“Now look here, sis!” exclaimed Jack, purposely cross. “This is all nonsense! Natalie isn’t drowned any more than you are! Don’t be silly!”

“I’m not!” she retorted, brought somewhat to herself by his manner of speaking. “But isn’t the boat gone?”

“Of course it is,” he admitted, “and it may be that Nat is in it. But that’s a long way from saying she is drowned. Nat knows how to manage a boat.”

“Then why doesn’t she come home?” asked Alice.

“There you go!” cried her brother. “You girls are all alike—bound to look on the dark side.”

“Well,” tearfully protested Alice, “can you show us a bright side?”

“Of course!” exclaimed Blake. “She may have met some friends, and gone to supper with them. They may have picked her up in their launch.”

“But Natalie wouldn’t go without sending some word to us,” objected Mrs. Bonnell.

“Maybe she did send word, and the person forgot to bring it,” said Jack. “I’ve had that happen to me lots of times. She’ll be found all right, you see.”

“Oh, of course I don’t believe anything serious could happen to her,” said Mrs. Bonnell, “only—well, it is getting late,” and she looked across the dark lake, and a little shiver of nervous fear made her tremble.

“Besides, Natalie doesn’t know any one up here who has a launch, and with whom she would go to supper,” went on Mabel.

“Now, it’s your turn to throw cold water,” objected her brother. “How do you know whom Nat might have met since she’s been up here? You girls aren’t always together, and she may have met some young fellow, and not wanted to tell you about him,” and he looked over at Blake, and nudged Phil.

“That’s right,” chimed in the latter.

“Oh, nonsense!” exclaimed his sister. “Natalie wouldn’t do such a thing as that. Oh, but what can we do?”

“Hadn’t we better notify some one—some of the constables—and have him get up a searching party?”

“Say, those constables aren’t worth their salt,” declared Jack. “They couldn’t find a lost cow, let alone a pretty girl. Why, they couldn’t even find the Gypsy camp, and that was plain enough after you girls got on the trail. The constables are no good!”

“Then what can we do?” asked Mabel. “We must do something to find her. It’s awful to stand around this way and do nothing!” and she stamped her foot in troubled vexation.

“I’ll get those young fellows at the other camp,” said Phil. “Then we’ll start some of them out in the boat, and the rest of us will search through the woods again.”

“I guess that plan is as good as any,” agreed Mrs. Bonnell. “Poor Natalie! I wonder what possessed her to go off by herself?”

“Maybe she got some clue to the lost Gypsy girl?” suggested Jack.

“Oh, you boys!” exclaimed the Guardian. “You are always thinking of clues and trails! Be reasonable.”

“Well, Nat had some good cause for going off, I’ll say that much,” declared Phil, and Blake nodded in assent.

“Go get those other fellows,” suggested Jack. “I’ll bail out a boat, one of ours has sprung a leak.”

“Why not take the launch?” asked Blake.

“Something’s the matter with the carburetor again,” replied Jack. “They might get stuck out in the middle of the lake.”

“That’s a peach of a boat!” murmured Blake. “If we come up here again next year we’ll have our own. This one is out of order half the time. The............