The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach Part 30

Meanwhile the anxious motor girls hastened to offer what a.s.sistance they might be able to give.

"Lay her down here," said Cora, as her brother escaped from the fury of one great, dashing mountain of water, that broke into foam as it spread out over the sand.

"I think we will have to take her into the bungalow," he replied. "But where is Ed? Look for Ed! He has not found the girl yet!"

And indeed neither Ed nor the girl could be seen!

Cora and Bess left Belle with Jack and Walter to attend to the woman, while they again stepped forward as far into the water as it seemed safe to go.

"There is Ed!" shouted Cora, and without doing more than unclasping the leather belt that confined her waist, she struck out boldly toward a point considerably farther out than the spot where the stalled car stood in the water.

"Oh, you can't swim--that way, Cora!" called Bess. "Cora! Cora! come back!"

But with arms over her head Cora plowed her way through the waves, stroke after stroke, until she was beside Ed, who was struggling to beat back the rollers that fought for the very life of the girl he had just brought up from under the heavy blanket of smothering water.

"Mother! Mother!" wailed the girl. "Let me get--mother. She is--down--down there!"

"No--she is--safe!" gasped Cora. "Come! Let us help you--out!"

"Oh is--she safe! I--I am all right! I--can swim!"

"But you are too weak!" called Ed. "Let us help you!"

A shriek--and the girl again disappeared.

Ed went down after her, and while Cora kept in motion to sustain herself, Ed came up with the girl again in his arms.

"Take hold!" he gasped to Cora. "She is hurt and cannot swim."

Cora, with one well trained arm, conquered the waves, while with the other she helped support the form of the almost fainting girl, as Ed, swimming in the same way, and almost carrying the girl with his free arm, made for the sh.o.r.e.

Forgetting everything but the danger to her friends, Bess, too, ran into the waves to meet the swimmers.

"Go back!" shouted Ed. "If you lose your footing we can't help you."

Scarcely had he uttered the words than Bess stumbled and fell, head foremost, into the roller that was rushing up on the sh.o.r.e!

Fortunately the incoming water brought Bess in--fairly tumbling her out on the sand. The same power a.s.sisted Ed and Cora to land with the strange young girl. Meanwhile Jack and Walter had made their way to the bungalow, a.s.sisting the crippled woman.

"Oh!" shrieked Bess, scrambling to her feet. "Oh, I--am smothered!"

"So are we!" Cora managed to say. "Come, Bess. Help us revive the young lady."

"Oh I--am--all--right now----" murmured the girl. "Only let me--get to mother!"

A sorry looking sight indeed were the motor girls--all four of them, for the strange girl should be cla.s.sed with Bess, Belle and Cora, as she, too, owned a car and drove it. True she did allow it to get beyond control, and, by a sudden wrong turn of the wheel, sent it in the ocean. Still she was a motor girl for all her inexperience.

"Where are you hurt?" asked Ed, as they all stood for a moment on the beach. The strange girl was working her shoulder with evident painful effort.

"I must have injured my neck or shoulder blade when I dove under the machine," she replied. "Something--is very stiff."

"Let us get up to the bungalow," suggested Cora, for the strange girl seemed like one dazed. "Your mother is there, and I hope by this time she has revived."

Even in their discomfiture our friends could not help noticing what a pretty and pleasant mannered girl the stranger was. Every little nicety of good breeding was perfectly evident in her gentle grat.i.tude to her rescuers, and in her earnest solicitation for her mother.

Ed led the way to the camp, while the girls followed. Belle met them at the door.

"How is she?" asked Cora, knowing how anxious was the girl about her invalid mother.

"She is quite revived," replied Belle, "but she wants her daughter. I am so glad you have come," hurried on Belle, without waiting for any formality. "She seems greatly worried about--Beatrice."

"Oh, let me see her," exclaimed the girl. "Dear, little, darling mamma," and before the others could show the way Beatrice (for such was her name) had the crippled form clasped lovingly in her arms.

What a strange sight in the musty little bungalow! Belle was the only person who was not dripping wet--and the girls were so far from Clover Cottage, and from an auto to take them there, that there was a prospect they might dry out before fresh garments could be secured.

Beatrice looked up from the face of the trembling woman. "I wonder if we can--use the car?" she ventured. "I must get mother back to the hotel."

"If we can get the machine out and the magneto is not short circuited from the water," said Jack, "I don't see why you couldn't run it."

"There are the life guards," exclaimed Cora, who stood by the open door. "And they have a coil of rope."

"Good!" declared Jack. "We will have something to pull with, and some one to help us now. Come along, boys. Girls, you will find a basket of provisions some place. There may be, in it, something of use," and with this he ran out to the beach where like two bronzed figures the life guards stood regarding the auto in the ocean. It did not take the boys long to explain the situation, and to show what needed to be done to haul out the ocean-going car. Fastening the heavy ropes about the machine the three boys and the two men pulled--pulled--and pulled!

At first the car would not budge. Then the soft sand, in which the tires were buried, slid away some, under the urgent pressure, and finally, when the car once moved, all hands at the ropes gave a concerted pull, and the machine rolled slowly, but more and more surely, toward the edge of the shelving beach.

"Good!" exclaimed Ed. "Don't stop! Keep it up!"

It was heavy work, but at last the auto was clear of the water.

"There!" gasped Jack, almost breathless. "That's all to the gasolene!

Now to look her over."

Half an hour of steady work and then Ed grasped the handle and started to crank up. It was stiff at first but presently the familiar whir-r-r-r--of the motor sounded, and Walter from the seat threw in the clutch with the lever set at low speed. The magneto was all right.

The little car swung out as gracefully as if it had "never tasted salt water," as Jack put it.

The girls were eagerly watching every move.

How thankful they were, for the woman in the bungalow had need of immediate medical attention.

In less time than it would seem possible to accomplish so much, Jack and Ed lifted the light form of the sick woman into the car, and, while Beatrice supported her mother on the right, Jack took his place at the wheel, and started off toward the hotel.

"We will send the auto back for you young ladies," called Beatrice.

"It won't take any time to get to the hotel."

The car once out of sight, Walter and Ed rushed into the bungalow, smashed a couple of dry boxes, and thrust them into the little stone fireplace, put a match to a bundle of paper, and then all four, who had a.s.sisted in the rescue, stood before the blaze, while steam sizzled up from the water that fell in puddles on the floor from the soaked garments.

"We _did_ get it," remarked Ed. "I never swam before--this way."