Mary Frances could see better now, for her eyes were getting accustomed to the darkness.
“Is it you, Puss?” she asked, peering down into the water.
When she saw it was the cat, she quickly let down the rope ladder, and the cat climbed aboard, and fell in a wet heap at her feet.
She lifted him carefully and carried him to the steamer chair. She did not notice that something dropped from his mouth as she lifted him.
She dried his wet fur, and went to the dining-room to get him a drink of water. There she saw a bowl of beef tea, which she took to him. She fed him a little at a time with a medicine dropper which she had found in the bathroom.
At length he opened his eyes.
“Where is it?” he asked.
“Where is what?” asked Mary Frances.
“The lost story,” whispered the cat. “I carried it in my mouth. That is why I couldn’t answer you when you asked who was there.”
“I didn’t see it,” said Mary Frances.