"All right," returned Roberts; "give Mr. Burnet the ticket, please." Rowles stooped down and gave the old gentleman the ticket for the lock, and then the two boats passed out into the open stream. The lock-keeper went indoors to ask if dinner was ready. "Quite ready," was Mrs. Rowles's cheerful reply. "Call the children in, will you, Ned?" He went out by the backdoor into the garden, and saw how the sky was clouding up from the south-west. "Rain coming; bring on the scarlet-runners and the marrows. Phil-lip! Emil-ly! Jule-liet! Come in to dinner." Then Philip appeared, hot and tired from digging; and Emily came with some needlework at which she had been stitching in the intervals of watching her brother. The holidays had begun, and they were thoroughly enjoyed by these children. "And where is Juliet?" "I don't know," answered Emily. "Well, you must bring her in. Mother says dinner is quite ready." "I think she must be in our bed-room," and Emily went upstairs to seek her cousin, and to wash her own dusty little hands. But Juliet was not in the attic. "Then she must have gone into the lodgers' rooms," said Mrs. Rowles. But there was no sign of her in those shut-up rooms; no sign of her anywhere in the house, nor in the garden, nor on the eyot at all, nor on the towing-path as far as could be seen. "What can have become of her?" CHAPTER VI. MISSING! "Well, well," said Mr. Rowles, "never mind; we must eat our dinners without her. She would not miss her share of this cabbage if she knew how tasty and juicy it is." Mrs. Rowles sat down very unwillingly. If the child was not on the island where could she be? It was very strange. "She has no idea of time," Mr. Rowles went on, between mouthfuls of the cabbage. "I'm not going to blame her for that; she only takes after her father, who does not know day from night." They had a dull meal, being more anxious about Juliet than they cared to confess to each other. They thought she might have gone up the towing-path, or down the towing-path, or by the road towards the village, or by the fields towards the station. And at every sound from outside someone went to the door peering out with the hope of seeing the child. But an hour passed, and no Juliet appeared. Then her aunt became seriously anxious, dreading lest some terrible thing should have happened. "If she had fallen into the lock--" said Mrs. Rowles. "We should have heard her scream," said Mr. Rowles. "If she had been kidnapped by gipsies," said Emily; "but then--" "There are no gipsies about," said Philip. Mrs. Rowles now began to think that Juliet must have set off to go home. "We have not been kind enough to her, poor child, and she can't bear it any longer."