"Coming to see you," answered Paul promptly.

"As if we'd believe that!" mocked Irene. "Why, you were going right
past here, and only turned in when you saw us!"

"Dick didn't want to come at all," said Innis.

"He didn't! Why not?" demanded Mabel.

"Bashful, I guess," murmured Paul.

"No, it was because I didn't want to inflict the company of these
two bores on you ladies!" exclaimed Dick, thus "getting back."

There was much gay talk and laughter, and, as the afternoon was
still young, Dick proposed taking the girls out for a little jaunt
in his new craft He had only recently purchased it, and, after using
it at Kentfield, he intended taking it with him to a large lake,
where he and his father expected to spend the Summer.

"Oh, that was just fine!" cried Mabel, when the ride was over, and
the party was back at the pier. "Thank you, so much, Dick!"

"Humph! You have US to thank--not him!" declared Paul. "He
wouldn't have turned in here if we hadn't made him. And just
because his hands had a little oil on!"

"Say, don't believe him!" protested the young millionaire. "I had
proposed coming here before I knew you girls were on the dock."