Here freckle-face strutted into the cave.
“Did Peg tell you?” he grinned at me.
I nodded, sort of dizzy in the whirl of things.
“Where’s Scoop?” I gasped, mindful all of a sudden of our leader’s absence.
“Collecting,” Peg said broadly, grinning.
“ ‘Collecting’?” I repeated, staring at him. “Collecting what?”
“Rowboats,” he added, in the same broad way.
I didn’t understand.
“It wouldn’t do us any good to escape from the island,” he explained, “if we left a boat behind. [[222]]For the killer would then take after us.”
“You’ve seen him?” I cried.