As they shoved off, they could see that the woman was watching them.
“We’re certainly popular today,” Penny remarked when the skiff had floated on toward Trapper Joe’s rental dock. “My, was she a sour pickle!”
Ten minutes later, as the girls brought up at Trapper Joe’s place, they saw the lean old swamper standing near the dock, skinning a rabbit. His leathery, weather-beaten face crinkled into smiles.
“Sure am glad yer back safe an sound,” he greeted them cheerfully. “After I let you take the skiff I got to worryin’ fer fear you’d go too fur and git lost. ’Pears like you had good sense after all.”
“The only thing we lost was my dog,” Louise declared, stepping out on the dock. “Bones is gone for good, I guess.”
She quickly told the old trapper what had happened on the island. He listened attentively, making no comment until she had finished.
“’Pears like you must have run afoul of Ezekiel Hawkins,” he said then. “Leastwise, he’s the only one hereabouts with a grizzly red beard.”
“Is he a crook or a fugitive from the law?” Penny demanded.
“Not that nobody ever heard of. Ezekiel and his two boys, Hod and Coon, tend purty much to their own business. But they don’t go fer strangers hangin’ around.”
“And do they own the island?”