"Oh, dear me!" replied Dorothy. "I suppose she has had to work late at the paper box factory. And how she must feel----"
Her twin seized the factory girl's arm as she was hurrying past with just a little nod to the Lockwood twins.
"Alice Long!" ejaculated Dora. "You're crying. What's the matter?"
"Oh, girls! you know about Billy, don't you?" cried Short and Long's sister.
"They haven't caught him?" cried Dorothy.
"No, no! I almost wish they would," sobbed Alice Long. "We don't know where he is. I've just been down to Mr. Norman's to see if the boat has been found."
"And it hasn't?" demanded one of the twins.
"No. It was an old boat that Mr. Norman thought he was going fishing in, same as usual. Billy often brings home a mess of fish, or sells them. You know, he has always been a helpful boy."
"We want to tell you, Alice dear," said Dorothy with a glance at her sister, "that we don't believe a word of what they say about Billy."
"Thank you, Miss," said Alice, eagerly. "I was sure his schoolmates would stand by him. But he was very foolish to run away--if he has run away."
"That is what is worrying father and me. The boat was old. Something might have happened. He might be drowned," sobbed the sister.
"Oh, no, Alice! Billy was a good swimmer."
"I know that. But often good swimmers are taken with cramps. And if the boat overturned, or sank, out in the middle of Lake Luna----"
"That's too dreadful a thing to think of!" cried Dora. "I believe he ran away because he was afraid of being arrested. Everybody was talking about his having a hand in that robbery."
"Well, he never did it. I could testify that he wasn't out of his bed Tuesday night when the robbery took place. I told the policemen so. But, of course, Billy could have gone out of the window and down the shed roof--and got back again, too--without our knowing it. He has more than once, I suppose," admitted the troubled sister.
"You see, on Wednesday Stresch & Potter sent their store detective to see Billy, and he bulldozed him and threatened him. I expect the boy was badly frightened, although the man was only a cheap bully. So we don't know what to think--whether Billy has deliberately run away, or that some accident happened to him on the lake."