“Now, see here, sis,” he said, gently enough, “we don’t aim to treat you badly here. You’ve run away from home, and that’s not right. We’re going to see that you get back to them as has the best right to look after you, but we don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
“How can I help it?” asked Bessie, indignantly.
“Just you behave yourself and keep quiet, and you’ll be all right,” said Jeff. Bessie was sure of his identity now. “You’ll have this pretty room here to yourselves, and you’ll have lots to eat. It’ll be better food than you got with that pack of chattering girls, too. We’ll up anchor and be off pretty soon, and then you can come up on deck and have a good time. But as long as we’re here, why, you’ll have to stay below.”
Bessie got her first gleam of hope from that speech. If they stayed in Green Cove a little while, there was always the chance that something might happen.
“You see, sis,” said Jeff, with a grin, “after a while your folks there will find you’re missing, and, like enough, they’ll suspicion that we done it; took you off, I mean. ’Twouldn’t make no great difference if they did know it,” Jeff went on. “But the boss thinks it’s just as well if we throw them off a bit—guess he wants to have some fun with them.”
“Who is your ‘boss’?” asked Bessie, quickly. “I should think you would be ashamed of yourself, treating girls who can’t fight back this way! Do you call yourself a man?”
“Easy there, sis!” said Jeff, with a roar of laughter. “You can’t make me mad. Orders is orders, you know, and you did wrong when you run away like you did. And I ain’t tellin’ you who the boss is. What you don’t know won’t hurt you—and that goes for your friends, too.”
He left them alone then, and a faint hope was left behind him. Now that she had the chance, Bessie turned her attention to Zara. There was water in the cabin, and in a few minutes she had revived her chum, and was able to tell her what had happened. Poor Zara seemed to be completely overcome.
“Oh, Bessie, we haven’t got a chance this time!” she said. “I’ll have to go back and work for Farmer Weeks, and you—will they make you go back to Maw Hoover?”
“Never say die, Zara! As long as the yacht stays in the cove there is a chance that we’ll be rescued. That man didn’t know it, but he’ll never be able to make Miss Eleanor believe we’re not on this yacht. Listen—what’s that?”