"Bravo! Spoken like an Outdoor Girl!" cried Betty, and at the challenge
in her voice, Grace and Amy instinctively straightened up.

"We're all Outdoor Girls," said Grace stoutly.

"And we'll show you," Amy added, with a ring in her voice, "that we are
not afraid to go any where that you can go."

"Fine!" cried the Little Captain, her eyes shining. "Come on, then. What
chance has a pesky old wind against four Outdoor Girls, I'd like to
know!"

She opened the door again, and this time, being prepared for the
onslaught of the wind, merely gritted her teeth and ducked her head and
plunged gamely into it. And without a minute's hesitation, the others,
who were "also Outdoor Girls," followed her.

The fight with the wind that followed was all they had expected it would
be--and more. Their clothes were whipped about their legs as if about to
disengage themselves and fly away from their owners forever. And several
times they were forced to stop and turn their backs to catch their
breath and gather strength to go on.

But on they did go until the welcome vision of a gaunt old farmhouse
rising ghostily from the early morning mist rewarded them and set their
hearts to beating high with hope.

As they fought their way step by step up to the porch, they tried to
call out, but found that whatever sound they were able to make was
drowned in the roar of the wind.

They found an old-fashioned knocker on the big front door, and worked it
with all their strength. After what seemed to them an age of waiting,
the door itself opened and a head popped out at them.

"Well, what in time--" the owner of the voice was beginning, when Betty
pushed impatiently past him, the girls following close behind her.

It took a surprisingly short time--seeing that the girls all insisted
upon talking at once--to make the farmer understand the situation.

"We're going on to the life-saving station," Betty told him, trembling
with excitement.

"All right, but my boys'll beat 'em to it," he promised, a glint in his
grey eyes.

Then the girls were on their way again, pushing desperately against a
wind that seemed to rise higher and higher with every minute, while in
the east the greying sky grew light.

"A--clear--day!" Mollie gasped, pushing back the wind-blown hair from
her face. "At last!"

"Do you hear anything?" Betty shouted back. "It seems to me I--"

They listened, and then, above the wind, it came to them
unmistakably--the sound of v