Ruth and Alice looked at each other. It seemed almost impossible that there could be this confirmation of the news item they had read, and so soon after arriving at the hotel. Yet such was the fact. "Does any one know what has become of them?" asked Alice, after a pause. "Not the least trace of them has been found," replied the clerk. "Have they made any search for them?" inquired Ruth, looking over her shoulder almost apprehensively, as though she, herself, were out in some swamp, surrounded by perils of all sorts. But only the lighted parlor met her gaze. "Search! Indeed they have!" cried the hotel man. "The parents of the girls have sent out party after party." "With no result?" asked Alice, softly. "Well, they found traces where the girls had evidently landed, but that was all. They seemed to have gone deeper and deeper into the swamp." "How long ago was it?" Ruth wanted to know. "Several weeks, now. It is almost impossible that the girls are alive, though they took a quantity of provisions with them, as they expected to be gone several days." "The poor things!" murmured Ruth. "Tell us more about them. Who are they?" "Mabel and Helen Madison," was the answer. Ruth and Alice cried out in surprise. "Those girls!" voiced Alice. "The ones we met in the train," added Ruth. "It seems incredible!" "Did you know them?" asked the clerk, for the remarks and demeanor of Ruth and Alice were too marked to pass over without comment. "We did not exactly know them," replied Ruth, slowly. "We met them in the train when we were going to the New England backwoods to get moving pictures last winter. One of them had a headache--I think it was Helen." "No, it was Mabel, dear," corrected Alice. "They seemed such nice girls." "They _were_ nice!" the clerk declared. "I did not know them very well, but I have often seen them about the hotel here. Some of their friends stopped here. Their folks live just outside the town." "And you say they went out to get rare flowers?" asked Ruth, as she noted Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon coming into the hotel parlor. "Yes. The girls are real outdoors girls," went on the clerk. "They can hunt and fish, and Miss Mabel, I believe it was, once shot a big alligator." "Alligators! Oh, dear! Are any of the horrid things around here?" broke in Miss Dixon. "Not right around here," was the reassuring answer. "This was out in the swamps." "We are talking about two girls who have disappeared from here, and can't be found," explained Alice, for the story was bound to come out now. "Oh, how perfectly dreadful!" cried Miss Pennington, as the account was completed. "We must be careful about going out alone, my dear," she added to her friend. "Not much danger--you'll always want some of the men along," thought Alice. "What sort of flowers were they after?" Ruth wanted to know.