"

"For help!" exclaimed Betty. "What is the trouble? Perhaps we can help
you. We are from Mr. Stonington's orange grove, and if we told him you
needed help----"

"No, no!" interrupted the youth, glancing about him nervously. "It isn't
that kind of help. I am trying to help someone else. I--I can't tell
you. But I must be getting on. And will you do me a favor?" he asked
suddenly.

"Of course!" cried Betty. "We will be only too glad to, since you did so
much for us. Only for you our boat might be far up the river now. What
can we do for you?"

"Don't tell anyone you saw me," begged the youth, earnestly. "There are
those who would stop me--take me back where I came from. They are after
me--they may be below me, trying to head me off. If you meet them--meet
any rough-looking men who ask for me--don't tell them about me. Don't
set them after me, please."

"You may be sure we will not!" exclaimed Betty, warmly. "Are you
from----"

"Please don't ask me!" he exclaimed. "It is so much easier to throw
them off the trail if you really know nothing. So don't question me."

"Very well, we won't. But if you are escaping, perhaps you need
money----"

"No, I have some, thank you," and he showed a small roll of bills. "He
gave it to me," and he seemed to indicate, by a nod, someone farther up
the stream.

"Then do you think you will be all right?" asked Mollie. Amy and Grace
had taken no part in the talk. They seemed to be content to look at the
strange youth who had rendered the outdoor girls such a service.

"Oh, yes, I'll be all right," was the answer, but the ragged youth
looked about him apprehensively. "I must be getting on now, after
help--for him. Don't say you saw me--don't tell them anything about me."

"We won't," promised Betty. "You may rely on us."

"Thank you--good-bye!" He stepped into his skiff and quickly poled out
from shore, dropping down with the current. The girls gazed after him
for a moment. Strangely had he come into their lives, and as strangely
gone out, without revealing his identity. And he had done them such a
service, too.

"Well, we have our boat back," remarked Betty, with a sigh of
thankfulness. "I wonder what possessed that sea cow to swim off with
it?"

"Probably it was only an accident," said Mollie. "Well, we certainly
have had a day of it. Now let's get back before anything else happens.
Gracious, how swiftly he is poling along!"

She pointed to the youth, who was almost out