Page:Cornelia Meigs--The Pool of Stars.djvu/206

 slippery little body caused her. She sat up, panting, and attempted to wring out her wet sleeve.

"What if we could not find them after all," she lamented. "Mr. Reynolds must have meant that no one, not even himself, should ever have them again."

But David was not willing to give up so easily.

"It is like a needle in a haystack," he admitted, "but even such things have been found."

He poised himself at the edge of the basin, then slid into the water with the clean straight dive of an expert swimmer. Once he went down, and twice, and came up empty handed. The third time he was gone so long that the water quieted and the reflected stars shone once more in their places. Betsey, leaning over to watch in an agony of apprehension, felt her tired spirit completely give way.

"Oh, David," she wailed, although under her breath, "don't be drowned and leave me alone in the dark."

As though in answer to her words a widening circle suddenly appeared on the surface and David's head rose at the center of the pool. He gasped and spluttered and shook the water from his eyes.

"I have them," he announced joyfully, "one in each hand. Now we have found them all."

He came clambering out on the edge of the basin,