"There he goes! It's a porpoise!" cried Jack. "No danger of one of those hog-fish going near a man. They're as timid as mice. Just see him go! There ought to be a lot of others, for they generally go in schools. Maybe this one was kept in because he couldn't spell 'book,' and is just getting home."
Cora breathed a sigh of relief at Jack's joking tone. She didn't care to see the big fish swim—she was only too glad that he was going, and that he was of the harmless species described by Jack. The others watched the porpoise as he made his way out to the open sea.
"My, I'll bet Walter was frightened if he met that fellow," said Ed.
"I wish he hadn't gone," he whispered to Jack a moment later.
"He said he would fire a pistol when he got to shore. He took a little one with him, and it's waterproof. Let's listen."
As if the magical words had gone by wireless, at that very moment a shot was heard!
"There! He's safe! That was his signal!" cried Jack, and Cora said afterwards that he hugged Belle, although the youth declared it was his own sister whom he had embraced.
"Now, we will only have to wait and not worry," Ed remarked. "Over at that light there must be human beings, and they must have boats. Boats plus humans equal rescue."
The relief from anxiety put the girls in better spirits. Bess and Belle wondered if Nettie had returned, and speculated whether, on finding them gone, she might have notified the police. Cora was thinking about what sort of lifeboat Walter would return with, while Ed and Jack were content to look and listen.
A good hour passed, when a light could be seen moving about the beach.
"They're coming, all right," declared Ed. "Watch that glimmer."