Chapter XXIV: The Two Orphans

"Oh, Rose! I can't go another step! Let them catch us if they want to. I think I--a--am going to--die!"

"Nellie dear, try to keep up. We will be at the station soon. And you know those were detectives from home! Oh, try to keep on!"

"I--can't! I've got to stop!"

The girl sank in the sand like the poor, tired, frightened little thing that she was. Rose put her arms round her sister, and her tears fell on the sunburned cheek that lay so helpless there, supported only by an arm equally sunburned, and equally exhausted.

"Oh, we will surely be caught," moaned Rose. "Don't you think, when you rest awhile, you can go on, Nellie, dear? You were always so brave, and so strong."

"We have got to stop some time, Rose. Why should we go on like this? I am almost dead for sleep, and I feel as if I could go to sleep right here."

Rose kissed the sad little face, and brushed back the rudely cropped hair, that lay in ringlets on Nellie's head. "It has been awfully hard, little sister," she said; "perhaps we had better give up and go back!"

The words seemed to startle the child, who lay on the sand. Instantly she sat bolt upright.

"Go back!" she repeated. "To that place! We might better die here!"

"Then why should we not see the detectives, and tell them all about it? Surely Aunt Delia will not be allowed----"

"But she has been allowed," insisted Nellie. "Hasn't she treated us badly for years? And who was there to stop her? Who is there to stop her now?"

"Perhaps those young ladies could help us," sobbed Rose. "We may have done wrong to run away from them."

"I did like that dark girl," assented Nellie, rubbing her aching eyes, "and she did say she would see us again."

The two sisters were on an isolated patch of the beach and had been trying to make their way to the railroad station. In taking this sandy walk they had avoided the regular traffic path, but the heavy traveling had been too much for the younger one, who was plainly beginning to feel, and show, the signs of her perilous adventure since the day when she ran away from the strawberry patch of Squaton. It was late in the afternoon, almost dusk, but the happy shouts of the excursionists could be heard for a mile along the beach. Here and there groups of boys who had left the crowds were to be seen digging holes in the sand, and capering about with all their energy, to have their very best fun in that one last hour allowed before the big boat would sail away, and carry them off home again.

"There come some boys," said Rose. "Try to stand up, they will be sure to stop and gawk at us."

Nellie sat up, but made no effort to stand. Presently the three boys came romping along.

As Rose had guessed, they did stop and look at the girls; stared at them not rudely but in wonderment, for Nellie and Rose were too far away from merrymakers to be mistaken for members of the excursion party.

"Oh!" exclaimed Nellie, catching sight of one of the boys.

"Well, I never!" gasped the boy at the same moment. "If there ain't Nellie and Rose!"

"Oh, Andy!" cried Nellie, "do come and talk to us. We are not afraid to trust you. Don't say who we are--don't mention our names!"

The little fellow did not need to be cautioned. Neither did he wait for the invitation to talk to the lonely girls.

"Wherever have you been?" he asked. "Have you heard the news?"

"We haven't heard any _good_ news," replied Rose sadly.

"Then I've got some fer you," said the lad, shaking his manly little head. "The diamonds is found and I got the boodle!"

"Oh!" gasped Nellie. "Found! Then we--won't have to hide any more. Where did you find them?"

The whistle of the excursion boat checked the boy's eager talk.

"Come on!" shouted the other lads to Andy. "If you don't hustle, you'll get left!"

"Well, then I _will_ get left," declared Andy. "I'm going to stay right here with these girls--they're friends of mine."

"Oh, no, Andy, don't," begged Rose. "Run along and catch the boat. We wouldn't know what to do with you, if you got left. Besides your mother would be scared to death. She would think you were drowned."

Andy hesitated.

"Do go," put in Nellie, jumping up and throwing her arms about the boy. "I could just hug you to death, you have made us so happy. And you--look--just fine!"

"Run!" shouted the boys, as the whistle blew. "That's the last call!"

"Run!" called Rose.

"Yes, do run!" pleaded Nellie.

Turning to give the girls a look so full of meaning that even Andy's bright eyes seemed overtaxed with the responsibility, the boy did run as fast as his legs could carry him.

"I'm afraid they will miss it," murmured Rose, as the two sisters, now so changed in expression, watched the boys make their way through the sand.

"Oh, Rose! Aren't you happy!" exclaimed Nellie. "Now we can do as we please."

"But Aunt Delia might send us to the reform school for running away," mused the older girl.

"Oh, I can't think she would do that!"

"But think of all she has done! I am afraid to trust her."

The tooting of the excursion boat could be heard as the vessel steamed out. Wistfully the girls looked over the broad expanse of water, out to the track made by the smoke from the _Columbia_.

"We might have gone back home," sighed Nellie.

"I would rather stay here--I feel we have some friends. Those girls----"

"But why did they chase us about so?"

"They wanted to find us--perhaps. That was nothing against them."

"Do you think the man in the candy kitchen would take us back? The detectives must have gone back on the boat, and we needn't be afraid now."

"Why, Nellie dear, perhaps the detectives are up at that store watching for us. We can't go there unless we want to----"

"Where can we go?" cried the child. "Oh, dear me! What a dreadful thing it is--to be orphans!" and she began to cry.

"There's no use crying," said Rose, although her own eyes were brimful. "We have got to go somewhere for the night."

"Let's go to the cottage--to the automobile girls' cottage."

"I am able to work, and I want to work," insisted Rose stoutly. "They need girls at every hotel, that young lady in the kitchen told me."

"But I am so tired--so hungry--and so--sleepy! Rose, let us sleep right here. We are not afraid of anything now."

"Who are those people coming?" asked Rose as a number of figures could be seen, outlined against the strip of sky that hung over the point of land.

"There's quite a crowd," said Nellie. "I guess we will have to walk along."

But running ahead of the others came a boy. He was waving his cap and shouting something!

"It's Andy!" murmured Rose. "Oh, he got left!"

"And--look there!" cried Nellie. "Those are the detectives after us! We must run! Maybe they don't know the diamonds are found and will arrest us. I should die of shame then. We must run!"

"We can't," replied Rose miserably. "Oh, yes, Nellie. They have us this time," and sinking down in the sand she clasped her hands and looked up. "Let us ask--mother in heaven--to take care of us!" she said reverently. Then they waited until the detectives came along.