“Wasn’t that a narrow escape?” she breathed.  “He fell over me and never saw me.  I wonder if my ankle is broken?  It feels as though it were.  How it did hurt when he kicked me!  It is a wonder I did not scream.  I wonder what they are going to do now?”

She got up and limped toward the beach, using a little less caution than she had done when coming out.  She paused just at the edge of the trees, where she stood in the shadow observing the men.  They shoved the boat off and followed it out a little way, splashing in the water with their heavy boots, for the beach was too shallow to permit their getting into the rowboat and rowing directly away from the shore.  They first had to shove it off into deeper water.  This was quickly accomplished, and piling in, one of the pair began rowing out toward the sailboat.

The Meadow-Brook girl sat down and began to rub her injured ankle.  The rowboat was now merely a dark blotch out on the bay.  The blotch neared the sailboat and was lost in the shadow that surrounded the larger craft.  A few moments later Harriet heard the anchor being hauled in, then the creak of the rings on the mast as the sail was being raised.  The boat got under way quickly and with very little disturbance, swung to the breeze, the boom lurching to the leeward side of the boat with a “clank.”  Then the sailboat began moving slowly from the bay.  There were no lights to be seen either within or without.  The boat was in darkness.  Harriet gazed with straining eyes until the boat had finally merged with the sea and was lost to view.  A few moments later she caught the twinkle of a masthead light.  She watched the light and saw that it was moving slowly up the coast.

“That’s the last of them for to-night,” she reflected.  “I wonder where they put that box and what is in it?  However, I can’t look for it to-night.  I will see if I can find out anything about it in the morning.  I hope Miss Elting hasn’t awakened and missed me.”

Harriet stepped quickly down to the beach.  She gained the bar and ran until she reached the cabin.  Listening outside the door, she found that her companions were still asleep.  She crept cautiously into the cabin, undressed, rolled in her blanket and lay staring up at the ceiling until her heavy eyelids closed and she was sound asleep.  Her companions apparently had slept through the entire adventure, for which Harriet Burrell was thankful.

CHAPTER XIV

A VISITOR WHO WAS WELCOME

“Wake up, girls.  Put on your bathing suits and jump in.”  Miss Elting already was dressed in her blue bathing costume, her hair tucked under her red rubber bathing cap.  “We have just time for a swim before breakfast.  I see the smoke curling up from the campfire already.”

“I don’t want to thwim; I want to thleep,” protested Tommy.

“Get a move, darlin’, unless you want to be thrown in,” interjected Jane, who was hurrying into her bathing suit.  “Margery, don’t tempt us too far, or we will throw you in, too.”