But when she returned, Nan's sun shade dangling, Jo found she was too late. Kate, playing like one inspired, had won three points in rapid succession and with them had captured the first game.
Joe ran to Nan with the eyeshade, which her chum accepted gratefully.
"Thanks, Jo," she said, with a rueful smile. "I should have had this during the last game!"
But even the eyeshade failed to turn the tide. Kate was in better form than they had ever seen her. She seemed all over the court at once. She developed an uncanny accuracy in placing her shots where her adversary was not!
Nan appeared confused, dazzled by Kate's brilliant play. The score now stood 4-0 in favor of Kate.
Kate's cronies were jubilant; Nan's friends correspondingly downhearted.
"Kate's sort of cast a spell over her," Sadie worried. "I wish we could do something to wake her up."
"Never mind," said Jessie Robinson, who had come up and seated herself beside the chums. "Just watch out for a big comeback!"
This prophecy was soon, to some extent, justified. Nan drew herself together and, with lips set doggedly, wrenched the next two games from Kate.
They were won by "the skin of her teeth," as she afterward admitted. But they were won, and they certainly made the score look a little better. It stood now 4-2, in favor of Kate.