tired; sleep, he wanted, nothing but sleep. Scarcely could he keep his eyes open to the motor-craft and sails which witnessed and cheered the finish.
Suddenly he started up, eyes wide and staring at a little white catboat which had come up under the Arletta's lee. A bareheaded girl was standing at the stern, steering with a bare, brown little forearm thrusting at the tiller. Skillfully she brought her boat in close without any interference, while she gazed at the Arletta's crew gathered astern. Jay she did not at first see, for he was forward and she had to look under the sail, but he recognized her.
He leaped up and ran aft and she saw him. "Oh!" she cried out; just that, "Oh!" for all of them to hear, and she put over her helm, steering away again. They all watched her, little and brown and hiding her face with confusion after her cry.
"Friend of yours, Jay?" Ken asked him.
"Catch her," said Jay, reckless in his arousal from his exhaustion. "Catch her!" he begged and Ken obliged him. Jay ran forward again but this time to lee and, as the boats came close, he called to Ellen Powell: "I'm coming aboard!"
She replied not a word but looked him over from head to foot and her little brown arm pulled at her tiller, bringing the catboat almost against the big sloop so that Jay leaped and was aboard with her. Instantly, she let the sheet run; the boats separated. They were off by themselves, he and Ellen and a boy who was her brother.
Jay shook hands with the boy: "Hello," Jay said to him. "Hello; you're Ted." For Ted had come, last summer, with his father to Chicago and had visited the office.
