“But — how are you going to live?” asked Dick.

“Dad said Jake would give me money to buy food,” said Jo. “But only if I do what he tells me. I don’t like Jake. He’s mean.”

“Who’s Jake?” asked Julian, most astonished at all this.

“Jake’s a gipsy fellow. He knows my father,” said Jo. “He’s always turning up for a day or two, and going away again. If I wait about here, he’ll come and give me five pence or so, I expect.”

“What will he tell you to do?” said Dick, puzzled. “It all seems very queer and horrible to me. You’re only a kid.”

“Oh, he may tell me to go poaching with him or — or — well, there’s things we do that folks like you don’t,” said Jo, suddenly realizing that Dick and Julian would not at all approve of some of the things she did. “I hope he gives me some money today, though. I haven’t got any at all, and I’m hungry.”

Dick and Julian looked at one another. To think that in these days there should be a forlorn waif like Jo, going in fear of others, and often hungry and lonely.

Dick put his hand in the shopping basket and pulled out a packet of chocolate and some biscuits. “Here you are,” he said. “Tuck into these — and if you’d like to go to the kitchen door some time today and ask Joan, our cook, for a meal, she’ll give you one. I’ll tell her about you.”

“Folks don’t like me at kitchen doors,” said Jo, cramming biscuits into her mouth. “They’re afraid I’ll steal something.” She glanced up at Dick. “And I do,” she said.

“You shouldn’t do that,” said Dick.

“Well, wouldn’t you, if you were so hungry you couldn’t even bear to look at a baker’s cart?” said Jo.

“No — I don’t think so. At least, I hope not,” said Dick, wondering what he really would feel like if he were starving. “Where’s this Jake fellow?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere about,” said Jo. “He’ll find me when he wants me. I’ve got to stay on the beach, Dad said. So I couldn’t come to your house, anyway. I dursent leave here.”

The boys got up to go, worried about this little ragamuffin. But what could they do? Nothing, except feed her and give her money. Dick had slipped five pence into her hand, and she had pocketed it without a word, her eyes gleaming.

George was still not home by lunch-time; and now Julian for the first time began to feel anxious. He slipped out to the beach to see if the boat was still at sea. It was just pulling in — and with a sinking heart Julian saw that it was not George and Timmy who were in it, but two boys.

He went to look for George’s boat — and there it was, high up on the boat-beach with many others. George had not been out in it at all!