"Yes, and more," insisted Kitty, her cheeks flaming with excitement. "She promised me a hundred dollars if I would keep every one off the island and look out for Roy. I thought it was a lot, but what about her thousands? Then, when I got in the accident the other day, and she was afraid folks might come here to see if I had pneumonia, she changed her mind, and refused to give me any money. Now she is back, and I know Royal's folks will soon be in New York and I just wouldn't trust her with him any more. That's why I had to ask you to rescue us. And you did!"
In spite of her excitement she could laugh, and the humor presently became an acute infection for every one was shouting at the comedy of the rocks. And Kitty looked so funny. She was dressed up, had shoes and stockings on, and a "warmed over" hat, with pathetically drooping roses around it; and then the bag, with the long, lost slippers!
"Come to my house first," insisted Grace. "I'm nearest."
"I am to meet my friend this afternoon," said Neal, who was so busy with the boy and his engine he had never even heard the child's name mentioned. "He got in this morning after a stormy trip," went on the young man, "but his yacht, the Royal, made it all right, and Dick promised to be down late this afternoon."
"The Royal!" gasped Kitty, Grace and Louise.
"That's my yacht," sang out the boy gleefully. "Daddy and Mother and Ricky are coming home on the Royal!"
"Oh joy!" shouted Louise, while Kitty gasped.
"Do you mean to say the young man who runs the yacht is coming to see you?" She had seized Neal's shoulders as if to confront him with some horrible crime.
"Careful," he said with a laugh. "You'll steer us against the dock. Yes, Richard Gordon who runs the Alton's yacht, Royal, is my friend," he answered, beginning to sense the true meaning of the affair.
Five minutes later it was a queer little procession that wended the short way from the landing to Rosabell cottage.