“Say, I’ll bet you’re right! You know, he must be an awful coward—and yet, the way he goes after you, he takes a lot of chances, doesn’t he? It does look as if, no matter how much it may frighten him to do what he does, he’s still more afraid not to do it.”
“Look out—get behind this tree! I don’t want him to see us here if we can help it. It would be better if he thought he hadn’t been noticed at all, don’t you think?”
“Yes. And it’s a very good thing we saw him, Bessie. Now we know that we must look out for squalls at Plum Beach, and they don’t know we’re warned at all. So maybe it will be easier to beat them.”
“Look here, Dolly, isn’t there another train to Plum Beach? A later one, that would get us there an hour or so after the other girls, if they go on this one?”
“There certainly is, Bessie; but how can we wait for it? Miss Eleanor would be worried.”
“Oh, we’ll have to let her know what we’re going to do, of course. How soon does that train go?”
“Not for half an hour yet. Miss Mercer wanted to be at the station very early so that all the baggage would surely be checked in time to go on the same train with us.”
“Well, that makes it easy, Dolly. I tell you what. I’ll stay here, and follow very slowly, when Jake gets out of sight, so that he won’t see me. And if you go right across the street, and cut across the lots there, you can get to the railroad station from the other side.”
“I know the way—I saw that last night, though not because I expected to do it.”
“All right, then. You take that way, and get hold of Miss Eleanor quietly. Better not let the others hear what you’re saying, and keep your eyes open for Jake, too. But I don’t believe he’ll show himself in the station.”