"How tiresome he is!" said Dot impatiently. "What a tiresome, silly little boy! That's always the way with babies; they spoil all your fun."
"Well, you're very like one. Every one will know now, and a jolly row you've got us into."
"I'll tell you what," said Dash, in a hissing whisper into Susie's ear. "Let's run back to the shore, and then they'll think he went alone."
"Come on, Susie, or we shall be drenched," said Dot. "When once we've got on our shoes and stockings we can easily rush out and rescue him. Look at the white horses, and the waves against the island. We are really a good way out, but we could rescue him in two minutes, and your mother would be _grateful_ to us."
But Susie was not listening. The twins' suggestions beat on her brain, and found no entrance. All the best of Susie--the real, comfortable Susie--brimming over with a love that was almost motherly, was in the kind, quivering face she bent over Dick as he held out his tired arms.
In a minute she was down beside him, stroking and folding him close, till his sobbing breaths were stifled on her shoulder.
"Oh, do come on, Susie!" said the twins; "we can't stay another minute. If you won't leave him you'll be caught, and you will never be allowed to play with us again."
Susie looked up, bewildered, into the twins' anxious faces. What did it matter if she were caught, or blamed, or punished? The idea of leaving Dick, even to make a sensational rescue, never entered her head for a minute. _Leave him_, frightened and alone, out on the dark rocks! As she had herself said, such a little while ago, "not for a king's ransom." She only wanted the twins to go and leave her in peace, and so she told them with that plainness of speech which to Susie seemed to suit the occasion. "Please, please go," she said. "I can carry him quite well after he has rested a little bit."
"You will be found out," said the twins warningly.
"It seemed to matter a good deal a little while ago," said Dot resentfully.
"Nothing matters now," said Susie, "except to get Dick home."
"Well, you can't rest long," said Dash, "because the tide's coming in."
Susie looked vaguely at the island behind her, with the waves splashing against its sides, and then at the glistening rocks that made rough stepping-stones to land. She had no idea about the tides; she only knew that on some days the rocks showed more above the water than on others, but there were always rocks. She shook her head impatiently.