Jerry and Mr. Parker were determined that the party should not escape. As the men sought to launch the rubber boat, they made a concerted rush for the German flier who was to be taken aboard the waiting submarine. Caught by surprise, he went down beneath their blows.
Fearful of hitting his own man, George Emory dared not fire again. Instead, he and the crewmen of the submarine fell upon Jerry and Mr. Parker. In the melee, one person could not be distinguished from another.
“Fools! Fools!” cried Mrs. Deline as she watched the fierce, uneven struggle. “There is no time to be lost!”
Jerry and Mr. Parker were putting up the fight of their lives, but they were no match for four able bodied, trained men. Penny, desperate with anxiety, saw that the struggle could end only in one way—disaster for Jerry and her father.
“If I had that box of explosives maybe I could help them!” flashed through her mind.
Rolling over a dune, she ran to the place near the fence where she thought the cache was buried. Frantically she clawed and dug at the sand. She could not find the box.
“It must be here!” she told herself desperately. “Or was it hidden in the next dune?”
She tried another place slightly to the right. As she dug, she heard a sound behind her. Turning swiftly, she saw Mrs. Deline starting across the beach toward her.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” the woman shouted.
Penny’s hand encountered something hard and firm. The box of explosives! Digging wildly, she lifted it from the bed of sand and sprang to her feet. Her fingers closed upon one of the hand grenades.