The landing of Cora and the meeting with her friends was almost
unnoticed. It was the fight, and the possible hope of more of it,
that occupied the morbid crowd.
"Cora! Cora!" the girls were exclaiming, each evidently trying to
be the most exclamatory.
"Where have you been?" asked the ever-wise Hazel.
"Why, just getting Laurel," replied Cora as Belle loosed her hold on
Cora's neck. "Belle dear, be careful," she begged, "my neck is
awfully sunburned."
"We were scared to death," declared Bess, fanning herself with her
handkerchief. "We thought you had been kidnapped."
"No, it was the boat that was kidnapped," replied Cora, "A boat is
more useful than--"
"Now, Cora," interrupted Ed, "just be careful. Didn't we go after
you? And didn't we carry you off?"
Laurel had taken Jack's advice and was resting on an old beam that
lay alongside the dock. She was very pale, as one could see even in
the uncertain light. Yet her sudden restoration to something like
strength might be accounted for by the fact that she had eaten some
food in the hut, the previous fast having weakened her greatly. Or
was it the letter Jack gave her?
"It's wonderful to be back again," remarked Cora. "You have no idea
how far away Fern Island is at night."
"Oh, dreadful!" exclaimed Belle. "I would have died."
"Poor place for dying," put in Ed. "'Twould be like the babes in
the wood, and the birdies and the leaves and all that sort of thing.
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