eyes and stared at her stupidly.

"Wh-what's the matter," stammered Mollie, suddenly sensing almost
hysterical excitement in Betty's voice and realizing that something
terrible had occurred.

"Is anybody sick?" queried Amy almost fretfully, for she had been
enjoying the first good sleep she had had in weeks.

"No. But somebody may be if we don't hurry up," cried Betty, wild with
impatience. "Don't lie there asking foolish questions when people may be
dying."

"Dying," they echoed, still staring at her stupidly.

"There's a wrecked ship out there," Betty explained, her words stumbling
over each other as she tried to make the girls understand. "They are
sending up signals for help, and if we don't get it for them right away
it may be too late. Oh, girls, for all we know, it may be too late now!"

Mollie and Amy, at last fully awake and almost as excited as Betty
herself, sprang out of bed and rushed to the window to see for
themselves the signals the distressed vessel was sending up.

CHAPTER XXV

JOY

What happened in the next hour the girls never afterward clearly
remembered. In what seemed a nightmare, they found their clothes, and,
after turning things wrong side out, getting the left shoe on the right
foot, and various other mishaps calculated to wreck the most
well-balanced nervous system, they finally succeeded in getting them on.

"Where shall we go?" Mollie gasped out, as, clad in oilskins, they
rushed madly down the stairs.

"There's a farmhouse about a mile down the road," explained Grace, "and
all the farm hands sleep on the premises. We can get them. And there's
the life-saving station only a little way beyond. They may have seen the
signals and be on their way already."

"All right--let's go," said Betty grimly, as she flung open the door.

A terrific gust of wind greeted her and sent her staggering back upon
the other girls.

"It's even worse than I thought," she gasped, regaining her balance. "We
will have to do some fighting to get there, girls."

"A mile against that wind!" groaned Grace. "Betty, I don't think we can
ever make it."

"We've got to--or at least make the attempt," cried Betty, pulling her
coat more tightly about her. "If nobody else will come, I'm going
alone," she added, and the girls knew her well enough to be sure she
meant it.

"Come on," cried Mollie, who had never yet been known to ignore a
challenge. "We'll do our best, anyway, even if we die trying."