“All right, Bessie, but what luck! I was afraid we’d have to stay here until daylight, and I was wondering what Miss Eleanor and the girls would think!”
“So was I. I’m afraid they’re worried about us already. But it wasn’t our fault, and it really is a good thing we heard them, isn’t it? The ‘boss’ they’re talking about must be Mr. Holmes, don’t you think?”
“I don’t see who else it could possibly be. Come on, Bessie. I think it’s time now, they’re out of sight.”
Slowly and carefully, to take into account the off chance that Jeff, the other man, might have come back to see if his sentinels were faithful, they slipped across the path and made their way down. And at the bottom, as they reached the beach, Eleanor Mercer spied them, with a glad cry.
“Oh, whatever kept you so long?” she exclaimed. “How glad I am to see you back safely! We couldn’t imagine what on earth was keeping you.”
“You shouldn’t have stayed so long,” said Margery Burton. “We were just going to start out to look for you.”
“You wouldn’t have had very far to go. We’ve been right at the top of the path for three-quarters of an hour,” said Dolly, excitedly.
“It wasn’t our fault, really! We couldn’t get here any sooner,” said Bessie. “You see—”
And, quietly, being less excited and hysterical than Dolly, she explained what they had discovered, and the trap in which they had allowed themselves to be caught.
“We thought it was better to wait there than to let them know we had heard them,” she ended. “You see, they think now that we haven’t any suspicions at all, and that we’ll be off our guard. Don’t you suppose Mr. Holmes must be coming on board that yacht, Miss Eleanor?”