"You can climb in! We can hold it tight!"

Like a sprite, the girl in the yellow slicker and rubber hat made for
the highest end of the boat, measured her distance to the _Chelton_,
and while Kent and Cora strained to hold the rope steady, sprang.

It was not the distance, which was but a few feet, but the uncertainty
of the boats' motion that made the leap perilous. But Freda landed
safely in the _Chelton_.

"None too soon!" gasped Cora, pressing her arms around the wet oilskin
coat. "See where they have gotten to now!"

The boats had drifted apart again. The girls clung to Freda as if she
had really brought them safely to shore, instead of adding her own
weight to their burden, but it was the message from land that
reassured them.

"Isn't it dreadful!" moaned Lottie, still trembling from her collapse.

"No!" replied Freda, cheerfully. "It isn't so bad out there. But we
knew what it was on this bar, and could tell by the wind just about
where you were drifting. If Jack will let me take the wheel I will
follow Denny's orders and ride into it. Then we can go around the
island--and see a blue sky!"

"Blue sky!" came the exclamation from the girls in unison.

"Certainly. But I must have the wheel, Jack."

Having satisfied them that she could run the boat, Freda changed
places with Jack, while Cora let her brother take up her watch beside
Kent. Then Cora went to the steering wheel with Freda.

"Don't be afraid," the latter said. "I have ridden out worse storms
than this with Denny. They have a way of turning things upside down,
but you are all right as long as you can keep well on top."

She was driving directly into the smother. The girls shut their eyes,
and it must be admitted that more than one put their fingers in their
ears, for indeed the roar was deafening.

"There are Denny and the man getting into the _Dixie_!" breathed Cora.
"Oh, I am so glad, for it must have been dreadful to row that boat."

"It _was_ no joke, but Denny likes hard work," Freda answered. "Now
here is where we ride it out!"

Every bit of power was turned on and with one well directed plunge the
_Chelton_ was shot through what seemed to be a "comber" as if she had
been a submarine.

"Oh!" gasped Cora. Freda dropped into the "V" space at the base of the
wheel. Still, she did not take her hands from the spokes. It was a
serious moment. What if the boat could not ride those waves? The time
it took to get out of the harder waves coul