“Keep quiet, you egg,” Louise warned nervously.
Crouching low behind their shelter, the girls waited. They could hear a steady tramp, tramp of feet coming up the stream on their side of the bank.
“That’s not Sara,” murmured Penny. “She doesn’t walk like an elephant. What’ll we do if it should be a saboteur?”
“I’m scared,” Louise chattered, hugging her chum’s arm.
The footsteps came closer. Peering out through the screen of underbrush, the girls saw a young man coming straight toward their hiding place. In his hand he carried a safety-cap gasoline can.
“Who is he?” whispered Louise.
“Can’t tell yet,” Penny responded, straining her eyes to see. “He looks a little like—oh, my aunt! That’s who it is—Bill Evans! Now what’s he doing here?”
CHAPTER
19
STANDING GUARD
Keeping low amid the underbrush, Penny and Louise waited and watched. Bill Evans did not see them although he approached within a few feet of their hiding place. With no hesitation, he went to the motorboat and began filling the tank with gasoline.
“Bill Evans, a thief and a saboteur!” Louise whispered. “I’ll never get over it!”