Five minutes after the "Sea Gull" moved away David left the houseboat and went on shore.
"Where are you going, David?" called Phyllis after him.
"I am going to look for Miss Morton along the river bank," he answered in a surly fashion. "Anybody ought to know that if an accident happened to her rowboat, the boat would have drifted in to the land."
"I am going along with David Brewster, Miss Jenny Ann," announced Phil. "It's mean to leave you and Miss Betsey alone, but I simply can't stay behind."
David's face grew dark and sullen. "I won't have a girl poking along with me," he muttered.
"You will have me," returned Phyllis cheerfully. "I won't be in your way. I can keep up with you."
At first David did not pay the least attention to Phyllis, who kept steadily at his heels. Phyllis could not but wonder what was the matter with this fellow, who was so strange and taciturn until something stirred him to action.
Only once, when Phil stumbled along a steep incline, David looked back. "You had better go home, Miss Alden," he remarked more gently. "I'll find Miss Morton and bring her to you." And Phil, as Madge had been at another time, was comforted by the boy's assurance.
"I am not tired," she answered, just as gently, "I would rather go on."
At one o'clock David made Phyllis sit down. He disappeared for a few minutes, but came back with his hands full of peaches and grapes. He had some milk in a rusty tin cup that he always carried.