“But the rest of you are dripping wet,” declared Martha.
“We’re all right,” answered Jack. “But what we want to know is how Mr. Stevenson and Ruth are.”
“Ruth says the bath didn’t hurt her a bit,” answered Mary. “But she is rather worried about her father.”
A few minutes later Ruth came forth. Her hair was still wet and done up fantastically in a towel, but she wore the dry clothes the other girls had brought her.
“I’m perfectly all right,” she said to Jack.
“What about your dad?”
“The doctor says he’ll have to keep very quiet for a few days,” went on the girl soberly. “He received a blow in the side just under the right arm. He is all black and blue.”
“He seemed to be very haggard, Ruth,” remarked the young major.
At this Ruth Stevenson gave Jack a look which he found hard to interpret. She caught Jack’s hand and drew him a little to one side.
“Dad has been having a whole lot of trouble lately,” she whispered. “Some time I’ll tell you all about it—or at least as much as I know of it.”