“Natalie is missing!” exclaimed Mrs. Bonnell. “Marie and I went for a walk in the woods, leaving Mabel and Natalie here. When did she leave you, Mabel?”
“Soon after you started out.”
“That’s nearly two hours ago. And she’s been gone all this time,” commented the Guardian. “Did she say which way she was going?”
“No,” answered Mabel. “I didn’t pay much attention. I was looking after that beef stew, and I didn’t want it to burn, so I kept going in the tent ever so often.”
“I heard Natalie say, when I was over the stove at one time, that she was going into the woods, and I took it for granted that she would follow you.”
“We didn’t see anything of her,” said Marie. “We walked slowly at first, so she could easily have caught up to us.”
“And it’s getting darker,” murmured Alice, who had been over to the boys’ camp, doing a bit of sewing for her brother. She had followed them as they ran to Dogwood in response to the calls.
“Oh, isn’t it too bad!” exclaimed Mrs. Bonnell.
“She’ll turn up all right!” asserted Blake. “Then you didn’t see which way she went, Mabel?”
“No, I was in the cooking tent. But she wouldn’t go off the main path; would she?”