She explained without fully explaining, and the boys gladly enough set sail in the Whitecap, once more to search for the illusive Rosa.
“But no wood carving, wood chopping, nor wood lugging,” declared Gar, gayly. Then he told Paul about his previous experience in that line, embellishing the story with extravagant little touches peculiar to the style of Garfield Durand.
Paul and Nancy, as usual, found many things to talk about, to discuss and even to disagree over, for Paul proclaimed the beauties of New Hampshire while Nancy held with unswerving loyalty to the glories of Massachusetts.
But her anxiety over the delay of Rosa’s return was not even thinly covered by these assumed interests, and only Gar’s continual threats to do something dreadful to the runaway “this time sure” and his repeated avowals that he positively, absolutely and unquestionably would not “dig up the woods nor chop down trees in this search,” kept Nancy’s real worry from being mentioned.
“We don’t have to go on the islands to look for the Cucumber,” Gar insisted. “The girls couldn’t hide that boat if they tried. It’s so green you can hear it, to say nothing of the noise that engine makes.”
“Oh, no, we don’t have to go inland at all,” Nancy agreed with elaborate indifference. “I just wanted to look around and hurry Rosa along. She has a way of staying over, if it’s only to gather weeds. Rosa doesn’t seem to worry, ever, about keeping her appointments, but I didn’t want Margot to spoil any of our fun, just because Rosa stayed out all day, you see,” finished Nancy, quite confused from the length of her speech and its utter improbability.
“Let’s skirt around these islands,” proposed Paul, “and if we don’t spy the Cuke we better try over at the Point. They may be picnicking. Katherine loves the lollypops they sell at the Point--I know.”
“All right,” agreed, Gar, “but after that I’ve got to get back. Promised to drive down for Dell, you know, and _she_ isn’t walking off fat.”
They skirted the islands but did not discover the long green boat at any landing or out upon the lake. Then they proceeded to navigate in the direction of the Point. Here they encountered many boats of many descriptions, for the Point was not only a pretty point of land extending out into the water, but it was also a point of recreation and general interest for summer folk for miles around.