And then, with sudden animation, she began waving her arms and feet and from her lips issued the most excruciating cries. She lost hold of the doll, which sprawled in the sands. To Tess Kenway’s amazement, Dot began to travel right away from the edge of the grove toward the sea!
CHAPTER XVI—MR. METHUSELAH
Dot’s cries of surprise and Tess’ shrieks for help brought Neale bounding through the grove with the older girls after him in wild alarm. What they saw first was calculated to amaze them.
Cavorting down the beach was Dot Kenway, flat upon her back, her legs and arms waving wildly. She was not moving so very fast, but she evidently was headed for the sea.
Luckily Neale had picked up the first weapon to his hand when he started. This was the stick he had used early that morning to turn over the three captured turtles. He ploughed his way through the brush, leaped across the sands, and arrived beside the traveling Dot just as she rolled off the shell of the huge turtle which, half-buried in the sand, she had thought was a stone!
Neale immediately inserted the stick under the edge of the creature’s lower shell and heaved it over on its back. Dot gathered herself up, crying and sputtering.
“You—you can have your old turkles, Neale O’Neil!” she cried. “I won’t even eat their eggs, if that’s the way they act. I—I thought I was sitting down on a stone. I—I——”
Ruth arrived to comfort her. Meanwhile Tess brought the Alice-doll and Neale and Agnes examined this huge reptile, which really was a monster.
“He must be awfully old,” said Agnes, wonderingly.
“The edge of his upper shell is all cracked and dented. He’s seen some few seasons, all right,” Neale agreed.