“But——”
The blond boy was not listening. He was too much interested in making his maiden trip in the newly-launched crimson canoe. Teetering precariously, he stepped into the bobbing bow. Before he could clutch the piles of the dock to hold the craft steady, the Sachem sheered off and, overburdened by the standing figure at one end, began rocking dangerously from side to side. Dirk swayed, trying to keep his balance as a wave slapped the dancing vessel.
“Sit down!” shouted Nig Jackson. “Look out, she’ll turn over!”
Dirk, alarmed, dropped the paddles overside and grabbed at the gunwale to keep himself from following them into the shallow waters of the beach. In sudden panic, he scrambled to a seat; but it was too late. The Sachem heeled over across the wind; a sheet of water slid easily over the low side, slapped the light canoe to leeward, and dipped it once more below the surface. Water filled half the interior, sloshing about and rocking so that still more water was taken over the gunwale. Dirk gripped the seat desperately, trying to right the canoe; but his efforts were now of no avail.
Slowly, steadily, the Sachem sank to rest on the pebbled shallows beneath the surface of the lake, and Dirk Van Horn, with a comic look of amazement on his face, found himself sitting waist-deep in the water with his lovely possession beneath him, out of sight.
CHAPTER VI
FIGHT! FIGHT!
Brick burst out in a cry of derision.
“Sunk!” he roared. “You sure scuttled yourself, all right! You don’t know any more about canoes than a baby! The Prince of Whales, that’s what you look like!” The other boys joined in laughing at the joke.
Dirk still sat helplessly in the sunken canoe, his mouth half open. He didn’t know a boat could act like that. His clothes were drenched. He had thought he was making a brave show, pushing out boldly in his fine canoe, and now they were all laughing at him for a lubber.
He scrambled out somehow, and splashed about in the shallow water, dragging the water-filled craft to the land beside the rock. A shout was heard, and a man came galloping down through the trees. It was Wally Rawn, who had witnessed the performance from the hillside, but who had arrived too late to stop it.