“Nothing, except that I’m a little tired, I think.”
But Dolly wasn’t satisfied. She knew her chum too well.
“You’ve got something on your mind, but you don’t want to worry us,” she said. “Better own up, Bessie!”
Bessie, however, would not answer. And in the morning she seemed to be her old self. Just as they were starting for the train, though, Bessie suddenly hung back at the door of the boarding-house.
“Wait for me a minute, Dolly,” she said. “I left a handkerchief in our room. I’ll be right down. Go on, the rest of you; we’ll soon catch up.”
She ran upstairs for the handkerchief.
“I left it behind on purpose, Dolly,” she explained, when she came down. “I wanted them to go ahead. Ah, look!”
As they went along, with most of the girls fully a hundred yards ahead of them, a lurking figure was plainly to be seen following the girls.
“It’s Jake Hoover!” said Dolly excitedly.
“I thought I saw him last night. That was why you thought something was wrong, Dolly,” said Bessie. “But I wanted to make sure before I said anything.”