These things the little girl, left behind, had fully understood. She looked forward confidently to the happy return of both her parents.
And then, in two weeks, came the fatal news of the sinking of the Dunraven and the loss of all but a small part of her crew and passengers. The steamer had gone down quickly, and in the night, with the dim coast of Africa far, far to the southward and many, many leagues of troubled sea between her grave and the Spanish coast.
The two warring vessels—which one had caused the sinking of the Dunraven would probably never be known—had not even discovered till daylight that there was a remnant of the Dunraven’s company adrift on the sea. These were finally rescued by the victorious combatant, and in a heavy fog. The exact spot where the Dunraven had sunk was not known.
Vaguely these facts had become known to Carolyn May. She never spoke of them. They did not seem real to the little girl. After all, she could not believe that her father and mother had gone on so long a journey that they would never again return to her.
But now, sitting beside the condemned Prince—her companion and only real comforter during these weeks of her orphanhood—the little girl felt bitterly her loneliness and grief.
If Uncle Joe did as he had threatened, what should she do? There seemed to be no place for her and Prince to run away to. She did not know her way about Sunrise Cove and The Corners. During the weeks she had lived here she had learned to know nobody well enough to fly to for protection, or of whom to beg shelter for herself and her dog.
She knew Mr. Stagg to be a very firm and determined man. Even Aunty Rose, who in most things guided affairs at the Stagg homestead, could go only so far. What Uncle Joe really determined to do, not even the austere housekeeper could balk. No, there seemed no escaping the awful tragedy that was to be. And if Prince had to die——
“I’m quite sure I don’t want to live,” thought Carolyn May dismally. “If papa, and mamma, and Prince are all dead—why! there aren’t enough other folks left in the world to make it worth while living in, I don’t believe. If Prince isn’t going to be alive, then I don’t want to be alive, either.”