“We’ll take a boat to Honolulu tomorrow,” announced Miss Carlton. “I only wish we could take it right away—if there were only one sailing.”
From out of the crowd on the platform two young men, hatless and sun-burned, edged their way toward the Carltons. Both were tall, so that they could easily be seen above the heads of the other people around.
“Greetings, Miss Carlton!” called Ralph Clavering, before he had even reached them. “We’ve got bad news.”
“Bad news!” repeated Mr. Carlton, in consternation. “But we read in the papers that the girls arrived safely in Honolulu!”
“Yes. They did, sir. But they’re lost again!”
Miss Carlton seized Ralph’s arm, to steady herself, and looked into his face.
“You’re not joking, Ralph? You wouldn’t—joke about a thing like this?” Her voice was trembling.
“Indeed I’m not, Miss Carlton,” replied the boy, earnestly. “I’m worried sick.”
Mr. Carlton, however, looked less troubled than his sister.
“No, I know you’re not joking, Ralph,” he said. “But you probably are exaggerating. You always see the black side of everything. You and my sister are just alike.... But let’s go over here and sit down, and suppose Jim tells us the story.”