"To be strictly accurate, dear, no one saw you put off," said the Floweret; "had we done so, of course, we should have interfered, realizing how very unsuitable all conditions are. But Keziah saw you rowing out of the bay in the dinghy, and came running down--she was turning down the beds in yours and Hughie's room----"
"You could have knocked me down with a touch, I was so taken up," put in Keziah. "I screeked out, 'It's never Miss Pamela', and off I went. Mr. Adrian'd come in by then, so I banged on his door and I said----"
"Where is Addie?" put in Pamela anxiously.
"Darling, they are gone after you; you see--" said Mrs. Romilly, trying to smile in a scared sort of way--"the thing is, I don't understand. They'll be all right, of course. They were out after lunch to-day and came back to tea, as you know. The thing that startles me so is----"
"But how did they get on to Messenger without a boat?" demanded Pamela. "I beg your pardon, Mummy--how rude of me to cut in--but I really am so awfully surprised."
"Swam," announced Hughie, with a spring that landed him side-saddle on the top of the sea-wall; then he laughed.
Pamela looked from one to the other with wide eyes; then she suddenly remembered Hughie's plan for catching the Countess.
"Who thought of it?" she asked quickly; "was it you, Midget?"
"Well, you see," explained that young person, "when Addie came down and saw you right out there in the dinghy, he said, 'How in thunder am I to get to the yawl?' and Crow said nothing at all, and I said 'Swim'. Then Addie thought and thought and said 'How's that?' to Crow, and Crow rushed up home to get a bathing-dress----"
"Oh but, Mother," cried Pamela in distress, "what on earth can Crow do on the yawl with no dress--she hasn't got any clothes on board."