Presently the little wooden jetty came into view once more.

It bore a curiously bare, deserted aspect, the waves riding and falling sluggishly on either side of its black, tarred planking, Sara stared at it incredulously, then an exclamation of sheer dismay burst from her lips.
"The boat! Look! It's gone!" "_Gone ?_" Garth's eyes sought the landing-stage, then swept the vista of grey-water ahead of them.
"_Damn!_" he ejaculated forcibly.

"She's got adrift!" A brown speck, bobbing maddeningly up and down in the distance and momentarily drifting further and further out to sea on the ebbing tide, was all that could be seen of the _Betsy Anne_.
An involuntary chuckle broke from Sara.
"Marooned!" she exclaimed.

"How amusing!" "Amusing ?" Trent looked at her with a concerned expression.

"It might be, if it were eleven o'clock in the morning.