ad from side to side like a timid bird.

"That isn't Tom!" said Mollie.

Low as her voice was the youth heard. He fairly leaped forward, and
Betty, as she had a better glimpse of him, spoke:

"It's The Loon! The one who saved our boat for us!"

CHAPTER XXI

TO THE RESCUE

For a few seconds it was like a tableau, the strange young man, more
ragged than before (if that were possible) standing in the midst of the
clearing, and gazing as though spellbound at the girls in the motor
boat.

On their part, Betty and her chums, following the half-whispered
announcement made by Betty, stared at The Loon almost as if he might be
a ghost of the Florida forest.

For perhaps a quarter of a minute they all remained thus, scarcely
moving--hardly breathing--and then the young man made a slow turn. He
seemed about to plunge back into the tangle whence he had come.

"Don't do that!" said Mollie, hardly above a whisper. "He mustn't do
that!" and she seemed appealing to her chums. "We must keep him
here--speak to him--perhaps he knows where Tom went."

"Or, if he doesn't, perhaps he can tell us which way to go to get home,"
breathed Grace. "He's some company, anyhow."

The Loon, to give him the title bestowed on him by the men in the boat,
hesitated as he caught the sound of whispering. He shifted from one foot
to the other, much after the manner of some animal seeking to escape
unnoticed.

He took a step backward. By this time Betty had brought her boat close
to the extending tree branch, where she had made fast before. The power
had been shut off and the _Gem_ had drifted to the former mooring place.
Now Betty was ready for action.

"I beg your pardon," she said in a low voice, and with an intonation
calculated to disperse the fears of even the most timid youth, "but will
you be so good as to help us again? We are the girls, you know, whose
boat you got when the manatee was towing it away."

"Wha--what?" gasped the other, and he seemed much afraid.

"We're the same girls," went on Betty. "You know, we saw you poling down
the river that day. If you come closer you can see us and make sure. We
need help again. We are lost and a friend of ours is missing. Wait, I'll
light the lamps," and with a turn of the switch Betty set aglow the
electric lights, operated by a storage battery.

The youth started again. Clearly he was a most timid creature.

"We saw the men who were after you," put in Mollie, thinking to add to