“No, because here Miss Mercer is our guardian. But if they can get us into that other state, no matter how, they can hold us.”
“Oh, I see! And, of course, Miss Eleanor understood right away. When we told the men who had helped us with the fire that you were missing, they said they were afraid you must have been caught in the fire, but Miss Eleanor said she was sure you were on the yacht. And they just laughed.”
“I heard that big man, Jeff, talking to her when she went aboard the yacht.”
“Yes. They wouldn’t let her look for you, and he threatened to put her off if she didn’t come ashore. You heard that, didn’t you?”
“Oh, yes! Zara and I could hear everything she said when she was in the cabin on the yacht. But we couldn’t let her know where we were.”
“Well, just as soon as she could get to a telephone, Miss Eleanor called up Bay City, and asked them to send policemen or some sort of officers who could search the yacht. But we were terribly afraid that they would sail away before those men could get here, and then, you see, we couldn’t have done a thing. There wouldn’t have been any way of catching them.”
“And they’d have done it, too, if it hadn’t been for you, Dolly! I don’t see how you ever thought of it, and how you were brave enough to do what you did when you did think of it.”
“Oh, pshaw, Bessie–it was easy! I knew enough about yachts to understand that if their screw was twisted up with rope it wouldn’t turn, and that would keep them there for a little while, anyhow. And they never seemed to think of that possibility at all. So I swam out there, and, of course, I could dive and stay down for a few seconds at a time. It was easier, because I had something to hold on to.”
“It was mighty clever, and mighty plucky of you, too, Dolly.”
“There was only one thing I regretted, Bessie. I wish I’d been able to hear what they said when they found out they couldn’t get away!”