CHAPTER XVI
RUTH'S SECRET
"What has happened?"
"Where's Ruth?"
"Mary Cox! why don't you answer?"
The Fox for once in her career was stunned. She could only shake her head and wring her hands. Helen was the first of the other girls to suspect the trouble, and she cried:
"Ruth's overboard! That's the reason Tom has gone in. Oh, oh! why don't they come up again?"
And almost immediately all the others saw the importance of that question. Ruth Fielding had been down fully a minute and a half now, and Tom had not come up once for air.
Nita had set off running around the head of the inlet, and Crab shuffled along in her wake. The strange girl ran like a goat over the rocks.
Phineas, who had been aboard the motor boat and busy with his famous culinary operations, now came lumbering up to the spot. He listened to a chorused explanation of the situation—tragic indeed in its appearance. Phineas looked up and
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