one to ask questions. What if anything had really happened to the
boys! Jack was Cora's brother.

"Have you seen anything of some boys in a canoe?" Cora asked of the
man with the lantern. "They set out this afternoon, and have not
yet returned."

"Boys in a canoe?" repeated Ben, in that tantalizing way country
folk have of delaying their answers.

"Yes, my brother and two of his friends went out toward Far
Island--"

"Fern Island?" interrupted the man.

"No, when we last saw them they were going away from Fern and toward
Far Island," said Cora.

"Well, if they're on Fern Island at night I pity them. There ain't
never been anyone who put up there after dark who wasn't ready to
die of fright, 'ceptin' Jim Peters. And the old boy hisself
couldn't scare Jim. Guess he's too chununy with him," and the
waterman chuckled at his joke.

"But you have not heard of any accident?" pressed Cora.

"I saw them young fellers myself. They was in a green canoe; wasn't
they?"

"Yes," answered Cora eagerly.