They tested every conceivable hypothesis. They dug up the entire zone of suspicion--it being loose sand and easy to handle. On the plea that a valuable ruby ring had been lost overboard while fishing, they dragged and scraped the bottom of the Bay for a hundred yards around. All without avail. Nothing smiled on them but the weather--it had remained uniformly good until the last two days before. Then there had set in, from the North-east, such a storm of rain as they had never seen. The very Bay seemed to be gathered up and dashed over the Point. They had sought refuge in the hotel, when the first chilly blasts of wind and water came up the Chesapeake. As it grew fiercer,--and a negro sent out for information returned with the news that their tents had been blown away, and all trace of the camp had vanished--it was decided that the quest should be abandoned. "It's a foolish hunt, anyway!" said Croyden. "We knew from the first it couldn't succeed." "But we wanted to prove that it couldn't succeed," Macloud observed. "If you hadn't searched, you always would have thought that, maybe, you could have been successful. Now, you've had your try--and you've failed. It will be easier to reconcile yourself to failure, than not to have tried." "In other words, it's better to have tried and lost, than never to have tried at all," Croyden answered. "Well! it's over and there's no profit in thinking more about it. We have had an enjoyable camp, and the camp is ended. I'll go home and try to forget Parmenter, and the jewel box he buried down on Greenberry Point." "I think I'll go with you," said Macloud. "To Hampton!" Croyden exclaimed, incredulously. "To Hampton--if you can put up with me a little longer." A knowing smile broke over Croyden's face. "The Symphony in Blue?" he asked. "Maybe!--and maybe it is just you. At any rate, I'll come if I may." "My dear Colin! You know you're more than welcome, always!" Macloud bowed. "I'll go out to Northumberland to-night, arrange a few matters which are overdue, and come down to Hampton as soon as I can get away." * * * * * The next afternoon, as Macloud was entering the wide doorway of the Tuscarora Trust Company, he met Elaine Cavendish coming out. "Stranger! where have you been these many weeks?" she said, giving him her hand. "Out of town," he answered. "Did you miss me so much?" "I did! There isn't a handy dinner man around, with you and Geoffrey both away. Dine with us this evening, will you?--it will be strictly _en famille_, for I want to talk business." "Wants to talk business!" he thought, as, having accepted, he went on to the coupon department. "It has to do with that beggar Croyden, I reckon." * * * * * And when, the dinner over, they were sitting before the open grate fire, in the big living room, she broached the subject without timidity, or false pride.