Bess giggled. "They were foolish to leave us alone."

"I think we should hurry on," George said. "If they come back and find we're gone, they're bound to look for us."

The girls picked up their bags and trudged through the swamp until they reached the house they had seen ahead of them. As they went up to the front porch, Bess looked down at her dress and shoes. "We're absolute sights," she said. "What will the people think when they see us?"

"That we're swamp ducks," George quipped.

The girls rang the bell. There was no answer. Nancy knocked, but no one seemed to be home.

"What are we going to do?" Bess asked, worried. "We can't go on like this! And there's not another house in sight!"

They left their suitcases on the porch and walked around to the back. Luckily, there was a wall telephone on a rear patio. Nancy called the operator and asked to speak to the police department. When a sergeant answered, she explained the girls' predicament and asked if someone could come and help them.

"Right away, miss," he replied, and within ten minutes a squad car pulled up with two officers in it

One jumped out and walked up to them. "You say you were kidnapped and escaped?" he said.

"That's right," Nancy told him and explained exactly what had happened. "We're on our way to visit Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cosgrove, but we don't know how to find the place."

"I'll order a cab for you," the officer said, and asked his companion to make the call. "I know the Cosgroves," he continued. "It's a long ride from here."

He took a notebook from his pocket and wrote down the circumstances of the kidnapping. First he requested the names and addresses of the girls. This time Nancy gave him the correct ones. She described Steven, the young man who had met them at the airport, as well as the couple who had locked them into the bedrooms.