"Oh, if help would only come!" Cora whispered to Bess. "I'm afraid
another and worse storm is gathering!"

"Don't give up," replied the girl, her own face gray in the mist and
spray that covered the deck even under the awnings.

"I--see--something bobbing up and down over there!" Cora continued.
"See! It is--a big, strong boat, perhaps a lifeboat!"

"Let us hope so," answered Bess, fervently.

Not one word could Cora exchange with Jack, he was too far from her to
hear her voice. The _Dixie_ was still near enough to be sighted, but
how the boys managed to keep her so was as remarkable to themselves as
to those on the _Chelton_.

"That's a boat, all right," said Bess with more vigor in her voice,
"and it looks like one from the life-saving station."

Cora peered anxiously in the direction of the speck that played upon
the waves.

"Hey!" yelled Jack, "there comes Denny!"

"Denny!" repeated Cora wonderingly.

"Oh, there's Freda!" called Belle, jumping up from the bottom of the
boat and promptly falling back again.

"It's Freda and Denny, and someone else?" asked Bess, breathlessly.
"Oh, what a mercy!"

"It's a boy," declared Kent. "See the rain-hat and slicker?"

"Yes, and see Freda's hair floating out from under that rubber hat!"
insisted Bess. "Oh, I know it's Freda, and I can see Denny plainly!"

The boat was coming nearer. On the crest of a roller it fairly soared
towards them. Then Cora saw it was Denny and Freda, with another man
whom they did not know.

"Head up into it!" came a voice from the dory, for even in a storm
Denny knew how to make his voice carry over the water.

Jack heard, and swung the wheel toward the left. That would put them
"into the storm," instead of on the edge of it.

At that moment the _Dixie_ shot past and dashed right up to the dory.

"Here," called Jack, "can you make it to get in here?" This was called
to those in Denny's boat.

"Not now!" shouted back the man. "Keep close!"

The roar of the storm increased. Just as Cora had predicted, the new
squall was worse than the first. For some moments all three boats
tossed and tumbled as if they had neither master nor man, but it was
the _Chelton_ that righted herself first.

By an ungiven signal the three boats got into line. The dory was
directly in the center and the two motor boats served to shield it
from the waves that lashed them on either side.

"Quick! Freda!" yelled Cora, grasping the line Denny tossed to her.