Page:Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse Point.djvu/198

188 "And did that awful man, Crab, bring you here?" cried Ruth.

"Yes. It was dark when he landed and showed me this cave in the rock. There was food and water. Why, I've got plenty to eat and drink even now. But nobody has been here"

"Didn't he come back?" queried Tom, at last taking part in the conversation.

"He rowed out here once. I told him I'd sink his boat with a rock if he tried to land. I was afraid of him," declared the girl.

"But why did you come here with him that night?" demanded Ruth.

Cause I was foolish. I didn't know he was so bad then. I thought he'd really help me. He told me Jennie's aunt had written to my uncle"

"Old Bill Hicks," remarked Tom, chuckling.

"Yes. I'm Jane Hicks. I'm not Nita," said the girl, gulping down something like a sob.

"We read all about you in the paper," said Helen, soothingly. "Don't you mind."

"And your uncle's come, and he's just as anxious to see you as he can be," declared Ruth.

"So they did send for him? " cried Jane Ann.

"No. Crab wrote a letter to Silver Ranch himself. He got you out here so as to be sure to collect five hundred dollars from your uncle