"It sounds like a person, but it may be an animal. Perhaps you girls had better stay here," suggested Fred.
"We're coming, too," declared Jess.
"If it is a wild animal, six of us will frighten him away. And if it is a person—well, anyway, we're coming," announced Polly.
Margy nodded bravely, though her teeth were chattering and she felt a wild desire to hold on to her brother's coat sleeve. They stepped silently from rock to rock, and in a few minutes were around the curve where, presumably, the creature they had heard was hiding.
"Why!" Polly voiced their astonishment. "Why, it's a girl!"
A forlorn little figure was crouched down beside a huge rock a few feet from the advancing sextet. She was clothed in tatters. Her face was hidden in her hands, and she was sobbing and moaning.
"We won't hurt you—don't be afraid," called Polly softly. "What is the matter? Do you live on Rattlesnake Island?"
The girl leaped to her feet and faced them, fear in every line of her tense body. As her hands fell away from her face, the Riddle Club members experienced a shock they would remember as long as they lived.
"Ella Mooney!" they shouted wildly. "Why, Ella Mooney!"
There was no mistaking her—the dark eyes and yellow bobbed hair were the same, though no one had ever seen Ella Mooney in a dress like this, or with her face scratched from briars and streaked with dirt and tears.