"Then we shall serve sentence for house breaking also."
"Oh, gracious!" Esther stumbled over the root of a tree and nearly fell. But the doctor only walked the faster. They scrambled together down the steep path and over the stretch of rocky beach to where the tiny float lay a black oblong on the water. The boat house was beside it.
"Eureka!" cried the doctor, springing forward.
But the door of the boat house was open and the boat was gone.
CHAPTER XIII
It is a fact infinitely to be regretted, but the doctor swore!
"Well, did you ever!" exclaimed Esther. She was a little tired and more than a little excited, a condition which conduces to hysteria, and collapsing upon the end of the float she began to laugh.
"I wish," said the doctor judicially, "that I knew exactly what you find to laugh at."
"Oh, nothing! Your face—I think you looked so very murderous. And you did swear—didn't you?"
"Beg your pardon, I'm sure," stiffly.