“And shall we have to walk to Boston?” asked Rose.
“And leave this good chaise? I think not; though I hardly know how we can remain here,” said Mr. Freeman.
For an hour or more they searched the near-by woods and up and down the road, but there was no trace to be found of Lady, nor did they find anything to tell them of how she had vanished.
“Your mother told me that it was no time for a visit so far from home,” said Mr. Freeman, “and if Lady is indeed stolen I shall have good reason to wish that I had stayed at home. I hardly dare send you girls along the road alone, but if I leave this chaise it may disappear as Lady has done.”
“Where could we go, father?”
“We are not far from Scituate, and any of the settlers who have a horse would come back and get the chaise,” he answered. “I do not know of any harm that could befall you if you keep in the highway.”
“Of course we must go,” Rose decided quickly, and Anne looked at her friend admiringly, thinking, as she so often did, that she would like to be exactly like Rose Freeman.
In the excitement of discovering that Lady had disappeared Rose had dropped all the pretty shells she had gathered, but Anne was holding her skirt tightly clasped.
“Put your shells in the lunch basket, Anne,” said Mr. Freeman; “I’ll pick up those you have dropped, Rose. We shall reach Boston some time, and you will be glad of these to remind you of an adventurous journey,” and his smile made the girls ready to start off with better courage.