"But you—must not stay—longer—from your friends," she said. "Leave me, and look for them. Then come back."
"We are here," ventured Dorothy, aware that the girl was worrying about Tavia. "We have come to take you both home."
"Not back there!" and the girl sat bolt upright, and looked into Dorothy's pale face.
"No, to camp, with us, with Dorothy and with Tavia. Then we will send for your mother."
"Oh, I am so glad," she sighed, lying back on the pillow.
Nat had Tavia in his arms. She was now almost hysterical, and like the Nat he had always been, he turned the tables by accusing Tavia of having all the camping to herself.
"While we were digging up frog ponds looking for you," he scolded, "here you had set yourself up in one of the best establishments in the State."
"Oh, Nat," she sobbed. "If you only knew!"
"Every girl says that," he replied. "I suppose it would be a first rate thing if a fellow did only know—about a girl like you." He was doing his best to quiet her, and he knew that to scold is a good sort of treatment for too much nerves.
Meanwhile Cologne and Ralph had ventured nearer. They seemed afraid that a voice would harm some one, and Cologne only whispered.