Part 29 (2/2)

It took some time to open the low door, but it did finally yield to the pressure of the three strong young men.

”Enter!” called Jack, bowing low to the girls, ”Pray enter, pretty maidens. Are there any more at home like you?”

”There are a few, and pretty, too,” responded Cora, taking up the strain of the familiar song.

Then such antics! And such discoveries! What is more resourceful than a strange house filled with strange things, strange corners and strange--spider webs!

”Don't open the trunk!” shrieked Belle. ”There may be a----”

”Note in it!” finished Walter. ”Now, nixy on notes. I want the goods or nothing, in our house.”

Boxes were being pulled from their salty corners, hammocks were dragged out, lanterns were being ”swung,” and altogether it seemed merely a question of who could upset the place most thoroughly.

”Halt! Avaunt! s.h.i.+p ahoy!” yelled Jack. ”If you breaks the stuff you pays fer it. This stock is inventoried.”

But the girls ran from one thing to another, regardless of dust or dampness.

”Oh, just look at the funny kettle!” exclaimed Belle. ”I'm sure that is for an outdoor fire.”

”Certainly it is,” replied Ed, just as if he knew what he was talking about. ”That also has to rest on Nature's back.”

Something rumbled close to the cottage, then a shriek from outside startled them.

”What's that!” cried Cora.

Ed pushed open the door.

”An auto in the ocean!” he yelled, das.h.i.+ng out of the bungalow, while the others followed as quickly as they could make after him.

Ed threw off his coat as he ran. A few paces down the beach, in the very face of the rollers, was a small runabout, the terrified occupants of which were vainly struggling to get out, into a dangerous depth of water.

”Quick, boys!” shouted Ed. ”The engine is still running! Maybe we can back it up!”

CHAPTER XXII

A STRUGGLE WITH THE WAVES

When Ed, Jack and Walter ran down the sandy beach, directly into the water, and then attempted to rescue from the waves a lady and her daughter, who were in the ocean-going auto, the girls were not afraid to follow them--to the extent of walking into the water knee deep.

The helpless woman was a cripple, and when she, with an exhausting effort, managed to turn to one side and fall over the rim of the runabout seat into the water, she dropped like a stone into the surf.

The daughter jumped, but in her frantic efforts to reach her mother, she crawled under the car, and was in very great danger of being lost herself.

Suddenly the helpless form of the crippled woman rose to the surface.

Jack threw his arms about the invalid, and, after shouting for Walter to help him, as the force of the rollers threatened to take him off his feet, the two young men managed to make their way safely to the sand with the unconscious form.

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