"Yes, if you like."
"Then come on. I want to see if the men came back, and tried to find the box that was buried in the sand."
It was rather a longer walk than Betty had thought, but finally she and Amy came within sight of the lone fisherman's hut, and the log that lay on the edge of the hole in the sand, though the latter, so Betty expected, would be filled up by the action of the waves or wind ere this.
"I do hope that horrid old woman doesn't invite us in again," Betty remarked. "She is a—pest!"
The Little Captain and Amy were walking down the sands, in the midst of a number of high dunes, or hills.
"There's the place!" Betty said. "It doesn't seem to have been——"
A noise behind caused her to turn suddenly. A scream came to her lips, but it was choked off by the sudden forward rush of the old crone who roughly placed her withered hand over Betty's mouth.
"I—I've got her!" she croaked. At the same time a man caught Amy by the arm, and stifled her impending cry in the same manner.
THE OLD CRONE PLACED HER HAND OVER BETTY'S MOUTH.—Page 162.