AT SUNSET BEACH
The train conductor, who had climbed up on the steps, after helping down
Mrs. Martin and the children, quickly reached up to grasp the signal
cord on hearing the cries of alarm. The cord blew a little whistle in
the cab of the engineer—the whistle taking the place of the
old-fashioned bell.
In an instant the engineer clapped on the brakes, and the train, which
had only begun to move slowly away from the station, came to a sudden
stop.
“What is the matter, madam?” asked the conductor. “Did you leave some of
your baggage in the car?”
“My little boy—William—is in there!” answered his mother. “He must
have gone back up the steps when my back was turned.”
“Well, he’ll be all right. Don’t worry,” advised the conductor, kindly.
“I’ll get him!” offered Mr. Martin, with a laugh. “There was a little
girl with some picture books in the aisle across from William,” he
explained, “and I think Trouble climbed back there to get another look
at the pictures. I’ll get him!”
While some passengers stuck their heads out of windows to find the cause
for the sudden stopping of the train, after it had started, Mr. Martin
and the conductor made their way into the car that had just been left.
But, to the surprise of the father of the Curlytops, William was not in
there. The little girl and her mother, in whom the small lad had been
much interested, were still looking at the picture book, but Trouble was
not in sight.
“That’s queer,” murmured Mr. Martin. “Excuse me,” he spoke to the lady
with the little girl, “but did you see my little boy come back into this
car? He got off with us, but we missed him after we had taken stock of
our bags, and I thought he had climbed back on the train again.”
“No, he didn’t come in here,” said the lady.
“That’s queer!” murmured Trouble’s father.
“Maybe he got in one of the other cars,” suggested the conductor.
“Though he’d have to be pretty lively on his feet to do that.”
“Trouble is pretty quick,” said Mr. Martin.
He hurried out on the car platform and met his wife’s anxious look.
“He isn’t in here,” said the father.
“Oh!” she gasped. “I wonder——”
“There he is! There he is!” suddenly cried Ted and Janet, and a moment
later they all saw Trouble over on the station platform. The little
fellow was standing up on his tiptoes, trying to put a penny in the slot
of a chocolate and gum machine hanging on the wall of the station near
the ticket office.
“Oh, the little tyke!” exclaimed his mother. “He must have slipped away
to spend his penny the moment I set him on the ground off the car
steps.”
“Sorry to have made you all this trouble,” remarked Mr. Martin to the
train conductor. “Very sorry, indeed!”
“Oh, that’s all right!” was the good-natured answer. “We’re used to lost
children on these shore trains in the summer. It’s part of our job to
help hunt for them.”
“I hope you won’t be late on your trip,” went on the father of the
Curlytops.
“Oh, no, we’re about on time. A few minutes more or less won’t make much
difference.”
Once more he pulled the signal cord. There came two small, shrill
whistles in the locomotive cab, the engineer pulled open the throttle,
and once more the cars rolled on their way, taking other vacationists to
other beaches. The passengers pulled their wondering heads in from the
windows and all was as it should be—except for Trouble.
“Oh, you little tyke,” cried his mother, half scolding him, as was
proper, “why did you run away the moment my back was turned, giving us
such a fright? Why did you do it, William?”
She seldom called him William unless he had done something very wrong,
as he had done this time.
“Why did you run away and go over to the platform by yourself, William?”
asked his father.
“’Cause—now—I had a penny,” was the answer. “I had a penny an’ I
wanted to get some candy for the nellifunt!”
“Oh, you and your elephants!” sighed Janet. “Will you ever get over
them?”
“There aren’t any elephants here at Sunset Beach,” said Ted, who was
ready to help his father gather up the bags and bundles, to put them in
a station auto in which the trip was to be made to the cottage the
Martins had taken for the summer.
“Maybe there’s a nellifunt,” said Trouble, who had been brought back
from the candy machine by Janet. “An’ I want my piece of candy for a
penny!”
“Didn’t you get the piece of candy out of the machine?” asked Ted.
“Nope,” and Trouble shook his head. “I put my penny in, I did,” he said,
“but there didn’t any candy come out for the nellifunt!”
“I guess he couldn’t press the handle in hard enough,” suggested Janet.
“I’ll get the candy for you,” kindly offered Teddy. He ran over to the
machine. Trouble’s penny was still in the slot where he had dropped it,
but, as Jan had guessed, the little fellow’s chubby fingers had not been
strong enough to press the pusher handle.
Ted gave it a shove, there was a click, and down on the lower tray
dropped a little square of chocolate in a tinfoil wrapper.
“There you are, Trouble,” his brother said, taking the candy to him.
At last the Curlytops and their relatives, together with the baggage,
were gathered into the auto and a little later they were at the cottage
Mr. Martin had hired for the summer. Norah had been brought down to do
the cooking, but Patrick had been left at home.
“Oh, how near it is to the ocean!” cried Janet as, after the cottage had
been opened, she caught a glimpse of the shining water at the end of the
street.
“May we go down, Mother?” asked Ted.
“Yes, for a little while,” was the answer.
“Me come!” cried Trouble.
“Look after him,” warned Mr. Martin, as William followed his brother and
sister on the run.
“We will,” they promised.
The beach was only a short distance from the cottage which was on a
street running right down to the water. There were several other
cottages on the same street as that on which the Martins’ house was
situated, but some of these cottages were not yet opened, the occupants
planning to arrive later.
“Oh, isn’t it lovely here?” sighed Janet.
“Dandy!” cried Ted.
“I’s goin’ to dig in the sand,” announced William, finding a shell for a
shovel.
“I guess you can’t get hurt doing that,” Janet remarked.
She and Ted strolled along the beach, on which the white-capped waves
were breaking with a rumble, tumble and roar, although the waves in this
big bay were not as high as those on the Atlantic side of the stretch of
land between the bay and the open ocean.
“Oh, look!” suddenly said Jan to Ted. “There’s Mr. and Mrs. Keller! Oh,
I’m so glad we’ve seen them! Come on over and we can show them where our
cottage is.”
“Where are they?” asked Ted.
“Right down there, on the sand. See that old gentleman and lady just
sitting down under the sun umbrella?”
Janet pointed and Ted saw an elderly couple making themselves
comfortable on the sand. They had opened a big red and yellow striped
umbrella, for the sun was beating down on the beach, though not very
hotly, for it was well down in the sky.
“Let’s surprise ’em,” suggested Ted, filled with a sudden spirit of
mischief.
“How?” asked Janet, making sure Trouble was safe playing on the sand,
well out of reach of the waves.
“Let’s go up softly and tip over the umbrella and holler ‘Boo!’”
“All right!” Janet agreed. “They won’t mind.”
“No,” said Ted. “They’re real jolly!”
Brother and sister went on tiptoe across the sand, up behind the big sun
umbrella. Catching hold of one edge of it, Ted tipped it to one side.
Then he and Janet yelled:
“Boo!”
But what was their astonishment to see, looking at them with rather
startled faces, a perfectly strange man and woman. Both had white hair,
but they were not Mr. and Mrs. Keller at all!