Some rods up the ascent Ruth came to an open place--a table of rock that might really have been a giant's dining-table, so flat and perfectly shaped it was. She could look down upon Helen and Wonota, and they looked up and called to her.

"Look out for the pirates!" shouted Helen, with laughter.

Ruth waved her hand, smiling, and, crossing the rock, parted the brush and stepped out of sight of her friends. Two steps she took through the clinging bushes when a most surprising figure started up before her.

There was plenty of light, even if the sun had gone down. She was not uncertain at all as to the nature of the figure that confronted her--that of a man.

She saw almost instantly that the old man's brown eyes were more like a child's in expression than like an angry man's. He grinned at her, but the grimace was involuntary or meaningless.

"Hush!" he whispered. "Hush!"

Ruth remained both quiet and speechless, looking into his wrinkled old face calmly. She thought he must be a beggar from his clothing, but she could not imagine him a robber, nor even one of Helen's "pirates." As she said nothing the old man repeated his sibilant warning:

"Hush!"

"I am 'hushing' just as hard as I can," whispered the girl in return, and smiling a little now. "Why must I 'hush'?"

"Hush!" he said again, quite as earnestly. "You are in danger of your life, young woman."

"Not from you, I am sure," she returned. "You would not try to hurt me."

"Hush!" he repeated, looking back over his shoulder into the thicker wood. "They may come at any moment now. And although I am their king, they would kill you. You see, kings aren't as powerful now as they used to be before the war."

"So I understand," agreed Ruth soberly. "But who are you king of--or what?"

"I am King of the Pipes," whispered the old man. "You don't know what that means," he added, scanning her puzzled face. "No. And that's the secret. You cannot be told."

"Oh," murmured Ruth, somewhat amused, yet pitying his evident mental state.

"Hush!" he said again. "You are in danger. Go away from this place at once, and don't come here again. If my courtiers see you--Ha! Off with her head! I shall have to follow the kingly custom. It is not my fault,"

he added, in the same low tone, shaking his head mournfully. "We kings have to lead our lives, you know."

"It must be a dreadful life, if you have to order people's heads cut off when they have done you no harm," Ruth ventured.

"But my people would not believe that you would do no harm," he explained. "I can see that you are quite harmless. But they have not the intelligence I possess. You understand?"

"Quite," said Ruth. "And I will go right away. Thank you for your kindness."

"That is right, young woman. Go away. And do not return. It is not safe here."

"Can't--can't I do anything for you?"

"Hush!" warned the old man. "No, I do not think you can. I do not care to divide my power with any consort. And, unless you are of n.o.ble blood I could not make you Queen of the Pipes. That would never do. Such a mesalliance would never do. My people would never stand for it--oh, never!"

"I quite understand that," said Ruth, having difficulty to keep from smiling.

"Now go, young woman," the man said pompously. "And do not return."

"I will obey you," said Ruth soberly. "If you are sure I cannot help you."

"Hush!" he warned her again, waving his hand. "They are likely to come at any moment. And then--"

The girl backed through the bushes and stepped upon the table-like rock.

She would have bade him good-bye, but he hissed after her another sibilant "hush!" and disappeared as mysteriously as he had come.

Ruth descended to the canoe and waited until they were well away from the island before she said a word to the other girls about the queer old man.

CHAPTER IX

A FILM MYSTERY

"I told you there were pirates there," Helen declared that evening, when she and Ruth were in the room they shared together. Wonota slept in a room adjoining and had already retired.

"I don't think that poor old man was a pirate," returned Ruth, smiling a little.

"Didn't he tell you he was 'king of the pirates'?" demanded Helen.

Ruth laughed outright. "He said he was 'king of the pipes'--whatever that may mean. Poor old fellow!"

"Well, it seems he most certainly had been 'smoking the pipe'--or do they call it 'hitting the pipe'?"

"Don't ask me to aid you with any information on slang," admonished her friend. "I don't suppose he is really king of anything except of a country of his dreams--poor fellow."

"Dear me!" grumbled Helen. "You never will boost romance, Ruth Fielding.

Maybe there are pirates on that island."

"Or pipes," said Ruth calmly.

"Never mind. When the boys come I am going to shoo them on to that place."

"What boys?" demanded Ruth in surprise.

"The Copleys arrive to-morrow. And their place is not five miles away from this very spot. We'll get a motor-boat and go down there to-morrow evening and welcome them. I got a telegram from Tom when I came back from canoeing. I forgot to tell you."

"Tom!" exclaimed Ruth, and for perhaps the first time in her life she seemed undesirous of hearing about Tom Cameron.

Helen gave her a somewhat puzzled side glance as she found the telegram and gave it to her chum, who read:

"Vacation begins to-morrow. Will be with you next day. Tom."

Helen giggled. "You can make up your mind that he knows Chess Copley has started for this neck of woods. Tom is becoming Mr. Jealous Jellaby. Did you ever?"

"I am sorry Tom considers it necessary to take a vacation when he has only just begun work with your father, Helen."

"There you go again!" exclaimed her chum. "I don't understand you at all, Ruth Fielding. Tom doesn't have to work."