"Does any one know what has become of them?" asked Alice, after a pause.
"Not the least trace of them has been found," replied the clerk.
"Have they made any search for them?" inquired Ruth, looking over her shoulder almost apprehensively, as though she, herself, were out in some swamp, surrounded by perils of all sorts. But only the lighted parlor met her gaze.
"Search! Indeed they have!" cried the hotel man. "The parents of the girls have sent out party after party."
"With no result?" asked Alice, softly.
"Well, they found traces where the girls had evidently landed, but that was all. They seemed to have gone deeper and deeper into the swamp."
"How long ago was it?" Ruth wanted to know.
"Several weeks, now. It is almost impossible that the girls are alive, though they took a quantity of provisions with them, as they expected to be gone several days."
"The poor things!" murmured Ruth. "Tell us more about them. Who are they?"
"Mabel and Helen Madison," was the answer.