“Kit, let’s go home!” exclaimed Billy, sudden terror in his voice.
“Why?”
“I saw somebody looking at us from the woods yonder. Maybe it was a pirate.”
Though Kitty took the glasses from her small brother’s hands she could see nothing in the mangrove jungle. Had it been only his vivid imagination, or had he seen someone? However, she did not tarry to find out as she gave her motor all the power it would take and headed for home.
CHAPTER TEN
THE BEACH PARTY
It was four o’clock by the time Kitty came ashore on Palmetto Island at a landing spot a block behind her house. She sent Billy home with an armful of bundles to bring Jane down to help with the unloading.
There was many a job to be done in the next hour, but Kitty had learned how to make every minute count. She put the groceries in the closet and the perishable food in the ice box, she planned the evening meal for her father and Billy, and had just put on her slacks when Vera drove up and honked the horn.
It was nice to sit back, temporarily free of responsibility, and enjoy her ride across the island with the competent Vera at the wheel. In the basket at her feet were the ingredients for Chief Krome’s famous shrimp creole, all except the shrimp which the boys were at that moment catching.
The drive to the beach carried them over a half dozen bridges, spanning marshy inlets. Finally they rolled off the pavement into a sand-rutted road, winding through a palmetto thicket. The station wagon turned off finally to the hard beach, and they rolled along within a few feet of the tumbling breakers.