a
whirlpool of jumping waves.

In ordinary water the canoes were safe enough. But when Bess tried to
paddle, a wave caught the blade and whirled the canoe around. She was
up-set before she could scream.

And in striving to drive her own craft to her friend's assistance, Wyn
Mallory was caught likewise in a flaw, and she, too, plunged into the
lake, while both canoes floated bottom upward.

CHAPTER XIII

A SERIOUS ADVENTURE

Wyn Mallory was a pretty cool-headed girl; nor was this the first time
she had been in an accident of this nature.

Naturally, in learning to handle the light cedar craft as expertly as
they did, the members of the Go-Ahead Club had much experience. While
the weather was good the girls plied their paddles up and down the
Wintinooski, but seldom was the river as rough as this open lake in
which Wyn and Bessie Lavine had been so unexpectedly overturned.

"Oh! am I not the unluckiest girl that--that ever happened?" wailed
Bess, when she came up puffing.

"N-o-no more than _I_, Bess," stammered Wyn.

"Get your canoe, Wyn!" cried Bess.

"Oh, yes; but we can't turn them over in this sea. Oh! isn't that
horrid!" as another miniature wave slapped the captain of the club in
the face and rolled her companion completely over.

Bess lost her grip on her canoe. The latter floated beyond her reach
while Wyn was striving to get her friend to the surface again.

"Why! we're going to be drowned!" shrieked Bess, suddenly
horror-stricken.

"Don't you _dare_ lose your nerve," commanded Wynifred. "If we lose
courage we certainly will be lost."

"Oh, but, Wyn----"

"Oh, but, Bess! Don't you dare. Here! get hold of the keel of my canoe."

"But it won't bear us both up," groaned Bessie Lavine.

"It's got to," declared Wyn. "Have courage; don't be afraid."

"You needn't try to tell me you're not afraid yourself, Wyn Mallory!"
chattered her friend.

"Of course I am, dear; but I mean, don't lose your head because you
_are_ afraid," said Wyn. "Come, now! Paddle with one hand and cling
to the keel with the other. I'll do the same."

"Oh, dear, me! if we were only not so far from the shore," groaned Bess.

"Somebody may see us and come to our help," said Wyn, with more
confidence in her tone than she really felt.

"The canoes couldn't live in this gale."

"It's only a squall."

"That's all very well; but they wouldn't dare to start out for us from
Green Knoll."

"But the boys----"

"The