"I simply must find out what is going on there," muttered Harriet. "I wonder if it can be—Yes, I'll row a little further along. No one will see me unless I get within range of the lanterns there."
Taking careful note of the entrance to their secret creek that she might recognize the spot when she returned, Harriet crept to the stern of the rowboat and using one oar as a paddle propelled the boat through the water as quietly as possible.
As she neared the scene of activity the voices of the newcomers grew louder. Harriet finally ceased paddling and permitted her boat to drift, steering well into the shadows, hugging the shore of the island until she could touch it with an oar. Unless she splashed with the oar, she was reasonably certain of being able to avoid discovery. The Meadow-Brook girl was now within a few yards of where the operations were going on. Her eyes were fixed on the outlines of a launch in which two persons appeared to be working, when all at once and with a suddenness that nearly brought a cry to her lips, a canoe shot out of the shadows directly ahead of her and sped noiselessly out into the lake. The girl did not even remember to have seen any one in the canoe so quickly had it appeared and disappeared. She wondered, too, at the skill that enabled one to paddle without noise. A gentle ripple—the wake of the canoe—splashed against the bows of her own boat.
"Surely, I am not dreaming," whispered the girl. "I must have startled the man. Who could it have been, and is it possible that he has been here watching us?" A number of surmises entered the mind of Harriet Burrell. She collected her thoughts quickly and held her boat with the oar, for she was drifting perilously close to the launch. She was now in plain sight of the campers on shore. She could hear every word that was uttered there.
Harriet listened for fully fifteen minutes. All at once, she swung the rowboat about, leaning her body to one side to assist in the turning. The second oar that had been laid across the seats lengthwise of the boat rolled to the other side with a rumble and a clatter that to her strained nerves sounded like thunder.
"Who's there?" called a voice from the launch.
There was no reply. Harriet, in her haste to get away, splashed noisily. She heard a quick exclamation, then the sound of two people jumping into a rowboat. She knew it was the rowboat she had seen lying alongside the launch. She knew, too, that the rowers were pursuing her. But even then Harriet did not lose her presence of mind. Instead of doing so, she dipped her oars and sent the boat shooting ahead, with the water rippling away from the bows, making a noise that she feared her pursuers would hear and thus be able to locate her position accurately. Harriet had not once glanced over her shoulder, but her ears were on the alert and by the sense of sound she was able to gauge the distance between herself and the pursuing boat.
"They're gaining on me!" she muttered. "But I'm going to fool them just the same."