But Gladys kept on with a mocking laugh. Furious at the trick, Dolly put her helm hard over, and the Eleanor came up in the wind.
“That’s a mean trick, if you like!” cried Dolly, indignantly. “In a regular race, if she did a thing like that, the other boat would run her down, and would win on a foul. But she knew very well I’d give up the position rather than cause an accident!”
The check to the Eleanor was only for a moment, but it was enough to throw her off her course and make it certain that the Defiance would reach the bar first.
“Never mind, Dolly. You did the right thing,” said Eleanor, quietly. “I think she’s quite welcome to the race, if she cares enough about winning it to play a trick like that!”
Bessie was up in the bow, looking intently at the Defiance. And now as Gladys came up to get the straight course again, something went wrong. By some mistaken handling of her helm she had lost her proper direction, and to her amazement Bessie saw the boom come over sharply. She saw it, too, strike Gladys on the head–and the next moment the Defiance gybed helplessly, while Gladys was swept overboard.
Bessie did not hesitate a moment. She had seen that blow struck by the boom, and with a cry of warning she plunged overboard as they swept by the helpless Defiance, and with powerful strokes made for the place where Gladys had gone overboard. Gladys had gone straight down, but Bessie had marked the spot, and she dived as she reached it, and met her coming up. She clutched her in a moment, and was on the surface almost at once, holding Gladys, and looking for Dolly and the Eleanor. Dolly would return for her at once, she knew, if she had seen Gladys go over. But, to her amazement the sloop was heading for the bar, sailing away from her fast! Dolly had not seen her and, for a moment, Bessie was badly scared.
CHAPTER XI
THE RESCUE
In a moment, however, she realized that she could not be left alone for long. Her absence from the Eleanor would be noticed, even if no one had seen her leap overboard; and, moreover, the strange behavior of the Defiance was sure to attract Dolly’s attention, for, without Gladys to direct her, the Defiance was in a bad way. She had heeled over sharply, and seemed now to be sailing in circles, following the errant impulses of the wind, which caught first one sail, then another.
Although she was quite near the Defiance, Bessie looked for no help from her. To swim toward her, with Gladys as a burden, seemed hopeless. The boat was not staying in one position. And moreover, Marcia Bates and the other girl on board of her seemed almost entirely ignorant of what to do. They would have quite enough, on their hands in trying to get her headed for the opening in the bar.