The motorboat fairly leaped ahead. In five minutes they were near the empty boat, and Neale shut off the engine entirely. Under the momentum she had gained she slid right up beside the tossing cedar boat.
“Oh, oh!” groaned Agnes. “Where have they gone?”
“Not overboard, that’s sure,” said Neale, cheerfully. “They would have overturned the boat.”
“I—don’t—know,” began Ruth.
“Oh, Ruth!” shrieked Agnes. “Maybe they were not in her after all.”
“But that clam man said he saw them.”
“He didn’t see them in the boat when it was afloat,” said Agnes, clinging to the safer possibility.
“I know. But where else did they go?”
“Down the beach, maybe,” said Neale, slowly.
“The Gypsies have gotten them!” exclaimed Agnes, in despair.