emained
wide awake, thinking over the occurrences of the past few days. A
sound out on the bay, as if something had dropped to the deck of the
sloop, attracted her attention. The girl crawled from her bed and out
to the front of the cabin on all fours. She then sat up, leaning her
back against the cabin; shading her eyes, she gazed off at the boat
riding easily in the bay.

The "Sue" was faintly outlined in the dim light of the night, but the
night was too dark to enable the girl to make out anything in detail,
nor was there a sound on board to indicate that any one was awake.

"It may be that the captain is putting his man ashore, or else has
just returned from doing so. Still, this seems to me a pretty late
hour to be sending any one ashore." Harriet thought she could now make
out the small boat floating astern of the "Sue," where it was
ordinarily kept, though she could not be certain of this. "Ah! There
is something going on over there."

The faint creak of block and tackle reached her listening ears, which
she strained and strained, even closing her eyes that she might
concentrate wholly on the sense of hearing. The creaking continued for
a couple of minutes, then ceased altogether.

"I wonder if the captain can be making sail to go out?" Harriet asked
herself, opening wide her eyes and gazing toward the sloop. But the
latter was riding lazily on the gentle swell as before, the girl being
unable to make out anything that looked like the sail. She thought she
surely would be able to see the sail, had it been hoisted.

Something was dropped on the deck, making a great clatter, then for
several minutes all was silent on board the "Sister Sue." Harriet
could not imagine what was going on there. After a time there were
further evidences of activity on board; noises, faint, it is true,
which indicated that something out of the ordinary was taking place on
the boat. Harriet wondered if she had not better call Miss Elting and
have her listen, too. Upon second thought, however, she decided not
to do so. In the first place she could see and hear fully as much as
could the guardian, besides which, were she to awaken the guardian,
the other girls undoubtedly would be disturbed. They might make a
noise that would prevent her learning what was being done on board the
sloop.

Harriet shivered, for she was in her kimono, while the breeze blowing
in from the sea was fresh and penetrating. She felt a sneeze coming.
The girl