“That is my opinion, too,” said Captain Gould, “and I believe that M. Zermatt and Mr. Wolston have got away with their families.”
“Yes, I am sure of it!” said Jenny positively. “Dolly, dear—Susan—don’t lose heart! Don’t cry any more! We shall see them all again!”
The young woman spoke so stoutly that she brought back hope to them. Fritz shook her hand.
“It is God who speaks through your lips, Jenny dear!” he said.
On consideration, indeed, as Captain Gould insisted, it was hardly to be supposed that Rock Castle could have been surprised by attacking natives, for they could not have brought their canoes by night to land which they did not know. It must have been by daylight that they arrived, and some of the islanders must surely have seen them far enough off to have had time to take refuge in some other part of the island.
“And then again,” Fritz added, “if these natives landed only recently, our people may not have been at Rock Castle at all. This is the season when we usually visit all the farms. Although we did not meet them at the hermitage at Eberfurt last night, they may be at Wood Grange, or Prospect Hill, or at Sugar-cane Grove, in the midst of those thick woods.”
“Let us go to Sugar-cane Grove first,” Frank suggested.
“We can do that,” John Block assented; “but not before night.”
“Yes, now, at once, at once!” Frank insisted, declining to listen to argument. “I can go alone. About twelve miles there, and twelve miles back; I shall be back in four hours, and we shall know what we are about.”
“No, Frank, no!” said Fritz. “I do beg you not to leave us. It would be most foolish. If need be, I order you not to, and I am your elder brother.”