“We didn’t exactly explore it,” replied Betty. “We must go there before it gets cold. As senior girls, we ought to be able to get permission to go beyond the place where the breakwater is.”
“In boats?”
“O, no; just around the cliffs toward Greycliff Heights, you know, where all those big rocks are. But I want to have a lot of the girls along.”
Fruit and rich cream were the chief contributions of the farm to the lunch of the seniors. Sandwiches and other good things had been brought from the school. After the lunch, the girls really rested for some time. Senior days are strenuous at times, with many activities and the home stretch of studies, and a day of freedom from lessons is welcomed.
The sun was warm when the girls splashed in the cool waters, swimming out as far as Mickey permitted, or diving from the new diving board.
It was not until the girls were gathering up their different belongings, as the Greycliff approached the school dock, that Betty missed her camera. “I thought you had it, Cathalina,” she said. “Didn’t you tell me that you would look after it?”
“Yes, I did, but when I went to the place you said you left it, it wasn’t there, and I thought you had taken it after all. You were on the boat first, you know.”
After all the girls were out of the Greycliff, the two girls searched the boat, in the hope that some one had seen the camera and brought it, but no camera was there.
“It’s the funniest thing, Cathalina,” said Betty, as they walked up toward the Hall. “I put it right with Lilian’s guitar and Eloise’s ukulele when I said I’d help Miss Perin carry some of her things to the boat, and it wasn’t five minutes after that when you went to get it.”
“Yes, I told you I would, when you passed Hilary and me and said if one of us would bring your camera you wouldn’t have to come back. Then when I went into the summer house to get it, there wasn’t a thing in the whole place but the guitar and the uke. I even looked into the little cupboards. So I thought that you must have found you could carry it and had gone back after it, or told somebody else to get it. I was jabbering to the girls and didn’t notice what you did or I might have seen you go straight on and get on the Greycliff. It’s a perfect shame!”