use,
but had shown the absence of his little cap, coat and rubbers.

"And he has gone out! Out into the storm!" cried Mrs. Billette on
Mollie's shoulder. "Oh, my little Paul!"

"There, there, Mother, we'll find him!" declared Mollie, more bravely
than she felt. She had dried her own tears under the stress of looking
after her mother.

"Of course we shall!" affirmed Will. "Scatter and search now. Get more
lights!"

Fortunately Mollie had some of the pocket torches and soon the little
party of searchers was going about the house. In the mantle of
newly-fallen snow it would seem to be an easy, matter to pick out the
child's footprints and at least trace in which direction he went.

Will was the first to locate them, and a joyful whoop told of his
success.

"Here they are!" he called. "He came out of this side door, and headed
for the river----"

"The river!" screamed Mrs. Billette, clutching at Mollie's arm.

"Hush, Mother! It is frozen over, you know. He can come to no harm, I'm
sure."

"Oh, Will, hurry! Do! Find my little baby!" cried the frantic mother.

Will dashed on, followed by the others. They kept their electric torches
aglow, and could easily trace the line of tiny footsteps, since no other
persons had passed down this way over the Billette property to the
frozen Argono.

A sound near the boathouse attracted Will, and he turned in that
direction, seeing instinctively that the steps led there. Then he saw a
flash of light in the structure where, in addition to some craft owned
by Mollie, was stored Betty's motor boat, the _Gem_.

"Are you in there, Paul?" cried Will.

They all waited anxiously for the answer.

"Ess," was the childish answer. "What oo want? I goin' way off in boat.
I goin' be Robbyson Tuso."

"Oh, Paul!" reproached his mother. But her voice showed relief.

They pushed open the side door of the boat house, which had been left
unlocked that day--inadvertently, it seemed--as a man was doing some
repairs to Betty's craft.

They saw Paul gravely seated in the boat, which he had managed to get
into by means of a chair. He had a lantern with him, taken, it
developed, from where Isaac, the furnace man, had left it for a moment
in the Billette kitchen. And Paul was gravely playing that he was
Robinson Crusoe, starting off on a voyage.

"Oh, Paul, how could you frighten mamma so?" asked Mollie, as she caught
him up. "You should be punished!"

"Pichure in my book about Robbyson Tuso.