Jack pushed until the Spindrift was safely away from the shoal. Wet and plastered with mud, he scrambled aboard.
“No use putting up the sail,” he said gloomily. “The centerboard is damaged. When we went aground I should have pulled it up, but things happened so fast I didn’t think of it.”
“Can’t it be repaired?”
“Oh, sure, but it means hauling the boat out of water for several days. And the race will be held in a week. I’ll have no chance to practice.”
“It’s a bad break,” Penny said sympathetically. “Perhaps the centerboard isn’t much damaged.”
They paddled to the Shadow Island dock. There with the help of the Gandiss chauffeur, Jack tied ropes under the bottom of the Spindrift and by means of a hoist and crane, lifted the boat a few feet out of water. A piece had been broken from the centerboard and the bottom was so badly scratched that it would have to be repainted before the race.
“I call this wretched luck!” Jack fumed. “It will take days to repair and repaint the Spindrift.”
The accident had a subduing effect upon the boy, and the remainder of the day he tried to make amends to Penny. They swam together and played three sets of tennis. In each contest Penny won with ease.
“You’re about the first girl who ever beat me at anything,” Jack said ruefully. “Guess that rap on the head did me no good.”
“How about the sailboat race?” Penny tripped him. “Didn’t Sally win the lantern trophy?”