"It is! Oh, it certainly is! It's moving out now from behind the rock. Somebody's in it, rowing--Deirdre! I do believe----" "Not him!" shrieked Deirdre ungrammatically, snatching the glasses from her friend. "Oh, it is! I'm perfectly persuaded it is! It's just his figure, and he rows in the same way exactly--the man in the brown jersey!" "Then Gerda's engineered that expedition to go and meet him. It's as plain as plain!" Their excitement was intense. It did indeed seem an important discovery, and an added link in their chain of circumstances. Should they stay where they were, and watch the meeting through the field-glasses, or would it be possible to follow the matter up more nearly? They resolved to make a try for the latter. Climbing down as rapidly as they could from their point of vantage, they found Miss Birks, and entreated to be allowed to join the party on the other island. "John Pengelly would row us over, and we'd catch them up immediately," they pleaded. "Oh, do please let us go!" Miss Birks was in a birthday frame of mind, and prepared to listen to any fairly-reasonable request. "There would be quite room for you to go home in David Essery's boat," she acquiesced. "Yes, you may go if you wish. John Pengelly can take you at once. Tell Miss Harding I sent you, and you're to return with her party." The boatman was good-natured, and apparently did not mind making the extra journey. He grinned at the girls as he pushed off. "Can't have too much of the sea, missies?" he ventured. "I'll soon pull you over there." He landed them carefully on the second island, then rowed back to the first landing-place to join his fellow boatman and smoke a pipe till it was time to start. Deirdre and Dulcie knew exactly which way Miss Harding and the girls had gone, and their plain duty was to follow them as rapidly as possible, and report themselves as additions to the party. They did nothing of the sort, however. Instead, they took exactly the opposite direction, and made for the western side of the islet, where they had seen the mysterious boat. "You may depend upon it we shall find Gerda there," said Deirdre. "It's better not to let her know we're here. We're far more likely to catch her." With a little scrambling they reached an inlet, which--so they calculated--must be the one they had marked through the field-glasses. They could see no boat, however, and no Gerda. They waited for a while, then rambled farther along the shore, but finding nothing, came back to their former point. They had so entirely counted upon Gerda being there that they felt decidedly disappointed. "Perhaps she couldn't sneak off," suggested Dulcie. "Miss Harding's very tiresome and particular sometimes." "I wonder if the boat's waiting about for her?" said Deirdre. "I should very much like to know."