“I’ll go!” called Alice Endicott, ever ready to be obliging.
“So will I,” chimed in Marjorie, joining the other girl and running with her towards the water.
“Where are the canoes?” asked Marjorie, as soon as they had reached the bank. “Wasn’t it about here that we left them?”
The girls stopped short and gazed up and down the stream, scanning the banks on both sides. The canoes were nowhere in sight!
“Marj!” exclaimed Alice, aghast, “can I be dreaming about the time we went for your canoe, and couldn’t find it—or are they really gone?”
“It’s impossible!” protested Marjorie. “Oh, Alice, surely we’re mistaken!”
But as in their previous experience, their first fears were correct. Walking to a point on the shore which projected far into the water, they looked searchingly in every direction; but they saw nothing except the water, the line of the shore, and the wall of trees on either side. Could this be the work of thieves?
Forgetting all about their pails of water, they ran as fast as they could back to the camp, and shouted their news as soon as they were within hearing distance. For they felt that not a moment was to be lost.
Frieda dropped the pan of biscuits she was carrying, and Miss Phillips looked at the girls as if she thought them crazy. And then the scouts began to ask them breathless, excited questions.
“Could we starve to death, Captain?” demanded Doris, nervously.