" he asked.

"You don't suppose that I saw him go?" asked Helen, with surprise.

"Do you know that it is after eleven o'clock?" said her brother. "If they
went no further than that crazy man's island, what do you suppose is
keeping them?"

"Mercy's sake! is that the time, Tommy-boy? Why, the crazy man himself
must be keeping them! Do you suppose the King of the Pipes has captured
Ruth and Chess?"

"Don't try to be funny," advised Tom. "It may be no laughing matter."

"Well, I like that!"

"I don't think that Chess would keep her out so late if everything was
all right. Sure they were not going to Copley Island?"

"Sure. The girls have gone away. There's no fun going on there."

"Well, of course the motor-boat may have broken down. Such things
happen," said Tom reflectively.

"Now you have got me stirred up," cried Helen. "I had no idea it was so
late. And Ruthie does not believe in late hours."

"She would not stay out on the river with me half the night, that is
sure," grumbled Tom.

"Oh, Tommy-boy!" exclaimed his sister, "I don't believe she cares so much
for Chess. I really don't."

"Well, that is not here nor there. What's to be done? Where's Mr.
Hammond--or Willie?"

"They haven't got back from Chippewa Bay with the _Gem_."

"This clumsy old _Tamarack_ is too big for me to handle alone. And the
boys have all gone to bed by this time."

"The canoes aren't too big for us to handle," Helen said.

"Us?"

"Yes. I insist on going, too, if you start out to look for the
_Lauriette_. And it will look better too. If we are simply paddling
about, there being nothing the matter with Chess and Ruth, they won't be
able to laugh at us. Come on!" exclaimed Helen, picking up her sweater.
"I am a loyal sister, Tom Cameron."

"Right-o!" he agreed, more cheerfully. "I suppose there really is nothing
the matter. Yet, whatever else Chess Copley is, he's not the sort of
fellow to keep a girl out till midnight on the river when there is nobody
else along."

"Humph! Do you think Ruth is a mere chit of a flapper? You are
old-fashioned, Tommy-boy. The day of the chaperon is about over."

"You know it isn't over in our set, and never will be," he returned. "You
girls have a lot of freedom, I admit. But there are limits."

"Baa!" was Helen's utterly impudent remark.

They ran down to the shore and got out one of the canoes. Helen was
familiar with the use of the paddle and served her brother as a good
second. They