Chapter XX: The Storm

"Jack Kimball, I knew we stayed too late! Now look over there!" and Cora pointed to the west, where a bank of dark and angry-looking vapor piled up in contrast to the lighter-hued clouds that had caused apprehension earlier in the day.

"That's right--blame it all on me--even if it rains!" protested Jack. "You wanted to stay as much as we did, Sis."

"Well, perhaps I did," admitted Cora. "But really we should not have stayed so long. I am afraid we will be caught in the storm."

"Do you really think so, Cora?" asked Belle, and she could not keep a quaver out of her voice.

"If I'm any judge we're in for a regular old----"

"You're it, old man!" and Walter interrupted Ed, who was evidently on the verge of making a dire prophecy concerning the weather. "Don't scare 'em any more than you have to," went on Walter in a low voice, nodding at the girls in the _Pet_. "We may have our hands full as it is."

"Do you think so?"

"Look at those clouds!"

It was enough. Indeed all were now anxiously scanning the heavens that seemed to grow blacker momentarily. The little party, after having had lunch on the beach of the smaller cove, around the lighthouse point, were now on their way back in the two motor boats, and Cora, with a look aloft, had made the observation to Jack that opened this chapter.

"Well, turn on all the gas you can, Sis, and we'll scud for it," called Jack to his sister. "We may beat it out yet. If not, we can go ashore almost any place."

"Except on the rocks," spoke Cora. "The worst part will be round the point, in the open sea."

"Oh, we'll do it all right," asserted Norton, confidently. "The wind isn't rising much."

The boats were close enough together so that talking from one to the other was easy. They were headed out toward the open sea, and as Cora guided her craft she could not help anticipating apprehensively the heavy rollers that would be encountered once they were out of the land-locked shelter. But the bow of the _Pet_ was high. She was a good craft in rough weather, and as for the hired _Duck_, she was built for those waters.

"Let's be jolly!" proposed Jack, for a glance at the girls in their boat had showed him that they were on the verge of hysterics. "Strike up a song, Ed."

"Give us Nancy Lee," suggested Walter.

"Nancy!" exclaimed Cora. "I wonder where that other Nancy is?"

"No telling," declared Eline. "Oh dear! I hope it doesn't rain. This dress spots so!" and she looked down at her rather light gown, which really she ought not to have worn on a water picnic. Cora had said as much, but Eline--well, it must be confessed that she was rather vain. She had good clothes and she liked to wear them, not always at appropriate times.

"It won't rain!" asserted Jack. "Go ahead, Ed--sing!"

"'Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep' would be most appropriate," voiced Norton. "We are rocking some."

It was indeed getting rougher, and the motor boats bobbed up and down on the long swells. But as yet none had broken over the bows. Cora dreaded this, not because of any particular danger, but because of the effect it would have on her chums, particularly Belle, who, try as she might, could not conquer her nervous dread of the water.

The boys started a song, and the girls joined in, but a sudden dash of spray over the _Pet's_ stem brought a scream from Belle that made a discord, and they all stopped.

Jack, who was steering the _Duck_, stood up and looked ahead. They were approaching the point around which they must go to reach their own cove.

"Can we do it, old man?" asked Walter, in a low voice.

"We'll try," answered Jack, equally low. "If we give up now the girls will get scared. We'll keep on a bit longer, and see where we come out."

"Can't you get a bit nearer in shore?" asked Norton.

"It's risky," said Jack. "It's low tide now, and while this old tub doesn't draw much there are a lot of rocks here and there, sticking almost up at low water. If we hit on one of them we'll be in the pot for fair. The only thing to do is to stand out, and trust to luck. Once around the point we'll be all right."

"They're coming in," said Walter, nodding toward Cora and the others.

"Keep out! Keep out!" cried Jack. "It's dangerous."

"But the girls want to land!" cried his sister.

"You can't now. The shore is too rocky. You'd pound her hull to pieces. Keep on around the point. The storm won't break for half an hour yet."

Rather reluctantly Cora put the wheel over. Yet she recognized the truth of what Jack had said. It would be dangerous to go ashore there. And to turn back was equally out of the question, since the wind was rising. It was at their backs, and to turn in the heavy sea now running might mean an upset. To face the waves, too, would be dangerous. The only chance lay in keeping on.

Jack's prophecy about the storm was not borne out. With a sudden burst of wind, that whipped the salty spray of the waves over those in both boats, and a sprinkle of rain that soon became a downpour, the tempest broke.

The girls screamed, and tried to get under some bits of canvas that Cora had brought along to cover the engine. But the wind was so strong, and the rain so penetrating that it was of little avail.

"Head her up into the waves!" cried Jack. "Take 'em bow on, Cora!"

"Of course!" she shouted back, and gripped the wheel with tense fingers.

A little later they were out on the heaving ocean. Fortunately the point cut off some of the wind, and, having the gale at their backs helped some. But the two motor craft, separated by some distance now, had no easy time of it.

"Oh--oh!" moaned Belle.

"Be quiet!" commanded her sister. "Look at Eline!"

Eline was calm--that is, comparatively so.

"But--but she can swim better than I."

"Swim! No one will have to swim!" said Cora, not turning around. "I wonder what's the matter with that man?" and she pointed to one in a dory, who seemed to be signalling for help.

Then there came a further burst of the storm, and the rain came down harder than ever.