ats! She had no money; she
could not hope to walk far; in desperation she may have tried to get
away by water."

Mark shook his head, but started obediently. Once he was out of sight,
Janet turned into a side path, and ran like a mad thing to the
lighthouse wharf. The _Comrade_ was gone! And nowhere on the bay was the
white sail visible! Janet raised her eyes and looked at the autumn sky.
The calmness was ruffled near the horizon by ragged little clouds.

"The wind is changing," she murmured, "the oyster boats are coming in.
There is going to be a wicked storm before nightfall." The bland sky
seemed to give the lie to such reasoning, but the trained senses of the
girl could not be deceived. She trembled as if the coming cold already
touched her; her eyes widened, but her lips closed in a firmer line.

Away around the cove, she saw Mark putting out on the bay in one of
James Smith's boats. He was reefed close and was making for the inlet,
up Bay End way. He had discovered from afar the absence of the
_Comrade_.

"If the men see the _Comrade_," Janet thought, "they will think I am
aboard, and no one will worry--but oh! poor, frightened Maud!"

By two of the afternoon the autumn sky was storm-racked. The wind came
up out of the sea with a fury and an icy chill. The oyster boats
scurried homeward, and, afar, Mark's lonely sail was a mere streak of
white in the dull gray.

"Nobody must see me!" Janet mused, clutching her hands close. "If they
have seen the _Comrade_, they will think I am safe with Cap'n Daddy by
now. If Maud's on the bay Mark will find her and bring her home!" With
that thought the girl ran to the house.

Davy met her at the lighthouse door.

"Ye look like ye'd been blown from kingdom come!" he said; "by gum! this
is a breeze. Had yer dinner?"

"Dinner? Oh! yes. I had dinner--all I wanted. I didn't mean to be so
late, Davy, I meant to get your dinner!"

"Yer kinder pale round the gills, Janet." Davy looked keenly at the
drawn face. "Maybe ye eat somethin' that didn't set right on yer
stummick. Better take a spoonful of Cure All, Susan Jane allus thought
considerable of that. I could 'a' sworn I saw the _Comrade_ puttin' off
this mornin'. I thought ye'd taken a flyin' trip to Billy. Seen anythin'
of Mark?"

"Oh! yes. I nearly forgot, Davy, but Mark may not be here to-night.
He's--he's got business over at Bay End."

"How did he go?" questioned Davy, "by train?"

"No! He went in one of James B