"How was that for a dive?" she called, pushing her wet hair back from her eyes, and looking at them roguishly.
"Bully!" exclaimed George Warren, wiping the drops of perspiration from his forehead. "We thought you had fallen. My, but it gave me a scare."
The girl's eyes danced with merriment. Then espying the other canoe coming up, she called, "Hello, you back again? Look out Ellison don't catch you."
"It's Bess Thornton," said Henry Burns, and the two boys called out a greeting to her.
"Say, do you know Tim Reardon?" she asked abruptly.
"Why, yes," answered Henry Burns. "Should say we did."
"Well," said Bess Thornton, "tell him you saw me dive from the tree, will you? He didn't think I dared, when I told him." Then she added, laughing, "Don't get rained on again. But if you do, remember the mill." And she danced away, wringing the water from the hem of her short skirt.
"Confound her!" exclaimed Harvey. "Look at the start Jim and John have got. Come on, Henry."
They pushed on again, Tom and Bob soon taking the lead of the three rear canoes, with a strong steady stroke that meant business. The first canoe was by this time a quarter of a mile ahead.