“I’ll run to the lighthouse,” Penny decided desperately. “Maybe the keeper will help us.”
Both girls were badly frightened, not for their own safety, but because they feared that the car would be damaged beyond repair. Once the waves began to strike it, it would sink deeper and deeper into the sand. Salt water would corrode all of the bright chromium.
“We’ve no time to waste!” Penny cried, darting away.
The girls plunged through the sand drifts to the lighthouse. Evidently the keeper already had observed their plight, for he was standing on the upper platform peering down into the courtyard.
“Our car is stuck in the sand!” Penny shouted. “Can you help us get it out?”
“No, I can’t,” the keeper answered gruffly. “You should have watched the tide.”
“There’s no one else to help us,” Penny pleaded. “Just a little push—”
“I’m forbidden to leave my post.”
“Then will you telephone to the Inn? Or to a garage?”
“I could ’phone but it wouldn’t do any good,” the keeper said reluctantly. “Your car will be under water before a tow-car could get here.”