"Hoo—hoo!" called a gay voice, and Tod and Dotty turned to see Dolly Fayre flying toward them. She was alone and out of breath from running, but laughing gaily as she joined them.

"I ran away from Tad," she cried. "He went to get some candy, and just for fun, I scooted off. And somebody had said you came this way, Dot, so I followed just for fun. Why, what's the matter?"

Dolly looked in amazement at the group of angry men and at the half-frightened, half-indignant faces of Dotty and Tod.

"Matter enough," Tod said; "you keep out of it, Dolly. In fact, you girls go back to the hotel and leave me to fix things up with these men." Then he suddenly remembered his desire for an amicable settlement, and he said pleasantly, "I guess we can come to terms after the ladies have gone."

"I guess we can't!" said the black-browed man, in a surly tone. "You go back to the hotel, young man, and get that ten dollars, and I'll keep the young ladies here safe until you come back."

"Not much I won't!" cried Tod angrily. "Run on back, girls. Go on—beat it!"

"No, you don't!" and the big man stepped forward and laid his hand on Dotty's shoulder.

"Take your hand off that lady! Don't you dare to touch her," and Tod's eyes blazed as he flung himself toward the big man.

"What is it all about? What is the matter?" exclaimed Dolly, who couldn't understand what she had supposed was a good-natured chat with the fishermen.

"They want us to pay ten dollars," said Dotty, indignantly, "and unless we do, they're going to lock us up."

"Lock us up nothing!" shouted Tod, who was unable to decide himself what was the best thing to do. The arrival of Dolly had complicated his dilemma, for now he had two girls to protect instead of one. He wished Tad had come with her, for the twins were big and brawny for their years and could have made a fair showing of rebellion against the injustice of the fishermen.

Dolly considered the matter gravely. She looked from Dotty and Tod to the rude, unkempt men, and after a few moments' thought she made up her mind. Deliberately she opened a little chatelaine bag that hung at her belt and took from it a ten dollar gold piece. It was her share of the cake prize, for Mr. Rose had changed the twenty dollar gold piece into two tens for the girls.

She looked at the big man with scorn, and holding out the gold piece, she said in cool, haughty tones, "Here is your money; please do not detain my friends any longer."

"Don't you do it, Dolly," cried Tod; "it's an outrage!"

"I know it's an outrage," Dolly said, calmly, "but I prefer to pay the money rather than parley with these people."

Dolly's air of superiority would have been funny, had not all concerned been so deeply in earnest.

"Hoity-Toity!" said the big, ugly man, "you're a fine young miss, you are! You treat us like the dirt under your feet, do you? Well, if so be's you pay our claim, we ain't objectin' to your manner. Be as high and mighty as you like, but give us that there coin."

Without a further word, Dolly dropped the gold piece into the man's grimy, outstretched hand, and the three turned and walked away back to civilisation.

"I'm up and down sorry that I couldn't get you out of that mess better," said Tod, as they went along the boardwalk. "Of course, I'll pay you back the money, Dolly, only I felt mighty cheap to have you advance it. But I had only three or four dollars with me, not expecting a hold-up this morning."

"I don't think you ought to have paid it, Doll," said Dotty.

"'Tisn't a question of ought to," said Tod, seriously. "That's a rough, bad gang. I've heard of them before. I don't know what's the matter with them, but they're grouchy. All the other fishermen around here are fairly good-natured, but this lot is noted for ugly temper and they especially dislike and resent the summer people. I forgot all this, and of course Dotty didn't know it. But I didn't think, and when they supposed the baby was alive, I went ahead with the game without realising it meant trouble."

"Well, it's all right now," said Dolly, "and I was glad enough to give up my ten to ransom you two captives. Of course you won't pay it back to me, Tod, but you can each pay me a third of it and that'll square us all up."

"We'll each pay half," said Dotty, "there's no reason you should pay anything, Doll. You weren't in on this game. And here's another thing, I'm going to buy a new doll for that little girl. You see it's the same as if I stole hers."

"Not at all," said Tod. "She had lost her doll, anyhow. She must have left it there on the bench, and if we hadn't picked it up, somebody would have stolen it sooner or later."

"We can't be sure of that," said Dotty. "And anyway I took her doll, and I lost it for her, and it's up to me to get her another. And that's all there is about that. I've got my gold piece with me, too, and I'm going straight down to the shop and get the doll now."

Dotty was determined, and so the three went to the shop. There was only one place in Surfwood where toys and fancy goods were sold. But this shop was stocked with a high grade of goods and Dotty had no trouble in finding a doll nearly like the one which was now doubtless afloat on the wide ocean. The doll cost five dollars, but Dotty persisted in buying it, as she declared her conscience would never be easy unless she did.

"Now let's settle this thing up," said Tod, as they emerged from the store. "I find I have as much as five dollars with me, counting chicken feed, and I'll pay this to you, Dolly, as my half of the ransom you put up."

"And here's my five," said Dotty, handing over the bill she had received in change for the doll.

Dolly looked dismayed. "Why, good gracious, Dot, then here am I with ten dollars, and you with nothing of our prize money! I won't stand that for a minute, you take this five back, and then we'll be even all round. I rather guess if you get in a scrape like that, I've got a right to help you out."

"Well, I rather guess," said Tod, "that when we tell our folks about this matter there'll be something doing. I think those men ought to be shown up and punished."

"Oh, no," said Dolly. "They're an awful gang. I've heard Father say so, and I'm sure it's better to let them alone than to stir up any further trouble."

And as it turned out the elders concerned in the matter shared Dolly's opinion.

The story was told and Mr. Fayre and Mr. Brown talked over the matter and said they would take it in charge and the children need think no more about it, but they were directed to keep away from that locality in the future and confine their escapades to such portions of the beach and the boardwalk as were inhabited by civilised crowds.

Money matters were straightened out in a way acceptable to all concerned, by the simple method of the two fathers' remuneration of all that had been paid out, and so Dolly, Dotty and Tod found themselves possessed of the same finances they had before the unfortunate episode occurred.

"Dat not my dolly," declared the Chrysanthemum-headed baby, shaking her yellow curls as Dotty offered her the new doll.

"I know it," Dotty said, smiling as she knelt beside the child; "but let me tell you. I found your dolly sitting all alone on a bench, and I was going to bring her home to you. And then,—well, and then, do you know that dolly went out to sea, way out to sea—and I think she's going to Europe as fast as she can get there. And so, I've brought you this other dolly, which is just as pretty."

Goldenhead looked up into the smiling black eyes, and after a moment's hesitation agreed that the new dolly was just as pretty as the departed one, and graciously accepted it.

Goldenhead's mother demurred at the whole transaction, but Mrs. Fayre insisted that the child accept the new dolly and so the matter was settled.

"Tell me everything all about it!" cried Pauline Clifton, rushing to meet the two D's on the hotel veranda. "Wasn't it thrilling? Such an experience! My, I wish I had been with you! And Tod Brown was perfectly fine, a real hero!"

"Didn't do a thing," growled Tod, and Tad who was beside him, said, "Wish I'd been there! then we could have sent the girls flying home and stood up to those toughs!"

"Aren't you splendid!" cried Pauline, but Dolly said, in her practical way, "It wouldn't have been splendid at all, it would have been very foolish for you two boys to think of fighting that crowd of great ugly men! It was a case, where the only thing to do, was to submit to their demand and come away. My father says we did just right."

"Of course, it was the only thing to do," said Tod, "but to me it seemed awful galling."

"Well, we'll never go there again," said Dotty; "and it ought to be a lesson to us not to play jokes on people."

"A lesson that you'll never learn," said Dolly, laughing; "you'll have to have worse experiences than that, Dotty Rose, before you stop playing jokes on people."

"Is that so?" cried Carroll Clifton; "then you're a girl after my own heart. I love to play jokes. Let's put our heads together and work up a good one on somebody."

"Well, this joke isn't on us, anyway," said Dotty, laughing. "We have our ten dollars back again, Dolly, and I say we spend them before we get a chance to lose them again."

"But we're going to spend those for something special. You know they are our cake prizes."

"Oho!" cried Carroll, "did you girls take a prize at a cake walk?"

"Not a cake walk, but we took a prize for making cake," Dotty exclaimed; "and I say, Dolly, let's buy something in that shop where we bought the doll. They have beautiful things there of all sorts."

"Come on," said Pauline, "let's all go, and we'll help you pick out things."

So the two Cliftons and the two Browns and the two D's all started for the shop. It was that sort of summer resort bazaar that holds all kinds of fancy knick-knacks for frivolous purchasers.

"Going to get things alike or different?" asked Tod Brown, as they went in.

"Different, of course," said Tad, "Dot and Dolly never like things alike."

"Don't you really?" said Pauline; "how funny! I thought you were such great friends you always had everything just alike."

"No," said Dolly, "we have everything just different. You see our tastes are just about opposite, I expect that's why we're such friends."

Dotty and Carroll were already studying the things at the jewellery counter, while Dolly was slowly but surely making toward the book department.

"Get a picture," suggested Tad, "here are some good water colours of the sea."

"And here's a coloured photograph of that very fishing place where you were at," said Pauline.

All sorts of ridiculous suggestions were made, and the boys offered jumping-jacks and comical toys to the two spenders.

"Why don't you get a lot of little things, instead of one big thing?" said Pauline; "here are some darling slipper buckles, and I think these little flower vases are lovely."

"No," said Dotty, decidedly, "we're each going to get one thing and spend the whole ten dollars for it. And it must be something that we can keep and use."

"I've made up my mind," said Dolly, calmly; "I'm just looking around for fun, but I know perfectly well what I'm going to get. Do you, Dotty?"

"Yes, of course. I decided before I was in the store a minute."

"What?" chorused the others.

"This is mine," and Dotty went back to the jewellery counter and pointed out a silver-gilt vanity-case.

"Well, of all ridiculous things!" cried Tod; "you might as well have let the fishermen keep your money!"

"'Tisn't ridiculous at all!" Dotty retorted. "Mother told me I could get exactly what I wanted, and I want this dreadfully. I've wanted one for a long time. Don't you think it's pretty, Pauline?"

"Yes," returned Pauline, carelessly. "I have two of them, one real gold and one silver. But I hardly ever carry them."

"Oh, well, you can have whatever you want," said Dotty, good-naturedly; "but this is a treat to me, and I think it's lovely, though of course not grand like yours."

So Dotty bought the vanity-case, and then the crowd followed Dolly to see what might be her choice.

Straight to the bookshelves she went, and pointed to a set of fairy stories. They were half a dozen or more volumes bound in various colours and the set was ten dollars.

"I've been just crazy for these books," she said, with a sigh of satisfaction. "I would have had them for my birthday, only we had our rooms fixed up; and the minute I spotted them I knew I should buy them."

"What a foolishness!" exclaimed Carroll; "how can you read fairy tales?"

"She loves them," said Dotty; "she'd rather read a fairy story than go to a party, any day."

Dolly laughed and dimpled, but stuck to her decision and soon the crowd left the shop, carrying the important purchases with them.

Back at the hotel, they were exhibited, and Mrs. Fayre and Trudy smiled a little at the selection, but said they were glad that the girls had bought what they wanted.