Something rumbled close to the cottage, then a shriek from outside startled them. "What's that!" cried Cora. Ed pushed open the door. "An auto in the ocean!" he yelled, dashing out of the bungalow, while the others followed as quickly as they could make after him. Ed threw off his coat as he ran. A few paces down the beach, in the very face of the rollers, was a small runabout, the terrified occupants of which were vainly struggling to get out, into a dangerous depth of water. "Quick, boys!" shouted Ed. "The engine is still running! Maybe we can back it up!" CHAPTER XXII A STRUGGLE WITH THE WAVES When Ed, Jack and Walter ran down the sandy beach, directly into the water, and then attempted to rescue from the waves a lady and her daughter, who were in the ocean-going auto, the girls were not afraid to follow them--to the extent of walking into the water knee deep. The helpless woman was a cripple, and when she, with an exhausting effort, managed to turn to one side and fall over the rim of the runabout seat into the water, she dropped like a stone into the surf. The daughter jumped, but in her frantic efforts to reach her mother, she crawled under the car, and was in very great danger of being lost herself. Suddenly the helpless form of the crippled woman rose to the surface. Jack threw his arms about the invalid, and, after shouting for Walter to help him, as the force of the rollers threatened to take him off his feet, the two young men managed to make their way safely to the sand with the unconscious form. Meanwhile the anxious motor girls hastened to offer what assistance they might be able to give. "Lay her down here," said Cora, as her brother escaped from the fury of one great, dashing mountain of water, that broke into foam as it spread out over the sand. "I think we will have to take her into the bungalow," he replied. "But where is Ed? Look for Ed! He has not found the girl yet!" And indeed neither Ed nor the girl could be seen! Cora and Bess left Belle with Jack and Walter to attend to the woman, while they again stepped forward as far into the water as it seemed safe to go. "There is Ed!" shouted Cora, and without doing more than unclasping the leather belt that confined her waist, she struck out boldly toward a point considerably farther out than the spot where the stalled car stood in the water. "Oh, you can't swim--that way, Cora!" called Bess. "Cora! Cora! come back!" But with arms over her head Cora plowed her way through the waves, stroke after stroke, until she was beside Ed, who was struggling to beat back the rollers that fought for the very life of the girl he had just brought up from under the heavy blanket of smothering water. "Mother! Mother!" wailed the girl. "Let me get--mother. She is--down--down there!" "No--she is--safe!" gasped Cora. "Come! Let us help you--out!" "Oh is--she safe! I--I am all right! I--can swim!" "But you are too weak!" called Ed. "Let us help you!"