“There’s a motorboat, a pretty fast one. I can run it, you know that!” Lena’s voice was tense with emotion.
“Yes, I know. Norma told me how you saved them.”
“Then come on. Come on, now! We—” Lena’s voice broke; she did not finish.
Betty looked at Grandfather. He did not speak, merely nodded his head.
“All—” Betty gulped, “all right, I’ll go!”
Instantly the two girls were down from the tower and racing like mad for the dock.
Once at the dock Lena unscrewed the gas tank cap, flashed a light down into the tank, then, after a few twists at the cap said, with astonishing calmness:
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[Illustration: _“There’s Not a Moment to Lose!” Lena Exclaimed_]
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Strange questions and wild emotion came and went over Betty’s active mind as they headed straight for that light and at full speed.
“Has this girl lost her mind?” she asked herself. “Or does she know some terrible secret? Will the plane really come down?” For the moment she found no answer. But the answer must come soon. Even as she thought this Lena exclaimed:
“There! What did I tell you? The plane is beginning to circle. It will come down. It is flying high, but it will come down.”
This Betty knew was true. The sounds that came from the plane told the whole story.
As she watched, frightened, yet fascinated, she tried to measure the time it would take for the plane to come down. Now it must, she thought, be a quarter of the way down, now a half, and now three-quarters of the way. Her heart skipped a beat. What plane was this? Would it really crash? Was it friend or foe? Should she hope for a crash or an upward swing just in time? Her brain was in a whirl.
“The light has vanished!” Lena exclaimed suddenly.
Still the plane came down, rapidly. There seemed no stopping it now. After breathing a prayer, Betty began to count. One, two, three, four—she had reached twelve when there came the sound of a muffled crash.
“Now, if only we can save them,” she thought with a tightening of her throat. And yet, after all, who were they?
While Lena kept the boat at its utmost speed, Betty stood in the prow and strained her eyes for some sign of the wreck.