trial came to her here."

"I don't see why," argued Susie.

"Well, we are made so," said nurse. "Other people's trials are a deal easier to bear than our own. Now you've been good children to-day, and I'll make a surprise for tea as a reward. I'm going to leave you Master Dick for an hour, Miss Susie; and you'll look after him well, and when I wave you'll bring him in. Don't sit down any longer, but have a bit of play on the sand; it's getting chilly, and it looks like more rain."

"All right," said Susie.

She was filled with light-hearted joy, and nurse's praise warmed her heart; nurse so seldom praised her. She helped Alick's wilful legs to the foot of the steps and watched him out of sight.

"I am so very glad I have made up my mind to be good," she said to herself; "it is perfectly easy if you make up your mind. I wish the twins would come and want me to leave Dick, or go on the rocks, or do something naughty. I would just stand here and look at them with my large innocent eyes and my gentle smile, and I would say, 'Never, twins! Nurse has trusted him to me, and I have turned over a new leaf. I would not touch the rocks with my bare feet, not for a king's ransom.'"

"Susie," cried Dick.

"Yes," said Susie impatiently.

"Come here, Susie," he said again—"quick, I'm so wet!"

"Oh, bother," said Susie.

She turned slowly, still inspired by her own eloquence; and there, straight before her, as if they had walked out of the sunset, stood the twins, with black hair waving, and bare, wet legs.

"Come on!" they shouted breathlessly. "It's a perfectly heavenly afternoon for the rocks, but it's awfully late; you've kept us waiting an hour whilst your nurse simply clacked."

"All right," said Susie.

It was really all wrong, but she had forgotten her promises, her resolutions, her boasted courage. At the first demand of the enemy she laid down her weapons and surrendered the fort, and in another moment she too was flying bare-footed over the rocks, with Dick stumbling laboriously after her.

"Susie"—his shrill, faint voice pursued her—"Susie, my shoes is wet; come back!"

"Come on," cried Susie.

"My feet is tired. Susie, it's Dick."

But Susie was far ahead.

"Susie!" he called again.

Wet and miserable, he sat stolidly down upon a rock.

"If Susie leaves me I shall weep," he said out loud.

CHAPTER VIII.

It was growing dusk, and the line of gold upon the sea had merged into the gray twilight around. A drizzling rain fell like a veil between Susie and the shore, and suddenly she remembered that for some time she had not heard Dick's pleading voice. Instantly all the excitement and pleasure of the stolen hour fell away from her, and with a frightened pang at her heart she began a frantic search over the slippery rocks, flying in heedless haste and shouting as she ran.

Her terror and tears impressed even the twins, though they were a little inclined to mock. They too rushed and splashed from rock to rock, making difficult and dangerous leaps that only bare toes made possible. The pools between the rocks were full of water, and there was no yellow reflection now from the wind-tossed sky. Susie felt despairing; but suddenly, almost at her feet, she heard Dick's uncomplaining little voice, "It's me, Susie. I knew you would come back; I am so glad. My toe has got hurt, and I have sitted here till all my clothes has got wet."

"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."

"I'm not a baby," said Dick defiantly.

"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.

"Oh, it doesn't matter," said Susie.

"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.

"I know all about the tide," she said. "I am perfectly certain I can get home all right."

"Oh, you're always perfectly certain," said Dot.

"So I am," said Susie.

"Well, good-night," said Dash. "Don't fiddle about too long with Dick, that's all."

"Good-night," said Susie cheerfully.

She saw the two active figures leaping away into the twilight, splashing from rock to rock, till they became gray and indistinct like moving shadows. She felt suddenly chilled and lonely, and the silence and gloom enveloped them—a forlorn little group in the midst of the growing dark.

"Dickie," said Susie presently, "we must start back before it gets any darker. I think it's going to pour. If I put my arm round you, do you think you can walk?"

"Why, the water would go over my head," said Dick.

He pushed out a fat leg and let it dangle against the rock; already the white spray was splashing over it. Susie stared at it incredulously. When the twins left, it had been a shallow pool, and they had waded through it.

"Oh, hurry up, Dick!" she said, in a sudden panic. "Mother will be frightened."

"It's fun, though," said Dick.

Fun! The word did not seem at all the right word to Susie, but she said nothing. She knew now in a flash what the twins meant by the rising tide, but all she saw was her mother's face with the fear on it.

But Susie had not been the eldest of the little family for so many years for nothing. She knew that, whatever happened, Dick must not get bronchitis, and she put her own fear bravely on one side to think of him.

First she slipped over the rock, and found that it reached her waist, and that every wave made it more difficult to stand. With Dick on her back it would be impossible; and the long links of the chain of rocks stretched such a weary way with those shining pools between. The wind