Chapter XIII: The Lighthouse Maid

Jack Kimball had always said that his sister Cora only needed an opportunity to prove that she could think quickly in emergencies, and could demonstrate that she was courageous. Cora had done this on other occasions, and now at the sight of the overturned boat, and the figure of the girl clinging to it, there came the chance for Cora, as one of the motor girls, to prove that her ability in this direction had not lessened.

Without another word Cora turned her car down a slight slope that led to the sandy beach. It was a perilous road, rather too steep to negotiate in a heavy car, but Cora had seen that it was encumbered with sand that would act as a brake.

"Where are you going?" gasped Eline, gripping the sides of the seat until her hands ached.

"Down to rescue that girl!" explained Cora, pressing her lips tightly together. She was under a nervous tension, and she needed all her wits about her.

"But in the car--the water----" faltered Eline.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to run my car into the bay. There's a boat on shore--a rowboat--this was the quickest way to get down to it. Can you row?"

"Yes, Cora, but----"

"You may have to!"

The auto plunged down the steep, sandy slope to the beach. The others in the motoring party had brought their machines to a stop, and were gazing in wonderment at Cora.

"What are you going to do?" cried Jack. "Come back! We'll get her, Cora!"

But Cora paid no attention. She had reached the beach, and quickly shut off the power.

"Come on!" she exclaimed to Eline, leaping out.

The two raced over the sand to where a light rowing craft was drawn up. There were oars in it, and Cora knew she and Eline could launch it. The girl on the overturned sailboat was making frantic gestures and calling:

"Hurry! Hurry!"

"Her boat must be sinking," gasped Eline, as she and Cora reached the rowboat.

"It can't be that," answered the motormaid, with a quick and critical glance at the sailboat. "Probably there is some one else with her, who is in danger. She isn't in any particular trouble that I can see. She must swim!"

By this time Cora and Eline had the boat in the water. The stern was still on the pebbly beach.

"Jump in!" called Cora. "I'll shove off!"

"But you'll get your feet wet!"

"What of it? As if I cared!" Vigorously Cora pushed off the boat, and managed to get in, though not without getting rather wet. Then, seizing one pair of oars, while Eline took the others, they rowed hastily out to the capsized craft. Other boats were now hastening to the scene of the accident, but Cora Kimball was the first to reach it. Jack and the other boys and girls had left their cars on the main road, and were racing down the beach.

"Oh, I'm so glad you came!" gasped the girl on the sail boat. "I'm holding him, but I can't seem to pull him up here. He's so heavy!"

"Who is it?" gasped Cora. She was rather out of breath.

"My little brother Dick. He got in the way of the boom, and the main sheet fouled. That's why I jibed. I'd never have done it by myself. We both went overboard, and I grabbed him. I got up here, but I can't pull him up. Oh, please help me!"

"Of course I will," cried Cora.

"Then pull around on the other side, and you can lift him into your boat. I can swim ashore."

Directed by the girl on the sail boat, Cora and Eline sent their craft around so that they were opposite the half-submerged deck, which was now perpendicular in the water. There they saw the girl holding above the surface of the bay the head of a boy about seven years old. He seemed as self-possessed as though he were on shore, and calmly blinked at the rescuing girls.

"He's so fat and heavy," cried the girl in the bathing suit.

"I'm very fat," confessed the boy in the water, calmly.

Indeed he did seem so, even though only his head and part of his shoulders showed. The wind was rising a little again, having subsided somewhat after capsizing the boat. The surface of the bay was broken into little waves, and they splashed into the face of the fat boy. But he did not seem to mind.

It was easier than Cora and Eline had thought it would be to get him in the boat, for the buoyancy of the salt water aided them, as did the rather large bulk of the boy himself, it being a well known fact that stout persons float much more easily in the water than do thin ones.

"Give yourself a boost, Dick!" directed the girl in the bathing suit, to her brother. He did so with a grunt that would have been laughable under other circumstances, and soon he was safe in the other boat, very wet, but otherwise not hurt.

"Did you swallow much water?" asked Cora, anxiously.

"Nope," was the sententious answer.

"I guess he'll be all right," remarked his sister. "If you will kindly row him over there, I'll swim in," and she pointed to the lighthouse.

"Do you live there?" asked Cora, gazing at the tall stone tower. With its high lantern, which glistened in the sun, it stood on a point extending out into the bay, just behind some menacing rocks that jutted far out into the water in a dangerous reef that the light warned mariners against.

"Yes, Dick and I live there," answered the girl. "My father, James Haley, is keeper of the light. My name is Rosalie."

"And you look it," said Cora, brightly, as she noted the damask cheeks of the bathing girl.

"Oh, thank you!" came quickly.

"Won't you get in this boat--I don't know whose it is--I just appropriated it," said Cora. "There is no need of your swimming."

"Oh, I want to. I've gone clear across the bay, though Daddy had a boat follow me. I've won prizes swimming. No, I'll just swim over."

"Will your brother be all right with us?" and Cora looked at the small dripping figure in the boat.

"Oh, yes, Dick is as good as gold. He'll do just as you tell him. I guess he was rather scared when he went over. But he can swim, only I was rather afraid to let him try this time."

"What about your boat?" asked Eline.

"She will stay here. The anchor fell out when she went over, so she won't drift. I'll get one of the men to tow her ashore and right her. She's a good little old tub. She's capsized before."

With that the lighthouse maid made a graceful dive and was soon swimming alongside Cora's boat. The latter and Eline now rowed to the lighthouse, the girl in the water following, and the autoists on shore breathing more freely.

"Wasn't that splendid of Cora!" cried Belle.

"Just fine!" declared Bess.

"Sis was right on the mark!" exclaimed Jack, with pardonable pride. "I wonder who that girl in the red suit is?"

"She's some swimmer; believe me!" declared Norton in admiration.

"She is that," agreed Walter.

"Say, it's going to be no joke to get Cora's car up that hill of sand," declared Ed, glancing back to it.

"We can pull her up with ropes if we have to," said Jack. "I wonder where our bungles are, anyhow? Notice that 'bungles'--patent applied for!"

"I fancy those over there," remarked Mrs. Fordam, pointing to two that stood somewhat removed from a group of cottages. "Yes," the chaperone went on, "I can see Aunt Susan in the door of one waving to us."

"Me for Aunt Susan, then!" cried Jack. "I hope she has something to eat!"

"Eat!" gasped Belle. "Do you boys think that Aunt Susan is going to cook for you?"

"Yes, wasn't that the arrangement?" inquired Jack, blankly.

"Indeed not!" was the quick answer. "You boys are to do your own providing."

"Well, we can do it!" spoke Walter, quickly. "And, mind, don't ask us for some of our pie and cake."

"Don't worry," remarked Bess, with a shrug of her shoulders.

The little accident in the bay had not attracted much attention. Several who had run down to the water's edge, now that they saw the two rescued, strolled away again, while the boats that had started toward the capsized one veered off as the occupants saw the one containing Cora move away, and noted the girl swimming.

Of course Cora and Eline could have reached the lighthouse much quicker than Rosalie Haley had they desired, but Cora was a bit diffident about rowing up to meet a strange man with his rescued son, leaving the daughter swimming out in the bay.

"We'll just keep with her," whispered Cora to Eline, nodding toward the swimmer, "and let her do the explaining."

"Yes," agreed Eline.

They rowed on for a time in silence, the recently submerged boy saying nothing. Then Cora called to Rosalie:

"Won't your father be worried?"

"I don't believe so. He knows both of us can swim." She talked easily in the water for she progressed with her head well out, being, in fact, an excellent swimmer. "Besides," she went on, as she reached forward in her side stroke, "poor Daddy has other things to worry about. His sister has disappeared--our Aunt Margaret."

"Disappeared!" echoed Cora.

"Yes, gone completely. And not under the most pleasant circumstances, either; but Daddy believes that it's all a mistake and will be cleared up some day. But he is certainly worried about Aunt Margaret, and he's had the authorities looking all over, but they can't find her. So that's why I know he won't worry over a little thing like this. He's got a bigger one," and she swam on.

Cora wondered where she had heard that name--Margaret--before. She was sure she had, and under peculiar circumstances, but so much had been crowded into the last few minutes that her brain did not act quickly. It was a puzzle that she reserved for future solution.