“Did you see him after I came in here?” Janet went on.
“No, he isn’t out here.”
Ted stopped his play in the sand and walked toward his sister. Mrs. Dent and her husband came out to join them.
“This is rather strange,” remarked the lighthouse keeper’s wife. “Does your little brother often run away like this?”
“Yes, lots of times,” answered Ted. “He’s always doing something!”
“I hope nothing has happened,” murmured Mrs. Dent. And, almost without knowing what she was doing, her eyes wandered toward the sea. The ocean was not very rough, but it would not need a very great wave to wash away a little boy like Trouble.
“We’ll soon find him!” called Mr. Dent, in a cheerful voice. “When did you Curlytops last see him?”
“He was with me just a little while ago,” Janet answered. “I was looking at some shells on the beach, and when I picked them up and was calling to Trouble to come along, he wasn’t there.”
“He just wandered away—that’s all,” said the lighthouse keeper. “We’ll find him. He may be behind some of the sand dunes. Let’s look!”
All along the beach were rows of little hills or hummocks of sand, on which grew weeds and coarse sedge grass. It would have been easy for a little fellow to have wandered away amid these hills, with their green growth, and be lost for a time.