The sound she had heard might have been only the rustling of the wind among the branches overhead in that shadowy silence, but Betty's nerves, the placid nerves of youth and perfect health, were shattered.
"Didn't you hear something, Hannibal ?" she whispered fearfully.
For answer Hannibal pointed mysteriously, and glancing in the direction he indicated, Betty saw a woman advancing along the path toward them.
The look of alarm slowly died out of his eyes.
"I think it's the overseer's niece," she told Hannibal, and they kept on toward the boat.
The girl came rapidly up the path, which closely followed the irregular line of the shore in its windings.

Once she was seen to stop and glance back over her shoulder, her attitude intent and listening, then she hurried forward again.

Just by the boat the three met.
"Good evening!" said Betty pleasantly.
The girl made no reply to this; she merely regarded Betty with a fixed stare.

At length she broke silence abruptly.
"I got something I want to say to you--you know who I am, I reckon ?" She was a girl of about Betty's own age, with a certain dark, sullen beauty and that physical attraction which Tom, in spite of his vexed mood, had taken note of earlier in the day.
"You are Bess Hicks," said Betty.
"Make the boy go back toward the house a spell--I got something I want to say to you." Betty hesitated.

She was offended by the girl's manner, which was as rude as her speech.