“Here’s another—my last,” cried Pepper, and threw the apple to his chum.
“By the way, Jack, I want to ask a question,” said Dale Blackmore. “Why did you call the new sloop the Alice?”
“Name of his best girl,” answered Pepper, promptly. “Why do you ask foolish questions?”
“I haven’t any best girl and you know it,” retorted Jack Ruddy. “I named the sloop after my cousin, Alice Smith. Her father, my uncle, gave me the boat. He——”
“Hullo, here comes another sloop!” cried Paul Singleton, looking across the lake. “Wonder what boat that is?”
“I see a big P on the mainsail,” answered Dale Blackmore. “Must belong to some of the Pornell Academy fellows.”
“I know that boat—heard about her when I was in town yesterday,” said Pepper Ditmore. “She belongs to a fellow of Pornell named Fred Century.”
“Gracious, Imp, is he a hundred years old?” queried Dale, with a grimace.
“Hardly. He’s only a little older than I am. The sloop is named the Ajax, and Century claims she is the swiftest thing that was ever launched here.”
“She certainly looks as if she could make time,” was Dale Blackmore’s critical comment, as he gazed at the approaching craft, with her snowy spread of sails. “I don’t think she is quite as wide as the Alice.”