The two girls sat down on the stretch of hot sand near the water.  They were doggedly determined to wait as long as possible for Mike Muldoon’s return.  Mollie’s pathetic appeal had touched Madge as deeply as it had Phil, and they were both resolved to help the child if they could.

The hours dragged by on leaden wings.  Madge’s head ached violently.  Phil was beginning to think longingly of the basket of food which she had left in the tent and wondering if it would do for her to go after it while Madge stayed on guard.  As she sat deliberating as to what course of action would be the wisest, a sudden commotion arose among the children playing on the deck of the shanty boat.  The dog began to bark furiously.  “Mammy, here comes Pap,” the oldest child cried.

The tired girls could see that a sailboat was being anchored near the shore.  A few moments later Mike, who insisted on being called “Captain,” got into a skiff and rowed toward the land.

Madge sprang to her feet and ran down to the edge of the water.  She wished to attract Mike’s attention before he went aboard his own shanty boat.  To think with her was to act.  She realized that she must speak to the man before his wife could tell him the nature of their errand.  If Mike Muldoon learned their real design, he might shut himself inside his shanty and refuse to talk to them.

[Illustration:  The girls ran down to the water’s edge.]

Mike rowed toward his callers, who were anxiously waiting for him.  As his boat scraped the shore his wife shrieked at him, “Come here fust, Mike!  Don’t you be goin’ talkin’ to the likes of them before I tells you somethin’.”

She was too late.  Captain Mike had already turned to Madge.  He supposed the girls had come to engage his sailboat.

Captain Madge decided to try diplomacy.  She did not wish to make the sailor angry.  She hoped she might persuade him to do what they wished.

“We have not come to rent your sailboat today, Captain Mike,” she announced cheerfully, “we are coming for that another time.  What we wish now is to ask you what has become of your pretty daughter?  We have crossed all the way over to the island to make her a call.  And now we can’t find her.  We wish to make friends with her, if you don’t mind.”

“Moll can’t make friends with nobody,” Mike answered suspiciously, his skin turning a mottled red under its coat of tan.  “I told you Moll was foolish.”

“Yes, I know,” answered Phil unwisely.  “That is why we are so sorry for her.”

Mike scowled darkly.  “You ain’t got no cause to be sorry for the gal.  Who told you she was treated mean?  Nobody don’t hurt her.  But you can’t see her.  She is sick.”

“Why, your wife told us she had gone away!” exclaimed Phil impetuously.

She could have cried with regret the next moment, for she realized how foolish she had been.