been a "dead heat," as Tom Osborne said afterward.
As the girls passed the place where the alligators had been sunning themselves they gave one look each into the water where the saurians had disappeared. One look only, and they did not pause to do that. But they saw no signs of the ugly creatures.
"Safe!" cried Betty, and the girls, breathless from their run, were safe. They gathered about the eatables on the grass.
"Oh, where can Tom be?" cried Betty anxiously. "I—I hope nothing has happened to him!"
"Now who is making direful suggestions, I'd like to know?" asked Grace.
"Well, it is queer to have him disappear that way," voiced Mollie. "But I'm going to be impolite and—eat."
She approached the "table," an example followed by the others. Certainly Tom had done his work exceedingly well. The spread was very inviting.
Betty looked all around the little glade on the edge of the river, where the table was set. There was no sign of their escort. The Gem floated lazily where she was moored, and the scene was quiet and peaceful enough. But there was a cer-
