we walk back? It's stopping,
and the sand will be firm and hard after the rain."

"I don't mind," spoke Amy, always willing to be accommodating.

"Oh, well, I suppose we'll have to, if the boys don't come for us,"
assented Grace.

"They won't be back for some time," declared Betty. "See, they have just
reached the boat, and in time, too, I think. A little later she would
have been on the rocks."

Allen and his chums had indeed been fortunate in saving the
_Pocohontas_. Through the clearing air the girls watched them preparing
to tow the motor craft back.

"It will be some time before they can come for us," repeated Betty. "We
might as well go on."

"But they won't know where we are," objected Grace, who did not
altogether relish the idea of walking. She was wearing shoes with very
high heels.

"They'll understand," responded Betty. "See, they are looking this way.
I'll give them some sign language they'll understand," and she began
waving her arms, and pointing in the direction of Ocean View, down the
coast.

"Who in the world will understand that?" demanded Mollie.

"Allen will," answered Betty.

"Oh!" exclaimed Mollie with a laugh. "Then this isn't the first time you
have talked with him in sign language."

"Silly!" protested Betty. "Come on, girls," and she strode off down the
wet sands. The rain had almost stopped.

"This is better than waiting back in that hut," observed Mollie, walking
beside the Little Captain.

"I should say so!" exclaimed Betty. "Oh, those horrid faces."

"Just like smugglers!" declared Mollie.

"What's that about smugglers?" demanded Grace, quickly, turning around.
She was in advance with Amy.

"Oh--nothing," spoke Betty, and Grace resumed her talk with her other
chum.

The girls walked along the beach. Now a turn of the coast hid the boys
from sight, and their work of towing back the drifting motor boat.

"Oh, it's farther than I thought!" sighed Grace, as the atmosphere
became clearer, and, some distance down the coast they could see the
little village of Ocean View.

"Oh, it isn't far at all!" declared Betty. "We haven't done enough
walking lately, that's the reason. We'll soon be there."

As the girls made a turn around some high sand dunes they heard the
staccato puffing of a motor boat.

"Can that be the boys?" asked Mollie, quickly.

"Of course not! They are away behind us," declared Betty, "and that
sound came from in front. See, there it is--a motor boat,