"Well, perhaps. If Tom went."
"But we promised Chess."
"You promised him. He wants to do it because you are going."
"Now, Helen, you know--"
"I know just what I am saying. I have no interest in "La.s.ses Copley. You have."
"You are the most exasperating girl!" exclaimed Ruth, in some warmth.
They were in their room freshening their toilets for the evening.
"I don"t seem to suit you any more than Tom does," said her chum coolly.
"I declare, Helen! you go too far."
"I shan"t go too far this time--without Tom." Helen laughed in a provoking way. "You can run along with your Chessleigh if you like. Not me!"
"That is just what I will do," said Ruth quietly, but with flashing eyes.
"I would not insult him by refusing--now. I will tell him you have a headache and cannot come."
"Do as you like," was the ungracious reply. "You are crazy about Chess, I guess."
"I believe you are jealous, Helen Cameron!" cried Ruth, in wonder.
"I don"t know why I should be," returned Helen lightly. "I"ve no interest in Chess Copley. And I haven"t had since--"
"Since when, I"d like to know?"
"Since I found him out. So now! That"s enough. I am not going. Unless, of course, Tom returns and wants me to go along with you and Chess."
What more was there to say? Ruth did not wish to disappoint Chessleigh.
She felt that Helen Cameron had no reason for treating the young man as she did.
So, as she had done before, and without much interest in the evening sailing party, Ruth left the bungalow to join the waiting Chessleigh at the dock.
CHAPTER XIX
SUSPENSE
Tom and his party in the other motor-boat had not appeared, nor had the _Gem_ come back from the town of Chippewa Bay with Mr. Hammond. Why should not Ruth and Chessleigh spy about among the islands for a time?
It was not now moonlight; and there was some haze which gave a smouldering effect to the stars peering through it. But these soft, hazy nights had their own charm and Ruth had come to love them.
Especially on the water. Amid the tamarack-clothed islets the motor-boats crept in and out in a delightful way. To lie on the cushions in the c.o.c.kpit of the _Lauriette_ and bask in the pearly starlight was an experience the girl from Cheslow was not likely to forget.
To-night, when the _Lauriette_ got away from the moving picture camp, there were no other boats in sight. Chess dimmed his lights and the craft crept through the narrow pa.s.sages between the islands, heading up stream.
"My idea," he said, "is to land at the back of that island--"
"The Kingdom of Pipes?" interrupted Ruth in surprise.
"Yes. Where you say you landed before--twice."
"Oh!"
"That is, if we see nothing or n.o.body about."
"I don"t think we"d better take any great risk--only two of us," observed Ruth, with her usual caution.
"Of course, we won"t walk right into danger."
"I should hope not! And just what are we going for, anyway?" and she suddenly laughed.
"Why, I"m curious about those fellows," said the young man. "And I thought you were."
"I"m curious about the King of the Pipes. Charley-Horse Pond, Willie calls him."
"Queer old boy, I guess," admitted Chess. "But I want to know more about those chaps who unloaded the boxes."
"What could have been in the boxes? Surely there is no camping party on that island. At least, no pleasure party."
"I fancy not. If you ask me about the boxes, I am puzzled. Yet, I"ve a glimmer of an idea--Are you sure that was a woman with them to-day in their boat?"
"Wonota called her the yellow lady. And Wonota has good eyes."
"With a yellow face, yes? And we saw a Chinaman in the boat that other time on the river," said Chess quickly.
"Surely she wasn"t a Chinese woman? Yet, she might have been."
"Chinese women aren"t usually smuggled over the border, I guess,"
muttered the young fellow. "But Chinese men are."
"Perhaps we should have reported it to the authorities," Ruth suggested.
"Not until we are sure there is really something wrong. I don"t want to be laughed at, you know."
But Ruth just then had considered another phase of the matter.
"Oh!" she cried. "There"s Bilby! He was in it!"
"In what?"