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Page 49
He laughed tantalizingly into the girls' faces as though well pleased
with his own joke.
"Mollie married?" Phil exclaimed in horror. "Why, she----" Then Phil
stopped herself and inquired, with an innocent expression of interest,
"Whom did you say Mollie was going to marry?"
"She is going to marry Bill Barnes, a friend of mine," retorted the
sailor sarcastically, his heavy shoulders shaking with savage
amusement. "He ain't much to look at. It's kind of a case of Beauty
and the Beast with him and my Moll. But she's powerful fond of him."
"Mike!" a shrill voice screamed from the shanty boat kitchen, "come
along in here."
Mike glared at his questioners, his face set in savage lines. "Don't
never come here agin," he growled. "If you do, I ain't sayin' what
will happen to you." Turning abruptly he strode toward his boat,
leaving the girls standing where he had first met them.
There was nothing for Madge and Phil to do but to return once more to
their own boat. "O Madge! it is too dreadful!" exclaimed Phil in a
husky voice. "I understand now what poor Mollie meant. She said there
was one thing she would never do, no matter how cruel her father might
he with her. Of course, she knew they were going to try to force her
to marry some frightful looking fisherman. We simply must try to find
her and save her. It is a wicked shame!"
"Don't be so wretched, Phil," comforted Madge, though she felt equally
miserable. "You are right; we must find out how to save poor, pretty
Mollie. I can't think what we ought to do, just this minute, but we
must do our best. Now I think we shall have to go home and talk things
over with Miss Jenny Ann and the girls. We will come back to-morrow,
prepared to make a fight to save Mollie. Surely she can't be married
by that time."
The two friends stopped by the tent for their basket of food and sat
down just outside it under a tree to eat their luncheon. Neither of
them noticed that they had seated themselves with their backs to the
water, and they were so interested in talking of Mollie that they gave
no thought to the outgoing tide. By rising they could see their boat
drawn up on the shore, where, as arranged with Lillian and Eleanor, it
had been left by the farm boy. What they failed to notice, however,
was the distance it lay from the water line, and they also had
forgotten that it was time for the going out of the tide.
As they sat quietly eating their luncheon the sound of running feet was
borne to their ears. Nearer and nearer they came. Then round the
curve of the beach darted the object of their morning's search. With a
wild cry she flung herself upon Phil. "You said you would help me,"
she moaned. "Oh, help me now." Little rivulets of water ran from her
ragged clothing. The pupils of her dark blue eyes were distended with
fear. Her dress was torn across her shoulder and an ugly bruise showed
through it. There was a long, red welt on her cheek that looked as
though it had been made with a whip, and another across one forearm.
Madge and Phyllis rushed toward the frightened girl. Phil put her arm
protectingly about Mollie while Madge stood on guard. Resolution and
defiance looked out from their young faces. They were not afraid of
poor Mollie's captors. They would fight for her.
"How did you come to us? Where have you been?" questioned Phil.
Five minutes had passed and no one had appeared. "Sit down here,
Mollie. We won't let any one hurt you."
"I was hidden in the shanty boat, locked in a dark closet," faltered
Mollie, casting a terrified glance about her. "I heard you ask for me,
but I could not come out. The woman is more cruel to me than the man.
She would have killed me. But when my father came home he was so angry
because you had been to see me that he beat me and said I must marry
Bill to-morrow, before you could come back to help me. Oh, he is
horrible! I won't marry him! I'll die first! I crawled through a
porthole in the boat when I heard what they said. I dropped into the
water and swam and swam until I could land on the beach out of sight of
my father's boat. Then I ran until I found you. But they will try to
find me. They may be looking for me now. Tell me, tell me what I must
do?"
"Don't be frightened," soothed Madge. "They can't force you to marry
Bill or any one else against your will. Phil and I will take care of
you. Come with us. We are going over to our houseboat now. Your
father need not know what has become of you. Hurry!" Madge was
listening intently for sounds announcing the coming of Mollie's
pursuers. So far the girls were safe. A moment more and they would be
in their rowboat.
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