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Page 19
"I can tell you nothing, Madge," was the teacher's husky reply. "I am
perfectly aware that you have a right to know. Still, I simply can't
tell you. But I can go away, if you like, and I will, as soon as you
can get some one else to chaperon you. Only I must ask you not to tell
the other girls what has happened to-night, or why I must leave you.
You see, dear," Miss Jones ended wistfully, "the other girls are fond
of me. You never have been. I can not bear to lose their faith and
trust."
There was a significant silence after this remark.
"Did you really see who it was with me?" Miss Jones questioned
anxiously. "Would you know the face if you saw it again?"
"I don't know," was Madge's stiff reply, "but I believe I should."
"Won't you promise me that you will not tell the other girls?" Miss
Jones whispered, as they crossed the deck and came to the door of their
little cabin. "I am not asking you to do anything wrong, only asking
you to trust me and believe that I do not think I am doing a wrong by
not taking you into my confidence."
"Very well, I will keep your secret," returned Madge slowly. "I do not
wish you to leave us, Miss Jones. I wish you to stay and take care of
us, just as you planned to do."
"You are only saying that, dear, because you know I have no other place
to go for my holiday, and you are afraid my health will suffer. You
must not think of my health. I can not stay with you just for my own
sake."
"Then stay for ours," said Madge shortly, and without further words she
went into the cabin and climbed into her berth.
Sleep was far from weighing down her eyelids. She lay awake for some
time, wondering why clouds and distrust should so often spring up among
human beings when everything seemed arranged for their perfect
happiness.
She generously made up her mind, however, never to trouble their
chaperon with questions about her mysterious visitor, but she
determined to discover for herself who that boy was, and whether he had
come aboard the boat to rob them.
CHAPTER VII
THEIR UNKNOWN JAILER
"Madge Morton, what do you mean sleeping until seven o'clock, the first
morning we are on our houseboat?" cried Phil, poking her head in the
cabin door. "I would have awakened you before now, only Miss Jones
would not let me. Lillian and Eleanor have been waiting for you in
their bathing suits for a long while. Do let's have a salt water
plunge before breakfast."
Springing from her berth, Madge made a dash for her bathing suit, which
she had laid out the night before.
The girls were over the side of the boat in a hurry, swimming about in
the water with gleeful shouts. The odor of frying bacon, which was
presently wafted to their nostrils from the door of the houseboat
kitchen, was something the bathers were too hungry to resist, and with
one accord, they swam toward their boat.
It had been arranged that Miss Jones was to get the breakfast, Lillian
and Eleanor the luncheon, and Phil and Madge, who were the most
ambitious of the cooks, though not the most proficient, were to cook
the dinner.
Madge noticed that Miss Jones looked whiter than usual, but the other
girls saw no difference in their chaperon as they clambered up over the
side of the boat to get ready for breakfast.
"Girls," Miss Jones remarked, as she put down a big plate of corn
muffins before her hungry charges, "Phil accused me once of being
mysterious and never talking about myself. Well, I am going to make a
confession about myself at once."
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