Chapter XII: At the Cove

"Well, what do you know about that?"

"It--well, so long as there are none of 'em here I'll say it--it's the limit!"

"They got back at us all right!"

"And to think we never suspected."

"What will we do with these theatre tickets?"

Four young men, in freshened attire after their auto ride, stood disconsolately in the hotel parlor. Jack was fingering a note that a bell boy had brought him. Walter, Ed and Norton, with the assistance of Jack, had given voice to the expressions with which we have begun this chapter. The note read:

"Dear Jack:

"We don't seem to care about the theatre this evening. I met Harry Dunn, and his two cousins--also another young man--Ralph Borden--and they asked us to go to a little private dance. Mrs. Fordam is with us. We met Harry at Lake Como last year, you remember. He is that tall, dark, distinguished-looking fellow. So we thought we'd prefer the dance to the theatre, especially as Belle and Bess have seen the play. Sorry to have to waste so many good tickets, but perhaps you boys will have time to paint another honeymoon sign.

"Cora."

It was this note which had been handed to Jack as he and his companions had been waiting in the parlor for the girls, that had caused all the trouble.

"So, that's their game!" exclaimed Cora's brother, as he crumpled the paper up in his hand. "They've played a trick on us all right!"

"To get back at us for that sign on the auto, and the rice," added Ed.

"I wonder if they really did go off to a dance?" asked Walter.

"Oh, yes, I know this Dunn chap--not half-bad," put in Jack. "Sis and I did meet him last year. His folks have a country place somewhere round here. But how did he meet the girls and get them to come?"

"I have it!" cried Norton.

"Pass it over!" commanded Walter.

"You know that time my car developed a kink," he continued, "and you stopped yours, Jack?"

"Sure," assented Cora's brother.

"Well, the girls went on, you know, and when we caught up to them I saw a couple of autos speeding down the road, as though they had been acting as escorts. I guess those fellows must have met the girls on the road, proposed the dance, and the girls accepted."

"That's it!" declared Jack. And so it proved, as they found out later.

"Well, there's no help for it," sighed Walter.

"We'll have to go to the show alone," added Ed.

"If we could only find some nice girls," spoke Norton.

"We don't know a soul in town," declared Jack. "If that Dunn fellow had been half-way decent he'd have made some arrangement about us after he stole away the girls. Well, there's no use wasting all the tickets. Come on to the show."

So the boys went, but they did not have a very good time by themselves, and there was some amusement among the audience over four good-looking boys occupying eight seats.

As for Cora and the girls, they had a delightful dance. It had turned out as Norton had said. The girls, proceeding on ahead with Mrs. Fordam, after Jack and the boys had stopped to look after Norton's car, had met young Dunn and his companions out for a spin. Cora knew them at once, and the young men, delighted at the prospect of such charming partners at a dance they had almost elected to forgo, invited the motor girls to it.

Mrs. Fordam, who was a distant relative of young Dunn's father, had consented to the arrangement. The girls and she slipped away after Jack came in with the theatre tickets, proceeded to attire themselves most becomingly, and had been met by their escorts, who lavishly hired big cars to take their friends to the affair. Then Jack and his chums had been handed the note which Cora left for them. It had all been very simple.

"Wasn't it glorious!"

"The floor was just splendid!"

"And those boys knew so many nice fellows."

"My card was filled almost before I knew it."

"The music was lovely!"

Thus chattered the motor girls as they came back to the hotel rather late--or was it early? with Mrs. Fordam. They saw Jack sitting disconsolately in the parlor, trying hard to keep awake by reading.

"Well, so you're back!" he exclaimed to Cora, rather shortly.

"Yes, brother mine!" she laughed tantalizingly.

"Well, it's about time," he growled.

"Why, how long have you been back?" she asked. "I hear that it was quite a long and--tiresome--show. I'm sorry we had to disappoint you, but really we had no other way of telling you where we were going. It was a lovely dance!"

"Yes," said Jack, coldly.

"And we hope you had time to embroider another sign for our car," added Bess. Really, she said later, she could not help it.

"Um!" grunted Jack. "I sat up for you," he added to his sister.

"There was no need, Jack. We had Mrs. Fordam. It was a very pretty dance. I am glad the girls had a chance to go."

The girls seemed glad too, and really looked quite effective in their party growns, which were carried in the trunks that were strapped on the autos.

"Oh, it was lovely!" sighed Bess.

"And that tall young fellow was such a fine dancer!" echoed Eline.

"Huh!" growled Jack. "I'm going to bed."

"I guess we're all tired enough to re-tire--joke!" exclaimed Cora. "Good-night, Jack. Sorry we couldn't go with you, but we had a--previous engagement!"

The boys did not say much next morning, though the girls were enthusiastic about their affair.

"If we could only have one two or three times a week," sighed Belle, who was a fine dancer.

"We may, at Sandy Point Cove," spoke Cora. "There is a pavilion there--also moving picture shows, to which the boys can take us," and she glanced at Jack. He said nothing.

Once more they were on their way. The roads were good, and save for the fact that they took a wrong one shortly after lunch, and went a few miles out of their route, nothing of moment happened.

"Ten miles to Sandy Point Cove!" read Jack, as they stopped at a cross-road, to inspect the signboards. "We'll make it in an hour."

"And then for a bath in the briny deep!" cried Walter.

"I hope the fishing is good," remarked Ed. "I haven't caught anything in a month."

"I hope the _Pet_ has arrived," Cora exclaimed. "I am just dying for a motor boat ride."

"Let us hope it has then; we don't want you to expire," came from Norton.

In less than an hour they had reached the shore road and were spinning down it toward the cove where they were to spend the summer. As they mounted the bluff, around the end of the cove, from which a magnificent view of the ocean could be had, Cora uttered a cry:

"Look, that sailboat has capsized!" she exclaimed. And she pointed to a small sloop that had jibed and gone over in a sudden squall. As the motor girls and boys looked they saw a girlish form clinging to the rounded side of the craft, her bright red bathing suit making her a conspicuous figure against the dark hull.