our
friends preferred the veranda to the cottage parlors, and some of the
younger ones were strolling about the town or the beach.

Betty had gone down to the latter place, taking Lulu with her, with the
captain's permission, both promising not to go out of sight of home.

"Oh, how lovely the sea is to-night, with the moon shining so brightly
on all the little dancing waves!" exclaimed Lulu, as they stood side by
side close to the water's edge.

"Yes," said Betty; "doesn't it make you feel like going in?"

"Do people ever bathe at night?" asked Lulu.

"I don't know why they shouldn't," returned her companion.

"It might be dangerous, perhaps," suggested Lulu.

"Why should it?" said Betty; "it's almost as light as day. Oh, Bob,"
perceiving her brother close at hand, "don't you want to go in? I will
if you will go with me."

"I don't care if I do," he answered, after a moment's reflection: "a
moonlight bath in the sea would be something out of the common; and
there seems to be just surf enough to make it enjoyable."

"Yes; and my bathing-suit is in the bath-house yonder. I can be ready in
five minutes."

"Can you? So can I; we'll go in if only for a few minutes. Won't you go
with us, Lulu?"

"I'd like to," she said, "but I can't without leave; and I know papa
wouldn't give it, for I had a bath this morning, and he says one a day
is quite enough."

"I was in this morning," said Bob; "Betty, too, I think, and--I say,
Bet, it strikes me I've heard that it's a little risky to go in at
night."

"Not such a night as this, I'm sure, Bob; why, it's as light as day; and
if there is danger it can be only about enough to give spice to the
undertaking."

With the last word she started for the bath-house, and Bob, not to be
outdone in courage, hurried toward another appropriated to his use.

Lulu stood waiting for their return, not at all afraid to be left alone
with not another creature in sight on the beach. Yet the solitude
disturbed her as the thought arose that Bob and Betty might be about to
put themselves in danger, while no help was at hand for their rescue.
The nearest she knew of was at the cottages on the bluff, and for her to
climb those long flights of stairs and give the alarm in case anything
went wrong with the venturesome bathers, would be a work of time.

"I'd better not wait for them to get into danger, for they would surely
drown before help could reach them," she said to herself, after a
momen