Bess lost her grip on her canoe. The latter floated beyond her reach while Wyn was striving to get her friend to the surface again. "Why! we're going to be drowned!" shrieked Bess, suddenly horror-stricken. "Don't you _dare_ lose your nerve," commanded Wynifred. "If we lose courage we certainly will be lost." "Oh, but, Wyn----" "Oh, but, Bess! Don't you dare. Here! get hold of the keel of my canoe." "But it won't bear us both up," groaned Bessie Lavine. "It's got to," declared Wyn. "Have courage; don't be afraid." "You needn't try to tell me you're not afraid yourself, Wyn Mallory!" chattered her friend. "Of course I am, dear; but I mean, don't lose your head because you _are_ afraid," said Wyn. "Come, now! Paddle with one hand and cling to the keel with the other. I'll do the same." "Oh, dear, me! if we were only not so far from the shore," groaned Bess. "Somebody may see us and come to our help," said Wyn, with more confidence in her tone than she really felt. "The canoes couldn't live in this gale." "It's only a squall." "That's all very well; but they wouldn't dare to start out for us from Green Knoll." "But the boys----" "Their camp isn't in sight of this place, Wyn," moaned Bess. "Oh! we _will_ be drowned." But Wyn had another hope. She remembered, just before the overturn, that she had caught a glimpse of the red and yellow cottage behind Jarley's Landing. "Oh, Bess!" she gasped. "Perhaps Mr. Jarley will see us. Perhaps Polly----" Another slapping wave came and rolled them and the canoe over. The frail craft came keel up, level full of water. The least weight upon it now would send it to the bottom of the lake. "Oh, oh!" shrieked Bess, when she found her voice. "What shall we do now?" They could both swim; but the lake was rough. The sudden and spiteful squall had torn up the surface for many yards around. Yet, as they rose upon one of the waves, they saw the sun shining boldly in the westward. The squall was scurrying away. "Come on! we've got to swim," urged Wyn. [Illustration: THEY COULD BOTH SWIM, BUT THE LAKE WAS ROUGH. _Page 146._] "That's so hard," wailed Bess, but striking out, nevertheless, in the way she had been so well taught by the instructor in Denton. All these girls had been trained in the public school baths. "There's the other canoe," said Wyn, hopefully. "But we--we don't want to go that way," gasped Bess. "It's away from land." Now Wyn knew very well that they had scarcely a chance of swimming to the distant shore. In ordinarily calm weather--yes; but in this rough sea, and hampered as they were by their bloomers and other clothing--no. The two girls swam close together, but Wyn dared not offer her comrade help. She wanted to, but she feared that if she did so Bess would break down and become helpless entirely; and Wyn hoped they would get much farther inshore before that happened.