Then it came again--green this time--a light that shot up rocketlike toward the sky, then, bursting, dived to instant annihilation in the turbulant water. Another followed, and another, and then the truth came home to Betty. Somewhere out there In that foaming sea a ship had met with disaster, perhaps at this moment was sinking and her crew, were sending out desperate appeals for aid. For a moment she felt almost sick with pity and excitement. Then she controlled herself and ran over to wake the girls. "Mollie! Amy!" she cried, her voice shrill even above the shrieking of the wind. "Wake up, wake up! Oh, why don't you wake up?" as the girls opened sleep-laden eyes and stared at her stupidly. "Wh-what's the matter," stammered Mollie, suddenly sensing almost hysterical excitement in Betty's voice and realizing that something terrible had occurred. "Is anybody sick?" queried Amy almost fretfully, for she had been enjoying the first good sleep she had had in weeks. "No. But somebody may be if we don't hurry up," cried Betty, wild with impatience. "Don't lie there asking foolish questions when people may be dying." "Dying," they echoed, still staring at her stupidly. "There's a wrecked ship out there," Betty explained, her words stumbling over each other as she tried to make the girls understand. "They are sending up signals for help, and if we don't get it for them right away it may be too late. Oh, girls, for all we know, it may be too late now!" Mollie and Amy, at last fully awake and almost as excited as Betty herself, sprang out of bed and rushed to the window to see for themselves the signals the distressed vessel was sending up. CHAPTER XXV JOY What happened in the next hour the girls never afterward clearly remembered. In what seemed a nightmare, they found their clothes, and, after turning things wrong side out, getting the left shoe on the right foot, and various other mishaps calculated to wreck the most well-balanced nervous system, they finally succeeded in getting them on. "Where shall we go?" Mollie gasped out, as, clad in oilskins, they rushed madly down the stairs. "There's a farmhouse about a mile down the road," explained Grace, "and all the farm hands sleep on the premises. We can get them. And there's the life-saving station only a little way beyond. They may have seen the signals and be on their way already." "All right--let's go," said Betty grimly, as she flung open the door. A terrific gust of wind greeted her and sent her staggering back upon the other girls. "It's even worse than I thought," she gasped, regaining her balance. "We will have to do some fighting to get there, girls." "A mile against that wind!" groaned Grace. "Betty, I don't think we can ever make it." "We've got to--or at least make the attempt," cried Betty, pulling her coat more tightly about her. "If nobody else will come, I'm going alone," she added, and the girls knew her well enough to be sure she meant it.