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Page 41
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.
The next question was, how many girls were on board and where were they?
Eleanor and Lillian had finished the cake and the fudge. They had
brought them into the living room and set them on the table to wait for
the evening tea party. Eleanor was tired.
She had thrown herself down on a lounge and her eyes were closed.
Lillian, with her back to the door, stood talking to her friend. They
did not hear the intruder's light footfalls.
Suddenly Lillian felt her two hands caught roughly behind her in such a
powerful grasp that she staggered back. Eleanor sprang from the couch,
opening her eyes in amazement! She saw Lillian struggling with a man
whose face wore the expression of a hungry animal.
"Don't scream," he ordered harshly. "Give me what food and money you
have and I will let you go. If you scream, you will be sorry." He
glared savagely at the two girls.
Lillian tried to wrench her hands from his grasp. They were pinioned
so tightly behind her that she could not move. Eleanor slipped off her
divan. She and Lillian had no weapons with which to defend themselves.
Eleanor thought if she could get out of the room, while the man held
Lillian, she could cry for help. Her first scream would bring Phyllis
to their aid, and Phil would come to their assistance prepared to fight.
Eleanor looked so young and girlish that no one would have expected her
to show resistance. She tried to look even more frightened than she
really felt. "We haven't any money on board," she said quietly. "We
don't keep our money here, but if you are hungry, we will give you
something to eat without your being so fierce." Eleanor was edging
slowly away from her couch.
"I don't want a slice of pie and your stale bread," the man replied
angrily. "I want everything you have got, and I want it quick."
Now was Eleanor's chance. Lillian gave another frantic tug, attempting
to free her hands. She had not cried out since the man seized her, but
her face was contracted with pain. The robber was so fully occupied
with holding her he was not looking at Eleanor, although his eyes
slanted go curiously that he could apparently see on all sides of him.
Eleanor made a quick rush forward. With a thud she fell to the floor,
and lay stunned by the force of her fall. The tramp, still holding
Lillian by her wrists, had jerked her backward, thrown out his foot and
tripped Eleanor. Now, before Lillian could scream, he whipped out a
dirty handkerchief and tied it so tightly about her mouth that she
could scarcely breathe. He next took a piece of twine and twisted it
about Lillian's wrists, so that the cord cut into them.
While this scene of violence was being enacted Phil was perfectly happy
and strangely unconscious of any trouble. She was still at work,
sweeping the upper deck and clearing it of the trash she had made with
her gardening. She was humming gayly to herself or she would have
heard the sounds below more plainly. "There was a man in our town, and
he was wondrous wise." She stopped short. She had heard a noise, as
though something had fallen. But then, the girls were always dropping
things and stumbling over their few pieces of furniture. There was no
further noise. Phil went on with her singing. But why did Lillian and
Eleanor not start the farmer boy to scrubbing? It was getting late,
and they wished to decorate the boat. Phil was too busy at her own
task to go down to discover the reason.
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