"There is a good deal of use, I think," the girl answered softly. "If you people hadn't been so good and kind to me, I would have——" she paused before the word, and shivered again in her weakness.
"Don't think of it any more," Betty urged. "Now, what you most need is rest. If we could get you back to our cottage or, perhaps, to your own people——" she paused questioningly.
"Oh, please," said the girl, "if you could only get me back to the hotel, you don't know how grateful I would be. Mother and dad will be crazy."
"If we were only nearer our bungalow, we might take you back there and then send word to your mother and father," said Mollie, thoughtfully. "But I guess it is just about as far one way as the other."
"Yes, the best thing we can do," Mrs. Irving decided, "is to get her as quickly as possible to the summer colony. That is where you come from, isn't it?" she asked.
The girl nodded. All this time she had been standing, supported on either hand by Roy and Will. But now Allen had a suggestion to make.
"We could make a seat," he said, "and carry her the rest of the distance to the colony. The sooner we start the better it will be."
On this plan they agreed. Very naturally the girl was strainingly eager to relieve the anxiety of her parents—to let them know she was safe again.
Allen and Frank, being the stronger of the boys, volunteered to carry the slight girl—she was young, scarcely sixteen—for the first half mile. Then the other two boys were to carry her the rest of the distance.
In a moment the little procession was formed, and it started off for the woods, toward the summer colony. Allen and Frank moved in front with their burden, followed by the four girls and Mrs. Irving, while Roy and Will brought up the rear.