! I've been out in it more than once with Short and Long,"
declared Laura's brother.

"But where can Billy be?" cried Josephine Morse.

"Surely, the poor fellow isn't drowned?" queried Nellie Agnew.

"Oh, don't suggest such a thing!" returned one of the twins. "If you'd
seen how badly his sister felt about his absence----"

"I expect the Longs are all broken up about it. And they have no
mother," said Laura Belding, softly.

"And Billy could swim like a fish," quoth Lance Darby.

"No chance of his being drowned," declared Chet.

"But, do you suppose he sank the boat here to hide it--sank it
purposely?" cried another girl. "Maybe he's hiding here. Why don't they
search the island for him?"

"And the caves?" cried another.

"_I'd_ like to get hold of him," Chetwood Belding said, gravely. "But
Billy never in this world crawled through that basement window and
opened the door for those burglars. I'll never believe it----"

"Not even if Billy said so himself, dear boy?" interposed Prettyman
Sweet.

"I'd doubt it then," rejoined Chet, grimly. "And let me tell you
fellows, this absence of Short and Long is a very bad thing for Central
High. We lost the game with Lumberport just because Billy wasn't at
short; you all know that. I'm mighty glad the game with West High was
called off for to-day. Without Billy Long, Central High is very likely
to win the booby prize on the diamond this season."

"Right you are, Chet," declared Lance Darby.

"I admit Billy is some little ball player," agreed another boy. "But it
looks bad, his running away."

"What would _you_ have done?" flashed out Dora Lockwood, for the twins
had become strong partisans of the absent Billy since talking with Alice
Long, "if that store detective had come and bullied _you_?"

"Put him through the third degree, did he?"

"Yes. And scared him by all sorts of threats. And then, everybody around
the neighborhood got hold of it, and said that Billy was just the boy to
do such a thing," Dorothy broke in.

"He _was_ up to all sorts of mischief," Nellie Agnew observed.

"Never did a mean thing in his life, Billy didn't," declared Chet.

"Come on ashore," said Lance, he and Otto Sitz pulling their heavy boat
in to a sloping landing. "No use gassing here about that old boat. We
can't raise it. But I'll tell Mr. Norman where it is when I go back."

"You're very right, Lance," said Purt Sweet. "It's time to have the
luncheon--don't you think? I'm getti