Tania. Then, if it is necessary, he will ask
the Cape May authorities to have the police on the lookout for her. If
Tania has wandered off in her sleep, the poor little thing will be
terrified when she wakes up and finds herself in a strange place. Surely,
some one will take her in and care for her until we find her."

Madge and Phil were wonderfully glad to find Tom Curtis up and alone on
his front veranda. He had just come in from a swim. He seemed so strong,
clean, and fine after his morning's dip in the ocean that his two girl
friends were immediately reassured. Tom would tell them just what had
better be done to find Tania.

"Mrs. Curtis's and Philip Holt's window blinds are still down, thank
goodness!" whispered Madge to Phil, "so I suppose they are both asleep.
Let us not tell them anything about Tania's disappearance. They would
just put it down to naughtiness in her, and that would make me awfully
cross."

Tom Curtis felt perfectly sure that he would soon run across the lost
Tania. So he left word for his mother that he had gone to the houseboat
and that she was not to expect him until she saw him again.

For two hours Tom and the houseboat party continued the hunt for the lost
child without calling in assistance. Then Madge and Tom went to the town
authorities of Cape May. The police investigated the city and the houses
in the nearby seaside resort without finding the least clue to Tania.
Toward the close of the long day Tom Curtis began to fear that Tania had
fallen into the water. Cape May is only a strip of land between the great
ocean and the bay, and the land is broken into many small islands nearly
surrounded by salt water and marshes.

Tom managed to get the girls safely out of the way; then, with Miss Jenny
Ann's permission, he had the water near the houseboat thoroughly dredged.
But Tania's little body was not found for the second time down in the
bottom of the bay. It was not possible to have all the water in the
neighborhood dragged in a single day, so Tom said nothing of his fears to
his anxious friends.

It was late in the evening. Miss Jenny Ann had prepared dinner for the
weary and disheartened girls. She had snowy biscuit, broiled ham, roasted
potatoes, milk, and honey, the very things her charges usually loved. Tom
Curtis felt impelled to go back home. All that day he had seen nothing of
his mother or of their visitor, Philip Holt, and Tom was afraid they
would begin to wonder what had b