too much speed would do the like of that. Well, I must be
off doin' some chores. I've been a-galavantin' most of the day, and
the fishes of Crystal Bay are not educated to come up to me door yet.
Thank you for the sport. It was fine," he concluded, genially.

"Indeed you must come along again," Cora urged. "This was only a
baby-trial. We will want to be going out on the deep soon; then you
must come along."

"Thank you, very kindly," Denny called, as he started off. "The deep
is a bad place for young 'uns, I can tell you. Better stick around
shore."

"Tell us what is the matter, Lottie," demanded Bess, for Lottie had
not yet recovered her self-possession.

"Oh, I guess I had a chill," she evaded, glancing at Cora.

"And the mere sight of a couple of strange men startled her," Cora
added. "I have warned her there may be lots of strange men around
Crystal Bay."

"But not the same strange men every time," Lottie put in. This gave a
clue to her fright. The men who had secluded themselves under the
Lonely Willow that morning had appeared again, this time in the
vicinity of the girls' bungalow, now known as the "Motely Mote."

CHAPTER VII

IN THE MOTELY MOTE

"Do you young ladies realize that we have the cares of housekeeping on
our shoulders?" asked Cora, from a mass of boxes and bags, not to
mention trunks, in the alleged living room of the Mote.

"Oh, let us forget it--do," begged Bess. "I always hate the summertime
when it brings dishes and things."

"It's good for you," affirmed Marita. Bess did know that hard work is
considered "good" for stout persons.

"Maybe, but it is not pleasant," Bess answered, flinging herself upon
the improvised couch, a matter of hammocks and blankets, still bearing
baggage checks and tie-ropes.

"But our housekeeper has given notice," announced Cora. "And I don't
wonder. Not one has been on time for a single meal since we arrived.
But I must say, I wish she had stayed until the stuff was all
unpacked. It's dreadful on the hands," and she looked at hers
ruefully.

"Why not ask the boys to help?" asked Lottie, who was doing her best
to press her damp clothes by stretching the most important of them
over Belle's trunk, and holding them there with two suitcases. "If I
had not gotten these things wet I should have been glad to unpack, but
if I leave them this way over night I shall never be able to wear them
again."

"If you knew the boys as well as we do," Bess put in