n such a place as this. She might
have been on a ferryboat going from shore to shore of the Hudson!

"She _is_ a yellow lady," Wonota repeated earnestly.

"I should say she was!" exclaimed Helen. "What do you think of her,
Ruth?"

"I am sure I do not know what to say," the girl of the Red Mill answered.
"Does she look like a white woman to you, Helen?"

"She is yellow," reiterated Wonota.

"She certainly is not an Indian," observed Helen. "What say, Ruth?"

"She surely is not," agreed her chum.

"A yellow lady," murmured Wonota again, as the boat drew behind another
island and there remained out of sight.

CHAPTER XVI

MAROONED

"I wonder if the boat did come from that island over yonder?" Ruth
murmured, after a few moments of thought.

"For goodness' sake! what are you worrying about?" asked Helen Cameron.

"I'm not worrying at all," Ruth returned, smiling. "But I am curious."

"About that yellow lady?"

"About what happens on that island the queer old man lives on."

"You don't know that he really lives there," was the prompt rejoinder.

"That is so. He may not be there now. But--"

"But me no buts, unless you mean to go on," said Helen, as Ruth hesitated
again.

"It does seem queer," said Ruth thoughtfully. "Other people go there
besides the King of the Pipes."

"Indeed! We all went there when that allegory was staged."

"And since then," said Ruth, and proceeded to tell the two girls what she
and Chess Copley had seen early one morning.

"Men landing boxes on the island?" cried Helen, while Wonota merely
looked puzzled. "There is a camp there, like enough. And those men--and
the woman--in the launch might have come from there, of course. When
Willie comes back for us, let's sail around the island and see if we can
spy where their tent is set up. For of course there is no house there?"

"Tom and I found no habitation when we went to search for the old man,"
admitted Ruth.

"All right. It must be a tent, then," said her chum with conviction.
"We'll see."

But as it turned out, they made no such search that day. Indeed, Willie
and the _Gem_ did not return for them. The camp launch was not the first
craft that appeared. Ruth was again coaching Wonota after lunch when
Helen spied something on the water that caused her to cry out, drawing
the other girls' attention.

"Who under the sun is this coming in the canoe?" Helen demanded. "Why! he
is making it fairly fly. I never!"

Wonot