All three were violently sick. "It is awfully rough."
"We're catching these waves sideways," Walter said. "Wait till we get in the lea of Lighthouse Point. It won't be so bad then."
This was a true prophecy, and the _Bargain Rush_ was soon sailing on even keel. Linda, as well as the other girls, recovered in a measure from the feeling of nausea that had gripped them. As soon as the vulgar girl regained her voice she began to scold again.
"We'd never been in all this trouble if you'd listened to me, Walter Mason! This is awful!"
"Oh, it's better now, Linda," said Walter, cheerfully. "We'll soon be at the Hall dock."
"And that's where you should have landed Grace and me just as soon as the storm came up," grumbled Linda.
"But we saw the canoe in trouble----"
"I didn't see it!" snapped the girl, crossly.
"But I did," Walter said warmly. "It would have been a wicked and inhuman thing to have turned away. We had to save Miss Sherwood and Miss Harley."
"And risk _my_ life doing it!" cried Linda. "I shall tell my father."
"If you tell your father everything you promise to," said Walter, with some spirit, "he must be an awfully busy man just attending to your complaints."
"Oh, my!" gasped Bess, with wan delight. Meek Walter Mason was beginning to show boldness in dealing with the purse-proud girl.
"You're a nasty thing!" snapped Linda to Walter. "And I don't like you."
"I'll get over that," muttered the boy to himself.
"And your sister is just as bad!" scolded Linda, giving way to her dreadful temper as Nan and Bess had seen her do on the train. "I'll show you both that you can't treat me in any such way. I've always stood up for your dunce of a sister. That's what she is, a dunce!"
"If you were a boy, I'd thrash you for saying that!" declared Walter, quietly, though in a white heat of passion himself.
"Oh! oh!" shrieked Linda. "So you threaten to strike me, do you? If I tell my father _that_----"
"Oh, tell him!" exclaimed Walter, in exasperation.
"Of all the mean girls!" murmured Bess, with her arm about Grace, who was crying softly and begging her brother to desist.
"Oh! I can see what's caused all this," went on Linda, in her high-pitched voice. "Grace was mighty glad to have me and my friends even look at her before Nan Sherwood and Bess Harley came to the Hall. I wish her all the benefit she may derive from associating with _them_. I know one is a thief and the other is no better."
Bess turned upon the enraged girl with an angry retort. But Nan stopped her.
"Don't reply, Bess," said Nan, in a low voice. "Brawling never proves anything, or settles any argument. But if she keeps on saying in public that I am a thief I shall go to Dr. Prescott about it."
"You wouldn't be a tell-tale?" gasped Bess, horrified.
"In this case I will," Nan said firmly. "And she shall apologize in public."
Linda, by this time, had, in a measure, quieted down. She was sobbing angrily and did not hear what Nan said. The other young people left her strictly alone until the _Bargain Rush_ reached the dock.
Oddly enough not even the boatkeeper, Henry, had discovered the absence of the canoe in which Nan and Bess had sailed away from the landing two hours and more before. The other boats had come in, in a hurry, when the squall arose, and it was now so late that all the girls had gone up the bluff. The supper gong would sound soon.
Henry had gone to his supper, intending to return later to put all the boats under cover and lock up the house. The girls said Henry was afraid of the boathouse ghost himself, and would never go into the building after dusk without a lantern.
Linda stepped ashore and marched away with her head in the air. Grace had permission to go home with her brother to supper. Mr. Mason, who was an influential lawyer, owned a country home up the lake shore, beyond Professor Krenner's queer little cabin, and the brother and sister proposed going to their home in the _Bargain Rush_. Grace would return to the Hall later, by automobile.
Nan and Bess were grateful to Walter and Grace.
"We cannot tell you how we feel, _inside_, Walter," Nan said softly.
"Nothing we can ever do for you will repay you----"
"Oh, don't!" begged the boy.
"You've got to hear your praises sung!" cried Bess, laughing and sobbing at once. "I shall write home to my folks about it. And we shall tell all the girls."
"I wish you wouldn't!" gasped the embarrassed youth.
"And your sister will never miss Linda Riggs' friendship," said Nan, stoutly. "We'll see that Linda does not bother her, either."
"Oh! you're so brave, Nan," murmured the timid Grace.
"It doesn't take much courage to face a girl like Linda," Nan retorted.
"I've seen already that she has very few real friends in the school, and those she has to pay high to keep. I would rather have her for an enemy than a friend."
Nan and Bess kissed Grace and shook hands with her brother. The chums were both as wet as they could be, and the evening air felt chill.
"We'd better get our sweaters," Nan said.
"Oh! they're in the dressing room of the boathouse," objected Bess.
"Yes, I know it," her chum said, starting off.
"But, Nan!"
"Well?"
"Sup--suppose we _see_ something?" gasped Bess.