"Shall we go in and ask for shelter?" asked Amy, as they neared the hut.
"Well, it"s raining pretty hard," returned Grace.
"Oh, don"t let"s go in!" said Betty, suddenly, as she looked at a window of the hut. "It"s much nicer outside."
"But it"s raining so!" protested Mollie, with a quick look at her chum.
"I know. But we"re neither sugar nor salt, and this isn"t the first rain we"ve been out in. Besides, I"m sure, in there, it will smell of--fish!
I can"t bear to be shut up in a stuffy cabin that smells of fish. I vote we stay out. See, it is beginning to clear already," and she pointed to a streak of light in the west.
"Is that your real reason--a dislike of the smell of--fish?" asked Mollie, in a low voice, that Betty alone could hear.
"Not exactly, no," was the reply, equally guarded. "I happened to catch a glimpse of some faces at the window of that hut, and I did not like the look of them--they were--ugh! I don"t know what to say," and Betty gave a slight shiver that was not caused entirely by the chilling rain.
"I saw them, too," spoke Mollie, in louder tones now, for Grace and Amy had walked on ahead. "And one of them was--a woman"s face."
"Yes, but such a face!" agreed Betty. "It was hard--cruel--oh, I"ll never go in that hut."
"Nor will I. The rain is stopping, I think."
"Then let"s walk back to Ocean View," proposed Betty. "What do you say, girls?" she called to Amy and Grace. "Shall we walk back? It"s stopping, and the sand will be firm and hard after the rain."
"I don"t mind," spoke Amy, always willing to be accommodating.
"Oh, well, I suppose we"ll have to, if the boys don"t come for us,"
a.s.sented Grace.
"They won"t be back for some time," declared Betty. "See, they have just reached the boat, and in time, too, I think. A little later she would have been on the rocks."
Allen and his chums had indeed been fortunate in saving the _Pocohontas_. Through the clearing air the girls watched them preparing to tow the motor craft back.
"It will be some time before they can come for us," repeated Betty. "We might as well go on."
"But they won"t know where we are," objected Grace, who did not altogether relish the idea of walking. She was wearing shoes with very high heels.
"They"ll understand," responded Betty. "See, they are looking this way.
I"ll give them some sign language they"ll understand," and she began waving her arms, and pointing in the direction of Ocean View, down the coast.
"Who in the world will understand that?" demanded Mollie.
"Allen will," answered Betty.
"Oh!" exclaimed Mollie with a laugh. "Then this isn"t the first time you have talked with him in sign language."
"Silly!" protested Betty. "Come on, girls," and she strode off down the wet sands. The rain had almost stopped.
"This is better than waiting back in that hut," observed Mollie, walking beside the Little Captain.
"I should say so!" exclaimed Betty. "Oh, those horrid faces."
"Just like smugglers!" declared Mollie.
"What"s that about smugglers?" demanded Grace, quickly, turning around.
She was in advance with Amy.
"Oh--nothing," spoke Betty, and Grace resumed her talk with her other chum.
The girls walked along the beach. Now a turn of the coast hid the boys from sight, and their work of towing back the drifting motor boat.
"Oh, it"s farther than I thought!" sighed Grace, as the atmosphere became clearer, and, some distance down the coast they could see the little village of Ocean View.
"Oh, it isn"t far at all!" declared Betty. "We haven"t done enough walking lately, that"s the reason. We"ll soon be there."
As the girls made a turn around some high sand dunes they heard the staccato puffing of a motor boat.
"Can that be the boys?" asked Mollie, quickly.
"Of course not! They are away behind us," declared Betty, "and that sound came from in front. See, there it is--a motor boat," and she pointed to one just leaving the sh.o.r.e of a little cove.
Several men had evidently just leaped into the craft which, because of the shallow water, had to be shoved some distance out.
Then a strange thing happened. The men appeared to be surprised at the sight of the girls--an unexpected sight, it would appear--for some of them seemed anxious to put back, while others were urgent for keeping on out into the bay.
"That"s queer!" commented Betty.
"What?" asked Amy.
"Those men seem anxious to come back; at least, some of them do, and others don"t," went on Betty. "Look, they seem to be quarreling among themselves!"
CHAPTER IX
THE BOX IN THE SAND
"Goodness!" cried Grace, shrinking back against Betty. "They are fighting!"
"It does look so," responded the Little Captain. "One man seems to be trying to jump overboard!"
It did so appear to the outdoor girls. The motor boat containing the half-dozen rough-looking men was rapidly leaving the sh.o.r.e of the cove, but one man in it seemed anxious to return to the beach. His companions had forcibly to restrain him, as he seemed willing to leap into the water, and swim back.
Confused shouts and cries came from the men in the boat, as though they were of several opinions. Finally, however, the majority seemed to gain their point, and the man who had appeared so excited quieted down.
But, as the boat gathered headway, this man, sitting in the stern, never took his eyes from the four girls. He watched them until the craft was so far out that his features could not be distinguished.
"Wasn"t that odd?" demanded Amy, being the first to speak after the little episode.