Directly after that the chug of the _Dixie_ was heard.
Then it was all storm! Raging! Roaring! Which way could two small motor boats hope to plough their way in such a fury of wind, rain and lightning?
The waves had a.s.sumed the proportions of billows, and every time a boat lifted with the crest, a huge bank of water would break over it.
Jack clung to the steering wheel, and Cora never took her eyes off the engine. But how they whirled and twirled! There was the _Dixie!_ It was keeping near--one good thing. The canoe had broken loose and was soon lost to sight. No one bewailed it; there was too serious work at hand for that.
"Let me look after the gas!" begged Kent of Cora. He was at her elbow, but she had insisted on personally attending to the machine.
"I know it better, perhaps," she shrieked back, "but stay close. If I cannot manage I will let you know!"
One terrific clap, then a roar sounded in the ears of all, but seemed to paralyze Lottie.
She fell in a heap and lay speechless. Up to this time she had been half sitting in the bottom of the boat.
"She"s struck!" shrieked Belle. Then Cora left the engine to Kent and took charge of the senseless girl.
CHAPTER XI
THE RESCUE
The coffee that stood on the still warm electric stove proved a valuable aid in restoring the stunned Lottie. She had not been struck; her nerves had simply given out, and she had collapsed.
Finally she opened her eyes.
"I"m all right now," she said faintly, and it was evident the shock had dulled her terror, at least.
"Just lie still," whispered Cora, encouragingly. "The storm will soon be over."
"The storm?" Lottie repeated. Then she closed her eyes again, but this time it was only exhaustion, not faintness.
The other girls had been roused to activity by Lottie"s condition.
They could now see a rift in the clouds, and one after another hurried to say that the storm was breaking, and it was not so bad; that boats could be seen, and perhaps they would soon sight land.
But those at the wheels of the boats knew how little they could do in the way of steering. Every time the wheel was turned one way the force of the rollers would wash it completely around. In fact they were making absolutely no progress, and might almost as well have allowed the powerless craft to submit to the fury of the waters.
Cora realized this, as did the boys, but the other girls, except perhaps Bess, felt more secure as the sound of the motor indicated motion. The clouds were lifting, but the force of the storm seemed to be coming in from sea, and had little to do with the appearance of the sky.
"Oh, if help would only come!" Cora whispered to Bess. "I"m afraid another and worse storm is gathering!"
"Don"t give up," replied the girl, her own face gray in the mist and spray that covered the deck even under the awnings.
"I--see--something bobbing up and down over there!" Cora continued.
"See! It is--a big, strong boat, perhaps a lifeboat!"
"Let us hope so," answered Bess, fervently.
Not one word could Cora exchange with Jack, he was too far from her to hear her voice. The _Dixie_ was still near enough to be sighted, but how the boys managed to keep her so was as remarkable to themselves as to those on the _Chelton_.
"That"s a boat, all right," said Bess with more vigor in her voice, "and it looks like one from the life-saving station."
Cora peered anxiously in the direction of the speck that played upon the waves.
"Hey!" yelled Jack, "there comes Denny!"
"Denny!" repeated Cora wonderingly.
"Oh, there"s Freda!" called Belle, jumping up from the bottom of the boat and promptly falling back again.
"It"s Freda and Denny, and someone else?" asked Bess, breathlessly.
"Oh, what a mercy!"
"It"s a boy," declared Kent. "See the rain-hat and slicker?"
"Yes, and see Freda"s hair floating out from under that rubber hat!"
insisted Bess. "Oh, I know it"s Freda, and I can see Denny plainly!"
The boat was coming nearer. On the crest of a roller it fairly soared towards them. Then Cora saw it was Denny and Freda, with another man whom they did not know.
"Head up into it!" came a voice from the dory, for even in a storm Denny knew how to make his voice carry over the water.
Jack heard, and swung the wheel toward the left. That would put them "into the storm," instead of on the edge of it.
At that moment the _Dixie_ shot past and dashed right up to the dory.
"Here," called Jack, "can you make it to get in here?" This was called to those in Denny"s boat.
"Not now!" shouted back the man. "Keep close!"
The roar of the storm increased. Just as Cora had predicted, the new squall was worse than the first. For some moments all three boats tossed and tumbled as if they had neither master nor man, but it was the _Chelton_ that righted herself first.
By an ungiven signal the three boats got into line. The dory was directly in the center and the two motor boats served to shield it from the waves that lashed them on either side.
"Quick! Freda!" yelled Cora, grasping the line Denny tossed to her.
"You can climb in! We can hold it tight!"
Like a sprite, the girl in the yellow slicker and rubber hat made for the highest end of the boat, measured her distance to the _Chelton_, and while Kent and Cora strained to hold the rope steady, sprang.
It was not the distance, which was but a few feet, but the uncertainty of the boats" motion that made the leap perilous. But Freda landed safely in the _Chelton_.
"None too soon!" gasped Cora, pressing her arms around the wet oilskin coat. "See where they have gotten to now!"
The boats had drifted apart again. The girls clung to Freda as if she had really brought them safely to sh.o.r.e, instead of adding her own weight to their burden, but it was the message from land that rea.s.sured them.
"Isn"t it dreadful!" moaned Lottie, still trembling from her collapse.