"My gracious, sakes alive, it has gone!" she exclaimed, pointing a trembling finger toward the river.
"What has gone, Miss Betsey?" inquired Phil. "Don't tell us that anything else besides Madge has vanished."
"But it has," Miss Betsey Taylor insisted. "Where is that little rowboat that you girls call the 'Water Witch,' that is always hitched to the stern of this houseboat? I saw it last night just before I went to bed. Wherever that child has gone the boat has gone with her."
Everyone crowded around Miss Betsey and Phyllis. Tom and David returned from their search on the shore. "I am sure I don't know what it all means," declared Miss Jenny Ann in distracted tones.
"Don't worry so, Miss Jenny Ann," protested Phil. "It only means that runaway Madge went out for a row by herself on the river last night after we went to bed." And Phil's voice was not so assured. "Something must have happened to keep her from getting back home. We shall just have to look along the river until we find her."
Tom was already aboard his motor launch. It took only a few moments to get his engine ready for service. "Come on, Sears and Robinson," he cried, "you can help me by being on the lookout for Miss Morton while I run the boat. I'll go from one end of the Rappahannock to the other unless I find her sooner."
"Let me go with you, Tom, please do," pleaded Eleanor, looking very wan and white in the morning light. "It's too dreadful to wait here on the houseboat with nothing to do."
Tom nodded his consent. He was too busy to waste time in conversation. So Harry Sears helped Lillian and Eleanor to the cabin of the "Sea Gull."
Tom put on full speed, heading his launch up the river. He had been the captain of his own boat for several years. To-day he was unusually excited. The speed limit of his boat was eight knots an hour. Tom tested his motor engine to the extent of its power as he dashed up the river, the water churning and foaming under him.
Eleanor, Lillian, Harry and George looked vainly up and down the shore for a sign of Madge. Tom was going so fast they could see nothing.