"I'll examine it first. You don't have to come, you know. All you have to do is to be the robber maid, no, I mean the ship-wrecked one. You might [82]be gathering some pebbles for make-believe jewels. You can hide them in that corner and I will discover them. You must be asleep when I come."

Seeing no persuasion was of any avail, Edna watched Louis go off and then set herself to work to gather pebbles. This was rather a pleasant amusement, and she soon had a nice little pile of those which were either milky white, which showed some faint color, or which shone with spots of mica or quartz. Her jewels in order, she began to think it high time to be expecting the robber, so she lay down on the sand to compose herself in pretended slumber.

She lay there for some time, and being tired could almost have dropped off into a real sleep, only that she felt anxious about her cousin. Why didn't he come? "Perhaps he is fishing, or maybe he is talking to the man that owns the boat. The man might have come up and he might be angry with Louis for meddling. I think I'll go and peep."

She crawled out of the cave surprised to find the strip of beach much narrower than she remembered it. Really there was no beach to speak of now, for just as she was venturing out a wave came curling up to her very feet. She retreated, a good deal alarmed. The cave was high enough for her to stand upright, but was not very deep. She stood for a moment watching the water at the entrance. It didn't come so far in the next time, but still it was quite far enough to cause alarm. Suppose the tide were rising and it should come up, up into the very [83]furthest corner of the cave. The thought filled her with terror, and gave sudden purpose to her movements. She would flee while there was yet time. She dashed out, unheeding the water through which she splashed, and which came over her ankles. Her main thought was to climb up the bank and get beyond any possibility of the tide's over-taking her. Scrambling, falling, clutching at the bayberry bushes which fastened themselves securely into the soil, she managed at last to reach the top. From here she believed she could see up and down the coast. But all at once it was made evident to her that she could not see, for a chill grey fog had crept in, and was enveloping land and sea. Strain her eyes as she would there was no house visible, neither was there sign of Louis nor the boat.

[84][CHAPTER VI]
IN THE FOG

For a moment Edna stood still bewildered, then she ran a little way along the bank calling "Louis! Louis!" terrified at receiving no answer. The bank which here reached its greatest height, sloped gently down on the north side, and curved away from the sea, leaving a tiny cove in which Louis had seen the boat. There might be another cave on that side. Edna resolved to go down and investigate.

The going down was much easier than the coming up, for at some distance away the shore was nearly level with the bank, and one had but to walk to reach it, no scrambling necessary. The grass, short and stubbly, was strung with fine mist and at each step Edna grew wetter and wetter, but she did not heed this, for her whole thought was centered upon Louis, and she was imagining all sorts of things. Perhaps he had drifted away in the boat far out of sight. Perhaps the boat's owner had seen him and had borne him off to be locked up for meddling with another's property. Perhaps he was really out there now on the water, hidden by the fog, and was trying to row ashore.

She reached the beach at last. The tide was coming in higher and higher, and was sweeping around [85]the point where the cave was, rushing in and out with a great noise. Edna shuddered as she thought; suppose she had not been able to get away before now and had been hemmed in on both sides by the waves. Once in a while the fog lifted slightly, and she strained her eyes for a sight of the boat. Once she was sure she saw it, but a second view disclosed a lobsterman coming in from hauling his lobster-pots. He rowed steadily, but passed by too far out for the little girl to attract his attention. It had grown very damp and chilly, and the east wind cut like a knife. The child's clothing was wet through and her teeth chattered as she faced the sea. She was not quite sure where she was, for she had never walked so far along the shore, but had reached different places by way of the road. Moreover, the fog hid all landmarks, and there was not even a fisherman's hut to guide her.

At last she made up her mind that it was useless to stand there and concluded that she would best turn away from the shore and try to find the road. She went up the bank again by the easier way and then turned at right angles, stumbling through the stubbly grass and over hummocks. She thought she was going in a straight line, but she was really zig-zagging across the field and bearing toward the north instead of the south.

Suddenly she saw through the veil of mist, a small building ahead. "It must be a fisherman's hut," she told herself. "Perhaps it belongs to the man who owns the boat. I'll go there and see." [86]This gave her a new impetus and she hurried on, and presently was surprised to see that it was not a fisherman's house at all, but a small bungalow, set with back to a grove of trees and facing a small strip of beach. "Why," exclaimed Edna, delightedly, "if it isn't the little bungalow where Miss Eloise lives. Well, I am surprised. I hadn't an idea I was anywhere near it."