About a quarter of his speech was intelligible to Dorothy. She asked rather at random:
'What is scran?'
'Scran? Tommy, food. I can see you ain't been long on the beach, kid.'
‘Oh…Well, you want me to come down hop-picking with you, is that it?'
'That's it, Ellen my dear. Are you on, or are you off?'
'All right,' said Dorothy promptly. 'I'll come.'
She made this decision without any misgiving whatever. It is true that if she had had time to think over her position, she would probably have acted differently; in all probability she would have gone to a police station and asked for assistance. That would have been the sensible course to take. But Nobby and the others had appeared just at the critical moment, and, helpless as she was, it seemed quite natural to throw in her lot with the
