“I was too mad over being stuck to feel scared,” Vera stated. “I yelled for that boatman to come and help me out—told him I was stuck.”
“Well?” said Kitty, sensing there was something very peculiar to come. “He did help you, of course.”
“Not that sneak! The minute I yelled for help those oars stopped and I never heard another sound.”
“Why, he couldn’t help but know it was a woman calling!” Kitty exclaimed.
“Sure, he knew it was a woman in trouble.”
“I can’t understand that,” said Sally. “I’ve lived round here all my life, and all the natives, white and colored, will go to no end of trouble to help a person out of a tight spot, ’specially women.”
“I figured he was no native, and up to some skulduggery,” said Vera. “I went on down the road and got Nancy Thompson’s brother, and we searched that creek with flashlights as far as we could go.”
“And found nothing?” asked Kitty.
“That sneak had cleared out while I was gone. If you ask me there’s plenty happening on this island that’s not printed in the papers.”
Secretly Kitty agreed with her. The incident made her only more determined not to relax her vigilance about certain peculiar people she was watching.