irl."

With this Bess jumped up, preparing to go on her way to the stores. Wyn
was going home, and she gathered up her packages.

"You'll think differently about it some day, Bess," she said,
thoughtfully, as her friend tripped away. "How foolish to hold rancor so
long! For years and years those two men have hated each other. And I
expect Polly would dislike Bess just as Bess dislikes her--and for no
real reason!

"And it seems too bad. Mr. Lavine is very rich while John Jarley is very
poor. Usually it is the wicked man who prospers--for a time, at least I
really don't understand this," sighed Wyn, traveling homeward. "If
Polly's father is guilty as they believe he is, what did he do with the
money he must have made by his crimes?"

CHAPTER VI

OFF FOR THE LAKE

Although the members of the Go-Ahead Club--some of them, at least--had
expressed the wish that the time to start for Lake Honotonka was already
at hand, the remaining days of May and the busy month of June slipped
away speedily. At odd hours there was a deal to do to prepare for the
outing which the girl canoeists longed to enjoy.

Wyn received several letters from Polly Jarley, more hopeful letters
than she might have expected considering the situation in which the
boatman's daughter was placed. Evidently Polly was trying to live up to
her "rechristening."

In reply Wyn made several arrangements for the big outing which she
confided only in a general way to the club. Polly had selected a
beautiful spot just east of the rough water behind Gannet Island, and
not half a mile from her father's boathouse, for the camping place of
the Go-Ahead Club, and she wrote Wyn that she had stuck up a sign
pre-empting the spot for the girls from Denton.

It was arranged with the Busters, who would go up to Lake Honotonka the
same day as the Go-Aheads, to send the stores together by bateau. Wyn
arranged to have the girls' stores housed by the Jarleys, for she did
not think that the canvas of either the sleeping or the cook-tent would
be sufficient protection if there came a heavy storm.

The boys had picked their camping place the year before. They would go
to the far end of Gannet Island, where there was a cave which promised a
fairly good storehouse for their goods and chattels. They proposed to
erect their one big tent right in front of this cavity in the rock--in
conjunction therewith, in fact. There was a backbone of rock through the
center of the islan