“It certainly was. You see it was this way,” he explained, and Grace felt sure they would ask her why she was so pale, for the blood had left her cheeks on hearing that the young men were really those she had suspected. “Harry, here, and myself,” went on Mr. Kennedy, “had been out for a little run, to transact some business. We were on a country road, and a storm was coming up. We put on speed, because we did not want to get wet, and I had to be at a telegraph office at a certain time to complete a deal by wire. “Just ahead of us was a girl on a white horse. The animal seemed frightened at the storm, and just as we came racing past our car struck a stone, and was jolted right over toward the animal. I am not sure but what we hit it. Anyhow the horse bolted. The girl looked able to manage it, and as it was absolutely necessary for us to keep on, we did so.” “I looked back, and I thought I saw the horse stumble with the girl,” put in Mr. Stone, “but I was not sure, and then the rain came pelting down, and the road was so bad that it took both of us to manage the car. We were late, too. But we meant to go back and see if any accident happened.” “Only when we got to the telegraph office,” supplied his friend, “we were at once called to New York in haste, and so many things have come up since that we never got the chance. Tell me,” he said earnestly, “you girls live in Deepdale. This happened not far from there. Did you ever hear of a girl on a white horse being seriously hurt?” Grace made a motion to her chums to keep silent about the whole affair, and let her answer. She had her reasons. “There was no report of any girl being seriously hurt at the time you mention,” she said, a trifle coolly, “but a little child was knocked down by a horse—a white horse. It may have been the one you scared.” “But unintentionally—unintentionally! I hope you believe that!” said Mr. Stone earnestly. “Oh—yes—of course,” and Grace’s voice was not quite so cold now. She could readily understand that the accident could have happened in just that way, and it was beginning to look so. Certainly, not knowing the girls, the young man could have no object in deceiving them, “A little child knocked down, you say!” exclaimed Mr. Kennedy. “I hope it was not badly hurt. Who was it?” “My——” began Mollie, and she was on the point of saying it was her sister Dodo, when from the lake there sounded the cry of: “Fire! Fire! Fire!” Then came a sharp explosion. Everyone arose, and Mr. Kennedy exclaimed excitedly: “That must be an explosion on a motor boat. Come on, Harry. We may he needed!” They rushed through the bushes toward the place whence the alarm came, the girls following as fast as they could. “Don’t let him know it was I, or that it was your sister who was hurt!” Grace cautioned her chums. “I am going to write to papa, and he can make an investigation. Their explanation sounds all right, but they may have the papers after all. I’m going to write to-day.”