While they talked they were furling the Eleanor’s sails, and soon they were ready to go ashore. Dolly had brought them up cleverly beside the skiff, and, once the anchor was dropped and everything on board the swift little sloop had been made snug for the night, they dropped over into the skiff and rowed to the beach. There the other girls, who had been greatly excited during the race, and were overjoyed by the result, greeted them with the Wo-he-lo song. Zara, especially, seemed delighted.
“I felt so bad that I cried when I thought you were going to be beaten,” she said. “Oh, Bessie, I’m glad you won! And I bet it was because you were on board.”
Bessie laughed.
“You’d better not let Dolly hear you say that,” she said. “I didn’t have a thing to do with it, Zara. It was all Dolly’s cleverness that won that race.”
“I’m awfully glad you’re back, Bessie. I’ve had the strangest feeling this afternoon–as if someone were watching me.”
Bessie grew grave at once. Although she never shared them, she had grown chary of laughing at Zara’s premonitions and feelings. They had been justified too often by what happened after she spoke of them.
“What do you mean, dear!” she asked. “I don’t see how anyone could be around without being seen. It’s very open.”
“I don’t know, but I’ve had the feeling, I’m sure of that. It’s just as if someone had known exactly what I was doing, as long as I was out here on the beach. But when I went into the tent, it stopped. That made me feel that I must be right.”
“Well, maybe you’re mistaken, Zara. You know we’ve had so many strange things happen to us lately that it would be funny if it hadn’t made you nervous. You’re probably imagining this.”
Though Bessie tried thus to disarm Zara’s suspicions, she was by no means easy in her own mind. She felt that it would be a good thing to induce Zara to forget her presentiment, or feeling, or whatever it was, if she could. But, just the same, she determined to be on her guard, and she spoke to Dolly.