y. "Have you been out long?"

"Oh, no, not very--that is, it does not seem long to me," stammered
Dorothy still afraid that she would be caught in some new trap. "I
love the water."

"You seem to," agreed the young man with the college cap. "We have
been out with a searching party. Have you heard of the strange
disappearance of two young girls?"

Dorothy gasped. "Two?" she repeated.

"I suppose we ought to say three, since one from a sanitarium has not
yet been discovered. But the insane, they say, have some weird manner
of attracting self preservation."

"Have they been dragging the lake?" asked Dorothy, her voice all
a-tremble.

"No, not yet, although many have wanted to. But we have so many people
lost in these woods every summer, that we feel it is a case of that
kind. We suppose the girls, who did not go off together, met later
somehow, and in trying to make their way back, got deeper into the
woods."

"And their folks from camp?" asked Dorothy.

"We have not been to see them," said the young man, "but some of the
boys there are friends of ours, and as soon as we have looked this
place over, as well as we can do it, we are going up to Everglade. The
girl's father is an old soldier, and they say he is still a soldier in
this trouble."

Dorothy felt as if she must speak--must ask them to take her back to
the camp, wherever it might be. But suppose they should take her for
that demented girl? No, she must find her way on alone. Perhaps she
could follow them.

By this time the two canoeists had glided on ahead. Dorothy felt as if
her heart would choke her! Then her father was still bearing up,
waiting for her! She must soon reach him!

A shout from the bank, and the two young men turned into shore. "Come
on," some one called. "We have a clew. Get in here. We must get over
to----"

But that was all Dorothy heard, and again she was alone on the lake.

For the space of a moment or so she felt that she had made a mistake,
then came the awful thought of that sanitarium, and the knowledge that
the people from there were searching everywhere for her.

"No, I will go down the lake a little farther. At least I am free
now," she told herself.

It was nearing noon, she could tell by the sun, and she felt the need
of food. Just below her she could see that the lake broadened, and
there she determined to stop.

Her arms were getting stiff, and the sun burned down on her head,
which was uncovered.

"Seems to