“That was a right cute trick of you folks, going and coming in a motor-bo-at so they couldn’t get their bearings,” the cap’n went on. “If they’d hove to in their own craft, you couldn’t have got away so spry. I snum I never see a bo-at go slicker than she does, slips through the water like a fish; howsomever, you got the best of the boys that time.” “It was Cousin Rindy’s idea. She couldn’t walk so far, and the boat made it the easiest way to get to the bridge with the whole party.” “So ’twas. Wal, you won’t have to try any more tricks. I’d know as you’ve heard that the boys has sailed for another port, picked up stakes and left Halsey’s, lugged away all their dunnage, too.” Ellen hadn’t heard, but she did not betray her ignorance, only asking, “When did they leave?” “Struck their tents and sot sail early this morning, cal’lated they might come back another year, but, land! you can’t count on young folks. Step in and have a word with my woman, can’t ye?” But Ellen had no notion of stopping, eager as she was to carry home her news. Mabel saw her coming and met her on the porch. “I have a sad, sad piece of information for you,” Ellen exclaimed. “We shall never have the bliss of meeting Robert MacDonald. He and all his comrades have left for parts unknown.” “Really?” Mabel looked her surprise. “Do you suppose they were so chagrined at the success of our little manœuvre that they couldn’t stand the jeers of the populace? We did get the best of them.” “It was diamond cut diamond, it seems to me. Well, that episode is finished. It was fun while it lasted, but it reminds me of some of these modern stories that leave you hanging up in the air. Adieu, Robert!” She kissed her hand in the direction of Halsey’s Island, and the two went in. “Do you know that at last I have persuaded Miss Rindy to go off on a spree with me?” said Mabel as she began to open her mail. “We’re going up to Portland for the day. You know I’ve been begging her all summer, and at last she is going, just to get rid of my teasing, she says. We’re going to ride all over town, do a little shopping, have lunch at that nice hotel, in the dining-room at the top where you get such a lovely view, and then we’ll go to a movie. Isn’t the prospect sufficiently alluring to tempt you to join us?” “Leave this lovely island just to spend the day in a city? No, thank you, ma’am. Moreover, two is company; three is a crowd. You two will have a much better time without me, and it will be exciting to see what you bring home.” “I accept your point of view, but don’t say you were not invited.”