“I guess _no_ girl would fall in love with this horrid creature who says we stole her ticket.”
“She is not of a lovable disposition, that is sure,” agreed the purser. “Her name is Miss Miggs. I hope you will not see her again.”
“Oh! you don’t suppose she will try to make trouble for us ashore?” Ruth cried.
“I will see that she does not. I will speak to the officers who I expect are awaiting the boat’s arrival. They have already communicated with us by wireless about that boy.”
“Wireless!” cried Helen. “And we didn’t know you had it aboard. I certainly would have thanked Tom for those roses. And then, Ruth! Just think of telegraphing by wireless!”
“Sorry you missed that, young ladies. The instrument is in Room Seventy,” said the purser, bustling away.
“‘Too late! too late! the villain cried!’” murmured Helen. “We missed that.”
“Never mind,” said Ruth, smiling. “If we go back to New York by boat we can hang around the wireless telegraph room all the time and you can send messages to all your friends.”
“Because I won’t have any money left by that time,” Helen declared ruefully. “Goodness! how much it does cost to travel.”
“It does, I guess, if you practise such generosity as you have practised,” said Ruth. “Do use a little judgment, Helen. You tip recklessly, and you buy everything you see.”
“No,” declared her chum. “There’s one thing I’ve seen that I wouldn’t buy if it was selling as cheap as ‘two bits,’ as these folks say down here.”
“That old maid school marm from New England,” Helen replied promptly.
“There you go! Pitying her already! How do you know that she won’t try to have us arrested?”
“Goodness! we’ll hope not,” said Ruth, as they surged toward the gangway with the rest of the disembarking passengers, the boat having already docked.
The crowd came out into the sunshine of a perfect morning upon a bustling dock. There was a goodly crowd from the hotels to see the newcomers land. Some of the passengers were met by friends; but neither Nettie Parsons nor her aunt were in sight.
The porter who carried the girls’ bags, however, handed them over to a hotel porter and evidently said a good word for them to that functionary; for he was very attentive and led the chums out of the crowd toward the broad veranda of the hotel front.