“Oh, goodness me! we don’t even know that Henry Smith has run away!” exclaimed Helen.
Instantly the boy near them started. He rose and clung to the rail for a moment. But he did not look back at the two girls.
Ruth had clutched Helen’s arm and whispered: “Hush!” She was not sure whether the boy had heard or not. At any rate, he did not look at them, but walked slowly away. They did not see his face at all.
CHAPTER IV—THE CAPES OF VIRGINIA
Ruth and Helen did not think of going to bed until long after Absecon Light, off Atlantic City, was passed. They watched the long-spread lights of the great seaside resort until they disappeared in the distance and Ludlum Beach Light twinkled in the west.
The music of the orchestra came to their ears faintly; but above all was the murmur and jar of the powerful machinery that drove the ship. This had become a monotone that rather got on the girls’ nerves.
“Oh, dear! let’s go to bed,” said Helen plaintively. “I don’t see why those engines have to pound so. It sounds like the tramping of a herd of elephants.”
“Did you ever hear a herd of elephants tramping?” asked Ruth, laughing.
“No; but I can imagine how they would sound,” said Helen. “At any rate, let’s go to bed.”
They did not see the curly-haired boy; but as they went in to the ladies’ lavatory on their side of the deck, they came face to face with the queer woman with whom they had already had some trouble.