“So am I, but I would like to know what was on that easel,” Sim remarked as Terry pulled with strong strokes back to “Buckingham Palace.”
CHAPTER IV
A Girl and a Bracelet
By afternoon the sun was warmer, and the girls, dressed in bathing suits, were lying on the caressing sand of the little beach not far from the house. They had spread their beach coats out beneath them and were sprawled in favorable attitudes to acquire the all-important tan. At intervals one of the girls sat up and coated herself liberally with cocoanut oil. They did not seem to feel exactly like talking, as the sun made them deliciously lazy. Perhaps they were thinking of their adventure at school when, as told in the first volume of this series, The Orchard Secret, many surprising things happened. Or they may have been letting their minds wander to more surprising occurrences, as told in the Mystery of Jockey Hollow.
Sim, Arden, and Terry had been chums and schoolmates ever since they first began to acquire knowledge in Vincent Prep, and their friendship and loyalty continued until the present time, when they were just finishing their freshman year at Cedar Ridge, the well-known college for girls at Morrisville. This small city was not very distant from Pentville, where the three lived.
As Sim sat up to apply the oil again, she saw a dark object bobbing up and down far out on the ocean.
“Look, girls,” she cried, “does that look like someone to you, or is it just a log?”
“Where?” Arden asked, squinting at the bright water toward which Sim pointed, and then they were left in no doubt, for the bobbing dark spot began to swim. With long, sure strokes it came nearer to them, and they could see the white foam where the thrashing feet churned it up in perfect timing.
“Some swimmer,” Sim said admiringly. “Wonderful form. I wonder who it is?”
“We’ll soon see,” Arden replied, and Terry nodded in agreement.
The figure was making rapid time, and as it neared the beach, waited for just the right minute and then coasted in on a blue-and-white breaker.