"What are you about, you two?" said the man, drawing rein with a good-natured laugh. "Tea will be over and done with before you get back. I've got to be back with my missus to look after the farm. I'd advise you to hurry up if you don't want to miss your rations," and before they could answer, or explain the cause of their delay, he had whipped up his horses and had passed on his way, the grating sound of the brakes dying out in the distance.
"We must get back and tell them," said Betty, "and then we must set about a systematic search. I'm thankful those people did not stop to learn what was the matter."
Neither spoke as they hurried back to their companions. Clarissa Kenyon's terror when she heard the children were lost was absolutely ungovernable in its expression.
"Lost!" she cried. "And you two stand here and do nothing?"
She tried to get on to her feet, but the pain in her ankle made her sink back into her seat with a little cry.
"We will do all we can," said Tom quietly, "and we have some little clue in Eva's ribbon."
Clarissa snatched it from him, and covered it with kisses.
"Joseph's coat, Joseph's coat," she said wildly. "Some evil has befallen the child as it had befallen him. Ah! what will become of me if I am to lose her?"
Betty knelt beside her with her arms round her.
"We must neither say it nor think it," she said. "Your brother and I and one or two others are off in search of them. Mother, will you and Clarissa go home? It's quite impossible that you can stay here."