The rowboat was returning. The rowers were moving more slowly now, talking and wondering as to the man who had been spying on them. They passed her talking loudly. One of them was threatening vengeance. The girl waited until they had rowed a safe distance from her, after which she cautiously pushed her boat out and began rowing toward home. Harriet was chuckling under her breath, but her eyes and ears were on the alert. She had not forgotten that canoe. Any person who could paddle like that was well worth looking out for.
Harriet rowed past the entrance to their retreat without having observed it. But it was only a few moments later when she discovered her error. She turned her boat more carefully this time, then rowed it into the secret waterway. So quietly did she enter that her companions did not discover her until the nose of her rowboat bumped the scow.
There was a little scream, quickly suppressed by Miss Elting.
"Is that you, Harriet?" she questioned, with no trace of alarm in her voice.
"Yes."
"You were so quiet about it that you gave me the creeps," declared Margery.
"Did you find them, Harriet?" asked Jane.
"Yes. And they came near to finding me too. They chased me nearly all the way home. I hid in the bushes and waited. They passed me and came on this way, I should judge nearly up to the entrance, after which they turned about and went back. That isn't the only strange experience I have had since I left you." Harriet related the incident of the mysterious canoe.
"What were the men doing?"
"They were pitching camp. We are going to have near neighbors," answered Harriet, unshipping the oar and tying the rowboat to the scow.