“Ruth and Blanche?” Frances echoed, staring at the Guardian. “Why, I don’t know. They weren’t with us!”
“We almost got caught in an earthquake. Frances declares it was one, and that I caused it,” broke in Jane gaily. “Of course she’d—”
“This is not a time to joke,” interrupted Miss Drexal curtly. “The question is, where are Ruth and Blanche. They were with us until a few minutes ago. We were all standing together looking at a flock of crows. I had been telling the girls about a pet crow I once owned. It was only after I had finished that we noticed they were missing. Then we guessed that they had gone to find you two. Tell me quickly what happened over there.”
“That’s queer!” Jane’s gaiety had vanished. She now looked very solemn. In a subdued voice, she recounted what had occurred at the ledge.
“You might both have been killed.” Miss Drexal looked uncompromisingly stern. “I blame myself for allowing you to go. Now we must find the girls. I can’t understand their running off in this strange fashion. It’s not in the least like Ruth.”
“Oh, they can’t have gone far,” encouraged Anne. “Ruth wouldn’t dream of straying away purposely after all you’ve said. Blanche—”
“Make up your mind Blanche is to blame,” asserted the too-candid Jane. “She’s been sulking ever since she tried to upset the canoe this morning and Ruth spoke to her about it. I promised Ruth not to mention it, but I think I ought to tell you. They—well—Blanche may have said something horrid to Ruth while you folks were watching those crows, then started off into the woods just to be mean. Ruth is so—so—good. Of course, she’d run after Blanche and try to put her in a good humor. Ruth has stood a lot from her since we came up here. I don’t know why Blanche is so down on her. I only know she is. I haven’t been blind,” was Jane’s energetic conclusion.
“I must have been,” was the Guardian’s dry comment. “I had no idea such a state of affairs existed. Later on, Jane, I shall ask you to tell me all about what happened in the canoe. Just now we must devote ourselves to finding the girls. We must cover the ground around here in all directions, shouting their names together. As neither you nor Frances saw them, we will first try an opposite direction from the ledge. It is now almost four o’clock. We must work thoroughly but speedily. We can’t risk being caught in this wilderness after dark. But I am sure they will hear us and answer.” It seemed impossible to the Guardian that sturdy, capable Ruth would remain long lost. She was competent to pilot both herself and Blanche.
The search begun, for over an hour the anxious seekers tramped sturdily over the portion of the island they sought to cover, stopping frequently to send forth long, shrill halloos. As is usually the case in going it blind, they expended their greatest effort in a wrong direction. By the time they had returned to the spot from which they had started, the shadows had commenced to thicken in the woods. The day had dawned with a lavish display of sunshine, but by mid-afternoon considerable of its glory had been obscured by banks of grayish clouds in the west. Though no rain had fallen, the glimpses of sky which the foresters caught between the trees were not encouraging. In them they read an early twilight, followed possibly by storm. To go back to Wohelo Wigwam without Ruth and Blanche was hardly to be considered. Neither was the prospect of spending a night on the island, unsheltered, particularly pleasant.
“What shall we do? Where can they be?” quavered Anne, when at a quarter past five the searchers halted, despair written on every face.