situation. "Good joke on
Peggy," Ruth said with a little laugh. "Because she's always the one
that's on hand, no matter who's late."

"Yes, it's certainly a joke on Peggy." And Priscilla also laughed with a
determined heartiness. But with all her air of amusement, she was
conscious of a vague uneasiness.

Just as they reached the knoll they were met by Amy and Elaine. "She's
out in one of the canoes," Amy said quickly, before the others could
explain that their search had been without success.

"Oh!" Priscilla's sigh was expressive of relief. "Well, she'd better
come in now. The old man has harnessed, and it's quite a little after
five."

"We couldn't see her anywhere." Elaine took up the story as Amy was
silent. "But one of the canoes is gone, so, of course, she's taken
Dorothy for a little ride."

The girls were chattering like blackbirds as they went down the slope to
the river. Elaine recalled Peggy's fondness for the water, and Amy
remarked that it was almost a relief to have Peggy behindhand for once,
she had such a mania for looking out for everybody else. The other girls
contributed observations equally important, and each tried to hide from
the others, if not from herself, the fact that her persistent and
voluble cheerfulness was designed to silence the uneasy whisperings of
an anxiety that was waxing stronger, moment by moment.

Aunt Abigail was standing at the water's edge, straining her old eyes
this way and that. For the first time that summer she looked her full
age.

"Call again, girls!" she commanded peremptorily. "It isn't at all like
Peggy to be so late, and worry us this way. I don't like it."

It was really a relief to have some one voice an anxiety so that they
could all unite in demonstrating its utter unreasonableness. But to
relieve Aunt Abigail's mind, they shouted in chorus, "Peggy! Peg-gy
Raymond!" and heard as they listened, the echo repeating their summons
more and more faintly with each reiteration. That was all. No answering
cheery hail. No musical dip of the paddle in the stream.

It was during one of these tense moments of listening that Elaine
started violently, and in spite of the sunburn, which in her case had
not had time to deepen into tan, she turned pale. Instantly she was
bombarded by excited questions.

"What was it? What did you see, Elaine?"

"Why, I guess it's nothing. You look, girls, that dark thing on the
water way over. It isn't--it can't be--"

But it _w