“I’m glad of it, Dolly. Tell me, there isn’t any station at Plum Beach, is there?”
“No, we’ll go to Bay City, and then go back on another train to a little station called Green Cove, and that’s within a mile of the beach. It’s on a branch railroad that runs along the coast from Bay City.”
Then the train came along, and they climbed aboard, happy in having outwitted the enemies of Bessie and Zara. Dolly did not share Bessie’s enthusiasm over the conversion of Jake Hoover, though.
“I don’t trust him, Bessie,” she said. “He may have really meant to turn around and be friends with us, but I don’t think he can stick to a promise. I don’t know that he means to break them, but he just seems to be helpless. You think he’s afraid of Mr. Holmes and those men, don’t you?”
“Yes, and he as good as admitted it, too, Dolly.”
“Well, what I’m afraid of is that he will see them again, and that he’ll do whatever the people he happens to be with tell him.”
“I suppose we’ve got to take that much of a chance, Dolly. We really haven’t much choice. My, how this train does go!”
“Why are you looking at your map and your time-table so carefully, Bessie?”
“I want to be sure to know when we’re getting near Canton, Dolly. When we do, you must keep your eyes open. You’ll see something there that may explain a whole lot of things to you, and make you understand how silly you were not to see through this plot.”
Canton was a town of considerable size, and, though the train did not stop there, it slowed down, and ran through the streets and the station at greatly reduced speed. And as the car in which they were sitting went through the station Bessie clutched Dolly’s arm, and spoke in her ear.