ison-house from the beach. Not for worlds would the girls have
been discovered hammering at their door. They had crossed the island to
ask for succor. They needed friends. Suppose these men had seen them
trying to break into their house? They might have been taken for common
thieves. Madge and Phil were quick to repent of their foolishness. They
had not come forth on their long pilgrimage to save a man locked up in
a hut; they had come to find aid for Miss Jenny Ann and the other
girls.

It was almost dark when they made their way back to their packs, which
they had left under a tree. They made a fire, fried their fish, and ate
their supper.

Then they swung their hammock in the branches of a great, low-armed
sycamore tree. Neither was afraid, though the night was dark and they
were far from their lodge, which to-night seemed like home. They were
too weary to lie awake. By the time the stars were out they had crawled
into their hammock together and covered themselves with their blanket.
All night long they slept serenely, the good fairies keeping watch over
them.

CHAPTER XVI

THE DISAPPOINTED KNIGHTS

Not long after daylight the two girls were out of their hammock bed.
But they waited until a reasonable hour before they approached the
house in the woods to ask for assistance. Then they walked back to the
place cautiously and quietly. To their relief they saw an old gypsy
woman stirring something in a pot by an open fire. A young boy was
busily cleaning some fish.

The explorers walked directly up to the boy, who did not turn or take
the slightest interest in their approach. But when Phyllis touched him
on the arm he whirled about, dropped his fishing knife, and gave a
queer, guttural call.

The old gypsy woman came toward Madge and Phil, looking alarmed, but
brandishing a long stick.

"I don't wonder you are surprised," apologized Phil. "But, really, we
are not ghosts; we are human beings. We have been shipwrecked on this
island for two weeks and you are the first human beings we have seen.
Can you tell us how we can get away?"

Still the boy stared and the gypsy woman made menacing gestures. The
boy was about sixteen. He had handsome features and wavy black hair,
but a strange, half-stupid expression.

"Why don't one of you speak?" demanded Madge in her impatient fashion.
"We wish to know who lives in that house over there? Go and tell them
we wish to speak to them."

The boy put his fingers on