"Does he see us?"
"He's--he's going ri-i-ight past!" wailed Bess.
"Wave to him! Shout to him!" commanded Nan.
"A lot of good tha-a-at'll do!" pursued the unhappy Bess. "They're so-o fa-a-ar away."
Nan uttered a shriek just then that must have been heard a long way down wind. A big wave boarded them, filling the canoe almost full, and throwing Bess on her face. Nan seized her chum and drew her up out of the water so that she might get her breath.
The canoe shook and staggered. It was going down! Another such shipment of water and the girls would be engulfed!
"Scream! Let's both scream together!" commanded Nan.
Her chum's cry was a very weak one indeed. But Nan's voice rang out vigorously across the waves.
"Help! We're sinking!"
Almost immediately an answering cry came down the wind:
"Hold o-on! We're coming!"
"I'd like to know what we're to hold onto," gasped Nan, kneeling waist-deep in the water.
She had to hold up Bess, who was almost ready to collapse. Left to herself, Nan's chum would have succumbed before the motor boat arrived.
It was Walter's boat. To Nan's surprise, his sister and Linda Riggs were still with him.
"Stand by for the buoy!" called out Walter, and flung the inflated ring attached to a strong line.
It floated near the submerged canoe almost at once. Nan felt the canoe going down, and with her arm about Bess, she flung herself away from the sinking craft.
"Oh! oh!" gurgled Bess.
"Keep up!" cried Nan.
"Don't sink, girls!" shouted Walter Mason. "I'll get you!"
He, however, had his hands pretty full with the boat. It had lost headway and was inclined to swing broadside to the waves, which, every minute, were running higher.
Nan and Bess were both good swimmers; yet Bess was now all but helpless through fright. She would have sunk immediately had not Nan's arm been about her.
Nan struck out for the bobbing ring. A wave carried them toward the life-buoy and as they fell down the slant of that wave, they fairly plunged onto the big canvas-covered ring.
"I've got it!" yelled Nan, exultantly; and the next moment water filled her mouth and she swallowed so much that she felt almost water-logged.
"Hang on!" shouted Walter, encouragingly.
He started the screw again. Grace, who was thoroughly frightened, made out, however, to hold the wheel steady. Walter ran to the stern and drew in the life-buoy, towing the imperiled girls round to leeward of the plunging motor boat.
The rescue was barely in the nick of time. They lifted Bess Harley over the low rail of the _Bargain Rush_, almost senseless. Nan managed to climb in unaided. They were not much wetter than those already aboard the motor boat.
Linda was very ill, and hung over the rail forward. Grace was crying, amidships, and trying to steer the boat while Walter tinkered with the engine. Bess and Nan lay in the cockpit, recovering from their fight with the sea.
It was a very miserable party, indeed.
CHAPTER XV
THE BOATHOUSE GHOST
Between her throes of sea-sickness, Linda began to be heard.
"I'll never forgive you, never, Walter Mason! Nor you, either, Grace!
You brought me out here to drown me! I'll tell my father!"
This had probably been going on for some time before Nan and her chum were assisted aboard the _Bargain Rush_. Walter seemed to be pretty well disgusted with the railroad magnate's daughter.
"Don't tell your father till you get ashore, Linda," he advised.
"You're just as horrid as you can be!" gasped Linda.
"Don't mind him, Linda," begged peace-loving Grace. "And, really, it isn't his fault."
"You're just as bad as he is, every whit!" snapped the unpleasant girl.
"You both were determined to come out here when I wanted to go ashore."
"Why!" gasped Grace, showing some pluck for once, "you wouldn't have had Walter leave Nan and Bess to drown, would you?"
"And now we're _all_ going to be drowned!" was Linda's response, but hastily leaning over the rail again, her voice was stifled.
"If--if I ever get to shore alive," she finally wailed, "I'll never even go in wading again."
Had the situation really not seemed so tragic, Nan would have laughed.
Bess had joined Linda at the rail, being just as sick as the other.
Grace looked green about the lips, herself; but she was plucky. Nan felt no qualms.
"Let me take the wheel, Walter," she said to Grace's brother. "I know how to steer."
"Good for you, Miss Sherwood!" cried the boy. "And you're not afraid, either?"
"No--not _much_," answered Nan, stoutly.
"The boat's as safe as a house. The squall's gone over now. We'll soon get to land. Let her off another point now."
Nan obeyed. The propeller began kicking in regular time. They were able to head around toward the shore. Walter soon took the wheel again and guided the _Bargain Rush_ more directly toward the anchorage before the Hall. They were all of three miles from the boathouse.
"We'll make it all right now, Miss Sherwood," said Walter, cheerfully.