They will be in a
terrible state; somebody should be here, and Herbert has gone to the
mountains. There is no one else." She now began to walk more rapidly.
"Yes," she said, speaking aloud in the intensity of her emotion, "he
ought to come, anyway. I can't be left here to take any chances. And if
he does not know immediately, he cannot get here today."
She now directed her steps toward one of the hotels, where she knew there
was a telegraph office.
"No matter what has happened, or what has not happened," she said to
herself as she hurried along, "he ought to be here, and he must come!"
The old lady's hand trembled a good deal as she wrote a telegram to Ralph
Haverley, but the operator at the window could read it. It ran: "A
dreadful disaster here. Come on immediately."
When she had finished this business, Miss Panney stood for a few moments
on the broad piazza of the hotel, which was deserted, for almost
everybody was on the beach. In spite of her agitation a grim smile came
over her face.
"Perhaps that was a little strong," she thought, "but it has gone now.
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