d for rescue from
a ship that must some day pass within range of the island. She believed
the other shore to be as deserted as the one on which the "Merry Maid"
had landed.

"Madge and Lillian must have finished with their fishing hours ago,"
reflected Phil. "I must not be so lazy; I must hurry along home."

Phyllis had placed her burden on the ground. She leaned over to pick it
up. A sound of human voices smote her ear. The voices were not those of
any member of the houseboat party. They were the voices of men.

Phil was startled--the sound was so unexpected and surprising. Without
an instant's hesitation she slipped behind the giant chestnut tree and
crouched low on the ground. The men were coming nearer. She had not
been dreaming. It occurred to Phyllis at once that these men must be
game-keepers, who had been sent to explore the island to see if any one
had been shooting the game before the hunting season opened. And here
was Phyllis Alden with a dead rabbit swung over one shoulder and a live
fawn in her arms!

Had Phil stopped to consider she might have known that she could easily
explain her presence to the men. But she did not stop to think, for she
was much too frightened.

One of the men had a dark, uncompromising face. The other Phil did not
see distinctly.

The men evidently believed the island as deserted as Phyllis had
thought it before their appearance.

"It's a forsaken hole," one of the men said to the other. "For my part,
I'll be glad when we are through with this business. I've no taste for
it. I wish it were finished."

"Oh, the job's easy, if it is slow," the other man answered. "You ain't
used to the things I am."

The men tramped on without dreaming of Phil or of her hiding place.

Once they were out of sight, Phyllis realized how foolish she had been.
She called after them, but they were now out of hearing. Phil felt
ashamed of herself. Why had she been afraid of these two men? Could she
go to the lodge and say to Miss Jenny Ann that she had let a possible
chance of rescue pass by them?

Phil decided to linger in the woods no longer. No matter if her arms
and her back did ache she must hurry back to tell Madge of the
apparition she had seen.

"Phil Alden! Phil Alden!" Phyllis heard a clear voice calling to her.
Then she heard the violent ringing of their cherished dinner-bell.

"Here I am to the left," she shouted back. "Come here and help me carry
these things."

Madge pushed h