“Let’s—let’s run and hide!” murmured the younger girl.
“I don’t know that that will do much good.”
“I know it will,” cried Agnes. “That is, if we hide so well that they cannot find us.”
“Perhaps it would be better to face them and make them think that we have men friends near at hand.”
“No chance,” urged Agnes. “We can’t fool them. They will know that we have been hiding from them. If there were men in our party they would have already shown up. No, Ruth, we can’t fool ’em that way.”
“Perhaps you are right,” sighed the older sister. “But where shall we hide?”
“Let’s go back to the other point—where the Isobel was moored. When the boys return they will come there first, of course.”
Agnes spoke much more confidently than she felt. Like her sister she had a strong dislike to meeting these turtle catchers. She had seen that class of natives on the water front at St. Sergius, and their appearance had rather intimidated even Agnes, who usually felt no fear of any of her fellow men.
CHAPTER XXIV—THE GROAN OF A GRAMPUS
The startled and sleepy children beside the pool on the smaller island clung together in speechless terror for the few minutes following their being aroused by the marine “ghost” that had risen through the waters. Its glistening, high-shouldered body was a most mysterious sight, that was true.