ing canoe.

One of the starters was pulled up and down the line in a skiff to
criticise. Not every girl was as fair-minded to her opponents as the
girls from Green Knoll Camp, and there was some little bickering before
the starter shouted for the whole crowd--both cedars and birches--to get
ready.

"At the shot, remember," he cried through the megaphone. "Once around
the stake-boat, to the right, and return. The birchbarks finish at this
line, like the cedars. Now!"

A moment later the pistol shot rang out. There was a splash of
paddles--even a clash of them, for some of the girls were too near each
other and too eager.

The spectators cheered--the boys from Gannet Island doing especially
well in that line. They were determined to root indiscriminately for the
girls of Green Knoll Camp.

But within a very few minutes Dave Shepard shouted to his friends:

"Look what's coming up, fellows! See Polly!"

"Polly Jolly!" yelled the excitable Ferd. "Is that her in the first
birchbark?"

"Of course it is," responded Tubby Blaisdell. "Well! did you ever see a
girl like that before? Look at those arms. She's got better biceps than
_you_ have, Dave, m' boy!"

For the girls were in their bathing dresses and Polly's bare arms were
displayed to the best advantage as she flashed past the motor boat. Her
face was set--her eyes bright. And she weaved back and forth as she
drove the paddle with the steadiness of a machine.

"Hooray for Polly Jolly!" yelled Ferd Roberts, again.

The Busters took up the chorus. They could not restrain their
enthusiasm, for the pace at which Polly was overhauling the cedar boats
was really marvelous.

Of course, it was a foregone conclusion that some of the contestants
would drop out. These canoes Polly passed as though they were standing
still.

In the lead were Wyn, Bess, Grace, Frank, and half a dozen other girls
from about the lake. There were already two spills, and several slight
collisions followed. The handicap on the birch canoes was really greater
than was expected, for being in the rear, they had to dodge all the
overset boats and the other paddlers who did not know enough to keep out
of the course.

But Polly Jarley had taken the outside and she shot by all the trouble
easily. She was soon clinging to the skirts of the head canoes and it
looked, before the turn, as though she would soon be in the lead
herself.

Up ahead Wyn and Bess and Grace were struggling almost neck and n