If Rosa had been rebellious and uncertain in her conduct, her friends Gar and Dell were just the opposite, it seemed to Nancy. Waiting now a few minutes for Gar to return with his motor boat, Nancy tried to keep down her anxieties by building her courage upon the assistance of Gar, and as he presently hailed her from the landing, she saw that his sister Dell was with him.

“Two heads are better than one,” he said simply, as Nancy stepped into the launch.

“Don’t worry,” Dell remarked. “Gar and I know those islands, although we haven’t had a chance to do any exploring lately.”

“But why should Orilla do that?” questioned Nancy. “She knew perfectly well that Rosa had been exhausted in the water and was unfit for anything but rest.”

190 “You can never ask why, where that creature is concerned,” answered Dell. “She’s the unaccountable. Doesn’t do any real harm but—”

“How awful close she does come to it,” put in Gar, who was tending the smoothly running little engine, as Nancy sat near by and watched.

“This lake turns up real waves, doesn’t it?” she remarked when a sheet of spray swept their deck.

“You bet,” answered Gar, blinking to clear his eyes of the mist.

“I hope it isn’t going to storm,” Nancy added, apprehensively.

“Not right away, at any rate,” answered Dell. “And the islands aren’t far away. Better swing left, Gar. Here comes the steamer from the Weirs.”

The swell from the big steamer struck the Whitecap presently, giving its occupants such a merry ride, that only their present upset state of mind prevented them from keenly enjoying it. Even the excursionists, who191 waved frantically at them, received scant attention in return, for there was no denying their anxiety. They must find Rosa, and they must take her away from Orilla Rigney, no matter what else happened.

Purposely Dell Durand avoided criticizing Rosa to Nancy, but this consideration could not entirely prevent Nancy from expressing something of her own confused opinion.

“You never saw anything like it,” she recalled. “No sooner had Rosa gotten into the boat than Orilla seemed to pounce upon that engine—”

“Like a beast upon its prey,” finished Gar, as a boy would when such a chance for such an expression was so obviously offered.

“She should not be allowed to come over to our side of the lake at all,” went on Dell. “She has no business there and our docks are private property.”

“But the lake isn’t,” her brother reminded her.

“Try Crow’s Nest first,” suggested Dell.192 “That’s a little place and we can scout over it in no time.”

“Think I better—blow?” Gar asked.

“No,” said Nancy. “Can’t tell what Orilla might do if she had time to do it.”

“Right-o!”

With a soft swish through the water the boat glided into shore, with the engine turned off.

Silently the three landed. Gar found a stout young tree to throw his boat rope around and in accord, without the need of questions, each of them immediately faced the little wilderness in a different direction.

“We’ll come together by the big pine—see, right on top of the hill,” Dell suggested, pointing out the big sentinel pine that stood guard over Crow’s Nest.

“Better take a good, strong club,” Gar advised Nancy. “Wait, I see one,” and he made his way through brambles and briars to procure the end of a young birch that had evidently been broken in a storm.

Nancy thanked him, and with the staff began to beat her path through the bushes.193 They did not really expect to find the girls actually hidden in the underbrush, but Orilla’s habits were said to be so unusual that the scouts were prepared to find her busy at almost any camping detail on the island, if indeed it was this island upon which she had landed.

“Do you know that she carries a hatchet in her car?” Nancy asked, when Dell had come near enough for conversation, “I can’t see what she would want with such tools as that.”

“Well, frankly, Nancy,” Dell replied, “I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that she carried a shotgun, for the reputation given her around here is as vague as it is mysterious. Everybody seems to have a different story about Orilla Rigney.”

“Yet she’s—industrious, and honest, I suppose,” pressed Nancy.

“All of that—too industrious. She not only works herself but wants to make the whole world work with her. Perhaps she’s a case of misdirected energy. You know, Nancy, they say nowadays that that’s as bad as sheer laziness,” explained the older girl.

194 Sounds from treetops or from thickets attracted their notice then, and conversation was suddenly discontinued. But no sign of human life rewarded the most careful scrutiny of the searchers.

“I don’t see how they could be around here without making some noise,” Dell remarked.

“Take—no—chances!” hissed Gar, striking a comical poise with his mountain stick held high above his head, and his free arm struck out at right angles. His attempt at humor was rewarded with a wan smile from Nancy, but Dell only............