Missing at Marshlands / Arden Blake Mystery Series #3

and a B

to acquire the all-important tan. At intervals one of the girls sat up and coated herself liberally with cocoanut oil. They did not seem to feel exactly like talking, as the sun made them deliciously lazy. Perhaps they were thinking of their a

eir friendship and loyalty continued until the present time, when they were just finishing their freshman year at Cedar Ridge

ain, she saw a dark object bobbin

oes that look like someone t

eft in no doubt, for the bobbing dark spot began to swim. With long, sure strokes it came nearer t

admiringly. "Wonderful

en replied, and Terry

red the beach, waited for just the right minute

wled a stroke then sprang upright and s

at the window last night," Terry e

e hesitated. Sim saw an old gray sweater on the sand near them. It obviously

he looked at them in a

marked to relieve the shy girl

or her sweater. "I learned in t

, at Oceanedge?"

side of the bay with my father, but I come here to swim."

use, the roof of which could be seen above low pines. "W

ive, if you can call it that, with my father. He's a crabber and a worn cra

; want some?" a

me if he caught me using anything like that. He say

ome day," said the sympathetic Sim. "What's your name? Mine is B

painted wooden bracelet on Sim's arm, the kind sponsored by the large department stores a

slipped it off her arm. "Here, I've got lots of t

er thinks such things are no good and only give me wrong ideas. But I'll take care of it always."

on, and her wet hair was beginning to curl a little as it dried in the sun. She looked at the wooden bracelet as though it

d creature who swam like a sea nymph and smiled at a cheap wooden bracel

fourteen; said I'd be getting ideas. So I don't go any more," Melissa

d there's no crabbing?" Sim inquired. "We're ask

et a chance to talk to anybody. Pa neve

her feet. They had never met a girl like her, and pitied her at once when they learned of her lonely life. But, sorry as they were, they realized

ight in the storm?" Terry bravely

look at you all in the nice br

undered a voi

s standing back of them on the sand. They had not hear

oing there?" he

eemed to swerve visibly, and she looked nerv

? Haven't I told you

a. She gave it to me

along home! You've been fooling ar

to keep the bracelet, but her father, reading her t

w Melissa to take things

thing," faltere

ey might not have been there, for all the attention they we

owed her father, who had begun plodding up the beach. She did not look back but plodded along

stly, now and then flinging out a hand in gesture and turning to sh

ngering the returned bracelet. "That

rden agreed. "But did it strike you ther

ike a kitten or stray dog. And I imagine s

her, or I won't enjoy myself, and I so want to do that." She smiled appreciatingly at Terry, and then, ta