"Leave it to Mother Wit," laughed Dorothy. "She has her thinking cap on."
"But we can't leave everything to Laura Belding," declared Dora. "She shouldn't be called upon to do everything. She got Colonel Richard Swayne interested in our Girls' Branch Athletic League, and so we are to have a fine new field, they say. That's enough for Laura to do."
"But Mother Wit is always turning up unexpectedly with something new," laughed Dorothy. "And she says we must have a new shell in time to use it in the race on the big day."
"Who's launch is that, Dory?" asked her sister, suddenly.
A motor-boat had just come into sight around a point of the island ahead.
"Why—why——Isn't that Pretty Sweet's Duchess?" asked Dorothy.
"Maybe. It's missing explosions dreadfully. Nasty thing! I don't like a motor boat."
"Well, a canoe or a sailboat is more fun, I believe, unless you want to go fast," said the other twin.
"Speed up, Dory. We can cross the bow of that boat. It is Purt's boat."
"And there are two other boys aboard."