There was a moment of complete silence, the silence of stupefaction. Then several of the girls turned vengefully upon Lottie Sparks.
"The sneak! Make her eat her words!"
"A ducking in the lake is what she ought to have!"
Lottie, casting one terrified glance at the unfriendly, scowling faces of her schoolmates, realized that she had gone too far and, turning, broke through the ring of outstretched hands.
She raced toward the lake with practically the whole school after her!
Lottie reached the dock at the shore of the lake, ran down it breathless, with a number of girls in hot pursuit.
A rowboat lay moored at the end of the dock, and toward this she raced. Her pursuers guessed her intention.
"Don't let her get away!" they cried. "Catch her before she cuts the boat loose!"
Probably the cries of her pursuers, so close upon her, rattled Lottie. At any rate, in reaching to untie the knot in the rope that held the boat to the dock, she lost her balance and plunged heels over head into the lake.
The other girls stood aghast at this mishap.