“No; not a word, please, girls. Beth is too happy to have her fun spoiled and her sleep disturbed by a new problem.” Dalton sat down on an old stump and Leslie dropped beside Sarita.
“She got out her pencils and paints and things a little while ago,” said Leslie, “and she was unpacking her easel when I left the tent. That accounts, perhaps for her not coming out. I wonder she didn’t hear Mr. Ives. There she comes, now.”
“Let me handle it, please, Les,” said her brother in a low voice. “Hello, Beth, getting ready to paint up the place?”
“Yes, I’m taking my easel out on the rocks. I must get a sketch right away of the bay and Cathedral Rocks. I thought I heard another voice out here, but I was too lazy and busy with my traps to come out.”
“You don’t want to see anybody, do you, Beth? Well, this was only the man that lives across the bay, or around the bay, as you like, the man of Steeple Rocks. I imagine that he wouldn’t mind your sketching them. What do you think, girls?”
Dalton’s voice was so sarcastic that Beth laughed. “You didn’t like him, that’s certain. I’m glad that I didn’t come out. He can’t help my sketching his rocks, however. Oh, isn’t it too glorious here! I thought that you were going to take a swim as soon as the tide was right.”
“The girls are, I guess, and I’m tempted, too; but Beth, I think that I’d be more sensible to hike out and see about our building affairs and one thing and another. I may get a horse in the village and ride to the station, too, to see about the other junk that’s to come. You won’t be afraid without me, will you, girls?”
“No, indeed,” Leslie declared. “Besides, Sarita and I are going to put up our target and practice a little. Bail us out if we get arrested for shooting, Dal. But if they hear it at the village at all, it may warn anybody of ‘hostile intent.’”
“I don’t like to hear you speak in that way, Leslie,” said Beth, with decision. “It is right for you to learn, I think, but use the greatest care, please. Load just before you try for the target and be sure that all your cartridges have been exploded. If you never get reckless or careless it is all right. You’d better fix your target in front of the rocks, too. Then there will be no possibility of someone’s coming through the trees to get shot.”
“My, Beth, you think of everything don’t you? We’ll not do it at all, if it makes you nervous, and I promise you, up and down and ‘cross my heart,’ that no ‘weepon’ is going to be left loaded. In case of an attack by Indians, we shall have cartridges handy anyhow.”