"Well, maybe she went walking with Rosamond and Nurse Nannie. She's certainly somewhere around. Run away now, King. Mrs. Corey and I are busy."
King walked slowly away.
"It's pretty queer," he said to Hester and the Craig boys; "Mops is nowhere to be found."
"Well, don't look so scared," said Tom; "she can't be kidnapped. If it was your baby sister, that would be different. But Midget has just gone off on some wild-goose chase,—or she is hiding to tease us."
"Perhaps she wrote to Kitty," suggested Hester, "and went down to the post-office to mail it."
"Not likely," said King. "She knows the postman collects at six o'clock. Well, I s'pose she is hiding somewhere, reading a book. Won't I give it to her when I catch her! For she said she'd come out here, right after her practice hour."
A dullness seemed to fall on the Sand Club members present. Not only was Marjorie their ringleader and moving spirit, but somehow King's uneasiness impressed all of them, and soon Dick Craig said, "I'm going home."
King raised no objection, and, after sitting listlessly around for a few moments, the others all went home.
But Tom turned back.
"I say," he began, "you know Mopsy is somewhere, all right."