"Well, by all that's holy, if it isn't the Outdoor Girls! Thought you
never came over to this side of the river."

"We don't," Betty answered, the hand that still gripped the wheel
shaking nervously now that the danger was over. "And I don't believe
we ever will again, either!"

"I say, your teeth are chattering," cried Percy, looking at Betty in
open admiration. In the old days, Percy had tried hard to win favor in
Betty's eyes, but the latter had always treated him with a
good-natured indifference not unmixed with contempt that had been very
hard for the young dude to bear. During the years he had still admired
Betty from afar and hated Allen Washburn for being the "lucky one." So
now he hastened to make the most of what he thought was an
opportunity.

"Come on over to the Point with me and Derby here," indicating the
young fellow in the other racing craft who had drawn his boat up close
to them and was looking on with interest. "We will get you something
to steady your nerves a bit. We had a pretty narrow squeak that time,
and it's no wonder it upset you a little."

He was supposedly addressing all the girls, but his eyes were only for
Betty. As for her, she suddenly had a startlingly clear mental picture
of what her father would think were some one to tell him that his
daughter and her chums had been seen at the "Point" with Percy
Falconer and a friend of his.

In days gone by Percy had been very insipid, his mind entirely on his
clothes; now he had become a sport, and the report was that he