ir camp isn't in sight of this place, Wyn," moaned Bess. "Oh! we
_will_ be drowned."

But Wyn had another hope. She remembered, just before the overturn, that
she had caught a glimpse of the red and yellow cottage behind Jarley's
Landing.

"Oh, Bess!" she gasped. "Perhaps Mr. Jarley will see us. Perhaps
Polly----"

Another slapping wave came and rolled them and the canoe over. The frail
craft came keel up, level full of water. The least weight upon it now
would send it to the bottom of the lake.

"Oh, oh!" shrieked Bess, when she found her voice. "What shall we do
now?"

They could both swim; but the lake was rough. The sudden and spiteful
squall had torn up the surface for many yards around. Yet, as they rose
upon one of the waves, they saw the sun shining boldly in the westward.
The squall was scurrying away.

"Come on! we've got to swim," urged Wyn.

[Illustration: THEY COULD BOTH SWIM, BUT THE LAKE WAS ROUGH. _Page
146._]
"That's so hard," wailed Bess, but striking out, nevertheless, in the
way she had been so well taught by the instructor in Denton. All these
girls had been trained in the public school baths.

"There's the other canoe," said Wyn, hopefully.

"But we--we don't want to go that way," gasped Bess. "It's away from
land."

Now Wyn knew very well that they had scarcely a chance of swimming to
the distant shore. In ordinarily calm weather--yes; but in this rough
sea, and hampered as they were by their bloomers and other clothing--no.

The two girls swam close together, but Wyn dared not offer her comrade
help. She wanted to, but she feared that if she did so Bess would break
down and become helpless entirely; and Wyn hoped they would get much
farther inshore before that happened.

The squall had quite gone over and the sun began to shine. It seemed a
cruel thing--to drown out there in the sunlight. And yet the buffeting
little waves, kicked up by the wind-flaw, were so hard to swim through.

Had the waves been of a really serious size the struggle would have been
less difficult for the two girls. They could have ridden over the big
waves and managed to keep their heads above water; but every once in a
while a cross wavelet would slap their faces, and every time one did so
Bess managed to get a mouthful of water.

"Oh! what will papa do?" moaned Bess.

And Wyn knew what the poor girl meant. She was her father's close
companion and chum. The other girls in the Lavine family were smaller