CHAPTER V
BESSIE LAVINE

Suddenly a gay voice hailed Wyn.

“Hi, Captain of the Go-Aheads! What are you doing, mooning here?”

“Why, Bess!” returned Wyn, turning to greet Bessie Lavine. “I didn’t see you coming along.”

“No; but I saw you, my noble captain.”

“Going shopping?”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” cried the other member of the Go-Ahead club. “But who was that I saw you with? Didn’t I see you talking to that girl who just crossed Benefit Street?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Who was she?”

“Polly Jarley. She is daughter of a boatman up at the lake. And wasn’t it fortunate that I met her? She can find us a camping place and get everything fixed up there for our coming.”

“What’s her name?” asked Bess, sharply.

“Polly Jarley.”

“And she lives up there by the lake?”

“So she says.”

“Her father is John Jarley, of course?” queried Bessie, looking down at Wyn, darkly.

“Yes. That is her father’s name,” said Wyn, beginning to wonder at her friend’s manner.

“Well! I guess you don’t know those Jarleys very well; do you?”

“Why–I – ”

Wyn hesitated to tell Bessie that she had only just now met the unfortunate boatman’s daughter. She remembered Polly’s story, and what she had overheard Mr. Erad say in the drygoods store.

“You surely can’t know what and who they are, and still be friendly with that girl?” repeated Bessie, her eyes flashing with anger.

“Why, my dear,” said Wyn, soothingly. “Don’t speak that way. Sit down and tell me what you mean. I certainly have not known Polly long; and I never met her father – ”

“Oh, they left this town a long time ago.”

“So she told me. And she said something about her father having been accused of dishonesty – ”

“I should say so!” gasped Bessie. “Why, John Jarley almost ruined my father. He was a traitor to him. They were in a deal together–it was when my father first tried to get into the real estate business here in Denton–and this John Jarley sold him out. Why, everybody knows it! It crippled father for a long time, and what Jarley got out of playing traitor never did him any good, I guess, for they were soon as poor as Job’s turkey, and they went to live in the woods there. He’s a poor, miserable wretch. Father says he’s never had a stroke of luck since he played him such a mean trick–and serves him right!”

Wyn stared at her in amazement, for Bessie had gone on quite breathlessly and had spoken with much heat. Finally Wyn observed:

“Well, dear, your father has done well since those days. They say he is one of our richest citizens. Surely you can forgive what poor John Jarley did, for he and his daughter are now very miserable.”

“I don’t see why we should forgive them,” cried Bessie, hotly.

“Why, Bess! This poor girl had nothing to do with her father wronging your father – ”

“I don’t care. She’s his daughter. It’s in the blood. I wouldn’t trust her a single bit. I wouldn’t speak to her. And no girl can be her friend and mine, too!”

“Why, Bess! don’t say that,” urged Wyn. “You and I have been friends for years and years. We wouldn’t want to have a falling out.”

“I see no need for us to fall out,” exclaimed Bessie, her eyes still flashing. “But I just won’t associate with girls who associate with those low people–there now!”

“Now do you feel better, Bess?” asked Wyn, laughing.

That was the worst of Wyn Mallory! All the girls said so. One couldn’t “fight” with her. For, you see, it takes two at least to keep a quarrel alive, although but one to start it.

“Well, you don’t know how mean that man, Jarley, was to my father. And years ago they were the very best of friends. Why! they went to school together, and were chums–just as thick as you and I are, Wynnie–just as thick. And for him to be a traitor – ”

“If he was, don’t you think he has been paying for it?” asked Wyn, sensibly. “According to what I hear he is poor, and ill, and unfortunate – ”

“I don’t know whether he is or not. It was only a few weeks ago we heard of his stealing a motor boat up there at the lake and some other valuables, and selling them – ”

“He wouldn’t be poor if he had done that; would he?” interrupted Wyn. “For I know for a fact that he is very, very poor.”

She did not want to tell Bessie that she had given Polly Jarley money; but she did not believe that the boatman’s daughter would be in need as she was if Mr. Jarley were guilty of the crime of which he had been so recently accused.

“Well, I haven’t a mite of sympathy for them,” declared Bessie.

“Perhaps you cannot be expected to have sympathy for the Jarleys,” admitted Wyn, in her wholesome way. “But you won’t mind, will you, dear, if I have a little for poor Polly?” and she hugged Bessie, who had sat down, close to her. “Come on, Bessie–don’t be mad at me.”

“Oh, dear! nobody can be mad at you, Wyn Mallory. You do blarney so.”

“Ah, now, my dear; it isn’t blarneying at all!” laughed Wyn. “It’s just showing you the sensible way. We girls don’t want to be flighty, and have ‘mads on,’ as Frank says, for no real reason. And this poor girl will never trouble you in the world – ”

“I wish she wasn’t up at that lake,” declared Bessie.

“Why, Bess! the lake’s plenty big enough,” said Wyn, chuckling. “We won’t have to see much of the Jarleys. Although – ”

“I sha’n’t go if she is to be on hand,” asserted Bessie, with vehemence.

“One would think poor Polly Jarley had an infectious disease. She won’t hurt you, Bess.”

“I don’t care. I feel just as papa does about it. He and Jarley were closer than brothers. But he wouldn’t speak to Jarley now–no, sir! And I don’t want anything to do with that girl.”

With this Bess jumped up, preparing to go on her way to the stores. Wyn was going home, and she gathered up her packages.

“You’ll think differently about it some day, Bess,” she said, thoughtfully, as her friend tripped away. “How foolish to hold rancor so long! For years and years those two men have hated each other. And I expect Polly would dislike Bess just as Bess dislikes her–and for no real reason!

“And it seems too bad. Mr. Lavine is very rich while John Jarley is very poor. Usually it is the wicked man who prospers–for a time, at least I really don’t understand this,” sighed Wyn, traveling homeward. “If Polly’s father is guilty as they believe he is, what did he do with the money he must have made by his crimes?”

CHAPTER VI
OFF FOR THE LAKE

Although the members of the Go-Ahead Club–some of them, at least–had expressed the wish that the time to start for Lake Honotonka was already at hand, the remaining days of May and the busy month of June slipped away speedily. At odd hours there was a deal to do to prepare for the outing which the girl canoeists longed to enjoy.

Wyn received several letters from Polly Jarley, more hopeful letters than she might have expected considering the situation in which the boatman’s daughter was placed. Evidently Polly was trying to live up to her “rechristening.”

In reply Wyn made several arrangements for the big outing which she confided only in a general way to the club. Polly had selected a beautiful spot just east of the rough water behind Gannet Island, and not half a mile from her father’s boathouse, for the camping place of the Go-Ahead Club, and she wrote Wyn that she had stuck up a sign pre-empting the spot for the girls from Denton.

It was arranged with the Busters, who would go up to Lake Honotonka the same day as the Go-Aheads, to send the stores together by bateau. Wyn arranged to have the girls’ stores housed by the Jarleys, for she did not think that the canvas of either the sleeping or the cook-tent would be sufficient protection if there came a heavy storm.

The boys had picked their camping place the year before. They would go to the far end of Gannet Island, where there was a cave which promised a fairly good storehouse for their goods and chattels. They proposed to erect their one big tent right in front of this cavity in the rock–in conjunction therewith, in fact. There was a backbone of rock through the center of the island in which Professor Skillings, as a geologist, was very much interested, and had been for a long time.

To purchase the stores cost considerable money. The girls had to do it all out of their own pockets, and to tell the truth some of them had to mortgage their spending allowance for the entire summer to “put up” their pro rata sum for these supplies.

“Papa says it is going to cost me as much as though I were spending the summer at Newport,” Percy Havel said, with a sigh.

“My folks have expressed some surprise,” admitted Mina Everett. “They thought we were going to camp out al fresco; but they can scarcely believe now that we are not going to live upon pâté de foie gras and have a French chef to get up the meals.”

“My father began to say something about the cost the other night,” giggled Frank Cameron. “But I put the stopper on poor pa very quickly. I told him that I’d willingly give up the camping-out scheme if he’d buy a touring car. I said:

“‘Pa, I’ve figured the whole thing out, and we can do it easily enough. The car, to begin with, will cost $5,000, which at six per cent, is only $300 a year. If we charge ten per cent, off for depreciation it will come to $500 more. A good chauffeur can be had for $125 per month, or $1,500 per year. I have allowed $10 per week for gasoline and $5 for repairs. The chauffeur’s uniform and furs will come to about $200. Now, let’s see what it comes to. Three hundred, plus five hundred, and then the chauffeur’s salary at – ’

“‘Don’t bother me any more, my dear,’ says pa. ‘I know what it comes to.’

“‘What does it come to, Pa?’ I asked. ‘How quick you are at figures!’

“‘My dear,’ he said, impressively, ‘it comes to a standstill right here and now. We will have no touring car. I’ll say no more about the Go-Ahead Club.’

“Oh, you can manage the grown-ups,” concluded Frank, with a laugh, “if you go about it right.”

The bateau of stores went up the Wintinooski two days before the girls and boys were to start; yet for fear that all might not have gone right with the provisions, Wyn insisted that each member of the Go-Ahead. Club pack in her canoe the usual “day’s ration” that they had been taught should always be carried for an emergency.

“It only adds to the weight,” grumbled Grace. “And dear knows, the old blankets and things that you make us paddle about, makes the going hard enough.”

“That’s it–kick!” exclaimed Frank. “You’d kick if your feet were tied, Gracie.”

“Assuredly!” returned the big girl.

“Now, don’t fuss at the rules of the club that have long ago been voted upon and adopted,” said Wyn, cheerfully. “We do not know what is going to happen. Somebody might hit a snag. It would take hours to make repairs–perhaps we would have to camp for the night somewhere on the way. We want to be prepared for all such emergencies.”

“Well, the Busters aren’t loading themselves down with all this truck,” declared Grace, with, vigor.

“That’s all right. Let us be the wise ones,” laughed Wynifred. “The boys may want to borrow of us before we get to Lake Honotonka.”

“Why, Wynnie!” cried Bess Lavine, “if you are expecting all sorts of breakdowns and misfortunes, I shall be afraid to start at all.”

“Guess I’ll go on with Aunt Evelyn to the Forge, and send my canoe by train,” laughed Percy Havel. “Wyn’s got us drowned already.”

But on the morning of the departure not one of the girls prophesied misfortune. As for the boys, they were bubbling over with fun.