“That’s exactly what has happened, Neale,” she returned, in accents which assured both Neale and the others that she was quite in earnest. “Something has broken away! The Isobel!”
Mr. Howbridge came running with Luke. The lawyer’s face was white, for he had heard the girl’s statement.
“You don’t mean that the boat is gone?” he cried.
“So Ruthie says. She is sure,” choked Agnes. “We saw it from up there on the hill.”
Luke and Neale at once dashed away, climbing the hillside with great leaps. But Agnes remained with her guardian.
“We had just found a spring. A good one, too,” murmured the troubled gentleman. “Well, perhaps that is a good thing. If the boat has really drifted away.”
“Oh! It has! It has!” cried the girl. “Everything bad is happening to us. I wish we were at home at the Corner House again.”
“Tut, tut! That is no way to talk,” said Mr. Howbridge, and took her arm as they started in an easterly direction again.
They had not gone far when the two young fellows returned. Both of them looked grave, and Luke said quickly:
“You can’t fool Ruthie. She is always right. That is the Isobel out there and she’s all of two miles away already.”