They were soon enabled to reach the side of the boat; and as some of the boys above reached down their hands, Dora’s dripping figure was quickly drawn up. But it might have been noticed that the girl studiously avoided touching the hand of Walter Ackerman. He was bound to pay a heavy penalty for never having learned to swim.
“His cake is dough, all right!” was the way Paul Bird expressed it to Helen, after he had seen this aversion on the part of the rescued girl. “And I guess there’s just going to be all peace between Lanky and Dora after this.”
“It’s just wonderful, that’s all I can say!” exclaimed Frank’s young sister. “If it had been a page out of a story it couldn’t have happened nicer. But they’re helping Lanky up now. Oh! isn’t he just dripping, though?”
“But he rather likes it,” Paul went on to say. “Lanky always was a sort of water-dog. I’ve known him to spend the best part of a day in the river. You couldn’t drown him if you tried. See him grin, will you, when he looks at poor Walter, who’s got to take a back seat after this, I reckon.”
“Well, serves him right!” declared Helen. “Every boy ought to know how to swim, if he ever expects a girl to feel confidence in him at all. And I’m so glad that you can, Paul.”
Lanky Wallace no longer looked glum and unhappy. He realized that fortune had beamed upon him that day in a way he could never have dreamed would happen. It was not enough that he should come in far ahead of the field in that long run, beating the best amateur time known in that section of the country for a five-mile race; but now this had come about in the bargain.
Dora was wrapped in a rug they had aboard. Lanky disdained to bother himself about his wet clothes. He managed to get his shoes on, after an effort and covered his shoulders with his jacket. He said he felt as “warm as toast”; and perhaps from the way his heart was pounding away inside, he had good reason for declaring this.
And now, when he caught those dancing eyes of Dora which he used to think were the prettiest and sauciest he had ever seen, he found no reason to scowl, and hasten to avert his gaze, for they sparkled with happiness, and his every glance met a smile.
Finally, before they reached town, he saw Dora beckoning imperiously to him; just as in those old days before the quarrel, Lanky jumped to obey.
She held out her little hand, and he clasped it eagerly.