"I must go and see about Margaret. I feel too mean for anything!"
"Wait just a minute and see these islands. Aren't they pretty?"
They were indeed, and of assorted sizes,—some, tiny disks of green—some, larger, with low grassy banks extending out from the copse like a green fringe—and beyond, the wooded shores of St. Joseph which looked as if it might be the mainland. But Bess would not stay to see.
She was not gone long. When she came back she looked cautiously around and went close up to him.
"Margaret is gone!"
CHAPTER XX
SELF-CHAPERONED
"Gone! Gone where?"
"Don't talk so loud. She got off at Detour, and is going back to Mackinac on the down boat this afternoon."
"Why, how could she have got off at Detour?" he asked incredulously. "We saw every living soul that left the boat. There was only one woman."