“How many you want, shipmet?” demanded the quite unmoved old fellow.
“Two!” cried Agnes. “There were only two of them. Two little girls——Oh!”
Ruth had pinched her, and now said, calmly: “Please count out a hundred for us, sir. Here is fifty cents. And please tell us where you saw our little sisters?”
“I seed two small gals, shipmet, down on the flats yonder,” said the clam digger, setting down his basket and squatting with the wooden leg stretched out before him. He began to busily count the clams onto the little platform before the tent.
“Where did they go, sir?” asked Ruth.
“I didn’t take no pertic’lar notice of ’em, shipmet. They had a dratted dog with them——”
“Oh! Tom Jonah is with them. Then they can’t be lost,” gasped Agnes.
“Las’ time I ’member of cockin’ me eye at ’em,” declared the old clam digger, “they was inter a boat right down here below this tent. The dog was with ’em.”
He counted out the last clam, took his fifty cents, and departed. The two older Corner House girls looked at each other. Agnes was very white.
“Do—do you suppose they drifted away in the boat?” she whispered.