Back to camp they all went. Bunny and Sue felt bad about Tom's being lost. So did the others. Every time Splash would stop in front of a clump of bushes, and bark, as he often did, Bunny and Sue would run up, thinking their friend had been found.
But it would be only a bird, a rabbit or a squirrel that Splash had seen, which made him bark that way. Tom was not to be found.
They waited in camp all the rest of that day, only going out a little way for a row on the lake. Night came, and there was no Tom. It grew very dark, and still he had not come.
"Oh, dear!" cried Sue. "Will he have to sleep out alone all night?"
"Perhaps he'll come back before you are awake in the morning," said Mother Brown. "Anyhow, Tom isn't afraid of the dark, and it is now so warm that anyone could sleep out of doors and not get cold. I think Tom will be here in the morning."
But morning came, and there was no sign of Tom. A lantern had been left burning outside the tent all night, in case he should come. But he did not.
"Well," said Mr. Brown, after breakfast, "there's only one thing to do, and I'm going to do it."
"What is that?" asked his wife.
"I'm going over to Farmer Trimble's, to see if Tom is there."
"Oh, Trimble is the name of the man who wanted to take Tom away; isn't it?"