ten o'clock
When their launch pulled up to the dock that night , an anxious party greeted them . Nettie had returned from the city , and upon finding the cottage deserted had waited a reasonable length of time before consulting the neighbors . Then she found that the young folks had gone sailing . That settled it , for the waters of the bay are never considered too reliable , and when the girls did not return by ten o'clock Nettie locked up the cottage and set off for the beach . Of course , she learned that such a party had gone out , but in what direction no one along the beach front seemed to know . The upper bay course was the last thing thought of , and , when Nettie did succeed in hiring a fisherman to set out and search , he went down the cove opposite to the course taken by Ed in his motor boat . In half an hour the fisherman returned , and , as luck would have it , he brought with him Walter 's cap , which had fallen overboard as the youth started out from the stalled motor boat , and so drifted in the other direction .