"You girls are terribly good and unselfish about me," exclaimed Eleanor. "It's worth being ill, and having a sprained shoulder, and being rescued by an old gypsy woman and a strange looking man to——" Eleanor stopped short. Her face flushed painfully and her eyes filled with tears. "Oh!" she exclaimed, "I'm so sorry I have broken my word. I promised not to tell. Please, please, don't anybody ask me any questions, for I can't answer them even to please you girls."
Lillian looked mystified and extremely curious. Phyllis and Madge gazed at each other blankly. Neither of them spoke, but they were both concerned with the same question. Could it be possible that Nellie had also run across the old gypsy woman and the man who had held Madge a prisoner until Phil and David had rescued her? But then, Eleanor had been found several miles from the spot where the two old people were in hiding when Madge ran across them.
The little captain made up her mind to one thing; she would not trouble Eleanor with questions. But she would ask David if he thought his mysterious acquaintances were still in the neighborhood. Neither she nor Phil had ever spoken of them, though they had never ceased to wonder at David's knowing such peculiar people.
"Is David Brewster going for a walk with Jack and Harry?" inquired Madge casually.
Lillian shook her head. "Of course not," she replied. "David is going off on his usual secret mission. He goes on one every single afternoon!"
"It doesn't concern any one but him, does it?"
Lillian shrugged her shoulders. "I am certainly not in the least interested," she answered disdainfully. "I think he is the rudest person I ever met."
Unfortunately, there were other members of the boat party who were much concerned with David's peculiar behavior. Harry Sears and Jack Bolling were rather bored with their stay on the Preston farm since Eleanor's accident. The girls devoted all their time to nursing Eleanor; they could rarely be persuaded to take a walk or a drive, or to stir up a lark of any kind. Neither Harry nor Jack, who were from the city, felt the least interest in the farm work. David spent every morning in the fields with Mr. Preston. So Harry and Jack, having nothing else to think about, began to worry and pry into David's actions. It was strange that the boy went away every afternoon and never told any one where he was going, nor spoke afterward of what he had done or where he had been!
Jack Bolling did not really care a great deal about Brewster's affairs, but Harry Sears was a regular "Paul Pry." He had made up his mind to find out what Brewster was "after" on these afternoons when he "sneaked" off and hid himself.
Just before Jack and Harry started on their walk David Brewster came out on the side porch of the Preston house with his coat pockets bulging with flat, hard packages. He had his hat pulled down over his eyes, and was hurrying off without looking either to the right or left, when Harry Sears called out: "Where are you off to, Brewster? If you are going for a walk, Bolling and I would like to go with you. We are looking for something to do."