“You were clever that way, boy,” replied his sister, “but please don’t try it now.”
“Oh, no,” begged Nancy, frightened instantly. “Whatever would we do if you—got lost?”
“Don’t worry, I won’t. No fun in it without ice cream cones. But there’s nary a one on this safety isle. Let’s get in the launch and skirt the edges of the whole place. We can’t possibly beat down bushes on all these piles of rocks.”
“Indeed we can’t,” Dell agreed. “But suppose they didn’t come in here at all? And where could she have left the launch?”
“She could hide that almost any place along here, for the edge has a regular curtain of young trees,” the brother answered. “Nancy, don’t look so dejected. When we find your cousin, maybe we shall find she has gone down to the ideal weight. I believe that’s the main issue with poor old Rosalind.”
“If we don’t find her in any more trouble,” Nancy replied. “But I’m never sure about her when she dashes off with Orilla. This is about the third or fourth escapade she has starred in since I came to Craggy Bluff.”
“I couldn’t count all she has starred in since I came up,” Gar said dryly, as he untied the boat. The girls quickly stepped in and he promptly started up the willing engine.
Each new move in their expedition only brought greater anxiety to Nancy, for in spite of her companions’ insistent attempts at gaiety, she, as well as they, felt that the finding of Rosa was by no means assured.
And it was so lonely, away out there, with shadows closing in from the sky, from the mountains and from the heavy growth of all sorts of trees, high and low, leafy and stark, in their pretty covering of silken foliage, or in their defiant armor of pine needles!
But nothing seemed beautiful; everything seemed sinister, and even the lapping of the waves against the rocks now struck terror into Nancy’s heart.