"Why?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Agnes. "Because we haven't been introduced?"

"Don't be a goose. You sound like Neale O'Neil. We must wait to get a good look at them by daylight before we let them see us."

"But-but, Ruthie," whispered Agnes, "maybe we might get them to go after the boys and Tess and Dot."

"They could not do that until morning. We will wait," Ruth declared firmly.

Her determination could not be shaken. Agnes at this point might have been braver than her sister, but she could not oppose Ruth in her present mood.

The two girls stole off through the scrub timber to the higher ground.

They tried to make no sound that would attract the attention of the men who had landed on the island. And in this they evidently succeeded, for their movements were not observed by the strangers.

CHAPTER XXII

THE ODYSSEY OF TESS AND DOT

Children, after all, are usually fearless when they face material things. Danger does not often frighten them if there is no mystery or weirdness connected with it.

The fact that they were sailing upon an unmanageable boat, upon an unknown sea, and were quite helpless, did not disturb the slumbers of Tess and Dot Kenway. As Tess had thought, the motor-boat might b.u.mp into something; but staying awake on their part would not ward off that disaster.

The _Isobel_ blundered along as the night fell, and the children went to sleep supperless. Dot did not even complain about this lack of a meal.

There was n.o.body to complain to, for she knew Tess could not aid her.

The motor-boat drew closer in to the sh.o.r.e of the first island. The tide and current sucked the hull of the helpless craft nearer and nearer. As it chanced, there was a point covered with palm trees around which the _Isobel_ drifted. She was then completely hidden from any part, even the highest part, of Palm Island.

When the sun arose the next morning, as far as the party back at the larger island knew, the motor-boat might have been sunk beneath the surface of the sea.

But that was not what had happened. The boat grounded, swung around with the tide, and when the sun got well above the sea its rays shone straight into the open cabin door and into Dot Kenway's eyes.

"O-oo! Tess!" she squealed. "I guess we landed and didn't know it. And the boat is pitching over. O-oo!"

It was a fact that the deck of the _Isobel_-more properly the floor of her cabin-lay at a steep angle. The boat was quite snugly run upon the sands. The tide had withdrawn and left her there.

The two wondering little girls climbed out of their berths and crept to the door and so out into the c.o.c.kpit. They looked wonderingly over the rail to the sh.o.r.e.

"Why!" observed Dot in wonder, "isn't this Plam Island?"

"Oh, dear! I wish you'd say _Palm_ Island-and it's not Palm Island,"

declared Tess.

"Then what's the use of saying it if it isn't?" grumbled Dot, who disliked being admonished about her faults of p.r.o.nunciation. "But it looks like Plam Island, so now!"

"I guess all these islands look alike," sighed Tess, giving up her admonitory att.i.tude for the moment. "We had better go ash.o.r.e."

"What for?"

"Well! Aren't you hungry?" Tess demanded. "And do you want to stay on this pitched-over boat?"

"I'm hungry all right," agreed Dot. "But nothing more can happen to the boat now, can there? It's wrecked, and that is all there is about it. It is a good place to sleep in."

"Are we going to sleep here again, do you suppose?" Tess cried. "Why, of course Ruthie will send the boys for us! Of course she will!"

"She hasn't yet," said Dot pessimistically.

"Not in the night. It's too dark to see then."

"And she doesn't know where we are, does she?" demanded Dot.

"Just the same, they will find us. I'm hungry," Tess announced again.

"What shall we eat?" asked her sister.

But Tess was not nonplussed by that question. Little as she was, she was observant. Such fruits as had been good to eat on Palm Island she knew must be all right to eat here on this strange island.

Of course they had no fire and nothing to cook upon it if they had. The little girls did not know just how to go about finding turtles' eggs, although they had seen Neale O'Neil uncover the first nestful of those delicacies. But they found two or three cocoanuts which they broke open with pieces of coral. And it was easy enough to pick a lapful of fruit.

Down they squatted on the sand, each with her dress-skirt heaped with fruit, and proceeded to enjoy a repast. Before they had finished, the active mind of Dot demanded to be informed on another point.

"If Neale and Luke come after us, Tess Kenway, how are they going to know we are on this island?"

"Won't they see us here?" asked her sister.

"Not if we are behind the bushes. I don't mean to stay out in the sun all the time. You know it is awfully hot at noon."

"We-ell," considered Tess, "I s'pose I'll have to put up my skirt again.

They won't sail by that."

"Oh, let's!" exclaimed Dot. Then she looked up into the palm trees and again began to question.

"You can't ever climb up one of those trees in the world, Tess Kenway."

"I-I can try," stammered her sister.

"You'll break your neck. You'll get hurt like Margy and Carrie Pendleton's father got hurt," declared Dot. "I wish Sammy Pinkney was here."

"Well!" gasped Tess. "What for?"

"He could climb it. He's a good climber. You know how he climbed the cherry tree in Mrs. Adams' back yard," said Dot earnestly.

"Yes," rejoined Tess with scorn. "And how they had to call out the fire department to get him down. I remember."

"Well," said Dot grumpily, for she almost always stood up for Sammy, "I guess he would have got down by himself if they had left him alone. But Mrs. Adams got so nervous. Anyhow, Tess Kenway, you can't climb one of these plam trees."

"Did I say I could?" replied her sister, rather snappishly if the truth were told.