The captain of the Go-Ahead Club leaped lightly down into the Coquette.
“What’s our number–sixteen?” she cried. “Pay off the sheet, Polly. We’re off.” Then she added, in a low tone, to the weeping girl in the stern: “Don’t you mind the doctor, Polly–mean old thing! We’ll win the prize in spite of him–you see if we don’t.”
CHAPTER XIX
UNDER WHITE WINGS
Already the catboats were getting off from the starting line, in rotation of numbers and about two minutes apart. The course was ten miles (or thereabout) straightaway to the stake-boat, set far out in the lake–quite out of sight from the decks of the boats about the starting point–and turning that, to beat back. The wind was free, but not too strong. The out-and-return course would prove the boats themselves and the seamanship of their crews.
Being a free-for-all race, there had been brought together some pretty odd-looking craft beside the smart, new boats belonging to dwellers in Braisely Park. But the Jarleys’ boat was by no means the worst-looking.
However, it attracted considerable attention because it was the only catboat “manned” by girls.
Wynifred Mallory had done this on impulse, and it was not usual for her to act in such a way. But her parents had gone home and she had nobody to ask permission of but Mrs. Havel–and she did not really know where the Go-Aheads’ chaperone was.
Beside, there wasn’t time to ask. The catboats were already getting under way. The Coquette was almost the last to start. Wyn was not at all afraid of the task before her, for she had helped Dave sail his cousin’s catboat on the Wintinooski many times. She knew how to ’tend sheet.
The Go-Aheads and Busters recognized Wyn, and began to cheer her and Polly before the Coquette came to the line. Other onlookers caught sight of the two girls, and whether they knew the crew of the Coquette or not, gave them a good “send-off.”