"Drifted away! What do you mean?" cried Mr. Mason. "Has anything happened?"
"It's all right, my papa went out in a boat and got 'em!" cried Freddie in his shrill, childish voice, for he heard what his father and Mr. Mason were saying.
"I—I don't understand," said the other lumber dealer, seriously. "Was there an accident?"
"Oh, it wasn't anything," Mr. Bobbsey said. "When I went past your house, near the river, I saw the two girls adrift in a boat, not far from shore. They had floated out while playing. I went after them and your wife, before she showed me this short cut to your place, spoke about an adopted boy, Frank Kennedy, who used to play with the children."
"Oh, I'm much obliged to you," said Mr. Mason, after a pause. "Yes, Frank did look after the girls some. That was he who just ran down the road. But he did better at home than he's doing in my office.
"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, wondering why it was that Mr.
Mason had so severely shaken the boy who had run away.
"Well, I mean that Frank just lost twenty dollars for me," proceeded the lumber man.
"Twenty dollars! How was that?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"I left him in charge of my office, while I was out on some other business," went on the lumber dealer, "and a strange man came in and bought two dollars worth of expensive boards. Frank gave them to him, and the man took them away with him, as they were not very large, or heavy to carry."
"Two dollars—I thought you said twenty!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey.