itting up, the better to see the boatman's
daughter as the latter sat again at the helm. "Oh, Polly!"

"You'd better both lie down till we get to the camp. I'll take you right
there," said the other girl, briefly.

"We'd have been--been drowned, Wyn!" gasped Bess.

"I guess we would. We are still a long way from shore."

"And Polly saved us? All alone? How wonderful!"

But Polly's face was stern. She scarcely spoke to the two Denton girls
as the _Coquette_ swept across the lake. Wyn told her just how it
all happened and the condition of the two canoes when they lost sight of
them.

"I saw one; maybe the other can be found," Polly said. "I'll speak to
father and, if the moon comes up clear bye and bye, we'll run out and
see if we can recover them."

But for Bess she had no word, or look, and when the other put out her
hand timidly and tried to thank her, as they neared the shore, Polly
only said:

"That's all right. We're used to helping people who get overturned. It
really is nothing."

She would not see Bessie's hand. The latter felt the repulse and Wyn,
who watched them both anxiously, dared not say a word.

CHAPTER XV

TROUBLE "BRUIN"

The other girls and Mrs. Havel were all down on the beach to meet the
catboat and her passengers. To see Wyn and Bessie returning across the
lake in the sailboat, instead of the canoes, forewarned the Go-Aheads
that an accident had happened.

But although the girls were wet and bedraggled, the captain of the club
made light of the affair.

"Where are your canoes?"

"What's happened?"

"Who is it with you?"

"What under the sun did you do--go overboard?"

Wyn answered all questions in a single sentence:

"We were capsized and lost the letters and things; but Polly picked us
up and brought us home."

Then, amid the excited cries and congratulations, her voice rose again:

"Isn't she brave? What do you think of my Polly Jolly _now_? Can
you blame me for being proud of her?"

"I tell you wh--what she is!" gasped Bessie. "She's the bravest and
smartest girl I ever heard of."

"Good for you, Bess!" shouted Frank Cameron, helping the castaways
ashore. "You're coming to your senses."

"And--and I'm sorry," blurted out Bess, "that I ever treated her so----"

Polly shoved off the catboat and proceeded to get under way again.

"Oh, _do_ come ashore, Polly!" begged Grace.

"I want to hug you, Miss Jarley!" cried Percy.

"What? All wet as I am now?" ret