CHAPTER XV
THE TELEGRAM
The morning dawned gloriously bright, and at the first ray of the sunthe girls were up and dressed and ready for the fun of the day.
"I don't know what I'll do if our trunks don't come," worried Amy, asshe took a rather creased white skirt and waist from her suitcase. "Ibrought only one change and a bathing suit."
"Well, as long as you brought the bathing suit, it's all right,"returned Mollie, sticking one last pin in her hair. "I intend to live inmine to-day."
"And, anyway, we can't possibly expect the trunks till this afternoon,"put in Grace; "so I don't see any use in worrying about them now."
"If they don't come to-day, either Mollie or I will go down to thestation and see about them," offered Betty, who was looking as sweet andfresh as the morning itself. "We'll probably have to go down and getthem anyway, since we expressed them through by train and came by motorourselves."
"Oh, well, who cares," cried Mollie, stretching her arms above her headand breathing deep of the salt-laden air. "When we get down on thatwonderful beach, that looks too good to be true, we'll be away from allthe rest of the world and we won't need any clothes but a bathing suit."
"Mother's up," cried Grace, as they stepped out into the hall andsmelled the welcome aroma of coffee. "I thought I heard somebody godownstairs a little while ago."
"But we shouldn't have let her get the breakfast," cried Betty. "Webrought her up here for a rest, not to wait on us."
"She probably didn't sleep very well," said Grace, thinking of Will. "Itreally isn't any wonder."
However, Mrs. Ford greeted the girls with a bright smile when theyentered the kitchen, and when they remonstrated with her for getting upso early she merely laughed at them.
"Why, I haven't cooked for so long, it's just fun for me," she saidlightly, but Grace's loving eyes saw how pale she looked and how sad hereyes were when she was not smiling.
"Game little mother," she whispered to herself.
However, after they had cleared the remains of a remarkably goodbreakfast away, they asked Mrs. Ford to put on her own bathing suit andtake a dip with them.
After a minute's hesitation she agreed, and they ran upstairs eagerly toget ready. They all had black suits, and all but Grace wore snug-fittingrubber caps, designed more for use than looks. Grace wore a rakishlittle Scottish cap affair that was immensely becoming but not at allcomfortable to swim in.
"How do I look?" she demanded complacently, when she turned from aprolonged survey of herself in the mirror and pirouetted slowly beforethem.
"Beautiful, but foolish," Mollie commented succinctly.
"Do you really expect to swim in it, dear?" asked Amy mildly.
"The effect would be altogether stunning," suggested Betty judicially,her head on one side, "if you cocked it just a little further over oneeye so as to obscure the sight completely."
There was a ripple of laughter.
"Oh, you're all jealous," remarked Grace, not at all disturbed as sheturned back to the mirror once more to pull a curl a little morefetchingly over her ear. "I might have known you would be."
"Goodness, anybody would think she was at Palm Beach or some other showplace," cried Mollie, pulling her own plain little cap a trifle lowerover her ears. "If you expect an audience, Gracie, I'm afraid you willbe disappointed."
"Here I am, trying to give you something good to look at--"
But they would hear no more and hustled her with scant ceremony awayfrom the mirror and out of the door.
"Come on!" cried Betty, taking the stairs two at a time. "Let's see whogets to the water first. I'm betting nine to one on myself."
"Goodness, she's as conceited as you are, Gracie," gasped Mollie,following hard on Betty's footsteps. "Here's my chance to take some ofit out of her!"
Grace and Amy, following at not quite such breakneck speed, came out onthe porch in time to see two slender, black-clad figures with vivid redand green caps scrambling down the side of the bluff that led to thebeach.
As they started after them Mrs. Ford joined them and they ran togetherto the edge of the bluff. The slope was not quite so gentle as they hadthought on the night before, and Mollie and Betty were puffingconsiderably when they reached the bottom--which they did at almost thesame minute.
Then, fleet-footed, they sped across the sand toward the inviting waterbeyond, while Mrs. Ford, Grace, and Amy clambered down the bluff intheir turn.
At the bottom they turned, saw Betty and Mollie reach the water's edgeat the same instant--or so it seemed to them--and dash into the greendepths. A moment more and the two black figures were lost to sight andonly two vivid caps bobbed on the surface of the water.
"Do you suppose it's quite safe?" asked Mrs. Ford. "I wish the girlshadn't been in such a hurry."
"Oh you needn't worry about them," Grace assured her. "Betty and Mollieare regular fish in the water, and you know there aren't any meancurrents around here. The beach slopes gradually down so that they can'tget caught in water holes either, so don't worry, Mother," and sheslipped an affectionate hand into her mother's and received an answeringsmile in return.
And, oh, how good that water did feel!
As they waded into it up to their waists, Mollie and Betty came swimmingback, shaking the water from their eyes and cleaving the big comberswith long, powerful strokes.
"Well, who won?" Amy challenged them, as they came within shoutingdistance.
"Tell the truth," added Grace.
"Both of us," yelled Mollie.
"Or neither," Betty answered, getting to her feet and walking the restof the way in toward them. "We couldn't have done better team work if wehad tried. Oh, isn't it glorious?"
"We don't know yet--we're not even all wet," returned Mollie, adding, asa great comber came rushing toward them: "Come on, Gracie, here's a goodone. Let's get under it."
And "get under it" they did, cleaving the water prettily, and in anotherminute were up on the other side of the big wave. They shook the waterfrom their eyes and struck out merrily.
"Don't go too far," Mrs. Ford called after them, and two bare gleamingarms waved back at her.
The hours that followed were just one long delight, and the girls lookedsurprised and a little abused when Mrs. Ford reluctantly called them in.
"Why, it can't be more than eleven," protested Grace.
"And we haven't seen the water for, oh, ages," added Mollie.
"Please, can't we have half an hour more?" Amy added.
Mrs. Ford looked smilingly from one to the other and then at Betty.
"Well, haven't you any petition to make?" she asked of the latter.
"I was thinking," said Betty squinting up at the sun, "that Grace waswrong when she said it wasn't more than eleven. It seems to me to beafter twelve."
"It is," said Mrs. Ford firmly. "Quarter past."
"Well, let's go!" cried Betty, starting toward the bluff. "I don't knowabout the rest of you, but I'm starving to death."
"But we'll want to swim again after lunch, won't we?" protested Mollie.
"Of course."
"Well, then," she argued reasonably, "we don't want to change ourclothes just for lunch, and we can't very well go up to the house indripping bathing suits."
The girls groaned.
"Then we'll have to wait for lunch until we've sat here for hours anddried off," wailed Grace.
"And she hasn't even a box of chocolates!" Betty mocked her. "It is adesperate case, Grace."
With another groan Grace sank into the soft, warm sand while the othersfollowed suit, looking so mournful that Mrs. Ford was moved to take pityon them.
"I dried off long ago," she said, adding, as they looked at herhopefully: "I tell you what I'll do. I'll go up and open a couple ofcans of tongue and make some sandwiches and bring down the cake webought yesterday. And we can have some milk to drink, for I had the boyleave a couple of extra quarts this morning. How will that do?"
"Do!" the girls echoed, wh
ile Grace hugged her mother with vigor. Theeyes of the girls followed her gratefully as Mrs. Ford started off onher work of rescue--at least, that is the way the hungry girls regardedit.
"You know, I have a better appetite than I've had in weeks," announcedMollie, as she dug her toes into the warm sand. "I haven't been eatingmuch lately."
"I hadn't noticed it," commented Grace dryly.
"Well, mother did," returned Mollie spiritedly. "She said she was glad Iwas going away because she thought the change would do me good. I reallyshould have stayed at home, I suppose, and helped mother take care ofthe twins," she added thoughtfully. "I never saw two children with suchan absolute genius for getting into mischief. But when they're caught,they're so cunning and dear and say such quaint things that it is almostimpossible to get angry with them."
"They're adorable," agreed Betty, while all the girls smiled fondly atthought of the twins.
"Just the same," remarked Grace, "although I love them, I'm glad I'm nottheir sister, for I'd never be able to eat a candy in comfort," and thegirls laughed at her.
"It seems so wonderful and peaceful here," said Amy, after a shortpause, "and we seem so awfully far away from the rest of the world. Italmost makes one believe that the war 'over there' is a dream--"
"Or a nightmare," interpolated Mollie.
"Well, it isn't," said Grace, adding, as she dug her toes more deeplyinto the yielding sand: "And if we don't hear more news of Will prettysoon, I'll just die, that's all. I can't stand it!"
"There's your mother," cried Betty suddenly, glad of an excuse to changethe subject. "I think she's calling us, too. Come on, let's go."
Nothing loath, they got to their feet, shook the sand from their suits,and hurried to the bluff where Mrs. Ford stood awaiting them.
As they clambered up toward her they noticed that she looked excited andwas holding a yellow envelope in her hand.
"The trunks have come," she said, as they ran up to her. "A biglumbering red-haired fellow brought them from the station a few minutesago. He also brought this," indicating the envelope in her hand.
"What is it?" they cried, a strange premonition of evil tightening abouttheir hearts.
"A telegram for Mollie!"
Mollie turned a little pale under her tan and took the yellow envelopegingerly, as though it had been poisoned, or contained some T. N. T.explosive.
"Who on earth--" she began, then interrupted herself, and with tremblingfingers tore the envelope open. The girls watched her, wide-eyed andtense.
"It's from mother," she cried, then crushed the paper in her hands andlooked around at the sympathetic faces with eyes grown dark with fear."Girls," she said, "I--I'm afraid to read it--I--"