call to me when you've finished, and
perhaps I'll come up; but I won't promise, because I like the shore the
very best of all."

CHAPTER XIV

On the Rocks

"Our train will start at half-past six," said Miss Lincoln, when tea was
finished, and the girls were standing in little groups in the hotel
garden, wondering what to do next. "All who like may go on to the beach
again, or on to the cliffs, but no one must walk farther than the white
farm near the flagstaff. You must return immediately you are told, and
be at the station by a quarter past six."

The girls dispersed, some to wander along the shore to find a few more
shells, mermaids' purses, or strips of ribbon seaweed; some to climb to
the top of the cliff by the flagstaff; and others to play games on a
piece of common near the white farm that Miss Lincoln had appointed as a
boundary beyond which they must not venture. Patty, who was hunting for
sea anemones in the small pools among the rocks, noticed Muriel and her
friends, Maud, Vera, and Kitty, hurrying as fast as they could along the
beach in the opposite direction from the village.

"Where are you going?" called Phyllis Chambers, who was engaged in
taking down the bathing tent.

"Oh! nowhere in particular," they replied, stopping as if they had been
rather caught; "only just for a little stroll, to say good-bye to the
waves."

"You mustn't go beyond the next point of rock; Miss Lincoln said so."

"Miss Lincoln said nothing about the shore. She said the white farm on
the cliff," replied Maud, rather sulkily.

"Well, that rock is exactly underneath the farm."

"We were only going to peep round the point. It wouldn't take five
minutes," said Muriel.

"I can't allow it, all the same," said Phyllis, firmly.

"I'm sure Miss Lincoln never meant----" began Kitty Harrison, but she
was interrupted by Phyllis.

"Miss Lincoln has put me in authority for this afternoon. I have her
orders, and I tell you you're not to go."

Looking very cross and disconsolate, the four girls sat down on the sand
a little distance away, to grumble and discuss the situation.

"I don't believe Miss Lincoln meant exactly what she said," declared
Kitty.

"I'm sure she didn't. It's only Phyllis who's so proud of being prefect,
and likes to show her authority," agreed Maud.

"I don't see why we should do as she tells us; she's only a schoolgirl
like ourselves," said Vera.

"I expect she wanted to be nasty, and pay us