“But they can’t get near enough to get us!”
“Don’t worry, they’ll manage it,” replied the relieved Patricia, while Dr. Norris and Mickey ran down to the beach to wave. Over the waves came one of the steamer’s life boats, and still another followed! They did not know how the party would be found, if found at all, and blankets, a doctor, and stimulants were brought to shore. The doctor at once examined Dorothy and Eloise. Of Eloise he said, “a slight concussion, not serious”; of Dorothy, that he could “tell better later.” The whole party was bundled into the life boats and taken on shipboard, not without some difficulty, but how different from what had been feared! As it was the big steamer could scarcely land at the dock where the Greycliff ’bus and an ambulance were waiting with some other closed cars. Dr. Matthews was there, with the same swift-footed horse, and after he had instructed one of the professors who lived at Greycliff to telegraph the parents, and had left the list, he galloped back to Greycliff Hall with the good news, arriving before any of the automobiles and earning the name by which he was afterward known among the girls,—“Paul Revere!” Good, practical, stout, unromantic Dr. Matthews!
CHAPTER VIII.
BACK TO NORMAL.
Arrived at Greycliff Hall, the senior academy girls were tucked into bed like babies—every one of them. Hot baths, hot drinks, warm blankets and disagreeable doses prescribed by the doctor, aroused some protest from a few who thought that they did not need them, but protests were of no avail. It had turned decidedly cool after the storm, and there was a frost that night. Dorothy, Eloise, Lilian and Cathalina were taken to the “pest-house,” as the girls called the little hospital quarters, for especial care by the nurse. Eloise was quite herself now, but with a splitting headache. The physician was still watching her and Dorothy Appleton, who was now conscious but seemed quite ill. “I find no serious injury,” said the doctor to Miss Randolph, “and I think that the girls will get over the shock in a few days, but we shall watch them closely and keep the nurse with them.”
Isabel and Avalon and other friends of the senior academy girls were fairly used up with the strain and the relief which came with the safe return of the whole company. The office was busy with receiving and sending telegrams. A correct and reassuring account was sent to the papers and letters were written the next day to anxious parents. For the first time in her career, Miss Randolph took to her bed and spent the entire Sabbath there, though giving directions, writing and reading messages.
“She looked ten years older after those dreadful hours of anxiety,” said one of the teachers to Dr. Matthews.
“Yes?” replied he. “Fortunately there is too much school work ahead for us to stay under this depression. The girls are safe and in a day or two we shall all be back to normal, Miss Randolph included.” Dr. Matthews was much amused over his new nickname, which was reported to him shortly after it had been bestowed. He had been accustomed to that of “Dad Matthews,” the little school paper occasionally using it in some informal account. “I was always regarded, it seems, in a paternal light,” said he, “and now I am ‘Revere’d!”
A few colds, one sore throat, and much lassitude for a few days, were about the only results of the exposure. The senior academy classes were entirely suspended on Monday and Tuesday, but by the end of the week every thing was in running order once more, Lilian and Cathalina in their classes as usual, Eloise back in the suite, and Dorothy fast getting well. Other classes were having beach parties and picnics, but alas, there was no “Greycliff” to take them out from shore any distance. The fall weather was still beautiful, with plenty of sunshine, the air crisp and cool.
One Saturday early in October, the Psyche Club was starting on a beach party and deciding where to go when Isabel said, “Do you remember that day when I was pretending to look all around for the ‘gentlemen’?”
“Yes,” said Eloise.