"If she has come this way, it must have been in the last half-hour. I remember seeing her leave the tea-table when the other girls did, and thought she was with them when they went to get their bikes. I wasn't more than twenty minutes mending that puncture, so that we weren't more than half-an-hour behind when we left. And we've most likely reduced that, for we've covered the ground quicker than she could, I bet."
"Then, if she has not passed here," Duane demanded, "where is she?"
"There's only one turning she could possibly have mistaken for the Frattenton road. You remember the one where that cottage was."
She turned to one of the men.
"Where does the road to the right, a little way back, go to?"
"That!" replied the man. "That don't lead to nowhere, miss. That be only a road fur th' farm carts. It ends in a sheep track across th' downs."
"And how far on is Frattenton?" inquired Duane.
"Barely two miles, miss."
"Well, if she has passed here she's there by now all right," remarked Kitty. "Only, supposing she's taken the wrong road and is wandering over the downs now? I know what downs are."
"We'd better make inquiries at the cottage," said Duane briefly.