Both went back to the others. Mrs. Wolston was pale with fear.
“Have you looked inside the cave?” Captain Gould asked.
Fritz made one spring to the cave and searched every corner of it, but came back without the child.
Mrs. Wolston was distracted. She went to and fro like a mad woman. The little boy might have slipped among the rocks, or fallen into the sea. The most alarming suppositions were permissible since Bob had not been found.
So the search had to be prosecuted without a moment’s delay along the beach and as far as the creek.
“Fritz and James,” said Captain Gould, “come with me along the foot of the cliff. Do you think Bob could have got buried in a heap of sea-weed?”
“Yes, you go,” said the boatswain, “while Mr. Frank and I go and search the creek.”
“And the promontory,” Frank added. “It is possible that Bob may have taken it into his head to go climbing there and have fallen into some hole.”
So they separated, some going to the right, some to the left. Jenny and Dolly stayed with Mrs. Wolston and tried to allay her anxiety.
Half an hour later, all were back again, after a fruitless search. Nowhere in the bay was any trace of the child, and all their calling had been without result.