“Yes, I remember,” and Molly laughed at the recollection.  “Let’s dabble our hands now.  May we, King?”

“Sure!  I guess I can keep this boat right side up if you girls do trail your hands in the water.”

And so the two merry maidens dabbled their hands in the water, and growing frolicsome, shook a spray over each other, and even flirted drops into King’s face.  The boy laughed good-naturedly, and retaliated by splashing a few drops on them with the tip end of his oar.

King was fond of rowing, and was clever at it, and being a large, strong boy, it tired him not at all.  Moreover, the boat was a light, round-bottomed affair that rowed easily, and was not at all hard to manage.

King’s foolery roused the spirit of mischief in the two girls, and faster and faster flew the drops of water from one to another of the merrymakers.

“No fair splashing!” cried King.  “Just a spray of drops goes.”

“All right,” agreed Marjorie, who was also a stickler for fair play, and though she dashed the water rapidly, she sent merely a flying spray, and not a drenching handful.  But Molly was not so punctilious.  She hadn’t the same instinct of fairness that the Maynards had, and half intentionally, half by accident, she flung a handful of water straight in King’s face.

This almost blinded the boy, and for a moment he lost control of his oar.  An involuntary move on his part, due to the shock of the water in his face, sent the blade of one oar down deep, and as he tried to retrieve it, it splashed a whole wave all over Molly.

But Molly thought King intended to do this, and that it was merely part of the game, so with one of her lightning-like movements, she grasped the blade of the oar in retaliation.  The oar being farther away than she thought, and rapidly receding, caused her to lean far over the boat, and in his effort to get his oar again in position, King, too, leaned over the side.

The result was exactly what might have been expected.  The narrow, clinker-built boat capsized, and in a moment the four children were struggling in the water.

Even as the boat went over, King realized what had happened, and realized, too, that he was responsible for the safety of the three girls.  With fine presence of mind he threw his arm over the keel of the upturned boat and shouted, “It’s all right, girls!  Just hang on to the boat this way, and you won’t go down.”

Marjorie and Molly understood at once, and did exactly as King told them.  They were terribly frightened, and were almost strangled, but they realized the emergency, and struggled to get their arms up over the boat in the manner King showed them.

But Kitty did not so quickly respond to orders.  She had not been paying any attention to the merry war going on in the stern of the boat, and when she was suddenly thrown out into the water, she could not at first collect her scattered senses.  King’s words seemed to convey no meaning to her, and to his horror, the boy saw his sister sink down under the water.