"Ben, will you please stop?" pleaded Dave. "I never heard such foolish talk before in my life!" "But he did jump overboard, and he did save the girl," broke in Phil. "If he hadn't gone after her she might have drowned." "Who was she?" asked Laura; while Jessie, wide-eyed, showed her interest. "The leading lady of the film company--a Miss Della Ford," answered the shipowner's son. "A mighty nice young lady, too--real stylish--golden-brown hair, dreamy brown eyes, and all that sort of thing, you know." "Oh, Dave, that was splendid of you to save her from drowning!" said Jessie. "Indeed it was!" added Ben. "And she was mighty grateful, too," he went on. "She grabbed Dave's hands for all she was worth, and, at one time, I thought she was going to throw her arms right around his neck." "Oh, Ben!" "Well, it seemed that way to me, anyway--and she was a stunning looking girl, too, I can tell you!" "She was not going to do anything of the kind, Jessie! Don't pay any attention to him," broke in Dave, and now his face was decidedly red. "Come on! Let's get into the auto and get to the house; I'm hungry," and he started to help the two girls into the tonneau of the automobile. "We'll have to hear more of this later on," said Dunston Porter, as he started the car. "Yes, I'd like to hear more about Miss Ford," added Jessie, in a somewhat uncertain tone. CHAPTER V DAVE AT HOME Mirror Lake was a beautiful sheet of water nestling among the mountains of the Upper Adirondacks of New York State. At the lower end of the lake, where there was a well-defined trail running to several fashionable summer resorts some miles away, were located two beautiful bungalows, one of six rooms and the other of eight rooms. They were built on a plot of ground bordering on a small cove of the lake, and extending about a thousand feet back into the woods of the mountain-side. As my old readers will remember, Ben Basswood's father was interested in real estate, and, a year or two before, he and Mr. Wadsworth had gone into a land deal of considerable proportions. Several important transactions had resulted, and in making one of the deals Mr. Wadsworth and Mr. Basswood had become possessed of the two bungalows on Mirror Lake, the two gentlemen owning both jointly. At first, on acquiring the property, the jewelry manufacturer had been in favor of selling it at public auction; but to this Mr. Basswood had demurred. "I think, Mr. Wadsworth," he had said, "if we hold that property for a few years it will be far more valuable than it is now. The State road has been built to within a few miles, and there is strong talk of its being carried directly past Mirror Lake. Not only that; there is also talk of the railroad putting in a spur through that district, and of course that will help a great deal."