she has drifted down by accident she
will be drawn over Banksome Weir and be smashed. I'm glad she is only
an old, worn-out thing."

"An old, worn-out thing!" cried Mrs. Rowles, quite wildly. "A poor,
dear child of twelve! What are you thinking of?"

"I was thinking of the _Fairy_. You don't mean, wife--" and he grew
more serious--"you don't mean that you think the child was in her?"

"That is what I do think, Ned."

"Well, that is bad."

"And see," cried Phil, "she must have taken the sculls, for they are
gone too. I know Juliet thought she could manage a boat; she said so
the other day."

Emily was crying. Mr and Mrs. Rowles looked at each other in an agony.
They knew pretty well what must happen to Juliet alone in a boat. She
would be carried rapidly down stream, and the current would draw the
little bark to the weir, and over the weir, and it would be dashed
about by the swirling rush of water, capsized, and its occupant thrown
out. And nothing more would be seen of poor Juliet but a white,
lifeless body carried home.

Oh, it was too sad to think of!

"What can we do? What can we do? What would her own mother do?"

"Hope for the best, Emma," said Mr. Rowles. "If I had another boat I
would send Phil down to look for her. Perhaps the next boat that goes
through would let him jump into the bows."

"I might run down the towing-path," said Phil. "I can run pretty
quick."

"And if you did see her in the _Fairy_ out in mid-stream, how could
you get near enough to help her? No; the only chance will be to ask
some of them to take you down in their boat. Here they come; both
ways."

The lower gate of the lock was open, so that the boat coming up passed
through first. Rowles worked the handles as quickly as he could;
standing on the bank while the lock filled he asked the two gentlemen
in the boat if they had seen anything of a little girl out by herself
on the river.

"No," replied one of the young men; "we only started from just below
Littlebourne Ferry. I have noticed no little girl in a boat."

"Nor I," added the other gentleman. "And I think I should have noticed
such a person, for little girls don't often go out boating alone."

"And an ignorant London child, too," groaned Mr. Rowles. "And many a
time I told her never to think of boating by herself; but she is so
obstinate and so stupid, there is no knowing what she has done. And if
you gentlemen have not met her, she must have got below Littlebourne