“No,” declared her chum. “There’s one thing I’ve seen that I wouldn’t buy if it was selling as cheap as ‘two bits,’ as these folks say down here.”
“What’s that?” asked Ruth, with a laugh.
“That old maid school marm from New England,” Helen replied promptly.
“Poor thing!” commented Ruth.
“There you go! Pitying her already! How do you know that she won’t try to have us arrested?”
“Goodness! we’ll hope not,” said Ruth, as they surged toward the gangway with the rest of the disembarking passengers, the boat having already docked.
The crowd came out into the sunshine of a perfect morning upon a bustling dock. There was a goodly crowd from the hotels to see the newcomers land. Some of the passengers were met by friends; but neither Nettie Parsons nor her aunt were in sight.
The porter who carried the girls’ bags, however, handed them over to a hotel porter and evidently said a good word for them to that functionary; for he was very attentive and led the chums out of the crowd toward the broad veranda of the hotel front.
Ruth and Helen had sharp eyes, and they saw two plain-clothes men standing by to watch the forthcoming passengers.
“The officers looking for that boy,” whispered Ruth.