“That boy reads and absorbs so much,” declared Agnes. “To think of his knowing about sea-turtles at all!”
“If we ever come into this locality again,” said Ruth, “I shall want to be informed upon a lot of topics that I never considered of moment.”
“You’d think Neale O’Neil had expected to be cast away on a desert island,” declared the younger sister. “He makes a play of it.”
“He takes it too lightly, I fear,” sighed Ruth. “But let us hope he will not take the search for Tess and Dot too lightly. The poor dears! What might not have happened to them in these two days?”
“Well,” rejoined Agnes, “we know what happened to them for part of the time. They were safe enough when they drifted out of our sight night before last.”
“Safe enough!” repeated Ruth.
“At least, they had not been drowned,” her sister said convincingly. “And I do believe, dear—somehow I feel it!—that nothing actually bad has happened to them. Guardy and the boys will find them safe and sound.”
“I can only hope so. And I hope they find the boat safe and sound as well. If they can finish repairing it——Oh, dear me! Why was I foolish enough the other day to insist upon their stopping in the repair work and finding water first?”
“Well!” exclaimed Agnes.
“I blame myself,” declared the older girl. “If I had been content the engine would have been working and the children could not have drifted away on the Isobel. Dear me! I am always doing something for which I condemn myself afterward.”