"We can keep far
enough away for them not to see us. It will be rather good fun if they
take us for porpoises or mermaids, or any other queer sea creature."

"Don't run into that Noah's ark that we saw anchored in the creek this
morning, Roy," came a shrill voice from the deck of the yacht. "I saw
half a dozen women going aboard her this afternoon laden with boxes and
trunks--everything but the parrot and the monkey. It looked as though
they meant to spend the summer aboard her."

"Perhaps they do, Mabel," a man's voice answered. "The 'Noah's Ark' is a
houseboat. It looked very tiny for so many people, but I thought it was
rather pretty."

"Well, we have girls enough at Cape May this summer--about six to every
man," argued Mabel crossly. "I vote that we give these new persons the
cold shoulder. Nobody knows who they are, nor where they come from. It is
bad enough to have to associate with tiresome hotel visitors, but I shall
draw the line at these water-rats, and I hope you will do the same."

"She means us," gasped Eleanor. "What a perfectly horrid girl!"

The high, sharp voice on the yacht was distinctly audible over the water.
The boat had slowed down as it drew nearer to the shore.

"Swim along with Phil, Nellie," proposed Madge. "I am going to have some
fun with those young persons. I don't care if I _am_ nearly grown-up; I
am not going to miss a lark when there's a chance. I have that rubber
ball that Phil and I brought out to play with in the water. Watch me
throw it on their yacht. They'll think it's a bomb, or a meteor, if I can
throw straight enough. I am going to settle with them this very minute
for the disagreeable things they just said about us and our pretty 'Merry
Maid.'"

"Don't do it, Madge!" expostulated Phil; but she was too late; Madge had
dived and was swimming along almost completely under the water. She swam
in the darkness cast by the shadow of the boat as it passed within a few
yards of them.

Like a flash she lifted her great rubber ball. She had better luck than
she deserved. The ball came out of nowhere and landed in the center of
the group of three young people on the yacht. It fell first on the deck,
and then bounced into the lap of the offending Mabel.

It was hard work for the waiting girls not to laugh aloud as naughty
Madge came slowly back to them.

A wild shriek went up from on board the yacht. "Oh, dear, what was that?"
one girl asked faintly, when the first cries of ala