she who spoke first--quite a conventional inquiry but decidedly to the
point.

"Are you staying in Chagmouth?" she asked.

"We've only come over for the day from Durracombe," answered Merle.

The three strangers looked immediately interested.

"Durracombe! Why, we're going to start school there next week!"

"Never at 'The Moorings'!" gasped Merle excitedly.

"That's the place! Do you go there too? Oh! I say! Do tell us all about
it! We've been just crazy to know what it's like. You two look sports!
What are your names? Are the rest of the school jolly, and is Miss
Pollard nice?"

With such a common interest as 'The Moorings' to talk about, the ice was
completely broken, and the five girls were soon chatting in friendly
fashion.

Mavis and Merle, having given a few details about themselves and how they
often motored over to Chagmouth with Dr. Tremayne, drew in turn some
information from their new acquaintances. The two fair-haired girls, aged
respectively fourteen and thirteen, were Beata and Romola Castleton, and
their father, an artist, had lately removed from Porthkeverne in
Cornwall, and had taken a house at Chagmouth. Their friend Fay Macleod, a
year older than Beata, was an American, whose father had come to Europe
in search of health, and being attracted to Chagmouth by his love of