“Oh, I can’t—I oughtn’t,” Eileen moaned; when suddenly Leslie, who had glanced again out of the window, uttered a half-suppressed cry:
“Oh, there is something wrong! They’re—they’re struggling together—for something!”
Both of the other girls rushed to the window and peered out over her shoulder. There was indeed something decidedly exciting going on. The two figures who had been circling about the old log, watching each other like a couple of wild animals, were now wrestling together in a fierce encounter. How it had come about, the girls did not know, as none of them had been looking out when it began. But it was plainly a struggle for the possession of something that one of them had clutched tightly in his hand. Vaguely they could see it, dangling about, as the contest went on. And each, in her secret heart, knew it to be the burlap bag—and its contents!
“Eileen!” cried Phyllis, turning sharply upon the other girl, “is one of those two—my brother Ted? Answer me—truthfully.”
“Yes—oh, yes!” panted Eileen.
“And is he in—danger?” persisted Phyllis.
“Oh—I’m afraid so!”
“Then I’m going out to help him!” declared Phyllis, courageously. “Come, Leslie—and bring Rags!”
Leslie never afterward knew how it happened—that she, a naturally timid person, should have walked out of that house, unhesitatingly and unquestioningly, to do battle with some unknown enemy in the storm and the dark. If she had had any time to think about it, she might have faltered. But Phyllis gave her no time. With Rags at their heels, they snatched up some wraps and all suddenly burst out of the front door onto the veranda, Phyllis having stopped only long enough to take up her electric torch from the living-room table. She switched this on in the darkness, and, guided by its light, they plunged into the storm.
The force of the wind almost took their breath away. And as they plowed along, Leslie was horrified to notice that the tide had crept almost up to the level of the old log and was within sixty feet of the bungalow. “Oh, what shall we do if it comes much higher!” she moaned to herself. But from that moment on, she had little time for such considerations.