ey had lost his motorboat was disheartening. To go on seemed
dangerous. True, they had rifles but they were, after all, but two
girls against three rough men. In spite of all this, they decided in
the end to go on. Pushing the boat into the sea they rowed out a few
fathoms, then set the sail and bore away before the brisk breeze. The
fact that the oar-locks, which were mere wooden pegs, were worn smooth
and shiny, told that the boat had not been long unused.

In a short time they found themselves well out from shore in a gently
rippling sea, while the point, behind which lay their camp, grew
smaller and smaller in the distance.

Presently they cleared a wooded point of land and came in view of a
short line of beach. Deep set in a narrow bay, it might have escaped
the eye of a less observant person than Marian; so, too, might the
white speck that shone from the brown surface of that beach.

"What's that in the center?" she mumbled, reaching for the binoculars
by her side. "It's our schooner," she exclaimed after a moment's
survey. "Yes, sir, it is! Anyway, it's a motor-boat, and if not ours,
whose then?"

"We'd better pull in behind the point, drag our boat up on the rocks
and come round by land," whispered Lucile.

"Yes, if we dare," said Marian, overcome for a moment with fear. "If
they have seen us and come out to meet us, what then?"

"I hardly think they'd see us without a field glass," said Lucile.

Bending to the oars they set their boat cutting across the wavelets
that increased in size with the rising wind.

Ten minutes of hard pulling brought their boat in behind the point,
where it was quieter water and better rowing. This took them to a
position quite out of sight of the white spot on the distant beach. If
the pirate robbers were truly located in the bay and had not seen the
girls they were safe to steal up close.

"Well, suppose they have. If the worst comes to the worst we can
escape into the brush," said Marian. "We won't be worse off then than
we are now."

"If only we can catch them off guard and get away with our motorboat!"
said Lucile fervently.

Two hours of fighting the wilderness brought them at last to the
beginning of the short, sandy beach. By peering through the branches
they discovered that a clump of young tamaracks, growing close down to
the shore, still hid the white spot they had taken for their boat.

Lucile stepped out upon the sand, then bent down to examine