lower deck she called out carelessly, "Miss Seldon and Miss Butler are
in the cabin waiting for you. Miss Jones is not here. I suppose she
gave you the message."

The youth, who had been moving cautiously toward the houseboat, was not
the boy for whom the girls were waiting. This one had black, curly
hair and wild dark eyes. He looked up and down the shore. There was
no one in sight.

Although there were several farmhouses beyond the embankment that
sloped down to the inlet of the bay, there was no house within calling
distance of the "Merry Maid." Their boat was anchored to the pier only
a few yards from the shore, tied firmly to one of the upstanding posts.
The youth grinned maliciously. He decided that he had met with an
unexpected stroke of good luck. He was hungry and penniless. Nothing
could be easier than to terrify the girls on board into submission,
take what money and food they had, and be off with it before any one
appeared to help them. If it was a desperate venture, well, he must
take a desperate chance. He could not wander around in the woods
forever with no food or money.

Meanwhile Phil had not once glanced behind her. "You'd better begin
scrubbing at once," she directed. "We have been waiting for you a long
time. We wish to get our houseboat in order. We are going to give a
party for our friends. Do hurry, there is such a lot to do."

The young man below was not troubling himself about the amount of work
to be done; he had other matters to consider. This girl on top the
cabin deck was evidently expecting some one. She would not come down
her little ladder unless she heard a noise or disturbance from below.