“We will start in that direction, Mrs. Dorsey. Perhaps at the dairy farm there may be someone who saw them pass.”
“No,” was the doleful response. “The sheriff rode in a bit ago, just before you came it was, and he said he and his men had been there and everywhere in this neighborhood, for that matter, that is, everywhere ’ceptin’ over the Wall o’ Rocks Promintory. The sheriff said there was no use looking there as school girls wouldn’t even think of trying to climb over it. Well, I sure wish you luck. I’ll keep watching out for you to come back. I’ll have plenty to eat waiting for you.”
Benjy was indeed sorry for the good woman who was so crushed by the disappearance of the girls. As soon as the three lads were beyond the confines of the school grounds, Benjy paused. “That Wall of Rocks Promintory is about two miles from here,” he told his companions. “Some of us from Drexel went there last year on a cross country hike. I remember how very steep it was. I have little hope of finding the girls there, and choose it merely because the sheriff mentioned that his men had searched everywhere else.”
Jack Dennison and Dick Beardsley, who were the particular friends of Benjy’s at the military academy agreed that the promintory would not invite the ordinary schoolgirl to scale its jagged and almost perpendicular side. When the top was reached, they stood looking down at the beach that was gleaming in the sunlight. Jack was the first to notice the small hut close to the base of the cliff. Smoke was rising from the chimney and Benjy cried: “Down the trail, boys, and let’s find out what we can from whoever may be there.”
The occupant of the old hut was an ancient fisherman who sat in the shade mending nets. He looked up when he saw the three boys approaching, and, taking his clay pipe from his mouth, he inquired: “Wall, lads, be ye comin’ fer fish? If so, help yerselves. Had a big haul last week.”
Then, noting their anxious expressions, he added: “What’s up? Anything wrong?”
Benjy told of the disappearance of the six girls who had started in that general direction on a hike. Then eagerly, “You didn’t see them anywhere around here on the beach yesterday, did you?”
The old man shook his head. “They might o’ been, now, for all that,” he said. “It’s me as wasn’t here. I’ve been gone down the coast fishing the week past.”
He nodded as he spoke toward the dilapidated dock, and the boys, glancing in that direction, saw an old boat there with patched sail so soiled that it was hard to believe that it might once have been white. “Ye can take The Nancy and cruise along the shore, if ye think ’twill help ye any. I won’t be wantin’ to go fishin’ again for many a day I’m thinkin’.”
“Thank you,” Benjy said. “We will pay you well if we decide to accept your offer.” Then the three lads walked slowly toward the old dock. “If only we had some clue,” Dick was saying, when Jack leaped forward, beckoning excitedly. “Here’s a red feather,” he cried. “Don’t you think it might have blown off a girl’s hat?”