idn't want to.
Don't be angry with Susie. Nurse often said, 'I can't think where you get
your stockings in such a mess.' But the twins asked Susie, and she went;
often and often she didn't want to--"

"Poor Susie," said Mrs. Beauchamp.

"And you needn't think she's drowned," said Tom, "because Susie knows
quite well how to walk on seaweed. She wouldn't be such a silly as to be
drowned."

Tom's testimony and the policeman's! She alone--Susie's mother--had been
faithless and unbelieving. She began to regain her confidence in Susie.
She got up a minute later with a more hopeful smile. As she shook out her
wet umbrella she stooped to kiss Amy's eager face.

"It is so much easier to find four people than two," she said,
"particularly when two of them are twins, and one wears a scarlet jersey.
Some one must have seen such a noisy crew, and there is less chance of
their having disappeared."

"Susie isn't such a silly as all that," said Tom, with serene confidence.

Mrs. Beauchamp's eyes shone, and when Tom opened the door she looked out,
over his head, into the deepening night. A few stars had struggled
through the clouds, and the moon shone fitfully above the island. It
looked very big and black and peaceful, and Mrs. Beauchamp paused for a
moment and looked back at it.

"_If_," she said to herself, and then again "_if_" out loud.

But whatever the disturbing thought might be, she would not give it
entrance. She fixed her mind resolutely on the twins and the red jersey,
and pinned her hopes on the police inspector.

CHAPTER X.

But it was extraordinarily difficult to find any clue to the missing
family, and the long, miserable hours passed, and brought Mrs. Beauchamp
no nearer to the twins. She trudged up and down the Parade, to the police
station, and down the steps to the beach, over and over again, with feet
so tired that they almost refused to carry her.

The wet pavement reflected the flickering gas-lamps. One by one the
lights in the windows were put out, and late visitors hurried home. She
clung to the policeman's solid tramp with a lingering hope, but she was
growing desperate; and over everything was the fine rain, coming in gusts
from a cloudy sky, wetting her hair, her face, and soaking her skirts. It
was a miserable night, and the police inspector deeply sympathized with
her. He went along the town road and cross-examined the policeman. He
made inquiries and issued orders, and took upon himsel