. Even while the
_Defiance_ was holding on for the lighthouse, on a straight course,
the _Eleanor_ had to come about and start beating up toward it, and
the _Defiance_ made the turn, and, with spinnaker set, was skimming
gaily for home a full five minutes before the _Eleanor_ circled
lighthouse.

In fact, the _Defiance_, homeward bound, passed them, and Mary
Turner laughed gaily as she hailed Eleanor.

"This is pretty bad," she called. "Better luck next time, Nell!"

Marcia Bates waved her hand gaily to them, but Gladys Cooper, her eyes
straight ahead, her hand on the tiller, paid no attention to them. There
was no mistaking the look of triumph on her face, however. She was sure
she was going to win, and she was glorying in her victory already.

"I'll make her smile on the other side of her face yet," said Dolly,
viciously. "She might have waved her hand, at least. If we're good
enough to race with, we're good enough for her to be decently polite to
us, I should think."

"Easy, Dolly!" said Margery. "It won't help any for you to lose your
temper, you know. Remember you've still got to sail your boat."

The _Defiance_ was far ahead when, at last, after a wait that
seemed to those on board interminable, the _Eleanor_ rounded the
lighthouse in her turn.

"Lively now!" commanded Dolly. "Shake out the spinnaker! We're going to
need all the sail we've got. There isn't enough wind now to make a flag
stand out properly."

"And they got the best of it, too," lamented Margery. "You see, Bessie,
the good wind there was when they started back carried them well along.
We won't get that, and we'll keep falling further and further behind,
because they've probably still got more wind than we have. It'll die out
here before it does where they are."

Dolly stood up now, and cast her eyes behind her on the horizon, and all
about. And suddenly, without warning, she put the helm over, and the
_Eleanor_ stood off to port, heading, as it seemed, far from the
opening in the bar that was the finishing, line.

"Dolly, are you crazy?" exclaimed Margery. "This is a straight run
before the wind!"

"Suppose there isn't any wind?" asked Dolly. The strained, anxious look
had left her eyes, and she seemed calm now, almost elated. "Margery,
you're a fine cook, but you've got a lot to learn yet about sailing a
boat!"

Bessie was completely mystified, and a look at Margery showed her that
she, too, although silenced, was far from being sat