making believe they are doing something desperate. Of course
they didn't really steal this stuff."

"If they did," muttered Tom, "they'd be the kind of girls we wouldn't
want to know."

"It's all right," Dick assured him. "Sooner or later the truth
of this joke of theirs will all come out. There are no finer
girls in the country than they."

By this time the older people had joined them. Dr. Bentley's
party embarked in the launch, taking up all the room there was.

"Pass us your bow-line, and we can just as well give you boys
a tow," proposed the doctor. "There is no use in your paddling."

"Thank you very much, sir," Dick answered, "but paddling is just
the fun for which we bought this canoe. We do it because we like
it. And we'll show you how fast we can get across the lake."

With a toot of the whistle the launch started. Dick gave the
word to his chums. At first the canoe, even under moderate paddling,
went ahead of the launch, though gradually the launch drew up.

"You boys look as if you were working," called Dr. Bentley.

"We're doing very little work, sir," Dave answered. "We could
make the canoe go faster than this, but it would hardly do to
run ahead of our guests."