Both came at last, as all good things are said to do to the waiting ones, and the meeting on the Lakely platform was almost overwhelming as Dick sprang out among them all; Oscar and the four girls clustering round him like bees, while Rameses, with the cart at a respectful distance, stretched out his neck, and brayed such [p118] a note of welcome, that the attendant porter laughed till he held his sides. With Dick’s coming, the state of affairs looked up—here, there, and everywhere went the two boys, not always with a string of girls after them, as Dick slightingly expressed it.
Once, according to their own words, they took revenge upon the old Tor, and had picnics upon its wind-swept heights in a body; but where the revenge lay they themselves best knew. But the girls looked down the Ugly Leap with awe, Oscar, with his scarred forehead, looking down with the rest. A wonderfully clear view they had of the sea and the Swallow’s Cliff.
“I say,” cried Dick, the happy thought striking him as he gazed, “couldn’t we take the girls over as far as the cliffs and the sea? They’ve never been there, you know, Willett, and ’twouldn’t be too far, if we took old Rameses and the cart.”
“Just a nice little outing,” agreed Oscar; and down they all sat in council to sketch out the programme, to use their own words.
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[p119]
CHAPTER X.
THE EXPEDITION TO SWALLOW’S CLIFF—CAUGHT BY THE TIDE.
“How far is it?” was Inna’s leading question.
“Three miles as the crow flies,” returned Dick.
“It would be delightful,” smiled she.
“It would be jolly,” said Jenny, using a word of Dick’s.