nd we should find this whole
affair to be the work of a drug-crazed man, dominated by a fixed
idea--that he must steal this young lady away, and, by force if
necessary, make her a sharer with him in a drug orgy. I told you, too,
that I did not believe her life or person in any danger whatever, unless
through accident. And there's another point: This Doctor Garnet should
go to a mad-house, rather than to prison and the electric chair."

The day was drawing to a close now, with the sun hardly an hour high
above the trees that lined the western horizon. Uncle Ichabod declared
that Garnet should have sent help long before, if he had safely reached
Portsmouth. The fisherman gave it as his opinion that the physician must
have met with serious trouble on the way, or that he must have
deliberately deserted Miss Marion. He further suggested that he and the
detective should leave Roy and Ethel for an hour or two, in order to
search along the shore for a possible trace of the missing man. But he
amended this plan a moment later by advising that Roy should take the
girl in the skiff and make sail for the yacht, which was vaguely visible
at anchor some miles away. Afterward, a seaman could bring the skiff
back for himself and Van Dusen.

This proposal met with ready acceptance by all concerned. The lovers
embarked and sailed away while the fisherman and the detectives set
forth on their scouting expedition along the shore. But before starting,
Ichabod pulled off his shoes and stockings and rolled up his trousers.
It was his custom to go barefooted, and he had no mind now to be
handicapped in the long tramp by the foolishness of footgear--suited
only to town and the presence of Sarah Porter.

As he passed among the dunes, Captain Jones heard once again Shrimp's
lusty crowing. He whistled, but the bird remained invisible, only crowed
again, with a note that sounded almost derisive in the ears of his old
master.

Ichabod grieved a little over the defection of his old friend. Then,
quickly, his mood lightened. He would have through the years to come a
companion infinitely more desirable.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SEARCH UP THE SHORE

It was fairly good walking up the shore, so that the two searchers were
able to make excellent progress here. Much of the way the waves had
pounded the beach until it was hard and level as a floor. But in places
the sand was strewn with quantities of sea shells, many of them broken.
These trouble