When Chessleigh was about to start the engine again and head for the camp—and dinner—they suddenly spied a powerful speed boat coming out from the Canadian side. It cleaved the water like the blade of a knife, throwing up a silver wave on either side. And as it passed the Lauriette Ruth and her companion could see several men in her cockpit.
“There are those fellows again,” Chess remarked. “Wonder what they are up to? That boat passed our island yesterday evening and the crowd in her then acted to me as though they were drunk.”
“I should think——Why!” exclaimed Ruth suddenly breaking off in what she was first going to say, “one of those men is a Chinaman.”
“So he is,” agreed Chessleigh Copley.
“And that little fat man—see him? Why, Chess! it looks like——”
“Who is it?” asked the young fellow, in surprise at Ruth’s excitement.
“It’s Bilby!” gasped Ruth. “That horrid man! I I hoped we had seen the last of him. And now he’s right here where we are working with Wonota.”
She had said so much that she had to explain fully about Bilby, while they sat and watched the speed boat disappear up the river. Ruth was sure she had made no mistake in her identification of the rival picture producer who had made her so much trouble back at the Red Mill.
“I must tell Mr. Hammond at once,” she concluded. “If Bilby is here, he is here for no good purpose, I can be sure. And if he has a boat like that at his command, we must keep double watch.”
“You think he would try to abduct Wonota again?” queried Chess.