Louis did not reply but hurried on with his story. In his heart of hearts he was conscious of having neglected his cousin for the sake of his own amusement, and had really no excuse to offer. "Well, so I got in the boat and we went off. It was further than I thought, but just the minute we got back I went right around to the cave, or at least I tried to get there. Gee! when I saw it was full of water, wasn't I scared for a minute? Then I said to myself, 'Edna's not such a fool as to stay and get drowned. Of course she's gone home,' but just the same I thought I'd better go see, so I went back to Mrs. Ramsey's, or at least I started to go, but I met Rudolph and he told me where you were and that everybody was kicking up a fuss about me, so I came back with him, and here I am."