Nurse raised her voice then, and called "'Liza! 'Liza!" as loudly as she could; but the wind carried her words in the opposite direction, and no sounds reached the young explorers, who very soon disappeared from view altogether.
This brought a fresh outburst of lamentation from the little girl, who would not be pacified by anything Nurse said to her; and at last Nurse threatened to take her home, put her to bed, and not let her stay until the others came back. She tried to amuse her by scooping up some sand the little girl's spade, but it would not do. The child knew the difference now between this kind of play and the interest Eliza took in building a castle or digging a trench, and she shook herself, and screamed the louder for "Lila."
Nurse tried all sorts of plans to make the little one forget her playmate, but it was of no use; and after an hour or two, she decided to take the children home without waiting for Eliza to return.
"Winny is a naughty girl!" she said sharply, as she gathered up her various belongings, and prepared to return home.
But Winny refused to go without "Lila," seated herself on the sand, and screamed until Nurse grew desperate. So, asking another nurse who sat near to keep an eye on her till she came back, she rushed off with baby, and left him in charge of the landlady while she went back to fetch the little girl.
Altogether it was a most unhappy evening for Nurse, but she did not grow anxious about Eustace and Eliza until she had bathed Winny and baby, and put them both to bed, the little girl sobbing piteously even in her sleep, for she had refused to be comforted to the very last because "Lila" did not come home.
When, however, she was snugly tucked into her cot, Nurse had time to think of the young Robinson Crusoe. She went to the landlady of the house, and asked if she knew where the cave was.
"Cave! What cave?" she asked.
"I don't know; only I heard Master Eustace tell Eliza he was going to take her to some cave on the shore."
"There are no caves hereabouts," said the landlady, in a reassuring tone, "and there is no call for you to fidget over the children, for our shore is as safe as my back garden. They will be home in a few minutes, I dare say;" and she went about her business, leaving Nurse by the window to watch every one who came up the street from the beach.