"Have you had any trace of your sister?"
"None at all," he said despondently. "I seem to be up against a stone wall, and so do the lawyers and searchers I have engaged. We get to a certain point, and there we stick. After that, all traces of her are lost."
"Poor little sister! I wonder what she will look like, and what she will be like?"
"Then you never saw her?"
"Only when she was a baby, and I a small chap. I do not remember her. But I have not given up hope yet. Now, how are you all, and what has happened since I went away?"
Betty told him, including the news about the new auto ice boat.
"That sounds interesting," declared Mr. Blackford. "I want a ride in that."
"That's more than I do," spoke Mollie. "I'd rather go in an airship."
"So would I," agreed Grace.
But when the next day, after several false starts, and a breakdown, the motor was finally set in motion on the Spider, the girls were interested enough to come down to look at it.