ara, wistfully. "But I don't
believe I could learn to swim before Saturday."

"You could learn to keep yourself afloat," said Margery. "But that
wouldn't be much good, of course. You'd rather not go in at all, I
suppose, unless you could really swim."

"I know what I could do, though," said Zara, suddenly, after she had
watched Bessie go through the life saving drill. But she would not
confide her idea to anyone but Miss Mercer, who looked more than
doubtful when she heard it.

"I don't know, Zara," she said, "I'll see. It seems a little risky. But
I'll think it over. It would be splendid, but, well, we'll see."

Speed swimming, pure racing, was barred when Saturday came. But with
Scoutmaster Hastings and Miss Mercer as referees, and three summer
visitors from the Loon Pond Hotel, who had no prejudice in favor of
either side as judges, several contests were arranged that called for
skill rather than strength.

"In this diving," Hastings explained to the judges, "what we want to
figure on is the way they do it. If a dive is graceful, and the diver
strikes the water true, going straight down, with arms and legs held
close together, you give so many points for that. I'll make each dive
first; that will serve as a model, you see."

Scoutmaster Hastings was not speaking in a boastful manner. He was a
noted diver, and had won prizes and medals in many meets for his skill.
And, when everything was arranged, he did all the standard dives from
the spring-board at the end of the dock, and three members of each
organization followed him.

Bessie had taken remarkably well to these new tricks, as she considered
them. Her powers as a swimmer no one had questioned, but it was
remarkable to see how quickly she had acquired the ability to dive well
and gracefully. And, to the surprise and chagrin of the Boy Scouts, who
had expected, as boys always do, when they are pitted against girls, to
win so easily that they could afford to be magnanimous, and to abstain
from gloating, the judges were unanimous in deciding that she had done
better than any of the six competitors in all five of the standard dives
in which Hastings showed the way.

As there were six competitors, the judges awarded six points for first
place in each dive, five for second, four for third, three for fourth,
two for fifth, and one for sixth place. And in two of the dives second
place went to Margery Burton, while one of the Boy Scouts, Jack Perry,
was second in