“She must have tumbled out and crawled away,” she said. “She can’t be gone! Look in the grass and bushes, children!”
“Wouldn’t she cry if she fell out?” Freddie wanted to know. He had stopped crying when his mother came along.
“She might not cry if she fell on soft leaves and didn’t hurt herself,” answered Mrs. Bobbsey. “Look carefully, children!”
But all the looking in the world would not have found Baby May just then, and it did not take Mrs. Bobbsey long to make certain that the infant was not around the carriage.
“Well, the worst has happened,” she said, and there was the sound of tears in her own voice. “Baby May didn’t fall out. She was taken away!”
“I said she was kidnapped!” declared Nan. “Soon as I didn’t see her in the carriage and didn’t feel her, I knew she was kidnapped! Oh, Mother! what are we going to do? Poor Baby May!”
“I—I want her back!” sobbed Flossie.
“It was that old woman—that old woman with the green umbrella!” exclaimed Freddie. “She took May off, I know she did!”
“I’m beginning to believe so,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “We must do something at once. Call your father, Nan—oh, never mind. Here he comes now!”
Mr. Bobbsey had gone in the house after Nan and the children had departed with their cookies, and now he came out on the porch again. Seeing his wife and the children gathered around the carriage he seemed to guess that something was wrong.