“Yes?”
“They know this island. They are familiar with it. They dropped their anchor right opposite this place in the dark, and now they are coming to the spring.”
“We-ell,” stammered Agnes, “maybe that is good news.”
“They are not likely, then, to be people sent to hunt for us,” announced Ruth. “We must not speak to them.”
“Why?” ejaculated Agnes. “Because we haven’t been introduced?”
“Don’t be a goose. You sound like Neale O’Neil. We must wait to get a good look at them by daylight before we let them see us.”
“But—but, Ruthie,” whispered Agnes, “maybe we might get them to go after the boys and Tess and Dot.”
“They could not do that until morning. We will wait,” Ruth declared firmly.
Her determination could not be shaken. Agnes at this point might have been braver than her sister, but she could not oppose Ruth in her present mood.
The two girls stole off through the scrub timber to the higher ground. They tried to make no sound that would attract the attention of the men who had landed on the island. And in this they evidently succeeded, for their movements were not observed by the strangers.