CHAPTER IX
A FILM MYSTERY
“I told you there were pirates there,” Helen declared that evening, when she and Ruth were in the room they shared together. Wonota slept in a room adjoining and had already retired.
“I don’t think that poor old man was a pirate,” returned Ruth, smiling a little.
“Didn’t he tell you he was ’king of the pirates’?” demanded Helen.
Ruth laughed outright. “He said he was ’king of the pipes’—whatever that may mean. Poor old fellow!”
“Well, it seems he most certainly had been ‘smoking the pipe’—or do they call it ‘hitting the pipe’?”
“Don’t ask me to aid you with any information on slang,” admonished her friend. “I don’t suppose he is really king of anything except of a country of his dreams—poor fellow.”
“Dear me!” grumbled Helen. “You never will boost romance, Ruth Fielding. Maybe there are pirates on that island.”
“Or pipes,” said Ruth calmly.