Part 17 (2/2)
”All are not men, Miss Ruth,” interrupted Wonota, the keen-eyed.
”What do you mean, Wonota?” gasped Helen, whirling around to gaze again at the pa.s.sing launch.
But Ruth did not say a word. She had been examining the boat closely. She saw it was the very speedy boat she and Chess Copley had seen out on the wider part of the river several weeks before. The launch was not moving rapidly now, but Ruth was sure that it was a powerful craft.
It was Helen who marked the figure Wonota had spoken of in the boat. It certainly did not appear to be a man.
”Why Ruth! See! That is a woman!”
”A yellow-faced lady,” said Wonota calmly. ”I saw her first, Miss Ruth.”
All three of the girls on the island stared after the moving motor-boat.
Ruth saw the woman. She was dressed plainly but in modern garments. She did not seem to be one of the summer visitors to the islands. Indeed, her clothing--such as could be seen--pointed to city breeding, but nothing was chosen, it would seem, for wear in such a place as this. She might have been on a ferryboat going from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e of the Hudson!
”She _is_ a yellow lady,” Wonota repeated earnestly.
”I should say she was!” exclaimed Helen. ”What do you think of her, Ruth?”
”I am sure I do not know what to say,” the girl of the Red Mill answered.
”Does she look like a white woman to you, Helen?”
”She is yellow,” reiterated Wonota.
”She certainly is not an Indian,” observed Helen. ”What say, Ruth?”
”She surely is not,” agreed her chum.
”A yellow lady,” murmured Wonota again, as the boat drew behind another island and there remained out of sight.
CHAPTER XVI
MAROONED
”I wonder if the boat did come from that island over yonder?” Ruth murmured, after a few moments of thought.
”For goodness' sake! what are you worrying about?” asked Helen Cameron.
”I'm not worrying at all,” Ruth returned, smiling. ”But I am curious.”
”About that yellow lady?”
”About what happens on that island the queer old man lives on.”
”You don't know that he really lives there,” was the prompt rejoinder.
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