on the beach that saw the accident, but you were the only
ones that did the hustling. It was a case of quick thinking as well as
plucky acting, and we owe our lives to you. I only hope that some time
we'll be able to do something that will show you how we appreciate it."

"What gets me," put in Joe, "was the heartless way those fellows in the
motor boat acted. They were simply brutes. They ought to have their necks
wrung."

"Yes," said Herb. "There was no excuse for their running you down in the
first place. But after they'd done it, the least they could have done was
to turn their boat around and pick you up. We took it for granted that
that was what they would do, and we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw
them keep on. Those fellows are nothing less than murderers."

"I guess you're about right," replied Larry. "We counted, too, on their
picking us up, and our only thought was to hold on to any floating thing
we could grab until they could get to us. And when we saw that they
weren't going to, we just about gave up hope. Both Tim and I are pretty
good swimmers, and if we'd been alone might have reached the shore. But
there was the girl, and with the water as rough as it was we had a pretty
slim chance of bringing her in, so it was a case of living or dying
together. And it would have been dying sure enough, if you hadn't happened
to be on the beach this afternoon.

"It would have been especially hard," he continued, "if the girl had been
drowned when she was out on our invitation and under our protection. As
for ourselves, it would not have mattered so much. She is an awfully nice
girl, and her family and mine have been acquainted for years. My mother
and hers used to go to school together. I hadn't any idea she was down
here when I decided to spend a couple of weeks at Ocean Point, but you can
imagine how surprised and delighted I was to find that she and her folks
were stopping at the same hotel I had picked out. She was a little afraid
of the water, but yielded when we urged her to come out for a row, and we
were all having a dandy time until that motor boat come along and spoiled
everything."

"And think of what the world would have lost if we'd been among the
missing," said Tim, with a grin. "No more exhibitions of the Canary Bird
Snake, otherwise known as Larry Bartlett."

"Or of the famous buck wing and clog dancer, otherwise known as Tim
Barcommon," laughed Larry.

The radio boys looked at each other