ma'am, and I won't try it," said Jeff.
"If you're crazy enough to believe anything like that, I could talk all
day and you'd still believe it. Here's the yacht--you're welcome to go
over her and see for yourself. You won't find the girls, because they're
not aboard. That's a good reason, I guess."

"Then let me see Mr. Holmes."

"There you go again, ma'am! Didn't I tell you on deck that there's no
such party aboard, and that I never even heard of him? If you're
satisfied now, we'll be glad to have you go ashore, because I want to
sail. I've got business down the coast."

"I shall not go ashore until I have found my girls," said Eleanor. There
were tears of baffled anger in her voice, and Bessie thrilled with
indignant sympathy at the idea that she was within a few feet of her
best friend without being able to let her know that she was there.

"Then you'll be put ashore--gently, but firmly, as the books say," said
Jeff. "You're dead right, ma'am, kidnappin' is a bad sort of business in
this state, and I don't aim to give you a chance to say we carried you
off with us against your will. Sail we will--and you'll stay behind.
This is my boat, and I've got a right to put off anyone that is
trespassin'."

"You brute!" gasped Eleanor. "Don't you dare to touch me!"

"Will you go of your own accord, then?"

"I suppose I must," gasped Eleanor tearfully. "But you shall pay for
this, you scoundrel! You're tricking me in some fashion, but you can't
deceive me, and you can't keep the truth quiet forever."

Then there was the sound of retreating footsteps, and a few minutes
later Bessie and Zara were released by Jeff, who was grinning as if it
had been a great joke.

"Well, sis, we're off now!" he said. "Come on! I don't want to be hard
on you. Come out here in the passageway, and you can have a look at the
shore as we go off."

He led them to the stern, and to the little cabin, in which was a
porthole. Looking out, Bessie saw the beach indistinctly. The ruined
tents were there, and several of the girls, in bathing suits. And,
swimming slowly to the shore she saw a girl in a red cap, which, as she
knew, belonged to Dolly. How she longed to be able to call to her! But
Jeff was at her side, and she knew that the attempt would be useless,
since he was watching her as if he had been a cat and she a mouse.

A bell clanged somewhere below them, and the next moment there was a
rumbling sound as the machinery was started. At the