CHAPTER VIAT 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!