tide is rising.
We'd better start back." Leaving Bold Ben and his comrades to their
fate, she ran to the further side of the rock, but here she hesitated.
The sea was steadily making in, sending little cascades over the
weed-covered ledges each time it retreated.

"Can't you get across?" asked Molly, as she came up with her Applebys,
and saw Polly standing still.

"I'm almost afraid to jump," said Polly, "for if a big wave should come
in suddenly it might wash in over my feet and the sea-weed is so
slippery I'm afraid to trust to it, where it is shallower." Molly
looked up at the rocky shelf jutting out above her. "If we could only
get up there," she said.

"But we can't; it is too far to climb to that first jutty-out place,
and we can't crawl under and then up, like flies."

Mary bearing the sole survivor of the unfortunate Hips family now came
up. "I had to let the rest go," she said. "They were beyond reach. I
fished this one out of the water just in time. What is the matter?
Why don't you go on, Polly?"

For answer Polly pointed silently to the creeping waves at her feet.

"What are we going to do?" asked Mary in alarm.

"Stay here till the tide goes down, I suppose. This rock is never
covered," said Molly.

"But we may get dreadfully splashed," returned Mary.

"I hadn't thought of that," said Polly dubiously. She looked at the
rock above her, and then at her two cousins. "Which of you two could
stand on my shoulders and get hold of that rock so as to draw herself
up and go for help?"

"Oh, I never could do it in the world," said Mary, shrinking back.

Polly turned to Molly. "Could you?"

"I'm afraid I couldn't pull myself up so far, but I could stand and let
you get on my shoulders, if you could do the pulling up part."

"I could do that easily enough," Polly told her. "I've often practiced
it with the boys, and we have swung ourselves up the rocks in the
mountains out home. Are you sure you can bear my weight, Molly?"

"I can try."

"We'll both do it," Mary offered. "You can put one foot on my shoulder
and one on Molly's, then you won't be so heavy for either one."

"All right. Steady yourselves. Here goes." And in a moment Polly had
clambered to the supporting shoulders, had caught hold of the jutting
rock and had drawn herself up. As she gained her feet and sped away
crying: "I'll be right back," Molly breathed a sigh of relief. "I was
so afraid a piece of the rock would spl