Sally had been right, Penny realized. Barring a miracle, the Cat's Paw could not be among the winners. Although they were slowly gaining, the finish line was too close for them to overcome the lead of the remaining boats.
And then the miracle occurred. The Elf, directly ahead, seemed to falter and to turn slightly aside. The Cat's Paw seized the chance and forged even.
"Go to it, Sally!" her skipper, Tom Evans, a freckled youth, called. "You belong in the finals!"
Then the girls understood and were grateful. Deliberately, the boy had slowed his boat so that Sally might be among the winners.
"It was a fine thing to do!" Sally whispered. "But how I hate to win in such fashion!"
"Tom Evans knew he had no chance in the finals," Penny said. "As he said, you belong there for you are one of the best sailors in the fleet."
Sally crossed the finish line in fifth place, then sailed on to the dock by the clubhouse. As Penny leaped out to make the boat fast, willing hands assisted with the bedraggled passenger. The child was taken to the clubhouse for a change of clothes. Officials gathered about Penny and Sally, congratulating them upon the race.
"I didn't really win," the latter said, paying tribute to Tom Evans. "The Elf deliberately turned aside to give me a chance to pass."
Nearby, Jack Gandiss who had won the race, stood unnoticed. After awhile he walked over to the dock where Sally and Penny were collecting their belongings.
"That was a nice rescue," he said diffidently. "Of course it cost you second place, which was a pity."
Sally cocked an eyebrow. "Second place?" she repeated. "Well, I like that!"
"You never could have defeated the Spindrift."
"No? Well, if my memory serves me right, the Cat's Paw was leading when I had to turn aside. Not that I wasn't glad to do it."
"You may have been ahead, but I was coming up fast. I would have overtaken you at the second marker or sooner."
"Children! Children!" interposed Penny as she neatly folded a sail and slipped it into a snowy white cover. "Must you always claw at each other?"
"Why, we aren't fighting," Sally denied with a grin.
"Heck, no!" Jack agreed. He started away, then turned and came back. "By the way, Sally. How about the trophy?"
Sally did not understand what he meant.
"I won the race, so doesn't the brass lantern belong to me?" Jack pursued the subject.
"Well, it will if you win the final next week."
"That's in the bag."
"Like fun it is!" Sally said indignantly. "Jack, I hate to crush those delicate feelings of yours, but you're due for the worst defeat of your life!"
The argument might have started anew, but Jack reverted to the matter of the lantern trophy.
"I'm the winner now, and it should be turned over to me," he insisted.
Sally became annoyed. "That's not according to the rules of the competition," she returned. "The regulations governing the race say that the final winner is entitled to keep the trophy. I was last year's winner. The one this season hasn't yet been determined."
"It's not safe to keep the lantern aboard the River Queen."
"Don't be silly! There couldn't be a safer place! Pop and I chained the trophy to a beam. It can't be removed without cutting the chain."
"Someone could take the trophy by unlocking the padlock."
"Oh, no, they couldn't," Sally grinned provokingly. "You see, I've already lost the key. The only way that lantern can be removed is by cutting the chain."
Jack was enraged. "You've lost the key?" he demanded. "If that isn't the last straw!"
Hanson Brown, chairman of the racing committee, chanced to be passing, and Jack impulsively hailed him. To the chagrin of the girls, he asked for a ruling on the matter of the trophy's possession.
"Why, I don't recall that such a question ever came up before," the official replied. "My judgment is that Miss Barker has a right to retain the trophy until the final race."
"Ha!" chuckled Sally, enjoying Jack's discomfiture. "How do you like that?"
