"Oh no," answered Lucy, white and trembling; "Miss Beryl would know better than that. She is very careful is Miss Beryl."
"You have no right to trust to her carefulness," returned Mr. Hollys indignantly. "It is your place to look after them, and you should not have trusted them out of your sight."
They went out of the house. Lucy turned to make further search in the garden, and Mr. Hollys hastened along the road leading to the village. Presently he met a child, and stopped to ask her if she had seen Miss Beryl lately.
Yes, the child had seen Miss Beryl; she had something to tell him, but Mr. Hollys, in his impatience, found it difficult to understand her broad, Cornish speech.
He made her repeat her words again and again, till their meaning grew intelligible. She had seen Miss Beryl on the beach that afternoon; she had been in the cave with Miss Beryl and another young lady and several children, and they had all been looking at a lovely picture.
As he thus made out the sense of her words, Mr. Hollys knew in a moment what had happened. He turned from her, and ran at full speed towards the group of fishermen who stood lounging against the low wall below which the waves were beating. Joe Pollard saw him coming, and stepped forward to meet him.
"Joe," said Mr. Hollys, as he came up white and breathless, "my little daughter is missing. I fear she has been overtaken by the tide in the long cave. Have you a boat at hand?"
A look of fear and pain crossed Joe's honest face as he heard these words. Mr. Hollys could understand that look only too well. He knew that Joe thought the children's fate already sealed, if indeed it was as he feared, and the tide had surprised them in the cave.
"Ay, sir," he replied. "My boat is moored just below, and we can be off in two minutes. But God grant you be mistaken, and the young ladies safe ashore! I saw the other children come up from the beach an hour ago, and I made sure the little missies had gone home too."
Joe led the way down the steps as he spoke, and in another minute they were in the boat. Mr. Hollys seized an oar, and began to pull with an energy stimulated by heart-sickening dread. Not a word was spoken as they rounded the rocks, and made for the mouth of the cave. Already the tide was on the turn, and so strong was the opposing current, that they had great difficulty in effecting an entrance. When at last the boat shot into the cave, they saw no sign of life there. The walls, lined with wet and slimy seaweed, showed the height to which the water had risen. It seemed clear that if the children had been there when the waves burst in, they must have perished.