Nevertheless, when her strange companion, after once more pulling at her arm, had led her back to the beach, she found the notion in full possession of her mind.
Florence offered to row back to the mainland but as if by mistake she rowed the long way round the island. This gave her a view of the entire shore.
“No speed boat, nor any other motor craft on those shores,” she assured herself after a quarter of an hour of anxious scanning. “Wonder how they travel, anyway.”
Thereupon she headed for the distant shore which was, for the time being, their home.
Once again her mind was troubled. Should she tell Petite Jeanne of this, her latest discovery, or should she remain silent?
CHAPTER VIII
SUN-TAN TILLIE
Next day Florence made a new friend. Petite Jeanne wished to spend the morning, which was damp and a trifle chilly, among the cushions before the fire. Florence went for a ramble in the forest.
She took a path she had not followed before. These strange trails fascinated her. Some of them, she had been told, led on and on and on into vast, trackless slashings where one might be lost for days, and perhaps never return.
She had no notion of getting herself lost. By watching every fork in the trail, and noting the direction she had taken, she made sure of finding her way back.
She had been following this trail for half an hour when of a sudden a voice shattered the silence of the forest.