"I think you had better take us to the boat now before anything further
is done in the matter."

"No. You had better have it brought here," persisted Dickinson. "Do you
know where Johnson's dock is?"

The guardian hesitated. She was regarding the man with some suspicion.

"It's at the foot of the second street beyond, down that way. I'll have
the boat down there in a couple of hours. I've got to get a motor boat,
or something of the sort to tow it down. It probably will leak some, not
having been in the water this season until yesterday. You had better go
over to the hotel and get your dinner. I'll come up and let you know
when the scow is ready. Go right over and make yourself at home. I'll do
the best I can. Bert's an old friend of mine."

Dickinson hurried away, without further words. The girls looked at each
other and laughed.

"Well, if Dee Dickinson is a friend of your brother, I must say I don't
admire your brother's friends," declared Harriet.

"That ith what I thay," agreed Grace Thompson.

"Tommy, you shouldn't have said that," reproved Hazel Holland.

"She didn't. Harriet said it," retorted Margery.

"Buster is right," laughed Jane McCarthy. "Come on, girls! Let's go to
dinner, as the shifty-eyed gentleman advised. I hope it is dinner. I