"They're fetching up a keel boat to the shore, Miss Betty--it's a whooper!" he announced.
Betty's heart sank, she never doubted the purpose for which that boat was brought into the bayou, or that it nearly concerned herself.
Half an hour later Mrs.Hicks appeared with their breakfast.

It was in vain that Betty attempted to engage her in conversation, either she cherished some personal feeling of dislike for her prisoner, or else the situation in which she herself was placed had little to recommend it, even to her dull mind, and her dissatisfaction was expressed in her attitude toward the girl.
Betty passed the long hours of morning in dreary speculation concerning what was happening at Belle Plain.

In the end she realized that the day could go by and her absence occasion no alarm; Steve might reasonably suppose George had driven her into Raleigh or to the Bowens' and that she had kept the carriage.

Finally all her hope centered on Judge Price.
He would expect Hannibal during the morning, perhaps when the boy did not arrive he would be tempted to go out to Belle Plain to discover the reason of his nonappearance.

She wondered what theories would offer themselves to his ingenious mind, for she sensed something of that indomitable energy which in the face of rebuffs and laughter carried him into the thick of every sensation.
At noon, Mrs.Hicks, as sullen as in the morning, brought them their dinner.