The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea Part 12

"Yes; I see it now. That must be on the sh.o.r.e. We have been going in the wrong direction. Swim with all your might!"

For a few moments they did swim, strongly and with long overhand strokes, Tommy and Harriet keeping close together, Harriet ever watchful that a swell did not carry her little companion from her.

They had made considerable progress, but still the sh.o.r.e seemed to have disappeared from view. The light that Tommy had discovered had gone out. At least, it was no longer to be seen. Harriet stopped swimming, and, raising herself as high as possible out of the water, again and again took quick surveys of their surroundings. The seas were heavier and less broken where they now were. Slowly it dawned upon Harriet Burrell that they were in deep water. She raised her voice in a long-drawn shout. Both listened. No sound save the swish of the water about them was to be heard. The wind had not come up again, but a fresh, salty breeze was blowing over them, chilling the girls, sending shivers through their slender bodies.

"Oh, what thhall we do?" sobbed Grace. "What can we do to thave ourthelveth?"

"I don't know, Tommy. About all we can do is to keep up our courage and wait for daylight. We must keep moving as well as we can, or we shall get so cold that we shall perish."

"Wait until daylight? Oh, thave me! I thall die--I thurely thall.

Thave me, Harriet!"

"Keep up your courage, darling. We are far from being goners yet, but we have before us a night that will call for all the courage we possess. Now pull yourself together and be a brave little girl."

"I don't want to be brave; I want to go home," wailed Grace.

"So do I, and we shall go as soon as we are able to see where home is," answered Harriet, forcing a laugh.

"Then why don't you go?"

"I can't."

"I'm going." Tommy began to swim. Harriet propelled herself up to her companion and grasped her by an arm.

"Tommy, you _must_ obey me! You don't know where you are going. You may be swimming out to sea for all you know. Be a good girl and save your strength. The night may become lighter later on, then we shall manage to reach the sh.o.r.e somehow."

"But why don't you go now?"

"Because I don't know where the sh.o.r.e is, dearie. We are lost, just as much lost as if we were in the middle of the Atlantic," answered Harriet solemnly.

CHAPTER VIII

A NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN NIGHT

"Be brave! Remember that you are a Meadow-Brook Girl, Tommy,"

encouraged Harriet. "We are swimmers. We can't drown unless we get into a panic. There is a boat somewhere hereabouts. I saw one sail into the cove, or the bay, whichever it is, before I went to sleep this evening. The men surely will be coming out in the morning; then, if we are too far from sh.o.r.e to get in, we ought to be able to attract their attention. They will pick us up."

"Do--do you think we are far from thh.o.r.e?"

"I fear so. Still, I can't be certain about that. I am dreadfully confused and don't know one direction from another. I wish the moon would come up. That would give us our points of compa.s.s. Perhaps the clouds may blow away after a little. We shall at least be able to see more clearly after that."

"Oh, I'm tho cold! I'm freething, Har-r-r-i-e-t."

"I will fix that. Come, swim with me. We will ride the waves," cried Harriet. The swells were long and high. Now they would ride to the top of one, then go slipping down the other side on a plane of almost oily smoothness. At such times Tommy would cry out. Even Harriet's heart would sink as she glanced up at the towering mountains of water on either side of them. It seemed as if nothing could save them from being engulfed, buried under tons of dark water. At the second when all hope appeared to be gone they would find themselves being slowly lifted up and up and up until once more they topped another mountainous swell.

Fortunately for the two girls, the tops of the swells were in most instances solid, dark water. The strong wind having gone down, the crests generally showed no white, broken foam. When such an one was met with it meant a rough few moments for the Meadow-Brook Girls and a severe shaking up. Tommy had been in the surf on many occasions, when at the sea sh.o.r.e with her parents, and understood it fairly well.

Harriet had never been in the salt water, but was guided wholly by the instincts of the swimmer, of one who loved the water, and for whom it seemed almost her natural element, and in the excitement of the hour she at times forgot the peril of their position. So far as she knew they might already be far out to sea, with a mile or more of salt water underneath them.

In the meantime there was intense excitement in the camp. Miss Elting had been a witness to the sudden disappearance of Grace and Harriet.

She had seen both girls enveloped in the cloud of spray and dark water. Jane McCarthy had gone bounding toward the beach, followed by their guardian and several of the Camp Girls, who, though not having seen Harriet and Grace disappear, surmised something of the truth.

Reaching the edge of the bluff, they saw at once what had occurred. A large portion of the sandy bluff had sloughed off and slipped into the sea, having been loosened and undermined by the persistent smash of the waves against the bluff. Jane started to leap down, but Miss Elting caught her in time.

"No, no, no," protested the guardian; "you must not!"

"But they are down there drowning!" screamed Crazy Jane.

"There is nothing we can do to save them. They aren't there. You can see they are not."

"But if not, where are they?" cried Jane.

"My dears, if they went in there they undoubtedly have been carried out. The undertow is very strong in a storm such as this," said Mrs.

Livingston sadly. She had hurried down to the beach upon seeing the others running in that direction, to ascertain the cause.

"Some one get a boat!" screamed Margery.

The Chief Guardian shook her head sadly.

"There is no boat here. Even if there were, we could not launch it against that sea, nor would it live a moment did we succeed in getting it launched. We can do no more than trust in G.o.d and wait. You see the wind is blowing on sh.o.r.e and--"

"No, it is blowing off toward the cove. The wind has shifted,"

answered Jane McCarthy. "But that doesn't help us a bit."

"Gather wood and build a fire," commanded Mrs. Livingston.

The Camp Girls hurriedly set about gathering fuel for a fire, but having brought wood, the fuel refused to burn. The rain had thoroughly soaked everything. The merest flicker of flame was all they were able to get. They tried again and again, but with no better results, finally giving up the attempt altogether.

"I am afraid we shall have to let it go," decided the Chief Guardian.

"A light would help so much, and, if the two girls are alive, would serve as a guide for them."

Jane interrupted by uttering a shrill cry. She listened, but there was no response. She cried out again and again, then finally gave up the effort.

"I'm afraid they are gone," she moaned.

"Unless they were hurt when the wave struck them I do not believe they are lost," said Miss Elting, with a calmness and hopefulness that she really did not feel, though she dared not permit herself to admit that Harriet and Grace really had been lost. "Both are excellent swimmers, and Harriet never would give up so long as there was a breath of life left in her body."

"But can't we do something?" pleaded Margery.

The Chief Guardian shook her head sadly.

"I fear we can not. You have but to look out there to know that any efforts on our part would be futile."

Miss Elting suddenly cried out.

"Girls, what can we be thinking of? We must patrol the beach. The sea is going down a little. Divide up into pairs; keep as close to the sh.o.r.e as possible without being caught by a wave; then search every foot of the beach all along. I will go up the beach. Hazel, you come with me. Mrs. Livingston, will you have the other girls a.s.sist us?"