Then she started off running down the hill, and half-way was checked by a cry from her mother. Pamela stopped and stared--they were waving--all were waving and calling out! _Why_? She waved back, and went on running, noting as she got nearer and nearer what an extraordinary state of excitement seemed to prevail. She remembered also that Adrian, Crow, and the yawl were not there. Somehow or other she had not seen that in the first surprise. Now that she did see it, it came as a shock--a shock with dismay. But even now she did not in the least realize what had happened. She hurried to her mother, and was greeted with--"_Oh_, my little Pam!" and an almost passionate clasp of arms. "Mummy darling, what _is_ the matter? Why is everybody----" "I can*not* understand," Mrs. Romilly interrupted, urgently talking. "I am worried about the others, of course, but the yacht is nice and solid--one feels they are really all right--but who on earth? It’s like witchcraft!" "What is?" demanded Pamela, looking to Hughie, who had come up with Keziah, and was the only person not chattering. "_You_, in the dinghy!" said Hughie, returning her inquiring gaze with eyes so full of meaning that gradually a dawning dread took possession of her mind. She turned to Mrs. Romilly. "Mother, I never went in the dinghy." "Dear child, I see now, of course, but we all thought you’d gone off in her." "Gone off in her! At this time! In such beastly weather--why?" "But, Pam, we saw you go!" "Saw me go!" Pamela echoed the words almost stupidly. "To be strictly accurate, dear, no one saw you put off," said the Floweret; "had we done so, of course, we should have interfered, realizing how very unsuitable all conditions are. But Keziah saw you rowing out of the bay in the dinghy, and came running down--she was turning down the beds in yours and Hughie’s room----" "You could have knocked me down with a _touch_, I was so taken up," put in Keziah. "I screeked out, ’It’s never Miss Pamela’, and off I went. Mr. Adrian’d come in by then, so I banged on his door and I said----" "Where _is_ Addie?" put in Pamela anxiously. "Darling, they are gone after you; you see--" said Mrs. Romilly, trying to smile in a scared sort of way--"the thing is, I don’t understand. They’ll be all right, of course. They were out after lunch to-day and came back to tea, as you know. The thing that startles me so is----" "But how did they get on to _Messenger_ without a boat?" demanded Pamela. "I beg your pardon, Mummy--how rude of me to cut in--but I really am so awfully surprised." "_Swam_," announced Hughie, with a spring that landed him side-saddle on the top of the sea-wall; then he laughed. Pamela looked from one to the other with wide eyes; then she suddenly remembered Hughie’s plan for catching the Countess. "Who thought of it?" she asked quickly; "was it you, Midget?"