The Automobile Girls at Palm Beach Part 7

"Marian," she began. But she never finished for just then a piercing cry rang out.

Nursemaids with children began running along the sands. Another nurse had run out into the water. She was wildly waving her arms and pointing to a small object well out on the waves. Barbara saw it for just an instant. Then it disappeared. She and Marian both recognized what it was. A child's curly head had risen to the surface of the water, and then had sunk out of sight.

Quick as a flash Barbara kicked off her white canvas pumps and threw hat and linen coat on the ground.

Extending her hands before her, she ran out into the water. Marian ran blindly after her. The Count de Sonde was the only man near that part of the beach. He was behaving in a most remarkable manner. Entirely forgetful of the blood of scores of n.o.ble ancestors that ran in his veins, he had taken to his heels and his small figure was seen flying up the beach away from the water.

However, Bab was not thinking of aid. She made straight for the little head, which rose for the second time above the waves.

When Barbara reached the spot where she had last seen the child's head she dived beneath the surface of the water.

Marian thought that Barbara, too, had lost her life. She began wringing her hands and calling for help. In her excitement she had waded to her neck in the water and was clinging to the life rope. She did not know how to swim, but she had a wild idea that she ought to follow in Barbara's lead, and now she clung to the rope and anxiously watched Barbara's movements. Bab in the meantime, had dived into deep water and was groping blindly for the little figure. At last she seized the child by the arm and with lungs bursting rose to the top of the water, when suddenly she was struck a fearful and unlooked for blow. She had not reckoned with the life line and with the little fellow in her arms had come in violent contact with it. She reeled and would have gone under but a hand grasped her firmly by the arm and pulled her from under the treacherous rope. She had just sense enough to hand the child over to Marian Smythe and seize the rope herself. Then she filled her exhausted lungs with the fresh air.

On the sh.o.r.e Grace and Mollie were running up and down the sands imploring some one to save Bab. Ruth wished to rush out into the water.

But she knew she could not reach the two exhausted girls.

As for the Count de Sonde, he was nowhere to be seen, while Maud Warren stood on the sh.o.r.e helplessly wringing her hands.

In a short time the beach was crowded with people. Marian and Bab had brought the little boy in to his nurse. The hotel physician soon took the nurse and the baby both away, and the crowd followed them.

Bab flung herself down in the warm sand. Mollie, Ruth and Grace hung over her anxiously.

"I'll just rest here a moment," Bab said faintly. "I want to get my breath. But do see to Marian. She is a brave girl. She saved my life. I struck against the life rope, and would have gone under with the little boy had she not caught my arm and held me up."

"You dear, dear girl," said Mollie with a half sob. "How splendid of you!"

Then the three girls surrounded Marian and hugged her until they were almost as wet as she was.

"I didn't do anything remarkable," she averred, almost shyly. "I went into the water after Barbara before I realized what I was doing. I just had to catch hold of her arm, because I saw that she was going under.

You girls are perfectly sweet to me and I am happier to-day than I've ever been before."

"Marian," called the cold tones of her mother. "Go up to the hotel at once and change your clothing. Your appearance is disgraceful."

Mrs. De Lancey Smythe stalked majestically over to the little group, frowning her displeasure. "Whatever possessed you and Miss Thurston to rush madly into the water after a child you never saw before?" she said to Marian, whose happy face had darkened at her mother's first word.

"Really, Marian, dear, you are at times past understanding."

"Mrs. Smythe," said Barbara coldly. "We could never have been so heartless as to stand on the sh.o.r.e and wait for some one else to rescue that little child. I felt it my duty to make some effort and I am sure that Marian did."

"Really, Miss Thurston," retorted Mrs. Smythe, "I addressed my remark to Marian."

"Yes," said Bab, her eyes flashing, "but you included me in it, therefore I felt justified in answering it."

For a moment there was a tense silence. Bab stood looking composedly into the angry eyes of Mrs. De Lancey Smythe. Then Ruth said, with superb indifference. "Oh, come on, girls, don't waste your whole morning, here. Bab, you'll catch cold. Hurry right up to the hotel with Marian. Good-bye, Marian, we'll see you later."

Utterly ignoring Mrs. Smythe, Ruth turned on her heel and accompanied by Grace and Mollie continued the stroll along the beach.

"My I'd hate to meet Mrs. De Lancey Smythe alone on a dark night,"

remarked Mollie, with a giggle. "Didn't she look ready to scratch Bab's eyes out, though."

"She found her match in Mistress Barbara," observed Grace. "She can't intimidate our Bab."

Bab hurried along the beach toward the hotel full of sympathy for the luckless Marian, and vowing within herself to be a true friend to the girl who had been cheated of her girlhood.

CHAPTER VI

THE COUNTESS SOPHIA

To be at luncheon with a real countess? What bliss!

Not one of the "Automobile Girls" doubted, for an instant, the genuineness of the Countess Sophia von s...o...b..rg. Mrs. De Lancey Smythe's calumnies carried no weight with the "Automobile Girls."

To-day the countess was more gentle, more beautiful than she had seemed at first. And there was less formality in her manner.

Mollie, who sat at her left at the luncheon table, quite lost the feeling of awe that had taken possession of her the afternoon before.

Opposite the countess, at the other end of the table, sat the formidable Madame de Villiers, the old lady with the hooked nose and the bird-like eyes. She, too, seemed to feel more amiable, for she watched her young guests with an amused smile.

"Do you know what I believe Madame de Villiers was thinking all the time we were at luncheon?" Ruth asked her friends, when they were discussing their visit the following day. "The amused look on her face seemed to say: 'This is just another of the countess's pranks, asking these strangers to luncheon. But if they amuse her--why not!'"

Madame de Villiers, however, found Miss Sallie Stuart much to her liking. Perhaps this was because Miss Sallie was not in the least afraid of her, nor inclined to shrink from her, as so many people did.

The story of the morning's adventure had been told. The countess leaned admiringly over the great bunch of yellow daffodils in the centre of the table and smiled at Bab. Barbara's brown curls were still damp from their recent wetting. "Were there no men on that part of the beach when the baby was drowning? Why did you have to risk your life in that way?"

the countess asked.

"There were no men near," Ruth replied. "You see, it was very early in the morning. Only the nurse girls and children were abroad."

"There was one man present!" exclaimed Mollie, with a spark of anger in her usually gentle blue eyes. "But he was a coward and ran away."

"The Count de Sonde! Oh, yes," continued Ruth, "I had forgotten him."

The countess look startled.

"The Count de Sonde!" she repeated in a puzzled fashion. "He refused to help? He ran away?" An expression of incredulity crossed her face.

"He most certainly did run," Mollie declared firmly. "I almost fell on my knees to beg him to save Bab. But he did not even take time to refuse me. He simply ran away, so as to live to fight another day, I suppose."

"The Count de Sonde!" the young countess returned. "Ah, yes, he is the young Frenchman who was here yesterday. Then he is not a friend of yours?"

"Certainly not, Countess Sophia," explained Mr. Stuart. "The young man is only a chance acquaintance, whom my friend Mr. Warren rescued from a difficulty yesterday."

"I, also, am but a chance acquaintance," smiled the young countess.

"Only you were the rescuer, and he was the rescued!" exclaimed Mollie quickly, looking fondly at her pretty hostess, who pressed her hand under the table.

"We are not in the least interested in the count," Ruth remarked bluntly. "We are civil to him because we are trying to help some one."