k
her head, took several long breaths, then dived again.

Three times Harriet Burrell repeated this. At last, after a brief
dive, they saw the black trunk leap free to the surface of the pond.
The Meadow-Brook Girls uttered a yell. Harriet had accomplished a task
that would have proved to be too much for the average man. Down there,
underneath the water, crouching under the backward tilting automobile
on the bottom of the pond, she had unbuckled three stubborn straps,
rising to the surface after unbuckling each strap, taking in a new
supply of delicious fresh air, then returning to her task.

Before the Meadow-Brook Girls had finished with their shouting,
cheering and gleeful dancing, the black luggage had drifted some
distance from the spot where it had first appeared. So delighted were
they with the result of Harriet Burrell's efforts that, for the
moment, the others entirely forgot the girl herself. But all at once
Miss Elting came to a realization of the truth. Something was wrong.

"Harriet!" she cried excitedly. It was unusual for the guardian to
show alarm, even though she might feel it. "Where is Harriet?"

The shouting and the cheering ceased instantly.

"Oh, she's just playing a trick on us," scoffed Margery Brown.

Suddenly the keen eyes of Jane McCarthy caught sight of something that
sent her heart leaping. That something was a series of bubbles that
rose to the surface. Jane gazed wide-eyed, neither moving nor
speaking, then suddenly hurled herself into the pond. Two loud
splashes followed her own dive into the water. Tommy and Miss Elting
were plunging ahead with all speed. Jane was the first to reach the
scene. She dived, came up empty-handed, then dived again. Tommy
essayed to make a dive, but did not get in deep enough to fully cover
her back. Miss Elting made an error in her calculations, as Jane had
done on the first dive, missing the sunken automobile by several feet.

Now Hazel sprang into the water and swam to them as fast as she knew
how to propel herself. Jane shot out of the water and waved both arms
frantically above her head.

"Spread out!" she cried in a strained, frightened voice.

"Did--didn't you find her?" gasped Miss Elting.

"No."

Jane was gone again, leaving a wake that reached all the way to the
beach, so violent had been her floundering dive.

Tommy, who had raised her head from the water a short distance from
where the guardian was paddling, uttered a scream.

"Ther