Part 18 (1/2)

CHAPTER XVII

THE CAPTURE

Madge hurried down to where their rowboat lay. She dragged the anchor out of the sand and pulled at the skiff with all her might. Phil also took hold and together the two girls worked like beavers, but without success. The boat was firmly wedged in the sand.

”Is there any place on the island where we can hide, Mollie?”

questioned Phil as the two girls rested for a moment from their fruitless effort. ”We can not leave here until the tide turns.”

”I know a cave,” said Mollie hesitatingly. ”It is in the woods not very far from the beach. But I am afraid they will find us there.”

”We had better go to it,” urged Madge, wiping the perspiration from her tired face. ”At least we can hide in the cave for a while, until we make up our minds what is best for us to do, We may not be discovered until the tide turns. Later on I shall slip down here again to see if things are safe, and then we can make a run for our boat. If we wait here along the sh.o.r.e, we shall not have the least chance of escaping.

The first person who comes to look for Mollie will surely see us. Come on. We have no time to lose.”

This time Mollie led the way through a tangle of trees and underbrush to the center of the little island. Here they found the cave which was only an opening behind an immense old tree that had been uprooted by a storm. A flat rock protruded over the hollow, and the sand had gradually drifted away until the cavity was hardly large enough to hold the three girls. These were cramped quarters, and they were only partially protected from view by the immense roots of the fallen tree, but they knew of no other refuge and resolved to make the best of it.

The girls had barely crept into their hiding place when they heard a noise of some one tramping through the underbrush. A few moments later a man slouched along a narrow path between the trees. His hat was pulled down over his face, but Madge and Phil recognized him by his dress as the man they had seen asleep on the ground earlier in the day.

Mollie made no sound. She was hidden between the two friends, and never in her life before, so far as she could recall, had she been so protected by affection. But her increased trembling told her rescuers that she had recognized the man who pa.s.sed so near to them, and that she feared him.

”It's Bill,” she faltered when the figure disappeared without having the slightest suspicion that he was being watched. ”He is on his way to our boat. He will ask for me, and my father will be sure to find out that I have gone. Then they will come out here to hunt for me.”

For a long time after Mollie's disquieting prediction none of the three prisoners spoke. They hardly dared to breathe. Their bodies ached from their cramped, uncomfortable positions; they were hungry, and, worse than anything else, Madge and Phyllis were tormented with thirst.

Since leaving the houseboat early in the morning they had drunk no water. Phil was thinking remorsefully that all this trouble had come from her asking Madge to go with her to the island in search of Mollie.

Madge was wondering just what she would do and say if Mollie's father should find them, while Mollie's delicate face had lost its expression of apathy and now wore one of lively terror. Even the faint rustle of leaves as a pa.s.sing breeze swept through the trees caused her to start.

An hour pa.s.sed and no one came to look for them. Either Mike had not learned of his daughter's escape, or else he had not taken the trouble to come to search for her. He must have believed that she would return to the boat later on of her own accord, driven by hunger and loneliness.

It was now growing late in the afternoon. Neither Madge nor Phyllis wore a watch, so it was impossible to tell how much time they had spent in the cave. Miss Jenny Ann would wonder what had happened. Of course, Lillian and Eleanor would explain matters. Miss Jones might remember the tide and understand what was keeping them away. Yet there was a lively possibility that she might fail to take the tide into consideration.

At last Madge decided to end the suspense.

She knew their skiff would float from the sh.o.r.e of Fisherman's Island several hours before full tide. They had tried to make their escape at the moment when the tide was almost at its lowest ebb. The tide had been high that morning. It was nearly two o'clock in the afternoon when they had attempted to leave the island. She now believed it to be almost five o'clock. At least, it was time to reconnoitre. She put her ear close to the ground. She could hear no sound of any one approaching.

”Phil,” she whispered, ”will you and Mollie please wait here for me. I am going down to the water to see if it is possible to get the boat off. It must be very late. Remember, high tide is at eight o'clock to-night. We ought to be able to pull away from here between five and six o'clock. When I come back to tell you how things are we can make a run for it to the beach, and perhaps get a fair start before we are seen.”

”Let me go with you,” insisted Phil, as anxious as her chum to get out of their close quarters.

”I don't think we ought to leave Mollie alone,” demurred Madge. ”But, if you think best, you may go and I will stay here.”

Mollie's terror at Phyllis's suggestion of deserting her was too much for tender-hearted Phil. ”No, I won't leave you,” she said gently, taking Mollie's hand in hers. ”You had better run along, Madge. I'll stay here. But, for goodness' sake, do be careful. If anything happens to you, Mollie and I will starve in this cave like Babes in the Woods, if you don't come back to find us.”

Madge crawled cautiously out of the hole. Her muscles were so stiff that she rose to her feet with difficulty. But she soon started off through the narrow path between the trees, making as little noise as she possibly could. Her way through the grove of trees covered the greater part of the distance to the sh.o.r.e. But there was still a stretch of open beach, where she feared she would be discovered. When she came to the shelter of the last tree she stopped and peered cautiously up and down the line of the sh.o.r.e. As far as she could see the beach was empty. And, surely enough, the tide was coming in. Tiny waves touched the prow of the ”Water Witch.” It was true the water was not yet deep enough to float their boat, but in less than an hour they might be able to row away from danger with their new friend.

There was but one thing to do. She must return to Phyllis and Mollie, and they must make up their minds to remain in their hiding place for a little while longer. Madge hated to go back to the cave. She would have liked to linger in the woods, hiding behind the trees until they were able to leave the island. But she knew it would not be fair to Phyllis and Mollie to leave them any longer in suspense. They would think something had happened to her unless she returned to them at once. The knowledge that she had not been seen made her feel more cheerful. She was sure that she would yet outwit the brutal sailor, Mike Muldoon, and carry Mollie safe to the shelter of their houseboat, where Miss Jenny Ann, or perhaps Mrs. Curtis, would tell them how they could continue to take care of the poor girl.

Unfortunately, Madge's gown was of some soft, white material and altogether too conspicuous. She could be easily seen for some distance as she ran along the sh.o.r.e, and in her anxiety to return to her friends as soon as possible she did not look about her as carefully as she should have done. Therefore she missed seeing the cruel face that stared malignantly forth from the opening in the tent where Phil had her first talk with Mollie. The man's whole body was carefully concealed, and as Madge flitted by the tent his head disappeared from sight.