“I’ll call them,” said Percy, and running to the top of the cliff he began to halloo and whistle.
It had grown suddenly so dark that they thought the sun must have set an hour earlier than usual. A cold wind sprang up and whizzed through the pines with a sound that made them shiver.
“Hurrah, it’s done!” cried Billie triumphantly, just as a driving wall of rain struck her in the face. “Get in, girls, quick,” she shouted, as she slipped on her oil skins. “Boys, where are you? Crank up, Ben.”
Suddenly, in the midst of the din and racket of the storm, came a wild halloo. Charlie and Merry appeared, running down the road toward the motor car, and six men were following them, shouting and gesticulating.
“Get in as fast as you can,” commanded Ben, and the girls will never forget the terror of that moment as they tumbled into the car.
The booming of the sea in the caves, the cannonading of the thunder, the sharp whistle of the wind in the tops of the trees, and the shouts of the men! But in the midst of it all came the kindly, cheering whir of the motor engine. Billie could have kissed the faithful “Comet” on his broad, good-natured forehead for his loyalty at this moment, when they most needed him. As Charlie and Merry leaped onto the step, she threw in the clutch, and they were off just as the first man reached the car, brandishing a long knife and yelling hoarsely.
The boys climbed over into the back, too tired to speak. Merry had a black eye and Charlie had a bloody nose.
“Billie, the next ferry is Payne’s,” called Percy. “It’s about a mile from here. Go straight ahead.”
And Billie, sticking to her wheel like a good pilot, ducked her head and guided the flying motor along the slippery road.
They seemed hardly to have taken breath before they reached Payne’s landing and found it empty and deserted of every human being who had ever ventured into that lonely place.