cently," said Betty,
adding, reasonably: "If he hopes to get all that money from your mother
he isn't going to take a chance on losing it by harming the twins."

"I know," cried Mollie, stopping in her restless promenade to regard
Betty. "But how in the world is mother going to raise any such sum of
money? Twenty thousand dollars--why, we haven't that much ready cash in
the world!"

"But he doesn't know that," Grace pointed out. "And as long as he keeps
on hoping--"

"But how long is he going to keep on hoping?" cried Mollie, turning on
her. "He knows mighty well that if mother had that much money she would
move heaven and earth to get it together and get the twins back. And the
very fact that she hasn't--"

"Oh, but that doesn't always follow," Betty broke in eagerly. "There are
a great many people who, even if they had the money, would try to bring
the rascal to justice before they submitted to blackmail."

"But not my mother," Mollie insisted.

"But the kidnapper doesn't know that," Grace put in. "And he will
probably lie mighty low for a few weeks, knowing that the police are
hunting for him."

"For the next few weeks, yes," admitted Mollie. "But he isn't going to
wait forever, and when he finds out that mother can't raise the money
what would be the natural thing for him to do? Get the twins out of the
way, of course," she said, answering her own question.

"But there is always the chance--yes even the probability--" insisted
Betty, "that before very long the police will be able to find the fellow
and recover the twins."

"Yes," Grace added, "that kind of criminal is never very clever, you
know. They are bound to leave something undone that will incriminate
them."

Mollie groaned and sank into a chair.

"And in the meantime," she said, "all I have to do is just to sit here
and wait and act as if nothing had happened. Oh, I can't! I've simply
got to do something!"

"Well, I'm sure I don't know how a girl can do anything that the police
can't," sighed Grace, adding wistfully: "Goodness, wouldn't I like a
chance to be happy again!"

"I guess we all would," said Mollie moodily.

They were silent for a long time after that, each one busy with her own
unhappy thoughts and no one noticed that the sun had gone under a cloud
and that the wind was rising.

It was the increasing thunder of the waves on the rocks that finally
startled them into a realization of the present.

"There's a fearful storm comin