"Well, I wasn't sure," Mollie retorted. "And besides, I thought Betty and Allen knew what they were doing——"
"Sh-h!" warned Mrs. Irving. "There's nothing to get excited about. We all want to find the cave, and we are all going to do our best to find it. Remember, we are equally interested."
"Well, but it's very strange that we can't locate that tree," said the Little Captain, a troubled frown on her forehead. "Allen and I were so particular about it yesterday."
"Well, we surely won't accomplish anything by standing here," said Will, a shade impatiently. "Let's travel ahead a little—it seems to me it was farther on."
So they started again, troubled and perplexed and scanning every step of the way. Half an hour later they halted for another conference. The tree was nowhere to be found—neither was the cave. It seemed as if their adventure of the day before had been a dream which had faded and vanished into thin air with the advent of the morning.
"Every place we look at seems to be it, and then it isn't," wailed Amy.
"That's fine English, I must say," Will teased. "Where did you go to school?"
"Oh, for goodness' sake, let her English alone, Will!" Grace admonished. "It isn't that we're interested in just at present. Oh, where has the old thing gone to?"
"I guess it never was," Roy replied gloomily. "We just imagined it."
"Imagined it!" sniffed Betty. "If I thought I had an imagination like that I'd write books or something."