"We'll go back home, Father----Oh, let's go back!" cried Polly, from the c.o.c.kpit of the dancing _Coquette_.

But Wyn Mallory knew that the Jarleys must have hoped to win the twenty-five dollar prize. The _Coquette_ was being mentioned as a possible winner among the knowing ones about the course.

"Dr. Shelton!" she cried, tugging at the angry man's arm. "Do you mind if Polly and I sail the boat instead?"

"Eh? _You_--a girl?" grunted the doctor, "Well, why not? I've got nothing--as I said before--against his daughter. It's the man himself who has no business at this end of the lake. I sent him word so a month and more ago. I ought to have him arrested."

Win thought it would be less cruel to do so, and have the matter thrashed out in the courts. Mr. Jarley was stooping from the wharf, whispering with Polly.

"I can help her," Wyn cried, turning to the abused boatman. "Let me--do!"

"You are very kind, Miss Mallory," said Jarley.

The captain of the Go-Ahead Club leaped lightly down into the _Coquette_.

"What's our number--sixteen?" she cried. "Pay off the sheet, Polly.

We're off." Then she added, in a low tone, to the weeping girl in the stern: "Don't you mind the doctor, Polly--mean old thing! We'll win the prize in spite of him--you see if we don't."

CHAPTER XIX

UNDER WHITE WINGS

Already the catboats were getting off from the starting line, in rotation of numbers and about two minutes apart. The course was ten miles (or thereabout) straightaway to the stake-boat, set far out in the lake--quite out of sight from the decks of the boats about the starting point--and turning that, to beat back. The wind was free, but not too strong. The out-and-return course would prove the boats themselves and the seamanship of their crews.

Being a free-for-all race, there had been brought together some pretty odd-looking craft beside the smart, new boats belonging to dwellers in Braisely Park. But the Jarleys' boat was by no means the worst-looking.

However, it attracted considerable attention because it was the only catboat "manned" by girls.

Wynifred Mallory had done this on impulse, and it was not usual for her to act in such a way. But her parents had gone home and she had n.o.body to ask permission of but Mrs. Havel--and she did not really know where the Go-Aheads' chaperone was.

Beside, there wasn't time to ask. The catboats were already getting under way. The _Coquette_ was almost the last to start. Wyn was not at all afraid of the task before her, for she had helped Dave sail his cousin's catboat on the Wintinooski many times. She knew how to 'tend sheet.

The Go-Aheads and Busters recognized Wyn, and began to cheer her and Polly before the _Coquette_ came to the line. Other onlookers caught sight of the two girls, and whether they knew the crew of the _Coquette_ or not, gave them a good "send-off."

Polly had accepted Wyn's help quietly, but with a look that Wyn was not likely to forget. It meant much to the Jarleys if the _Coquette_ won the twenty-five dollars. They needed every dollar they could honestly earn.

The boatman's daughter did not stop then to thank her friend. Instead she gave her brief, but plain, instructions as to what she was to do, and Wyn went about her work in a practical manner.

The catboat was sixteen feet over all, with its mast stepped well forward, of course, carrying a large fore-and-aft sail with gaff and boom. A single person _can_ sail a cat all right; but to get speed out of one, and manoeuver quickly, it takes a sheet-tender as well as a steersman.

"Sixteen!" shouted the starter's a.s.sistant through his megaphone, and Polly brought the _Coquette_ about and shot towards the starter's boat.

The boatman's girl had held off some distance from the line. Number Fifteen had just crossed and was now swooping away on her first tack toward the distant stake-boat. The momentum the _Coquette_ obtained racing down to the line was what Polly wanted.

"Go!" shouted the starter, looking at his watch and comparing it with the timekeeper's.

The _Coquette_ flashed past the line of motor-boats and smaller craft that lined the course for some distance. The course was not very well policed and one of the small steamers, with a party of excursionists aboard, got right in the way of the racing boats.

"Look out, Wynnie!" shouted Polly. "I'm going to tack to pa.s.s those boats."

Wyn fell flat on the decked-over portion of the _Coquette_, and the boom swung across. With gathering speed the catboat flew on and on.

Although her sail was patched, and she was shabby-looking in the extreme, the _Coquette_ showed her heels that day to many handsomer craft.

The various boats raced with each other--first one ahead, and then another. There were not many important changes in the positions of the contesting boats, however, until the stake-boat was reached.

But Number Sixteen pa.s.sed Thirteen, Fifteen, and Twelve for good and all, before five miles of the course were sailed. The _Coquette_, when once she had dropped an opponent behind, never was caught by it.

Wyn was on the _qui vive_ every moment. She sprang to obey Captain Polly's commands, and the latter certainly knew how to sail a catboat.

She never let an advantage slip. She tacked at just the right time. Yet she sailed very little off the straight course.

The motor boats and steamboats came hooting after the racing catboats that their pa.s.sengers might have a good view of the contest. These outside boats were a deal of a nuisance, and two of the tail-enders in the race dropped out entirely because of the closeness of the pleasure boats' pursuit.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE _COQUETTE_ SHOT OVER THE COURSE, LIKE A GREAT SWOOPING BIRD. _Page 212._]

"But they couldn't win anyway," Polly confided to Wynifred. "Get a bucket of water, dear. Dip it right up. That's right! Now throw it on the sail. Another! Another! It will hold the wind better if it is wet."

"What a scheme!" cried Wyn. "Oh, Polly! I wish you lived in Denton and went to our school and belonged to the Go-Ahead Club."

But Polly only shook her head. That was beyond the reach of possibility for her, she believed. But she thanked Wyn for suggesting it.

Neither girl let her attention to the present business fail, however.

They were on their mettle, being the only girls in the race.

Some of the other crews had jollied them at the start; but the old _Coquette_ pa.s.sed first one and then another of the competing boats, and none of the other craft pa.s.sed her.

Because of the fact that the boats had started about two minutes apart it was rather difficult to tell which was really winning. The leading boats were still far ahead when the _Coquette_ rounded the stake-boat.

Polly took the turn as shortly as any craft in the race--and as cleanly.

The _Coquette_ made a long leg of her first tack, then a short one.

Whereas it seemed as though at first the other craft were crowding Polly and Wyn close, in a little while the _Coquette_ was shown to be among the flock of leading craft!

"Only Numbers One, Three, Four, Seven, and Nine ahead of us, Polly Jolly!" reported Wynifred. "And we're Sixteen! Why, it's wonderful! We are sailing two lengths to one of some of them, I verily believe!"

"But Conningsby's _Elf_, and the _Pretty Sue_ are good sailers--I've watched 'em," said Polly. "And the _Waking Up_ is splendidly manned. If our sail would only hold the wind! It's a regular old sieve."

Wyn splashed bucket after bucket of water into the bellying sail. On the long tacks the _Coquette_ shot over the course like a great, swooping bird. When she pa.s.sed near one of the excursion boats the spectators cheered the two girls vociferously.

Half-way back to the starting boat the _Happy Day_, into which the Go-Aheads and all the Busters had piled, shot alongside the racing catboat manned by the two girls, and from that point on their friends "rooted" for the _Coquette_.

The _Coquette_ pa.s.sed Numbers Seven and Nine; It did seem as though she must have sailed the course fast enough to bring her well up among the leaders, so many higher numbers than her own had been pa.s.sed.

But Wyn and Polly were not sure, when they crossed the line, how they stood in the race.