“Then yesterday afternoon the Indian went away, and about two hours later this LeBlanc arrived here with the girl. She was tied up, and the old woman was given some instructions in French. I don’t speak the language, so I don’t know what it was all about.”
“He told her to wait until morning and then go back home,” put in Ruth. “I can understand French enough to know what he was talking about.”
“Well, the woman went this morning after cooking her breakfast and eating it in front of us without even giving us a bite, and that’s all there is. Nothing happened until you came here and saved us from what was probably certain death, for I believe it was meant that we should be left here to starve to death.”
Simmons concluded his story, and then Garry asked Ruth to add hers.
“I don’t want to tell you, because I know now what a silly, foolish girl I was to do what I did; but I suppose you will find out eventually, so I might as well own up. I wanted to do something to help you boys find what you were after, and when I heard Lafe Green had come back to town, I felt sure he was mixed up in this. I remembered how you boys had gotten your information the time you got the smugglers. So I went over to the Crombie’s to see my girl friend, and made up my mind that when I left there I would go out to Green’s and go through the secret passage and discover what I could. I wanted to find some clue to show you boys that a girl could do things too, and everything would have been all right but for a sneeze. I got into the kitchen all right, and was going to go upstairs, as I remembered your telling about doing, and just as I got to the middle of the floor I sneezed.
“I knew that everything was all off then, and started to run for the back door, for I didn’t want them to know I had come through the passage, when Green and LeBlanc rushed out into the kitchen and caught me.”
Ruth stopped and shuddered.
“Then they tried to make me tell them why I came and how I got in, and LeBlanc twisted my arm till I thought he would break it, but I shut my teeth and wouldn’t say anything.
“Finally they locked me in a closet, and a little while later put a nasty old cloth in my mouth and brought me by automobile the same way they did Mr. Simmons. It was LeBlanc’s brother who came with him, and they hid in the woods with the machine while Jean went away. He came back with his arms full of bundles, and they put a pistol so it stuck in my ribs and warned me to make no sound and marched me to the canoe. When they got me in, I was tied up and then Baptiste went away and Jean brought me across the river and here.”
“How about the buttons and the locket that I found?” asked Garry.