the weather at least was going to get
no worse. There was a hasty conference among the boys, who cast anxious
eyes toward their drifting boat. Then the sailing craft was worked up to
the little dock, and the girls sprang out.

"We'll come back for you," promised Will.

"If you can't it will be all right," Betty assured him. "We can walk
back along the beach after the storm. It isn't more than a mile or two,
and we haven't done very much walking lately."

"Well, we'll see what happens," spoke Allen, anxious to get out to the
_Pocohontas_, which was dangerously near the rocks.

The girls paused on the dock a moment, to watch the boys beating back
out over the bay, and then turned to go up the beach. They had never
been on this part of the coast before. It was lonesome and deserted,
save for one rather shabby hut just above high-water mark. Over beyond
some distant sand dunes, the boys had been told, was the establishment
of the boat-builder, where they had taken their craft to have a new
magneto put in.

"Shall we go in and ask for shelter?" asked Amy, as they neared the hut.

"Well, it's raining pretty hard," returned Grace.

"Oh, don't let's go in!" said Betty, suddenly, as she looked at a
window of the hut. "It's much nicer outside."

"But it's raining so!" protested Mollie, with a quick look at her chum.

"I know. But we're neither sugar nor salt, and this isn't the first rain
we've been out in. Besides, I'm sure, in there, it will smell of--fish!
I can't bear to be shut up in a stuffy cabin that smells of fish. I vote
we stay out. See, it is beginning to clear already," and she pointed to
a streak of light in the west.

"Is that your real reason--a dislike of the smell of--fish?" asked
Mollie, in a low voice, that Betty alone could hear.

"Not exactly, no," was the reply, equally guarded. "I happened to catch
a glimpse of some faces at the window of that hut, and I did not like
the look of them--they were--ugh! I don't know what to say," and Betty
gave a slight shiver that was not caused entirely by the chilling rain.

"I saw them, too," spoke Mollie, in louder tones now, for Grace and Amy
had walked on ahead. "And one of them was--a woman's face."

"Yes, but such a face!" agreed Betty. "It was hard--cruel--oh, I'll
never go in that hut."

"Nor will I. The rain is stopping, I think."

"Then let's walk back to Ocean View," proposed Betty. "What do you say,
girls?" she called to Amy and Grace. "Shall