again with a frightened face.

"She's not here, Mollie. She's gone."

"Gone!" Mollie exclaimed incredulously. "She can't be gone! How
could she get down without the ladder? She must be up in the tree."

"No, she isn't. I can see every branch from here; there is not a
single place where she could hide."

"But she _must_ be up there somewhere," Mollie persisted. "If she
had fallen out she would be lying round somewhere. There is no way
she _could_ get down without the ladder. She is so nervous. I'll
come up too and look."

"You may come, but you won't see anything," Prudence said, steadying
her end of the ladder while Mollie climbed.

The Nest was certainly empty. The little blue bird must have found
wings and flown, Mollie thought. She looked up and down and round
about, but not a vestige of Grizzel was there to be seen. Then she
called her Scouting lore to her aid, and set her wits to work.

"The basket has gone too, and there is no orange peel anywhere, but
the _Swiss Family Robinson_ is there on the book-shelf. So she did
not go in a great hurry, because she tidied up first. Let us go to
the Look-out and see if we can catch sight of her blue frock. She
may be hiding quite near and laughing at us all the time."

They climbed to the Look-out and anxiously scanned all the visible