"I don't want to try!" declared Aldred, with a shudder. "I can't swim, to begin with; and even if I could, I shouldn't venture through those waves. But what are we going to do?" "Stop here till we can get off, I suppose," said Phœbe, shrugging her shoulders. "There's nothing else for it. We're in no particular danger, that's one comfort!" "Let us climb higher up on to the rocks, and perhaps we may find some place a little out of the rain," proposed Myfanwy. After considerable hunting about, they did at last come upon a ledge that shelved over so as to form a kind of cave; and creeping underneath, they squatted as close together as they could. They were feeling the very reverse of jolly. It seemed anything but delightful to be sitting in a cramped position, wet through, without the chance of a meal, and with the prospect of spending perhaps the whole night in such unenviable surroundings. "I'd give a great deal to be back in the classroom, learning my German prep.!" groaned Dora. "I suppose an adventure never feels nice at the time," said Myfanwy. "No. I can't help suspecting that Stanley, and Shackleton, and all the explorers didn't enjoy the fun of the thing until they got home and wrote books about it," agreed Aldred. "It sounds so thrilling when you read it," continued Myfanwy; "but when you're cold and wet and hungry, it takes the romance away." "I wish we hadn't eaten all our sweets," lamented Phœbe; "I'm simply starving!" It had grown rapidly dusk; there was not even light enough to see their watches, but they calculated that the time must be about half-past six. They were not sure when the tide would be at the full, nor how soon it would go down again sufficiently to enable them to cross on to the mainland. "We certainly can't stumble over these rocks in the dark," said Aldred. "Unless there's a moon, we're fixed here until morning." "I can't remember whether there's a moon or not," sighed Dora. "The sun doesn't rise particularly early either--not until about six, I believe." "What will they be thinking at the Grange?" said Myfanwy, whose tears were beginning to wander slowly down her cheeks at the misery of the prospect in store. As to that, no one liked to hazard a guess. In all the annals of the school it had never been recorded that any girls had been lost before; and they knew that Miss Drummond must be in a fever of anxiety on their account. The rain kept on steadily, and the time passed by slowly--very slowly; the long hours seemed interminable. It was most forlorn and wretched to sit crouched under the rock, with the dripping rain beating in upon their wet clothes, listening to the sound of the water dashing below them. [Illustration: FOUR UNHAPPY TRUANTS] "It's like a horrible nightmare," said Phœbe. "I wish I could wake up, and find myself in my own bed in No. 5!" "It's so much worse now it's dark," groaned Aldred.