It was a happy day indeed--one that the little party would never forget! Mysteries and unanswered questions were banished. Even Bab forgot for the time being all disquieting thoughts. The lovely young countess, with her eyes full of an appealing tenderness, had driven away all ugly suspicion.
Several hours later the fishing party returned.
"See what we've got!" Ruth exclaimed proudly, as she ran up the sand hill flourishing a string of speckled sea trout.
"Miss am sho a lucky fisherman," agreed the old colored man in whose boat Mr. Stuart and the two girls had been fishing.
"But where are your fish, Barbara?" Grace inquired.
Mr. Stuart laughed. "Bab is the unluckiest fisherman that ever threw out a line," he explained. "Shall I tell them, Bab?"
Barbara flushed. "Oh, go ahead," she consented.
"Well," Mr. Stuart continued, "Miss Barbara Thurston caught a tarpon a yard long this morning."
"Where is it?" cried the waiting audience.
"Back in the sea, whence it came, and it nearly took Mistress Bab along with it," Mr. Stuart answered. "When Barbara caught her tarpon, she began reeling in her line as fast as she could. But the tarpon was too heavy for it, and the line broke. Then Bab prepared to dive into the ocean after her fish."
"I was so excited I forgot I did not have on my bathing suit," Bab explained. "I thought, if I could just dive down into the water, I could catch my tarpon, and then Mr. Stuart could pull us both back into the boat."
"Reckless, Barbara!" cried Miss Stuart. "What will you do next!"
"Don't scold, Aunt Sallie," Ruth begged. "It was too funny, and Father and I caught hold of Bab's skirts before she jumped. Then old Jim, the colored man, got the fish. So we had a good look at him without Bab's drowning herself. But when we found that the catch was a tarpon, and not good to eat, Father flung it back in the water."
While Mr. Stuart and the girls were talking, Jim and the engineer from the launch built a fire. They were soon at work frying the fish for luncheon.
Nobody noticed that a small naphtha launch had been creeping cautiously along the coast. It was sheltered from view by the bank of sand. And it managed to hide itself in a little inlet about a quarter of a mile away from Mr. Stuart's larger boat.