to her, but, seeing that the _Pet_
was under way again, had gone on his own course.

The wind continued to blow, the rain never ceased and the storm increased
apace. But finally, after a battle with the elements that made the hearts
of the girls quail, they passed the lighthouse point, and shot around
into the quiet and wind-protected waters of the bay. A little later they
were chugging into the even calmer cove.

"Oh Cora! So frightened as I have been!" exclaimed Aunt Susan, as the
dripping girls trooped up the hill to the bungalow. "Oh, what a storm!"

"But we weathered it!" laughed Cora, shaking back her damp hair. "It was
a bit scary at first, but we came out all right. It was fun at the finish."

"I'm never going out again when it's cloudy!" declared Belle. "Never!"

"Oh, you'll get used to it," said Eline.

Dry garments, hot tea, and supper coming in the order named restored in
the girls their natural happy dispositions. But the storm continued. It
grew worse as darkness advanced, and the wind rose to a gale. The rain
came down in torrents, and the boys, in spite of rain coats and umbrellas,
were drenched a second time in the short trip from their bungalow to
that of the girls, when they came to pay a visit.

"It's a wild night," declared Jack, as he and his chums got ready to go
back, about ten o'clock.

"There must be quite a sea on," said Ed.

"I wouldn't want to be out in it," remarked Walter.

"And I beg to be excused," came from Norton.

"Think of the poor sailors," said Eline, softly.

"I tell you what I'd like to do," observed Jack.

"What?" Ed wanted to know.

"Go over to the lighthouse. It must be great up in the lantern room in
a storm like this."

"Don't you dare to go!" cried Cora. "It might blow away."

"No danger," said Jack with a laugh. "But I'm not going. Another thing
we might do."

"What?" demanded Norton.

"Go out and find a beach patrol. We could walk up and down with him, and
maybe sight a wreck."

"Oh, don't speak of a wreck!" begged Bess. "A wreck on such a night would
be dreadful."

"This is just the kind of a night when they have wrecks," observed Ed,
as a blast of wind and rain shook the bungalow.

As the boys were going out into the storm there came a dull report,
reverberating on the night air.

"What was that?" gasped Cora.

"Sounded like a gun," said Jack. "Maybe a ship at sea----"

There was a flash in the sky. It was not lightning, for there was no
t