the point?" asked Ruth, wonderingly.

"There's no way to get to the top of the rock--or around to the other
side of it, either," declared the runaway. "Look at these clothes! They
are nearly torn off. And see my hands!"

"Oh, you poor, poor thing!" exclaimed Helen, seeing how the castaway's
hands were torn.

"I tried it. I've shouted myself hoarse. No boat paid any attention
to me. They were all too far away, I suppose."

"And did that awful man, Crab, bring you here?" cried Ruth.

"Yes. It was dark when he landed and showed me this cave in the rock.
There was food and water. Why, I've got plenty to eat and drink even
now. But nobody has been here----"

"Didn't he come back?" queried Tom, at last taking part in the
conversation.

"He rowed out here once. I told him I'd sink his boat with a rock if he
tried to land. I was afraid of him," declared the girl.

"But why did you come here with him that night?" demanded Ruth.

"'Cause I was foolish. I didn't know he was so bad then. I thought
he'd really help me. He told me Jennie's aunt had written to my
uncle----"

"Old Bill Hicks," remarked Tom, chuckling.

"Yes. I'm Jane Hicks. I'm not Nita," said the girl, gulping down
something like a sob.

"We read all about you in the paper," said Helen, soothingly. "Don't
you mind."

"And your uncle's come, and he's just as anxious to see you as he can
be," declared Ruth.

"So they _did_ send for him?" cried Jane Ann.

"No. Crab wrote a letter to Silver Ranch himself. He got you out here
so as to be sure to collect five hundred dollars from your uncle before
he gave you up," grunted Tom. "Nice mess of things you made by running
off from us."

"Oh, I'll go back with Uncle Bill--I will, indeed," said the girl.
"I've been so lonely and scared out here. Seems to me every time the
tide rose, I'd be drowned in that cave. The sea's horrid, I think! I
never want to see it again."

"Well," Tom observed, "I guess you won't have to worry about Crab any
more. Get aboard the catboat. We'll slip ashore mighty easy now, and
let him whistle for you--or the money. Mr. Hicks won't have to pay for
getting you back."

"I expect he's awful mad at me," sighed Jane Ann, _alias_ Nita.

"I know that he is awfully anxious to get you back again, my dear,"
said Ruth. "He is altogether too good a man for you to run away from."

"Don't you suppose I know that, Miss?" snapped the girl from the ranch.

They embarked in the catboat and To