This was true enough. She was not absolutely sure that these were the same men she had seen entering the cellar. But she had a pretty clear conviction that they were, else why should they have made such haste to get away when they heard her voice? Agnes, of course, had not viewed the men—that is, Ruth thought she had not—so she could not be expected to remember them.
“Well, of all things—” began Ann Titus, and the girls thought they were going to be made the victims of her gossiping tongue when she unexpectedly swung the suspicions into another channel that suited Ruth and Agnes. For Miss Titus said: “Maybe they’re some of those men from Palm Island who were after turtles. They may have come here to sell turtles or their eggs.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised!” exclaimed Ruth, adapting her mind to Ann Titus’ and again signaling to Agnes to fall in with this new turn of the talk. As a matter of fact, nothing the turtle men could do would have been a surprise to a mind like Ann Titus’. The story of the Corner House girls’ stay on Palm Island was well known in Milton by this time, and the actions of the turtle-fishers had been well spread so that Miss Titus, among others, knew of the doings of those men.
“Well, if they pester you to buy their condiments—rather unpleasant I should think, turtles’ eggs, myself—” said the dressmaker, “why don’t you tell the police?”
“I think we shall,” decided Ruth. “It isn’t really anything at all,” and she tried to make her voice sound casual, for if Miss Titus had the least suspicion of a secret, or something mysterious, she would never rest until she fathomed it—or thought she had. And, in either case, she would have gossiped about it.
But, fortunately for Ruth and Agnes, she accepted the version of turtle gatherers—a conclusion she herself had leaped at—and because the new dresses were to be something out of the ordinary, there was something else to occupy what little mind Miss Titus had and, in consequence, the incident passed off rather well.
“But I was in mortal terror lest she begin asking a lot of questions we couldn’t very well answer,” said Agnes, when they were on their way home.
“So was I,” admitted Ruth. “And it’s just as well to let her suppose those were turtle gatherers. Everybody in town has been talking about them, and Ann Titus won’t gain many listeners when she begins speaking of them.”
“But they weren’t the turtle men,” said Agnes, laughing. “What do you suppose put that in Ann’s head? But I wish we knew who these two men were.”
“Yes,” agreed Ruth. “I, too, wish I knew who they were.”