"Come on," she whispered. "I don't care to stand here." "What's the matter?" asked Bess, noting the change in Cora's face. "Those are--the detectives," she whispered. "I don't want to get in conversation with them. Come on." But both men were looking directly at Cora. She felt it was too late for her to try to escape their scrutiny. "Look! Look!" exclaimed Bess. "There are----" But at that instant two girls behind the glass window in the candy kitchen came forward with their trays of freshly-made candy. Both girls looked through the window--directly at Cora and at the others with her. "Nellie and Rose!" exclaimed Belle. "Oh!" gasped Cora, "if I only could tell them the diamonds are found!" For a single instant the two girls in the caps and aprons stood like statues. Then they evidently saw the two men who stood directly back of Cora. With a scream that penetrated the distance and the glass windows, the two unfortunate girls dropped their trays on the counter, and dashed out of the store into the kitchen, showing fright and terror as they ran. "They saw the detectives," declared Cora. "Oh, I must reach them! But in this crowd!" Some one tapped Cora on the shoulder. It was one of the Squaton detectives. CHAPTER XXIV THE TWO ORPHANS "Oh, Rose! I can't go another step! Let them catch us if they want to. I think I--a--am going to--die!" "Nellie dear, try to keep up. We will be at the station soon. And you know those were detectives from home! Oh, try to keep on!" "I--can't! I've got to stop!" The girl sank in the sand like the poor, tired, frightened little thing that she was. Rose put her arms round her sister, and her tears fell on the sunburned cheek that lay so helpless there, supported only by an arm equally sunburned, and equally exhausted. "Oh, we will surely be caught," moaned Rose. "Don't you think, when you rest awhile, you can go on, Nellie, dear? You were always so brave, and so strong." "We have got to stop some time, Rose. Why should we go on like this? I am almost dead for sleep, and I feel as if I could go to sleep right here." Rose kissed the sad little face, and brushed back the rudely cropped hair, that lay in ringlets on Nellie's head. "It has been awfully hard, little sister," she said; "perhaps we had better give up and go back!" The words seemed to startle the child, who lay on the sand. Instantly she sat bolt upright. "Go back!" she repeated. "To that place! We might better die here!" "Then why should we not see the detectives, and tell them all about it? Surely Aunt Delia will not be allowed----" "But she has been allowed," insisted Nellie. "Hasn't she treated us badly for years? And who was there to stop her? Who is there to stop her now?" "Perhaps those young ladies could help us," sobbed Rose. "We may have done wrong to run away from them." "I did like that dark girl," assented Nellie, rubbing her aching eyes, "and she did say she would see us again."