Jack called her to the side porch directly after she had had some refreshments.
"What"s worrying you, sis?" he asked kindly, putting his arm around her.
"Oh, Jack, I don"t know. If you hadn"t come!" and she shivered as she thought of that dire possibility.
"Oh, but we did come. We found you much sooner than we thought we would, and I must say you weren"t half so frightened as you had a right to be under the circ.u.mstances. You are one of the bravest girls I ever saw--that"s right and so is that Wild Laurel."
"Oh, I just love her Jack," said Cora warmly, "and if only this other thing about her father comes right, I shall not in the least regret the experience that brought us together. It is a great story, Jack. You know we have still to rescue her father."
"The hermit?" he asked.
"Yes, an outcast, for some mysterious reason. But we shall soon clear that up when Laurel is strong enough to be questioned. I feel so much better," and she kissed him as if he and she were just the babies they felt themselves to be on such occasions.
"Jack," she whispered, a little later, "I am just going to think it is all right. You can count on me. I am not going to have nervous prostration from so small a thing as to-night"s happenings."
"Good, sis," and his second kiss was applause for her own. "Of course, you are the brickiest kind of brick. And so is Laurel, a Russet brick. Isn"t she that?"
"Exactly that," and Cora started toward the room. "She will be a perfectly dear girl when she gets back to civilized ways. Hush, here she comes?"
"Cora," breathed Laurel, who now had on a robe that Belle insisted had been made for her, though her own mother had ordered it for Belle, "Cora, who was the man in the boat that was hurt?"
Wondering how the girl could have escaped overhearing the name Peters, Cora replied:
"A fisherman I believe, but he may not have been much hurt. Folks in such places as these cling to every sensation, and fix it up to suit themselves."
"But how will they find his a.s.sailant?" asked the girl, interested for some unknown reason.
Cora glanced at Jack. "They will look for him of course," Jack replied for his sister.
"Where was he hurt?" Laurel persisted.
"We have no reason to think he was hurt at all," said Jack decidedly. "It"s only rumor, and if you don"t mind my dictation, I should suggest that this be a forbidden subject. It is about the worst thing either of you can think of."
"Right brother, always right!" said Cora. "Now let us go in and try to make the girls happy with a little part of our story. You can trust me, Laurel," she said aside. "I know just what they want to know."
"Oh," breathed Bess, as Cora and Laurel entered the pretty, bright, little sitting room, "is it possible that our troubles are over for one night?"
"No, I see more kinds of trouble ahead," and of course she looked at the irresistible and irrisisting Walter. "Don"t they match?" aside to Belle, whose ideas of color schemes and whose regard for the beautiful were blamed for the inflection of nerves.
"They do," she agreed. "Her hair is just russet-brown, and her eyes hazel. Oh, I have always loved that sort of face when it goes with the olive skin."
"How did you know that I had named her Russet?" asked Jack, touching with mock concern one stray yellow curl that threatened Belle"s sight.
"I did not," she replied, "but I think it suits her exactly. And Walter is all of a shade."
"Oh, Belle. I am going to tell him? Wallie shady!"
"You know perfectly well, Jack Kimball, I said shade--in color."
"Oh, yes. Color blind. Poor, afflicted Wallie. I have often wondered about his neckties. But doesn"t Laurel take to him? And isn"t she a beaut in that bag?"
"Bag! My best kimono! Look what teeth she has when she laughs."
"And you not jealous? Belle I think, after all, I shall have to return to my first love," and he slipped his arm all the way back of her steamer chair, for Jack dearly loved to tease either Bess or Belle, declaring what happened to one twin would react on the other.
"Hazel cannot take her eyes off of Cora. I might be jealous there,"
reported the blonde twin.
"You may "jell" all you like on that score," Jack consented. "But h.e.l.lo! Here"s Paul!"
The tall, dark boy, Paul Hastings, Hazel"s brother, had just entered the door. Instantly he was overcome with the welcome, for while the boys fell to kissing him and smoothing his hair in the most approved lover-like way, the girls crowded around and offered him empty plates and gla.s.ses of flowers, to say nothing of Bess, with the j.a.panese parasol, who stood over his chair while Cora fanned him.
Laurel looked on like one who enjoys a play. There seemed in her eyes something to indicate that such a scene was not entirely new to her, but was for some time forgotten. Presently Cora remembered that Laurel had not met Paul before, and so introduced them. She merely said Laurel in mentioning names, but the omission of anything so unimportant as a last t.i.tle would never be noticed among these young folks.
"Say now, let a fellow breathe" begged Paul, "and also let him puff out a little. There! I feel better! And I just want to remark that I have found the lost canoe!"
At the words "lost canoe" Laurel started. Cora saw her, and slipped over to her side.
"You need not worry, dear. Everything is safe with us," whispered Cora, pressing the other"s hand.
"Our old original! You don"t mean it?" exclaimed Ed.
"None other," declared Paul. "And I wonder you did not find it before."
"Where was it?" asked Walter.
"Tied up to your own dock. I just spied it as I landed."
"Oh, you go on," threatened Jack. "Do you think we are teething?"
"No, jollying," vowed Paul. "I just this minute guessed it."
Without more comment the entire party hurried out the door, and made for the dock. Jack won first place and so held the lantern.
"She"s red," he declared. "While ours was green."
"Just a matter of time," said Paul in his delightfully easy way.
"Most girls are green when they come up here, and--"
Ed"s hand was over Paul"s mouth so he could not complete the joke.
Jack was looking for the tell-tale piece of wood that had been inserted in the end of the canoe to mend a slight break.
"Yep, sure it"s her," he declared.
"SHE!"" yelled the girls. "Jack!" Cora"s voice came, "how can you so shock our English?"
"Pardon me, ladies," he murmured. "But this is it."