"I have tossed away mine. I was afraid of black spiders," she said evasively.
"Isn't that too bad," wailed Bess, "and none of us picked any maiden hair because we thought you had it. Let us go and get some."
"Oh, I think we had best not this time," said Cora quickly. "I really want to get to the post office landing before the mail goes out. We can come another time when I have something to kill spiders with. I never saw such huge black fellows as there are around here." This was no shading of the truth, for indeed the spiders around Cedar Lake did grow like 'turtles', Jack had declared.
"Oh, all right," agreed Belle. "But this is the most delightful island and I am coming out here again. I hope the boys will come along, for there are such great bushes of huckleberries over there that we simply couldn't climb to them alone."'
"We will invite them next time," said Cora, and when she turned over the fly wheel of her boat her hands that had held the ferns were still trembling. She looked uneasily at the shore as they darted off.
"What's the matter, Cora?" asked Hazel. "You look as if you had seen the ghost of Fern Island."
"I have," said Cora, but the girls thought she had only agreed with
Hazel to avoid disagreeing.
"What boat is that?" asked Bess a moment later, looking at a small rowing craft just leaving the other side of the island.
"It's Jim Peters'" replied Cora, "we were lucky to get back into ours before he saw it. I wouldn't wonder but what he might like to take a motor boat ride in the Petrel."
"Do you suppose he really would steal a boat?" exclaimed Belle.