Helen in the Editor's Chair Part 6

"We've got to help Mr. Preston," shouted Helen, and she refused to move.

"All right, then I stay too," yelled Tom, who kept anxious eyes on the approaching tornado.

The Flyer was less than a hundred yards from sh.o.r.e but was settling deeper and deeper into the water.

"It's almost shallow enough for him to wade ash.o.r.e," cried Helen.

"Wind would sweep him off his feet," replied Tom.

The speedboat was making slow progress, barely staggering along in its battle against the wind and waves.

"He's going to make it!" shouted Helen.

"I hope so," said Tom, but his words were lost in the wind.

Fifty yards more and the Flyer would nose into the sandy beach which marked the Rolfe end of the lake.

"Come on, Flyer, come on!" cried Helen.

"The engine's dying," said Tom. "Look, the nose is going under that big wave."

With the motor dead, the Flyer lost way and buried its nose under a giant white-cap.

"He's jumping out of the boat," added Helen. "It's shallow enough so he can wade in if he can keep his feet."

Ignoring the increasing danger of the tornado, they ran across the sandy beach.

"Join hands," cried Helen. "We can wade out and pull him the last few feet."

Realizing that his sister would go on alone if he did not help her, Tom locked his hands in hers and they plunged into the shallow water.

Jim Preston, on the verge of exhaustion, staggered through the waves.

The Flyer, caught between two large rollers, filled with water and disappeared less than ten seconds after it had been abandoned.

The boatman floundered toward them and Tom and Helen found themselves hard-pressed to keep their own feet, for a strong undertow threatened to upset them and sweep them out into the lake.

Preston lunged toward them and they caught him as he fell.

Tom turned momentarily to watch the approach of the tornado.

"Hurry!" he cried. "We'll be able to reach Doctor Stevens' storm cellar if we run."

"I can't run," gasped Preston. "You youngsters get me to sh.o.r.e. Then save yourselves."

"We'll do nothing of the kind," said Helen.

With their encouragement, Preston made a new effort and they made their escape from the dangerous waters of the lake.

Alone, Helen or Tom could have raced up the hill to Doctor Stevens in less than a minute but with an almost helpless man to drag between them, they made slow progress.

"We've got to hurry," warned Tom as the noise of the storm told of its rapid approach.

"Go on, go on! Leave me here!" urged Preston.

But Helen and Tom were deaf to his pleas and they forced him to use the last of his strength in a desperate race up the hill ahead of the tornado.

Doctor Stevens met them half way up the hill and almost carried Preston the rest of the way.

"Across the street and into my storm cellar," he told them.

"Is the tornado going to hit the town?" asked Helen as they hurried across the street.

"Can't tell yet," replied Doctor Stevens.

"There's a common belief that the hills and lake protect us so a tornado will never strike here," said Tom.

"We'll soon know about that," said the doctor grimly.

They got the exhausted boatman to the entrance of the cellar, where Mrs.

Blair was anxiously awaiting their return.

"Are you all right, Helen?" she asked.

"A little wet on my lower extremities," replied the young editor of the _Herald_. "I simply had to go, mother."

"Of course you did," said Mrs. Blair. "It was dangerous but I'm proud of you Helen."

Mrs. Stevens brought out blankets and wrapped them around Jim Preston's shoulders while Margaret took candles down into the storm cellar.

The noise of the storm had increased to such an intensity that conversation was almost impossible.

Doctor Stevens maintained his watchful vigil, noting every movement of the tornado.

The sky was so dark that the daylight had faded into dusk although it was only a few minutes after three. The whole western sky was filled with coal-black clouds and out of the center of this ominous ma.s.s rushed the las.h.i.+ng tongue which was destroying everything it touched.

On and on came the storm, advancing with a deadly relentlessness. A farm house a little more than a mile away on one of the hills overlooking the lake exploded as though a charge of dynamite had been set off beneath it.

"It's terrible, terrible," sobbed Margaret Stevens, who had come out of the cellar to watch the storm.

"We're going to get hit," Tom warned them.

"I've got to get home," said Jim Preston, struggling out of the blankets which Mrs. Stevens had wrapped around him. "My wife's all alone."

"Stay here, Jim," commanded Doctor Stevens. "You couldn't get more than three or four blocks before the storm strikes and your place is clear across town. Everybody into the cellar," he commanded.

Mrs. Stevens and Helen's mother went first to light the candles. They were followed by Margaret and Helen, then Tom and Jim Preston and finally the doctor, who remained in the doorway on guard.