"And you needn't think she's drowned," said Tom, "because Susie knows quite well how to walk on seaweed. She wouldn't be such a silly as to be drowned."
Tom's testimony and the policeman's! She alone—Susie's mother—had been faithless and unbelieving. She began to regain her confidence in Susie. She got up a minute later with a more hopeful smile. As she shook out her wet umbrella she stooped to kiss Amy's eager face.
"It is so much easier to find four people than two," she said, "particularly when two of them are twins, and one wears a scarlet jersey. Some one must have seen such a noisy crew, and there is less chance of their having disappeared."
"Susie isn't such a silly as all that," said Tom, with serene confidence.
Mrs. Beauchamp's eyes shone, and when Tom opened the door she looked out, over his head, into the deepening night. A few stars had struggled through the clouds, and the moon shone fitfully above the island. It looked very big and black and peaceful, and Mrs. Beauchamp paused for a moment and looked back at it.
"If," she said to herself, and then again "if" out loud.
But whatever the disturbing thought might be, she would not give it entrance. She fixed her mind resolutely on the twins and the red jersey, and pinned her hopes on the police inspector.
CHAPTER X.
But it was extraordinarily difficult to find any clue to the missing family, and the long, miserable hours passed, and brought Mrs. Beauchamp no nearer to the twins. She trudged up and down the Parade, to the police station, and down the steps to the beach, over and over again, with feet so tired that they almost refused to carry her.