resently shriveled up into a
small brown patch, like a flying pancake, and then went entirely out of
sight, she said "Pooh!" very contemptuously and felt quite brave again.

[Illustration: "'IT IS A SHELF!' SHE EXCLAIMED."]

"It wasn't half so solemn as I expected," she went on, chattering to
herself; "I certainly thought there would be all kinds of phenomeners,
and, after all, it's precisely like nothing but a big basket of old
clothes, blowing away. But it's just as well to be saved, of course,
only I don't know where I am any more than I did before. It's a kind of
wooden floor, I think," she added, stamping on it with her little shoe;
"and, dear me! I verily believe it's nothing but a shelf. It _is_ a
shelf!" she exclaimed, peeping cautiously over the edge; "and there's
the real floor ever so far away. I can never jump down there in the
world without being dashed to destruction!"--and she was just thinking
how it would do to hang from the edge of the shelf by her hands and then
let herself drop (with her eyes shut, of course) when a little party of
people came tumbling down through the air and fell in a heap close
beside her. She gave a scream of dismay and then stood staring at them
in utter bewilderment, for, as the party scrambled to their feet, she saw
they were the Caravan, dressed up in the most extraordinary fashion, in
little frocks and long shawls, and all wearing sunbonnets. The
Highlander, with his usual bad luck, had put on _his_ sunbonnet
backward, with the crown over his face, and was struggling with it so
helplessly that Dorothy rushed at him and got it off just in time to
save him from being suffocated. In fact, he was so black in the face
that she had to pound him on the back to bring him to.

[Illustration: "THE HIGHLANDER, WITH HIS USUAL BAD LUCK, HAD PUT ON HIS
SUNBONNET BACKWARD."]

"We're disguised, you know," said the Admiral, breathlessly. "We found
these things under the bed. Bob Scarlet isn't anywhere about, is he?" he
added, staring around in an agitated manner through his spy-glass.

"About?" said Dorothy, trying to look serious. "I should think he was
about five miles from here by this time."

"I wish it was five thousand," exclaimed Sir Walter, angrily, smoothing
down his frock. "Old Peckjabber!"

"Why, what in the world is the matter?" said Dorothy, beginning to laugh
in spite of herself.

"Matter!" exclaimed the Admiral, his voice fairly trembling with
emotion; "why, look here