The handkerchief was in her possession still, of course, and, as she examined it that night, Pamela's odd suggestion came back to her with new force. At any rate Miss Anne would bring another mind and imagination to bear on these entanglements.
Hughie, then, waited till next day, when he conveyed a secret invitation to Pamela to meet him in "the cave" at a certain hour for important conversation. Pamela went, and, curled up happily behind the barricade with her long legs doubled up under her, she heard the story of the Countess' raid on the yawl and the way she had been circumvented.
"Now what did she want to do?" said Pamela thoughtfully, her head against the big trunk.
"I rather guess----" said Hughie.
"What?"
"She wants to escape from Bell Bay. If I was her," he went on, clasping his ankles as he sat cross-legged--"if I was her, I should escape, but in a more sensible way, of course."
"I see, escape to Salterne. I wonder if she has any money," considered Pamela.
"Sure to--lots."
"I wonder," went on Pam, "if Addie found out things on board; he never said a word to me."
"Of course he did. The dinghy was all filthy mess, and there must have been a whole field on the yawl! I couldn't stop to clean up. There was that girl, and besides, I was so wet."