The Tidal Wave (1920)

Adam Brewster and Eliza Peck, owners of the inn belonging to a Cornish fishing village, take a new inmate when Carmen Hale, daughter of Aunt Eliza's brother, is sent to them by the girl's dying father. Matt, the son of Adam, does not live at the inn, but he takes a new interest in the place when Carmen arrives. The girl is half Spanish and is happy in Matt's company until she meets Gerald Knight, who is sketching on the rocks of the seashore. Matt at once becomes jealous, and his father warns Carmen that the artist does not bear a good reputation. The artist is anxious to have Carmen pose for him as a sea nymph and she consents. The spot chosen is a dangerous one. At high tide it is completely cut off from the mainland. Knight poses his model on a distant rock and becomes so wrapped up in his work that the tide is up before he realizes it. He is unable to swim, and Carmen is almost washed from the rock by the waves. Matt comes to her rescue in time and carries her, still unconscious, to his cottage. As soon as she revives she sends him back to rescue Knight. A severe spell of sickness follows and when the girl recovers she thinks that the artist has been drowned. When she learns that Matt risked his life to save him she rewards the fisherman by becoming his wife.