"The item is dated from Winterhaven, but it says that the girls started
from some place near Lake Kissimmee."

"Oh!" cried Ruth, pausing with the comb half way through a thick strand
of hair, "suppose it should be those two girls we met?"

"I don't imagine it could be," reasoned Alice. "They did not look like
girls who would be bold enough to go off after swamp blooms. But think of
the poor girls, whoever they are, out all alone at night, with maybe
alligators around their boat! Oh, I hope we don't have to go too far into
the wilds."

"We may," remarked Ruth, uneasily, as she reached for the paper to read
for herself the disquieting item.




CHAPTER IV

FIRE ON BOARD


Ruth sat for some moments in silence after she had read in the paper the
short account of the missing girls. She had come to a pause in arranging
her luxuriant hair for the night and, with it only half combed, leaned
back in the small chair the stateroom afforded. Alice was reclining on
her berth.

"Does it worry you, Ruth?" the younger girl finally asked.