The guardian hesitated.  She was regarding the man with some suspicion.

“It’s at the foot of the second street beyond, down that way.  I’ll have the boat down there in a couple of hours.  I’ve got to get a motor boat, or something of the sort to tow it down.  It probably will leak some, not having been in the water this season until yesterday.  You had better go over to the hotel and get your dinner.  I’ll come up and let you know when the scow is ready.  Go right over and make yourself at home.  I’ll do the best I can.  Bert’s an old friend of mine.”

Dickinson hurried away, without further words.  The girls looked at each other and laughed.

“Well, if Dee Dickinson is a friend of your brother, I must say I don’t admire your brother’s friends,” declared Harriet.

“That ith what I thay,” agreed Grace Thompson.

“Tommy, you shouldn’t have said that,” reproved Hazel Holland.

“She didn’t.  Harriet said it,” retorted Margery.

“Buster is right,” laughed Jane McCarthy.  “Come on, girls!  Let’s go to dinner, as the shifty-eyed gentleman advised.  I hope it is dinner.  I never could get used to luncheon in the middle of the day when Nature intended that a girl should have a full meal of the real food.  Where is the old hotel?”

“I don’t know, Jane.  There is something strange about this affair.  I am sure that Bert must have known what he was about, or he wouldn’t have sent me the message he did.  However, we shall see.  There is no need to borrow trouble.  We shall know how to deal with it when we meet it face to face.  Let’s go and look for this hotel that our friend, Mr. Dee, has recommended.”

Getting into the automobile Jane started her car, and they drove through the town in search of the hotel, which they found after a few inquiries.  The prosperous village of Wantagh was located on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee.  It was there that Miss Elting’s brother had begun to practice law, but after one year’s practice in the little village had listened to the call of the West.  He had left in Wantagh the old scow, dignified by the name of “houseboat” to which was attached the further title of “Red Rover.”  It was in this lumbering craft that Miss Elting and her young friends, the Meadow-Brook Girls, had planned to spend part of their summer vacation.  Their meeting with Dickinson, in whose care the boat had been left, was quite discouraging.  Dee was not a prepossessing fellow; what impressed them most unfavorably about him was his shifty eyes.  He seldom permitted himself to meet the gaze of the person with whom he was talking.

Some inquiry, after reaching the hotel, developed the fact that Dee Dickinson was a notary, did a little real estate business, and drew a few papers for his neighbors, thus managing to eke out a precarious living.  So far as the girls were able to find out, Dickinson’s character was above reproach.  Miss Elting chided herself for having formed a wrong opinion of the man.  Still she could not overcome her irritation at his evident reluctance in getting the boat ready.