"Hello there, Ben," he called to the dock hand jokingly. "How's the tide?"
"Not much tide on this here lake," replied Ben sharply. "Never knowed much about them tides, as I've lived at this hole most all my born days. But how was business to-day? That was quite a fleet. How'd you make out?"
"Oh, same as usual," and Jim Peters looked from under his big hat at the girls. "Got company?"
"Yes, a couple friends of the old lady's. They're camping here."
"Oh," half-growled the man understandingly as he made his way to the water's edge.
"Where're you goin' now?" asked Ben.
"Up the lake," replied the man.
"Oh, say," spoke Ben as if the thought had just occurred to him, "where did you say them young fellers went? The ones who started out in a canoe?"
Now Cora saw that this was the man who had come down the lake with the canoe trailing behind his rowboat. He stepped into the lantern's light, and both Bess and Belle must also have recognized him, for they shot a meaning glance at Cora.
"What fellows?" drawled the man in answer to Ben's question.