Part 32 (1/2)

Mollie started to shake her head ht better of it, and smiled instead

”I won't be a death's head at the feast,” she told herself savagely ”I suppose I'm awfully wicked, but now that they are all so happy, it lad from my very heart for them, of course But, oh, Paul! Oh, little Dodo! If you will only coain, never, never!”

Dinner that night for the other girls was a joyful occasion The girls dressed up in their prettiest and best, Mrs Ford and Betty cooked asupper, and if it had not been for the one dark cloud still hanging over the that folloould have been the happiest they had ever spent

Mollie kept her proayety with the best of them, and no one--except Betty, perhaps--realized how hts were out that night and everybody but herself was asleep, Mollie's brave barrier broke down and she sobbed o home!” she cried, heart brokenly ”I can't keep this up day after day! I can't! If I don't hear soood news soon, I'll die--I know I shall”

Only the sound of the waves pounding angrily on the shore and the shrilling of a rapidly rising wind answered her, and after a while she sank into a troubled, uneasy sleep

And how could she know as she lay there, restlessly tossing fro incoherently to herself, that the wind and waves were actually sending her an anshich, in her wildestso, she could not tell what, roused Betty and she sat up suddenly in bed, every nerve taut, every sense alert

The wind had increased in fury while they slept, till noas howling fiercely about the house, rattling the s and whistling shrilly through the cracks, which together with the pounding of the waves,uproar

And the rain! It ca wind in ainst thepanes until it seeive beneath the strain

”What a storainst her ears to keep out the noise of it ”I wonder if that akenedfully awake, she suddenly realized that she was very unco down, discovered that the bed spread et

”Mercy, it's raining in all over us!” she tried aloud, and, springing out of bed, ran over to theand closed it with a bang When she ca at her

”For goodness sake, what's happening?” asked the latter sleepily: ”Is it the end of the world?”

”Search antly She had to almost scream to make herself heard above the noise of the storoet, which did not serve to lift her spirits In fact, she was feeling decidedly gru I do know,” she shouted, ”is that I' drowned at night is strictly forbidden?”

Grace began severely, but was proet in bed?” she asked, when she had succeeded in disentangling herself Betty was sitting disconsolately on the dry side of the bed, which happened to be that occupied by Grace

”If you want to know, just feel the covers,” Betty answered ”Next ti to o in and see if Mollie and A for the door ”Goodness, but this is a heavy storm!”

However, when she started to close thein the next room she noticed to her surprise that the rain had slackened, had al, it had increased in fury

She was about to turn back and tiptoe out of the rooirls, when her eye was caught and held by a vivid flash of red somewhere out to sea

Startled, she stood stock still, staring out in the direction froht had conal out into the stornal, she did not for a ht that shot up rocketlike toward the sky, then, bursting, dived to instant annihilation in the turbulant water

Another followed, and another, and then the truth ca sea a shi+p hadand her creere sending out desperate appeals for aid