The shadows in the fog did not trouble Ruth now. There was something of greater moment out there on the water, she was sure. Ruth crept down to the open shore and listened.
A voice! She almost cried aloud, she was so startled. And for a moment a thrill of delight shocked the girl.
It was a rescue! Somebody had come looking for them! She knew it could not be Mr. Howbridge and the others returning, although she had imagined such a thing as she lay there between waking and sleeping.
Nevertheless, something told Ruth Kenway not to shout. She determined to make no sound until she knew more about these strangers. Or at least, until it seemed that they might be going away from Palm Island without investigating.
She now knew what the sounds were which had first startled her. The anchor of a boat had splashed overboard; then the sail had come rattling down. Although the mist hid the craft, she knew just about where it was lying.
Ruth strained her eyes to see. She strained her ears to hear. Out of the mist she felt that something was coming shoreward. Was it a small boat? Was a landing being made—and so softly for a purpose? Who were these people? Were they friends or enemies?
The echo of the voice reached her ears again—flatly and, it seemed, scarcely human in its timbre. But Ruth was confident that it was a man who spoke and that he spoke roughly.
She could not expect that any rescue party sent out from St. Sergius would be altogether made up of the hotel guests. The boatmen engaged on the waterfront for such a venture were likely to be rather rough men.
When she heard the voice for a third time and recognized the words as Spanish or Afro-Spanish the oldest Corner House girl shrank back toward the edge of the jungle in which the camp lay.
Had she heard English spoken by the party coming ashore she would have raised her voice in a glad shout. Now she hesitated, determining to wait upon the landing before she made her presence known.