“Look!” she said. “There on the platform! Did you ever see those men before?”
Dolly gave a startled cry as her eyes followed Bessie’s pointing finger.
“Mr. Holmes!” she exclaimed. “And that’s that little lawyer, Mr. Brack. And the old man with the whiskers—”
“Is Farmer Weeks, of course! Do you see the fourth man standing with them? See how he pushes his coat back! He’s a constable and he’s so proud of it he wants everyone to see his badge!”
“Bessie! Do you mean they were waiting here for you?”
“For me and Zara, Dolly! If I had been on a train that stopped here—but I wasn’t! And I guess Miss Eleanor must have got my telegram in time to hide Zara so that they didn’t find her on the other train, too, or else we’d see something of her.”
Dolly laughed happily. Then she did a reckless thing, showing herself at the window, and shaking her fist defiantly as the car, with rapidly gathering speed, passed the disconsolate group on the station platform. Holmes was the first to see her, and his face darkened with a swift scowl. Then he caught sight of Bessie, and, seizing Brack’s arm, pointed the two girls out to him, too. But there was nothing whatever to be done.
The train, after slowing down, was already beginning to move fast again, and there was no way in which it could be stopped, or in which the group of angry men on the platform could board it. They could only stand in powerless rage, and look after it. Bessie and Dolly, of course, could not hear the furious comments that Holmes was making as he turned angrily to old Weeks. But they could make a guess, and Dolly turned an elfin face, full of mischievous delight, to Bessie.
“That’s one time they got fooled,” she exclaimed.
“I’m sorry they found out we were on this train, though,” said Bessie, gravely. “It means that we’ll have trouble with them after we get to Plum Beach, I’m afraid.”