For a moment Pen sat almost petrified; then she rushed after them. She was wild with passion; she had never been so angry in all her life. There were many times when the other children at The Dales treated her with scant courtesy, but to be suddenly deserted in this fashion by strange children was more than she could endure.
“Oh, how bad you have got! You are so bad—so dreadfully, horribly bad—that the tide is certain to come in and drown you up,” she cried. “You can’t go away from me; you can’t. Oh, see! it has comed;” and Pen danced up and down and clapped her hands in triumph.
She was right. She had gained a complete victory. Just at the extreme end of the promontory a gentle wave, peaceful, pretty, and graceful, curled up against the solid rock. It had scarcely retired in bashful innocence when another wave tumbled after it. They looked like charming playfellows. Then came a third, then a fourth and a fifth. Faster and faster they rolled in, flowing up the white sands and making a white foam round the rock.
The little Carvers stood still, transfixed with a curious mingling of delight, excitement, and horror. Pen ceased to jump up and down. Presently she ceased to laugh. She was only a very small girl, and did not in the least realize her danger; nevertheless, as she used her eyes to good purpose, and as she quickly perceived that the opposite side of the bay was now shut away by a great body of water, it did occur to her that they would have to stay in their present shelter for some time. Harry turned round slowly. Harry was ten years old, and he understood. He had heard his father talk of the dangerous White Bay. He went straight up to Pen, and, taking her hand, burst out crying.
“It don’t matter,” he said—“it don’t matter whether we are good or whether we are bad. We can none of us ever go to the Zoo again. Nellie and I won’t ever go any more, and you can never go at all.”
“What do you mean?” asked Pen.
Her heart began to beat fast and loud.
“What do you mean? Oh, you dreadful bad——”
“Don’t call names,” said Harry. “You will be sorry by-and-by; and by-and-by comes soon. We have got to be drowned, all three of us.”