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Show O.K. BY HER CORNER By Richard H. Wilkinson I . THE MAN who had rented Freda the outboard motor told her that any fool could run one of the things. However, right now, drifting in the wrong direction in the middle of Mirror lake, I ; I with the- sun 3 -Minute beating down un-FiGtion un-FiGtion "lerfuUy, she I would have given giv-en a good deal to have the man's neck between her two hands. Just for luck she gave the crank one more spin. The motor went "chugurg, chugurg" and died. "Damn!" exclaimed Freda. She was so furious she could have cried. Instead she stood up and began to wave wildly at a boat that had suddenly sud-denly appeared around an island point. The boat kept serenely on its course and Freda was about to give up yelling and abandon herself to fate when the other craft swerved and headed in her direction. Two minutes later a black-haired youth was grinning up at her pleasantly. "Trouble?" he asked. "There's not a thing wrong with this motor," said Freda, "except that it won't run." The young man climbed aboard. He had a wrench in his hand. "I'll fix it," he said. Freda thought he was pretty confident, but a moment later she changed her mind. "Strainer got clogged." he said. "I'm an expert on outboards. My business is retrievin' 'em." "Retrieving them?" "Sure. Plenty of motors lost In this lake every year. I invented in-vented a special magnet to find 'em, then I grapple for 'em, haul 'em up, repair 'em Freda told Len Curtain her name without even stopping to think. and sell 'em. My name's Len Curtain. What's yours?" "Freda Brandon," said Freda, without even stopping to think. "Freda Brandon, eh? You're the girl who's going to marry Ray Hubbard. Well, they say money will do anything; but deliver me. Well, so long." Freda didn't catch her breath until she got back to camp. Her mother had news. "Darling! Ray wired he's com' ing up! He's arriving tomorrow." Freda's spirits sank. "Goody, goody," she said sourly. Freda set off in the outboard the next morning 10 minutes before Ray was due to arrive. Thirty minutes min-utes later she saw a familiar looking look-ing boat anchored in a cove and camp up alongside. "Hi!" grinned Len Curtain "How's things?" "Fine. Say, look, what do you do m me winter:" "Oh, this and that." Len hauled in his grappling iron. "False alarm. Nothing here. How about anchoring that scow and taking a ride around with me?" Ray Hubbard was waiting on the dock when she got back. He didn't like the idea of her not being at camp to greet him, but she didn't care. npHE DAY after Ray departed Len Curtain came into the dock and Freda went down to see what he wanted. "It's a funny thing, but I'm in love. Will you marry me?" Freda almost fell into the water. "Goodness! I'm going to marry Ray." "Pshaw! You don't love him. Marry me and we'll have fun." Freda caught herself wondering won-dering if that wouldn't be a good idea. She laughed, sounding sound-ing like a frog with a sore throat. "Marry you and fish for outboards out-boards all summer and do what in the winter?" Ray grinned. "There's no fishing in the winter. We'd get along. I've just sold my grappling magnet invention in-vention to the Sea Demon outboard people. That's only the beginning of the things I can invent." Freda blinked. Good heavens, was he going to be as startling as that all his life. "I'U have to think it over." "Give you five minutes. Hop in and we'll ride around in the meantime." mean-time." Freda heard of people being hypnotized, hyp-notized, and she guessed that was what was wrong with her. She hopped in and they rode around. When five minutes was up Len Curtain kissed her and she kissed him back and that settled the whole business. |