Penny started to reply, then thought better of it. There was no point in arguing with Mrs. Deline. However, she was certain she had seen the widow at the lighthouse. Why the woman should deny it she could not imagine.
After Mrs. Deline had gone, Penny and Louise searched in vain for the missing ring. They knew it could not be many inches away, yet it kept eluding them.
“Oh, I can’t afford to lose the ring!” Louise wailed.
“How valuable is it?”
“It’s not worth much from a money standpoint. I drew it as a prize in a piece of wedding cake and I’ve always kept it as a good luck piece.”
“We’ll find it,” Penny said confidently. “That is, if the tide doesn’t catch us first.”
Just as she spoke, a wave came rippling up the beach. It broke only a few feet away, showering the girls with spray and wetting their shoes.
“If the tide flows over this spot, I never will find the ring,” Louise cried in vexation. “Such wretched luck!”
“Having trouble?” inquired a deep masculine voice.
Penny and Louise raised their heads. Unnoticed by them, a stranger had approached. The man wore a wet bathing suit plastered with sand. He had on glasses and a moment elapsed before Penny recognized him as the same fisherman who had warned her about the tide at Crag Point.