diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/44401.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44401.txt | 6528 |
1 files changed, 6528 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/44401.txt b/old/44401.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d0bb85 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44401.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6528 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Phantom Yacht, by Carol Norton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Phantom Yacht + +Author: Carol Norton + +Illustrator: D. Curley + +Release Date: December 9, 2013 [EBook #44401] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHANTOM YACHT *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + "_Look! Look!" he cried. "That's what I was wantin' to find._" + (_Page 101_) (_The Phantom Yacht_) + + + + + THE + PHANTOM YACHT + + + _By_ CAROL NORTON + + + Author of + "Bobs, A Girl Detective," "The Seven Sleuths' Club," etc. + + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + Publishers New York + Printed in U. S. A. + + MYSTERY _and_ ADVENTURE SERIES _for_ GIRLS + 12 TO 16 YEARS OF AGE + + The Phantom Yacht, by Carol Norton. + Bobs, A Girl Detective, by Carol Norton. + The Seven Sleuths' Club, by Carol Norton. + The Phantom Treasure, by Harriet Pyne Grove. + The Secret of Steeple Rocks, by Harriet Pyne Grove. + + + Copyright, 1928 + By A. L. BURT COMPANY + + + + + CONTENTS + + + I. Friends Parted 3 + II. Banishing Ghosts 13 + III. A Lost Mother 21 + IV. Seaward Bound 30 + V. A New Experience 42 + VI. A Light in the Dark 49 + VII. The Phantom Yacht 56 + VIII. What Happened 64 + IX. A Mysterious Message 73 + X. Sounds in the Loft 82 + XI. A Querulous Old Aunt 88 + XII. A Bleached Skeleton 96 + XIII. Belling the Ghost 106 + XIV. A Punt Ride 112 + XV. A Gloomy Swamp 117 + XVI. Out in the Dark 121 + XVII. More Mysteries 127 + XVIII. An Airplane Sighted 133 + XIX. Two Boys Investigate 139 + XX. One Mystery Solved 149 + XXI. A channel in the Swamp 160 + XXII. The Old Ruin at Midnight 170 + XXIII. Letters of Importance 183 + XXIV. A Surprising Revelation 193 + XXV. Puzzled Again 205 + XXVI. A Clue to the Old Ruin Mystery 214 + XXVII. Ransacking the Old Ruin 224 + XXVIII. The Best Surprise of All 239 + + + + + THE PHANTOM YACHT + + + + + CHAPTER I. + FRIENDS PARTED + + +The face of Dories Moore was as dismal as the day was bright. It was +Indian summer and the maple trees under which she was hurrying were +joyfully arrayed in red and gold, while crimson, yellow and purple +flowers nodded at her from the gardens that she passed with unseeing +eyes. She was almost blinded with tears; her scarlet tam was awry, as +though she had put it on hurriedly, and her sweater coat, of the same +cheerful hue, was unbuttoned and flapping as she fairly ran down the +village street. In her hand was a note which had been the cause of the +tears and the haste. On it were a few penciled words: + + +"Dori dear, we are leaving sooner than we expected. I'm sending this to +you by little Johnnie-next-door. Do come right over and say good-bye to +someone who loves you best of all. + + "Your sister-friend, + "Nann." + + +At a large old colonial house at the edge of the town, just where the +meadows began, the girl turned in at a lilac-guarded gate and hurried up +the neatly graveled walk. Her eyes were again brimming with tears as she +glanced up at the curtainless windows that looked as dismal and deserted +as she felt. Hurrying up the steps, she lifted the quaintly carved old +iron knocker and shuddered as she heard the sound echoing uncannily +through the big unfurnished rooms. Her sensitive mouth quivered when she +heard the sound of running feet on bare floors and when the door was +flung open by another girl of about the same age, Dori leaped in and, +throwing her arms about her friend, she burst into tears. + +"Why, Dories! Dear, dear Dori, don't cry so hard." There were sudden +tears in the warm brown eyes of Nann Sibbett, as for a moment she held +her friend tenderly close. + +"One might think that I was going a million miles away." She tried to +speak cheerfully. "Boston isn't so very far from Elmwood and some day, +soon, I am sure that you will be coming to visit me." + +An April-like smile flickered tremulously on the lips of the younger girl +as she stepped back and straightened her tam. "Well, that is something to +look forward to," she confessed. "It will be a little strip of silver +lining to as black a cloud as ever came into my life. Of course," Dories +amended, "losing father was terrible, but I was too young to know the +loneliness of it, and being poor when we should be rich is awfully hard. +Sometimes I feel so rebellious, O, nobody knows how rebellious I feel. +But losing one's money is nothing compared to losing one's only friend." + +The other girl, who was taller by half a head, actually laughed. "Why, +Dories Moore, here you talk as though you would not have a single friend +left when I have moved away. There isn't a girl at High who hasn't been +green with envy because I have had the good fortune to be your best +friend ever since we were in kindergarten, and just as soon as I'm out of +town they'll be swarming around you, each one aspiring to be your pal." + +There was a scornful curl on the sensitive lips of the listener. "As +though I would let anyone have your place, Nann Sibbett. Never, never, +never, not if I live to be a thousand years old." Then with an appealing +upward glance, "But you'll probably like some city girl heaps better than +you ever did me. I suppose you'll forget all about me soon." + +"Silly!" Nann exclaimed brightly, giving her friend an impulsive hug. +"Don't you remember when you were eleven and I was twelve, we had a +ceremony out in the meadow under the twin elms and we vowed, just as +solemnly as we knew how, that we would be adopted sisters and that real +born sisters could not be closer." + +Dories nodded, smiling again at the pleasant recollection. "Do you know, +Nann," she put in, "I sort of feel that we were intended to be sisters +some way. It was such a strange coincidence that our birthdays happened +to fall on the same day, the third of September." + +"Maybe if they hadn't," Nann chimed in, "you and I wouldn't have been +best friends at all, for, don't you remember, way back in kindergarten +days, you were so shy you didn't make friends with anyone, and when Miss +Sally wanted to find a seat for you that very first morning, she chose me +because it was our birthday. After that, since I was a year older, I felt +that I ought to look out for you just as a big sister really should." + +Dories nodded, then as she glanced into the bare library, in the wide +doorway of which they were standing, she said dismally, "O, Nann, what +good times we've had in this room. I can almost see now when we were very +little girls curled up on that window seat near the fireplace studying +our first primer, and on and on until last June when we were cramming for +our sophomore finals." + +"I know." Nann looked wistfully toward the corner which Dories had +indicated. "I don't believe we will either of us know how to study +alone." Then, fearing that tears would come again, she caught her +friend's hand as she exclaimed, "Dories dear, this room is too full of +ghosts of our past. Let's go out in the garden. Dad had to go to the bank +to finish up some business, and I had to stay here to see that the last +load of furniture got off safely. It left just before you came. We're +going to store it for a time and live in a very fine hotel in Boston. +Won't that be a lark for a change?" + +Dories spoke bitterly, "Well, for one thing I _am_ thankful, and that is +that your father didn't lose his money the way my father did, though how +it happened I never knew and mother never told me." + +"Maybe it will all come back some time in a manner just as mysterious," +her friend said cheerfully as she led her down the steps around the +house. Neither of the girls spoke of Nann's dear mother, who had so +recently died, and whose passing had made life in the old house +unendurable to the daughter and her father, but they were both thinking +of her as they wandered into the garden which she had so loved. Nann +slipped an arm about her friend as she paused to look at the blossoms. + +"Autumn flowers are always so bright and cheerful, aren't they, Dori?" +She was determined to change the younger girl's dismal trend of thought. +"That bed of scarlet salvia over by the evergreen hedge seems to be just +rejoicing about something, and the asters, of almost every color, look as +though they were dressed for a party. They're happy, if we aren't." + +"Stupid things!" Dories said petulantly. "They don't know or care because +you, who have tended and watered and loved them, are going away forever +and ever." + +"Yes, they do know," Nann said, smiling a bit tremulously, "for last +night when I came out to give them a drink, I told them all about it, but +they're just trying to make the best of it. They know it's as hard for me +to go away from my old home as it is for them to have me go, but they're +trying to make it easier for me, I guess." + +Dories flashed a quick glance up at her companion. Then, impulsively, +"Oh, Nann, how selfish I always am! Of course it's hard for you to leave +your old home and go among strangers. Here all the time I've just been +thinking how _hard_ it is for _me_ to have you go." Then, making a little +bow toward the bed of radiant asters, the girl of many moods called to +them: "You're setting a good example, you little plant folk in your +bright blossom tams. From now on I'll be just as cheerful as ever I can." +Smiling up at her companion, Dories exclaimed, "And all this time I've +had some news that I haven't told you." Answering verbally her friend's +questioning look, she hurried on, "I'm going away myself for the month of +October. At least I suppose I am, and that's one of the things that has +made me so dismally blue." Nann stopped in the garden path which they had +been slowly circling and gazed into the pretty face of her friend, hardly +knowing whether to congratulate or condole. Instead of doing either, she +queried, "But why are you so dismal about it, Dori? I've often heard you +say that you did wish you could see something of the world beyond +Elmwood?" + +"I know it and I still should wish it if you were going with me, but this +journey is anything but pleasant to anticipate." + +"Do tell me about it. I'm consumed with curiosity." Nann drew her friend +to a garden seat and sat with an arm holding her close. "Now start at the +beginning. _Who_ are you going with, where and why?" The question, simple +as it seemed, brought tears with a rush to the violet-blue eyes of the +younger girl, but remembering her recent resolve, she sat up +ramrod-straight as she replied, making her mouth into as hard a line as +she could. "The one I am going with is an old crab of a great-aunt whom I +have never seen. I'm ever so sure she is a crab, although my angel mother +always smooths over that part of her nature when she's telling me about +her. She's rich as Croesus, if that fabled person really was rich. I'm +never very sure about those things." + +Nann laughed. "He was! You're safe in your comparison. But he got much of +his money by taking it away from other people with the cruel taxes he +levied." + +"Oh, well, of course my Great Aunt Jane isn't so terribly rich," Dories +modified, "but Mother said she had plenty for every comfort and luxury, +and what's more, Mums _did_ agree with _me_ when I said that she must be +queer. That is, Mother said that even my father, who was Great-Aunt +Jane's own nephew, couldn't understand her ways." Then, with eyes +solemn-wide, the narrator continued: "Nann Sibbett, as I've often told +you, I don't understand in the least what became of our inheritance. If +Mother knows, she won't tell, but I'm suspicious of that crabby old Aunt +Jane. I think she has it. There now, that's what I think." + +Nann was interested and said so. "But, Dori dear, you've sidetracked. You +began by saying that you were going somewhere. I take it that your +Great-Aunt Jane has invited you to go somewhere with her. Is that right?" + +"It is!" the other girl said glumly. "But, believe me, I don't look +forward to the excursion with any great pleasure." Then she hurried on. +"Think of it, Nann, that awful old lady has actually requested that I +spend the whole dismal month of October with her down on the beach at +some lonely isolated place called Siquaw Point." + +But if Dories expected sympathy, she was disappointed. "Oh, Dori!" was +the excited exclamation that she heard, "I know about Siquaw Point. An +aunt of mine went there one summer, and she just raved about the rocky +cliffs, the sand dunes and the sea. I'd love it, I know, even in the +middle of winter, and, dear, sometimes October is a beautiful month. You +may have a wonderful time." + +But Dories refused to see any hope of happiness ahead. "The Garden of +Eden would be a dismal place to me if I had to be alone in it with my +Great-Aunt Jane." + +Nann laughed, then hearing a siren calling from the front, she sprang up, +held out both hands to her friend as she exclaimed, "There's my +chauffeur-dad waiting to bear me stationward, but, dear, I've thought of +one thing that will help some. To get to Siquaw Point you will have to go +through Boston. If you'll let me know the day and the hour I'll be at the +station to speed you on your way." + +How the younger girl's face brightened. "Nann, darling," she exclaimed, +"will you truly? Then that will give me a chance to see you again in just +a few weeks, maybe only two, for its nearly October now." + +"Righto!" was the cheerful reply. "There's that siren again. I must go. +Will you come and say good-bye to Dad?" + +But the other girl shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears. "I'd +rather not now. You tell him for me. I'm going home across lots. I don't +want anyone to see how near I am to crying." As she spoke two tears +splashed down her cheeks. Nann caught her in a close embrace. "Dear, dear +sister-friend," she said, "I'm going to be just as lonely as you are." +Then, stooping, she picked an aster and held it out, saying brightly, +"This golden aster wants to go with you to tell you that we're going to +be as cheerful as we can, come what may. See you next month, Dori, sure +as sure." + +Nann turned at the corner of the house to wave, and then Dories walked +slowly across lots thinking over the conversation she had had with her +dearly loved friend. She paused a moment under the twin elms where, in +the long ago, they had vowed to be loyal as any two sisters could be. +Then, with a deep sigh, she went on to the cosy brown house under other +spreading elms that she called home. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + BANISHING GHOSTS + + +There was a cheerful bustle in the kitchen when Dories opened the side +door. Her mother was preparing the noon meal with her customary wordless +song, although now and then a merry message to the frail boy, who so +often sat in a low chair near the stove, was sung to the melody. Just +then the newcomer heard the lilted announcement: "Footsteps I hear, and +now will appear my very dear little daughter." + +Dories was repentant. "Oh, Mother, if I haven't stayed out too late +again, and you've had to stop your sewing to get lunch." + +Little Peter paused in his whittling long enough to remark, "Dori, you've +been crying. What for?" + +But a tactful mother shook her head quickly at the small boy, saying +brightly, "O, I was glad to stop sewing and stretch a bit. That brocade +dress is hard to work on. I don't know how many machine needles it has +broken. But since it belongs to a rich person she won't mind paying for +them." + +After putting the golden aster in a vase, Dories snatched her apron from +its hook in the closet and put it on with darkening looks. "Mother +Moore," she threatened, "if you don't go and lie down on the lounge until +lunch is ready, I'm not going to let you sew a single bit more today. +It's just terribly wicked, and all wrong somehow, that you have to make +dresses for other women to keep us alive when my very own father's very +own Aunt Jane is simply rolling in wealth, and----" + +"Tut! Tut! Little firefly!" Her mother laughingly shook a stirring spoon +in her direction. "If you had ever seen your stately old Aunt Jane, you +just couldn't conceive of her rolling in anything. That would be much too +undignified." + +"But, Mother, you know I meant that figuratively, not literally. She is +rich and we are poor. Now I ask you what right has one member of a family +to have all that his heart desires and another to have to sew for a +living." + +Little Peter tittered: "It's _her_ heart, if it's Great-Aunt Jane you're +talking about." A sharp retort was on the girl's lips when her mother +said cheerily, "Now, kiddies, let's talk about something else. Mrs. Doran +sent us over a whole pint of cream. Shall we have it whipped on those +last blackberries that Peter found this morning out in Briary Meadow, or +shall I make a little biscuit shortcake?" + +"Shortcake! Shortcake! I want shortcake!" Peter sang out. + +"But, Mother, you're too tired to make one," Dories protested. + +"Then you make it, Dori," Peter pleaded. + +"You know I couldn't make a biscuit shortcake, Peter Moore, not if my +life depended on it." The girl was in a self-accusing mood. "I never +learned how to do anything useful." Dories was putting the pretty lunch +dishes on a small table in the kitchen corner breakfast-nook as she +talked. + +The understanding mother, realizing the conflicting emotions that were +making her young daughter so unhappy, brought out the flour and other +ingredients as she said, "Never too late to learn, dear. Come and take +your first lesson in biscuit-making." + +Half an hour later, as they sat around the lunch table, Dories told as +much of her recent conversation with her best friend as she wished to +share. Then they had the blackberry shortcake and real cream, and even +Peter acknowledged that it was "most as good as Mother's." + +When the kitchen had been tidied and Peter had gone to his little upper +room for the nap that was so necessary for the regaining of his health, +Dories went into the small sewing room which formerly had been her +father's den and stood looking discontentedly out of the window. Her +mother had resumed sewing on the rich brocaded dress. When the hum of the +machine was stilled, she glanced at the pensive girl and said: "Dori +dear, this is the first afternoon that I can remember, almost, that you +have been at home with me. You and Nann always went somewhere or did +something. You are going to miss your best friend ever so much, I know, +but--" there was a break in the voice which caused the girl to turn and +look inquiringly at her mother, who was intently pressing a seam, and who +finished her sentence a bit pathetically, "it's going to mean a good deal +to me, daughter, to have your companionship once in a while." + +With a little cry the girl sprang across the room and knelt at her +mother's side, her arms about her. "O, Mumsie, was there ever a more +selfish girl? I don't see how you have kept on loving me all these +years." Then her pretty face flushed and she hesitated before confessing: +"I hate to say it, for it only shows how truly horrid I am, but I liked +to be over at Nann's, where the furniture was so beautiful, not +threadbare like ours." She was looking through the open door into the +living-room, where she could see the old couch with its worn covering. "I +ought to have stayed at home and helped you with your sewing, but I will +from now on." + +The mother, knowing that tears were near, put a finger beneath the girl's +chin and looked deep into the repentant violet blue eyes. Kissing her +tenderly, she said merrily, "Very well, young lady, if you wish to punish +yourself for past neglects, sit over there in my low rocker and take the +bastings out of this skirt." + +Dories obeyed and was soon busy at the simple task. To change the +subject, her mother spoke of the planned trip. "It will be your very +first journey away from Elmwood, dear. At your age I would have been ever +so excited." + +The girl looked up from her work, a cloud of doubt in her eyes. "Oh, +Mother, do you really think that you would have been, if you were going +to a summer resort where the cottages were all shut up tight as clams, +boarded up, too, probably, and with such a queer, grumphy person as +Great-Aunt Jane for company?" The girl shuddered. "Every time I think of +it I feel the chills run down my back. I just know the place will be full +of ghosts. I won't sleep a wink all the time I'm there. I'm convinced of +that." + +Her mother's merry laugh was reassuring. "Ghosts, dearie?" she queried, +glancing up. "Surely you aren't in earnest. You don't believe in ghosts, +do you?" + +"Well, maybe not, exactly, but there are the queerest stories told about +those lonely out-of-the-way places. You know that there are, Mother. I +don't mean made-up stories in books. I mean real newspaper accounts." + +"But it doesn't matter what kind of paper they're printed on, Dori," her +mother put in, more seriously, "nothing could make a ghost story true. +The only ghosts that haunt us, really, are the memories of loving words +left unsaid and loving deeds that were not done, and sometimes," she +concluded sadly, "it is too late to ever banish those ghosts." Then, not +wishing to depress her already heart-broken daughter, she said in a +lighter tone, "After all, why worry about your visit to Siquaw Point, +when, as yet, you haven't heard that your Great-Aunt Jane has really +decided to go. I expected a letter every day last week, but none came, so +she may have given up the plan for this year." Then, after glancing up at +the clock, she added, "Three, and almost time for the postman. I believe +I hear his whistle now." + +At that moment Peter bounded in, his face rosy from his nap. "Postman's +coming," he sang out. "Come on, Dori, I'll beat you to the gate." + +The girl rose, saying gloomily, "This is probably the fatal day. I'm just +sure there'll be a letter from Great-Aunt Jane. I don't see why she chose +me when she's never even seen me." + +When Dories reached the front door, she saw that Peter was already out in +the road, frantically beckoning to her. "Hurry along, Dori. The postman's +just leaving Mrs. Doran's," he called; then as the mail wagon, drawn by a +lean white horse, approached, the small boy ran out in the road and waved +his arms. + +Mr. Higgins, who had stopped at their door ever since Peter had been a +baby, beamed at him over his glasses. "Law sakes!" he exclaimed, "Do I +see a bandit? Guess you've been reading stories about 'Dick Dead-shot' +holding up mail coaches in the Rockies. Sorry, but there ain't nothin' +for you." Then, smilingly, he addressed the girl. "Likely in a day or two +I'll be fetchin' you a letter, Dori, from your old friend Nann Sibbett. +It'll be powerfully lonesome around here for you, I reckon, now she's +gone." + +The girl nodded. "Just awfully lonesome, Mr. Higgins, and please do bring +me a letter soon." Just then Johnnie Doran called for Peter to come over +and play, and the girl went slowly back to the house. + +Her mother looked up inquiringly. "No letter at all," Dories announced in +so disappointed a tone that she laughingly confessed, "Mother, I do +believe that I'm made up of the contrariest emotions. I do hate the +thought of spending that dismal month of October with Great-Aunt Jane at +Siquaw Point, but I hate even worse going back to High without Nann." + +"Dear girl," the mother's voice held a tenderly given rebuke, "you aren't +thinking in the least of the pleasure your companionship might give your +Great-Aunt Jane. She was very fond of your father when he was a boy, and +he spent many a summer with her at Siquaw. That may be her reason for +inviting you. Your father seemed to be the only person for whom she +really cared." Then, before the rather surprised girl could reply, the +mother continued, "I wish, dear, that you would hunt up your Aunt's last +letter and answer it more fully. I was so busy when it came that I merely +sent a few lines, thanking her for the invitation." + +Dories sighed as she rose to obey, but turned back to listen when her +mother continued: "I know how hard it is going to be, dear girl, but I +have a reason, which I cannot explain just now, for very much wishing you +to go. Now write the letter and make it as interesting and newsy as you +can." + +Dories, from the door, dropped a curtsy. "Very well, Mrs. Moore," she +said, "to please you I'll write to the crabbedy old lady, but----" Her +mother merrily shook her finger at her. "I want you to withhold judgment, +daughter, until you have seen your Great-Aunt Jane." + + + + + CHAPTER III. + A LOST MOTHER + + +A week passed, and though Dories received several picture postcards from +her best friend, not a line came from her Great-Aunt Jane. + +"She has probably changed her mind about going to Siquaw, dear, and so +you would better prepare to start back to school on Monday. I had talked +the matter over with the principal, Mr. Setherly, and he told me that you +could easily make up October's work, but, if you are not going away, it +will be better for you to begin the term with the others." + +They were at breakfast, and for a long, silent moment the girl sat gazing +out of the window at a garden that was beginning to look dry and sear. +When she turned back toward her mother, there were tears in her eyes. + +The woman placed a hand on the one near her as she tenderly inquired, +"Are you disappointed because you're not going, daughter?" + +"No, no, not that, but you can't know how I dread returning to High +without Nann. We had planned graduating together and after that going to +college together if only we could find a way." + +Her mother glanced up quickly as though there was something that she +wanted to say, then pressed her lips firmly as though to keep some secret +from being uttered. Dories listlessly continued eating. There was a +closer pressure of her mother's hand. "It is hard, dear, I know," the +understanding voice was saying. "Life brings many disappointments, but +there is always a compensation. You'll see!" Then, glancing toward the +stair door, which was slowly opening, the mother called, "Hurry up, you +lazy Peterkins. Come and have your breakfast. I want you and Dories to go +to the village and match some silk for me as soon as you can." + +Then, when she served the little fellow, the loving woman returned to her +daily task and left a half self-pitying, half rebellious and wholly +dispirited girl to wash and put away the dishes. Then listlessly she +donned her scarlet tam and sweater coat and went into the sewing room to +get the samples that she was to match. Her mother smiled up into her +dismal face. "Dori, daughter, don't gloom around so much," she pleaded. +"I shall actually believe that you are disappointed because you are _not_ +going to Siquaw. Now, here's the silk to be matched and there's Peterkins +waiting for you. Come back as soon as you can, won't you?" + +It was midmorning when Dories and the small boy returned from the +shopping expedition. They went at once to the sewing room, but their +mother was not there. They looked in the living room and in the kitchen. +"Mother, where are you?" they both called, but there was no reply. + +"Maybe she's upstairs," Peter suggested. + +"Of course. How stupid for me to forget that we have an upstairs to our +house." Dories felt strangely excited as she ran up the circling front +stairway calling again and again, but still there was no reply. Down the +long upper corridor they went, opening one door and another, beginning to +feel almost frightened at the stillness. + +Then Dories exclaimed, "Oh, maybe she's gone over to Mrs. Doran's for a +moment. I guess she couldn't do any sewing until we came back with the +silk." They were about to descend the back stairs when they heard a noise +in the garret overhead. + +The frail boy caught his sister's hand and held it tight. "Do you suppose +it's ghosts," he whispered. + +"No, of course not," the girl replied. The attic was a low, dark, +cobwebby place hardly high enough to stand in, and they never went there. +"There are no ghosts. Mother said so." + +"Then maybe it's a rat scratching around," the boy suggested, "or that +wild barn cat may have got in somehow. Do you dare open the door, Dori, +and call up?" + +"Of course I do, but first I'll creep up a little way and look." Very +quietly Dories opened the door and stealthily ascended the dark, short +stairway. All was still in the dusky, musty attic. Then a light flashed +for a moment in a far corner. Truly frightened, Dories turned and hurried +down the stairs. Quick steps were heard above: then a familiar voice +called, "Dories, is that you, dear? Why are you stealing about in that +way? Come up a moment, daughter! I want you to help me drag this old +trunk out of the corner." + +Then, when the girl, with Peter following, appeared on the top step, the +mother explained: "I thought I'd be down before you could get back. I +have news for you, Dori. Just after you left, a night letter was +delivered. In it your Great-Aunt Jane said that she had entirely given up +her plan to spend a month at Siquaw Point until she received your letter. +She had decided that if you were so rude as to ignore her invitation, you +were not the kind of a girl she wished to know, even if you are her +niece, but your letter caused her to change her mind. She wishes you to +meet her this afternoon in Boston and go directly from there to Siquaw +Point." + +"O, Mother, how terrible!" Dories was truly dismayed. "I won't have time +to let Nann know, and she was to meet me at the station. That was the one +redeeming feature about the whole thing." + +"Well, you can see her when you return, and maybe you can plan to stay a +day or two with her. Now help me with this little trunk, dear. We have +only two hours to prepare your clothes and pack." + +They carried the small steamer trunk down to Dories' room and by noon it +was packed and locked, and, soon after, the expressman came to take both +the trunk and the girl to the station. + +Dories' face was flushed and tears were in her eyes when she said +good-bye. "I feel so strange and excited, Mother," she confided, "going +out into the world for the very first time, and O, Mumsie, no one knows +how I dread being all alone in a boarded-up cottage at a deserted summer +resort with such a dreadful old woman." Dories clung to her mother in +little girl fashion as though she hoped at the very last moment she might +be told that she need not go, but what she heard was: "Mr. Hanson is in a +hurry, dear. He has the trunk on his cart and he's waiting to help you up +on the seat." + +Dories caught her breath in an effort not to cry, kissed her mother and +Peter hurriedly, picked up her hand-satchel and darted down the path. + +From the high seat she waved and smiled. Then she called in an effort at +cheeriness. "Don't forget, Mrs. Moore, that you promised to take October +for a real vacation and not sew a bit after you finish the silk dress." + +"I promise!" the mother called. "Peter and I will just play. Write to us +often." + +Mr. Hanson, finding that it was late, drove rapidly to the station, and +it was well that he did, for the train was just drawing in when they +arrived. Dories quickly purchased a ticket and checked her trunk with the +expressman's help, then, climbing aboard, chose a seat near a window. +After all, she found herself quite pleasurably excited. It was such a new +experience to be traveling alone. Few of the passengers noticed her and +no one spoke. She was glad, as her mother had warned her not to enter +into conversation with strangers. + +As she watched the flying landscape the girl thought of something her +mother had said on the day that she had asked her to answer her +Great-Aunt Jane's letter. "I have a reason, Dori, for really wishing you +to go to Siquaw with your aunt," she had said. What could that reason be? +Not until Boston was neared did her speculation cease; then she became +conscious of but two emotions, curiosity about her Great-Aunt Jane and a +crushing disappointment because she had not been able to let Nann Sibbett +know when to meet her. + +When the train finally stopped, Dories, feeling very young and very much +alone, followed the crowd of passengers into the huge station. She was to +meet her aunt in the woman's waiting room, and she stopped a hurrying +porter to inquire where she would find it. Almost timidly she entered the +large, comfortably furnished room, then, seeing an elderly woman dressed +in black, who was sitting stiffly erect, the girl went toward her as she +said diffidently: "Pardon me, but are _you_ my Great-Aunt Jane?" The +woman threw back a heavy black crepe veil and her sharp gray eyes gazed +up at the girl penetratingly. + +"Humph!" was the ungracious reply. "Well, at least you've got your +father's eyes. That's something to be thankful for, but I've no doubt +that you look like your mother otherwise." + +There was something about the tone in which this was said that put the +girl on the defensive. + +"I certainly hope I do look like my darling mother," she exclaimed, her +diffidence vanishing. The elderly woman seemed not to hear. + +"Sit down, why don't you?" she said in a querulous tone. "The train +doesn't go for an hour yet." + +The girl sank into a comfortable chair which faced the one occupied by +her aunt; the back of which was toward the door. + +For a moment neither spoke, then remembering the coaching she had +received, Dories said hesitatingly, "I want to thank you, Aunt Jane, for +having invited me to go with you. I am pleased to----" + +A sniff preceded the remark that interrupted: "I know how pleased you are +to go with a fussy old woman to a deserted summer resort. About as +pleased as a cat is out in the rain." Then, as though her interest in +Dories had ceased, the old woman drew the heavy crepe veil down over her +face, but the girl was sure that she could see the sharp eyes peering +through it as though she were intently watching some object over Dori's +shoulder. + +The girl had expected her aunt to be queer, but this was far worse than +her most dismal anticipations. At last the girl became so nervous that +she glanced back of her to see what her aunt could be watching. She saw +only the open door that led into the main waiting room of the station. +Women were passing in and out, but that was nothing to stare at. Seeming, +at last, to recall her companion's presence, the old woman addressed her: +"Dories, you wrote me that you had a girl friend here in Boston who would +come down to the train to see you off. Why doesn't she come?" + +"I didn't have time to let her know, Aunt Jane," was the dismal reply. +"I'm just ever so disappointed." + +The old woman nodded her head toward the door. "Is that her?" she asked. +"Is that your friend?" + +Dories sprang to her feet and turned. A tall girl, carrying a suitcase, +was approaching them. With a cry of mingled amazement and joy, Dories ran +toward her and held out both hands. "Why, Nann, darling, it _can't_ be +you." The newcomer dropped her bag and they flew into each other's arms. +Then, standing back, Dori asked, much mystified, "Why, are you going +somewhere Nann?" + +It was the old woman who replied grimly: "She is! I invited her to go +with us. There now! Don't try to thank me." She held up a protesting hand +when Dori, flushed and happy, turned toward her. "I did it for myself, I +can assure you. I knew having you moping around for a month wouldn't add +any to _my_ pleasure." + +An embarrassing moment was saved by a stentorian voice in the doorway +announcing: "All aboard for Siquaw Center and way stations." A colored +porter appeared to carry the bags, and the old woman, leaning heavily on +her cane, limped after him, followed by the girls, in whose hearts there +were mingled emotions, but joy predominated, for, however terrible Dori's +Great-Aunt Jane might be, at least they were to spend a whole long month +together. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + SEAWARD BOUND + + +There were very few people on the seaward-bound train; indeed Miss Jane +Moore, Nann and Dories were the only occupants of the chair car. After +settling herself comfortably in the chair nearest the front, the old +woman, with a sweep of her arm toward the back, said almost petulantly: +"Sit as far away from me as you can. I may want to sleep, and I know +girls. They chatter, chatter, chatter, titter, titter, titter all about +nothing." + +Her companions were glad to obey, and when they were seated at the rear +end of the car, they kept their heads close together while they visited +that they might not disturb the elderly woman, who, to all appearances, +fell at once into a light doze. + +As soon as the train was under way, Dories asked: "Now do tell me how +this perfectly, unbelievably wonderful thing has happened?" + +Nann laughed happily. "Maybe your Great-Aunt Jane is a fairy godmother in +disguise," she whispered. They both glanced at the far corner, but the +black veiled figure was much more suggestive of a witch than a good +fairy. + +"The disguise surely is a complete one," Dories said with a shudder. "My, +it gives me the chilly shivers when I think how I might be going to spend +a whole month alone with her. But now tell me, just what did happen?" + +"Can't you guess? You wrote your aunt a letter, didn't you, telling all +about me and even giving the name of the hotel where Dad and I were +staying?" + +Dories nodded, "Yes, that's true. Mother wanted me to write to Aunt Jane +and I couldn't think of a thing to tell her about, and so I wrote about +you." + +"Well," Nann continued to enlighten her friend, "she must have written me +that very day inviting me to be her guest at Siquaw Point for the month +of October, but she asked me not to let you know. I sent the last picture +postcard, the one of our hotel, just after I had received her letter, and +you can imagine how wild I was to tell you. I hadn't started going to the +Boston High. Dear old Dad said a month later wouldn't matter, and so here +I am." The girls clasped hands and beamed joyfully at each other. + +Dories' next glance toward the sleeping old woman was one of gratitude. +"I'm going to try hard to love her, that is, if she'll let me." Then, +after a thoughtful moment, Dories continued: "Great-Aunt Jane must have +been very different when Dad was a boy, for he cared a lot for her, +Mother said." Then with one of her quick changes she exclaimed in a low +voice, "Nann Sibbett, I have lain awake nights dreading the dismal month +I was to spend at that forsaken summer resort. I just knew there'd be +ghosts in those boarded-up cottages, but now that you're going to be with +me, I almost hope that something exciting will happen." + +"So do I!" Nann agreed. + +It was four o'clock when the train, which consisted of an engine, two +coaches and a chair-car, stopped in what seemed at first to be but wide +stretches of meadows and marsh lands, but, peering ahead, the girls saw a +few wooden buildings and a platform. "Siquaw Center!" the brakeman opened +a door to announce. Miss Jane Moore sat up so suddenly, and when she +threw back her veil she seemed so very wide awake, the girls found +themselves wondering if she had really been asleep at all. The brakeman +assisted the old woman to alight and placed her bags on the platform, +then, hardly pausing, the train again was under way. Meadows and marshes +stretched in all directions, but about a mile to the east the girls could +see a wide expanse of gray-blue ocean. + +"I guess the name means the center of the marshes," Dori whispered, +making a wry face while her aunt was talking to the station-master, a +tall, lank, red-whiskered man in blue overalls who did not remove his cap +nor stop chewing what seemed to be a rather large quid. + +"Yeah!" the girls heard his reply to the woman's question. "Gib'll fetch +the stage right over. Quare time o' year for yo' to be comin' out, Mis' +Moore, ain't it? Yeah! I got your letter this here mornin'. The supplies +ar' all ready to tote over to yer cottage." + +The girls were wondering who Gib might be when they heard a rumbling +beyond the wooden building and saw a very old stage coach drawn by a +rather boney old white horse and driven by a tall, lank, red-headed boy. +A small girl, with curls of the same color, sat on the high seat at his +side. "Hurry up, thar, you Gib Strait!" the man, who was recognizable as +the boy's father, called to him. "Come tote Mis' Moore's luggage." Then +the man sauntered off, having not even glanced in the direction of the +two girls, but the rather ungainly boy who was hurrying toward them was +looking at them with but slightly concealed curiosity. + +Miss Moore greeted him with, "How do you do, Gibralter Strait." Upon +hearing this astonishing name, the two girls found it hard not to laugh, +but the lad, evidently understanding, smiled broadly and nodded awkwardly +as Miss Moore solemnly proceeded to introduce him. + +To cover his embarrassment, the lad hastened to say. "Well, Miss Moore, +sort o' surprisin' to see yo' hereabouts this time o' year. Be yo' goin' +to the Pint?" + +The old woman looked at him scathingly. "Well, Gibralter, where in +heaven's name would I be going? I'm not crazy enough yet to stay long in +the Center. Here, you take my bags; the girls can carry their own." + +"Yessum, Miss Moore," the boy flushed up to the roots of his red hair. He +knew that he wasn't making a very good impression on the young ladies. He +glanced at them furtively as they all walked toward the stage; then, when +he saw them smiling toward him, not critically but in a most friendly +fashion, there was merry response in his warm red-brown eyes. What he +said was: "If them bags are too hefty, set 'em down an' I'll come back +for 'em." + +"O, we can carry them easily," Nann assured him. + +The small girl on the high seat was staring down at them with eyes and +mouth open. She had on a nondescript dress which very evidently had been +made over from a garment meant for someone older. When the girls glanced +up, she smiled down at them, showing an open space where two front teeth +were missing. + +"What's your name, little one?" Nann called up to her. The lad was inside +the coach helping Miss Moore to settle among her bags. + +The child's grin grew wilder, but she did not reply. Nann turned toward +her brother, who was just emerging: "What is your little sister's name?" +she asked. + +The boy flushed. Nann and Dori decided that he was easily embarrassed or +that he was unused to girls of his own age. But they better understood +the flush when they heard the answer: "Her name's Behring." Then he +hurried on to explain: "I know our names are queer. It was Pa's notion to +give us geography names, being as our last is Strait. That's why mine's +Gibralter. Yo' kin laugh if yo' want to," he added good-naturedly. "I +would if 'twasn't my name." Then in a low voice, with a swift glance +toward the station, he confided, "I mean to change my name when I come of +age. I sure sartin do." + +The girls felt at once that they would like this boy whose sensitive face +expressed his every emotion and who had so evident a sense of humor. They +were about to climb inside of the coach with Miss Moore when a shrill, +querulous voice from a general store across from the station attracted +their attention. A tall, angular woman in a skimp calico dress stood +there. "Howdy, Miss Moore," she called, then as though not expecting a +reply to her salutation, she continued: "Behring Strait, you come here +right this minute and mind the baby. What yo' gallavantin' off fer, and +me with the supper gettin' to do?" Nann and Dori glanced at each other +merrily, each wondering which strait the baby was named after. + +The small girl obeyed quickly. Mrs. Strait impressed the listeners as a +woman who demanded instant obedience. As soon as the three passengers +were settled inside, the coach started with a lurch. The sandy road wound +through the wide, swampy meadows. It was rough and rutty. Miss Moore sat +with closed eyes and, as she was wedged in between two heavy bags, she +was not jounced about as much as were the girls. They took it +good-naturedly, but Dories found it hard to imagine how she could have +endured the journey if she had been alone with her queer Aunt Jane. Nann +decided that the old woman feined sleep on all occasions to avoid the +necessity of talking to them. + +At last, even above the rattle of the old coach, could be heard the +crashing surf on rocks, and the girls peered eagerly ahead. What they saw +was a wide strip of sand and a row of weather-beaten cottages, boarded +up, as Dori had prophesied, and beyond them white-crested, huge gray +breakers rushing and roaring up on the sand. + +The boney white horse came to a sudden stop at the edge of the beach, nor +would it attempt to go any farther. The boy leaped over a wheel and threw +open the back door. "Guess you'll have to walk a piece along the beach, +Miss Moore. The coach gets stuck so often in the sand ol' Methuselah +ain't takin' no chances at tryin' to haul it out," he informed the +occupants. + +The girls were almost surprised to find that the horse hadn't been named +after a strait. Miss Moore threw back her veil and opened her eyes at +once. Upon hearing what the boy had to say, she leaned forward to gaze at +the largest cottage in the middle of the row. She spoke sharply: +"Gibralter, why didn't your father carry out my orders? I wrote him +distinctly to open up the cottage and air it out. Why didn't he do that +when he brought over the supplies, that's what I'd like to know? I +declare to it, even if he is your father, I must say Simon Strait is a +most shiftless man." + +The boy said at once, as though in an effort to apologize: "Pa's been +real sick all summer, Miss Moore, and like 'twas he fergot it, but I kin +open up easy, if I kin find suthin' to pry off the boards with. I think +likely I'll find an axe, anyhow, out in the back shed whar I used to chop +wood fer you. I'm most sure I will." + +Miss Moore sank back. "Well, hurry up about it, then. I'll stay in the +coach till you get the windows uncovered." When the boy was gone, the +woman turned toward her niece. "Open up that small black bag, Dories; the +one near you, and get out the back-door key. There's a hammer just inside +on the kitchen table, if it's where I left it." She continued her +directions: "Give it to Gibralter and tell him, when he gets the boards +off the windows, to carry in some wood and make a fire. A fog is coming +in this minute and it's as wet as rain." + +The key having been found, the girls ran gleefully around the cabin in +search of the boy. They found him emerging from a shed carrying a +hatchet. He grinned at them as though they were old friends. "Some +cheerful place, this!" he commented as he began ripping off the boards +from one of the kitchen windows. "You girls must o' needed sea air a lot +to come to this place out o' season like this with a--a--wall, with a old +lady like Miss Moore is." Dories felt sure that the boy was thinking +something quite different, but was not saying it because it was a +relative of hers about whom he was talking. What she replied was: "I +can't understand it myself. I mean why Great-Aunt Jane wanted to come to +this dismal place after everyone else has gone." + +They were up on the back porch and, as she looked out across the swampy +meadows over which a heavy fog was settling, then she continued, more to +Nann than to the boy: "I promised Mother I wouldn't be afraid of ghosts, +but honestly I never saw a spookier place." + +The boy had been making so much noise ripping off boards that he had only +heard the last two words. "Spooks war yo' speakin' of?" he inquired. +"Well, I guess yo'll think thar's spooks enough along about the middle of +the night when the fog horn's a moanin' an' the surf's a crashin' out on +the pint o' rocks, an' what's more, thar _is_ folks at Siquaw Center as +says thar's a sure enough spook livin' over in the ruins that used to be +ol' Colonel Wadbury's place." + +The girls shuddered and Dories cast a "Didn't I tell you so" glance at +her friend, but Nann, less fearful by nature, was interested and curious, +and after looking about in vain for the "ruin", she inquired its +whereabouts. + +Gibralter enlightened them. "O, 'tisn't in sight," he said, "that is, not +from here. It's over beyant the rocky pint. From the highest rock thar +you kin see it plain." + +Then as he went on around the cottage taking off boards, the girls +followed to hear more of the interesting subject. "Fine house it used to +be when my Pa was a kid, but now thar's nothing but stone walls a +standin'. A human bein' couldn't live in that ol' shell, nohow. But--" +the boy could not resist the temptation to elaborate the theme when he +saw the wide eyes of his listeners, "'long about midnight folks at the +Center do say as how they've seen a light movin' about in the old ruin. +Nobody's dared to go near 'nuf to find out what 'tis. The swamps all +about are like quicksand. If you step in 'em, wall, golly gee, it's +good-bye fer yo'. Leastwise that's what ol'-timers say, an' so the spook, +if thar is one over thar, is safe 'nuf from introosion." + +While the boy had been talking, he had removed all of the wooden blinds, +his listeners having followed him about the cabin. Dories had been so +interested that she had quite forgotten about the huge key that she had +been carrying. "O my!" she exclaimed, suddenly noticing it. "But then you +didn't need the hammer after all. Now I'll skip around and open the back +door, and, Gibralter, will you bring in some wood, Aunt Jane said, to +build us a fire?" + +While the boy was gone, Nann confided merrily, "There now, Dories Moore, +you've been wishing for an adventure, and here is one all ready made and +waiting. Pray, what could be more thrilling than an old ruin surrounded +by an uncrossable swamp and a mysterious light which appears at +midnight?" + +The boy returned with an armful of logs left over from the supply of a +previous summer. "Gib," Nann addressed him in her friendliest fashion, +"may we call you that? Gibralter is _so_ long. I'd like to visit your +ruin and inspect the ghost in his lair. Really and truly, isn't there any +way to reach the place?" + +The boy looked as though he had a secret which he did not care to reveal. +"Well, maybe there is, and maybe there isn't," he said uncommittedly. +Then, with a brightening expression in his red-brown eyes, "Anyway, I'll +show you the old ruin if yo'll meet me at sun-up tomorrow mornin' out at +the pint o' rocks." + +"I'm game," Nann said gleefully. "It sounds interesting to me all right. +How about you, Dori?" + +"O, I'm quite willing to see the place from a distance," the other +replied, "but nothing could induce me to go very near it." Neither of the +girls thought of asking the advice of their elderly hostess, who, at that +very moment, appeared around a corner of the cabin to inquire why it was +taking such an endless time to open up the cottage. Luckily Gib had +started a fire in the kitchen stove, which partly mollified the woman's +wrath. After bringing in the bags and supplies, the boy took his +departure, and they could hear him whistling as he drove away through the +fog. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + A NEW EXPERIENCE + + +With the closing in of the fog, twilight settled about the cabin. The old +woman, still in her black bonnet with the veil thrown back, drew a wooden +armed chair close to the stove and held her hands out toward the warmth. +"Open up the box of supplies, Dories," she commanded, "and get out some +candles. Then you can fill a hot-water bottle for me and I'll go right to +bed. No use making a fire in the front room until tomorrow. You girls are +to sleep upstairs. You'll find bedding in a bureau up there. It may be +damp, but you're young. It won't hurt you any." + +Dories, having opened up the box of supplies, removed each article, +placing it on the table. At the very bottom she found a note scribbled on +a piece of wrapping paper: "Out of candles. Send some tomorrer." + +Miss Moore sat up ramrod-straight, her sharp gray eyes narrowing angrily. +"If that isn't just like that shiftless, good-for-nothing Simon Strait. +How did he suppose we could get on without light? I wish now I had +ordered kerosene, but I thought, just at first, that candles would do." +In the dusk Nann had been looking about the kitchen. On a shelf she saw a +lantern and two glass lamps. "O, Miss Moore!" she exclaimed, "Don't you +think maybe there might be oil in one of those lamps?" + +"No, I don't," the old woman replied. "I always had my maid empty them +the last thing for fear of fire." Nann, standing on a chair, had taken +down the lantern. Her face brightened. "I hear a swish," she said +hopefully, "and so it must be oil." With a piece of wrapping paper she +wiped off the dust while Dories brought forth a box of matches. + +A dim, sputtering light rewarded them. "It won't last long," Nann said as +she placed the lantern on the table, "So, Miss Moore, if you'll tell us +what to do to make you comfortable, we'll hurry around and do it." + +"Comfortable? Humph! We won't any of us be very comfortable with such a +wet fog penetrating even into our bones." The old woman complained so +bitterly that Dories found herself wondering why her Great-Aunt Jane had +come at all if she had known that she would be uncomfortable. But she had +no time to give the matter further thought, for Miss Moore was issuing +orders. "Dories, you work that pump-handle over there in the sink. If it +needs priming, we won't get any water tonight. Well, thank goodness, it +doesn't. That's one thing that went right. Nann, you rinse out the tea +kettle, fill it and set it to boil. Now you girls take the lantern and go +to my bedroom. It's just off the big front room, so you can't miss it; +open up the bottom bureau drawer and fetch out my bedding. We'll hang it +over chairs by the stove till the damp gets out of it." + +Nann took the sputtering lantern and, being the fearless one of the two, +she led the way into the big front room of the cabin. The furniture could +not be seen for the sheetlike coverings. In the dim light the girls could +see a few pictures turned face to the wall. "Oh-oo!" Dories shuddered. +"It's clammily damp in here. Think of it, Nann, can you conceive _what_ +it would have been like for _me_ if I had come all alone with Aunt Jane? +Well, I know just as well as I know anything that I would never have +lived through this first night." + +Nann laughed merrily. "O, Dori," she exclaimed as she held the lantern +up, "Do look at this wonderful, huge stone fireplace. I'm sure we're +going to enjoy it here when we get things straightened around and the sun +is shining. You see if we don't." Nann was opening a door which she +believed must lead into Miss Moore's bedroom, and she was right. The dim, +flickering light revealed an old-fashioned hand-turned bed with four high +posts. Near was an antique bureau, and Dori quickly opened the bottom +drawer and took out the needed bedding. With her arms piled high, she +followed the lantern-bearer back to the kitchen. Miss Moore had evidently +not moved from her chair by the stove. "Put on another piece of wood, +Dori," she commanded. "Now fetch all the chairs up and spread the bedding +on it." + +When this had been done, the teakettle was singing, and Nann said +brightly, "What a little optimist a teakettle is! It sings even when +things are darkest." + +"You mean when things are hottest," Dori put in, actually laughing. + +The old woman was still giving orders. "The dishes are in that cupboard +over the table," she nodded in that direction. "Fetch out a cup and +saucer, Dories, wash them with some hot water and make me a cup of tea. +Then, while I drink it, you can both spread up my bed." + +Fifteen minutes later all these things had been accomplished. The old +woman acknowledged that she was as comfortable as possible in her warm +bed. When they had said good-night, she called, "Dories, I forgot to tell +you the stairway to your room leads up from the back porch." Then she +added, as an afterthought, "You girls will want to eat something, but for +mercy sake, do close the living-room door so I won't hear your clatter." + +Nann, whose enjoyment of the situation was real and not feined, placed +the sputtering lantern on the kitchen table while Dories softly closed +the door as she had been directed. Then they stood and gazed at the +supplies still in boxes and bundles on the oilcloth-covered table. "I +never was hungrier!" Dories announced. "But there isn't time to really +cook anything before the light will go out. Oh-oo! Think how terrible it +would be to have to climb up that cold, wet outside stairway to a room in +the loft and get into cold, wet bedding, and all in the dark." + +Nann laughed. "Well, I'll confess it _is_ rather spooky," she agreed, +"and if I believed in ghosts I might be scared." Then, as the lantern +gave a warning flicker, the older girl suggested: "What say to turning +out the light and make more fire in the stove? It really is quite bright +over in that corner." + +"I guess it's the only thing to do," Dori acknowledged dolefully. "O +goodie," she added more cheerfully as she held up a box of crackers. +"These, with butter and some sardines, _ought_ to keep us from starving." + +"Great!" Nann seemed determined to be appreciative. "And for a drink +let's have cambric tea with canned milk and sugar. Now the next thing, +where is a can opener?" + +She opened a drawer in the kitchen table and squealed exultingly, "Dories +Moore, see what I've found." She was holding something up. "It's a little +candle end, but it will be just the thing if we need a light in the night +when our oil is gone." + +"Goodness!" Dories shuddered. "I hope we'll sleep so tight we won't know +it is night until after it's over." + +Nann had also found a can opener and they were soon hungrily eating the +supper Dories had suggested. "I call this a great lark!" the older girl +said brightly. They were sitting on straight wooden chairs, drawn close +to the bright fire, and their viands were on another chair between them. + +"The kitchen is so nice and warm now that I hate plunging out into the +fog to go upstairs," Dori shudderingly remarked. "I presume that is where +Aunt Jane's maid used to sleep. Mumsie said she had one named Maggie who +had been with her forever, almost. But she died last June. That must be +why Aunt Jane didn't come here this summer." + +When the girls had eaten all of the sardines and crackers and had been +refreshed with cambric tea, they rose and looked at each other almost +tragically. Then Nann smiled. "Don't let's give ourselves time to think," +she suggested. "Let's take a box of matches. You get one while I relight +the lantern. I have the candle end in my pocket. Now, bolster up your +courage and open the door while I shelter our flickering flame from the +cold night air that might blow it out." + +Dories had her hand on the knob of the door which led out upon the back +porch, but before opening it, she whispered, "Nann, you don't suppose +that ghost over in the ruin ever prowls around anywhere else, do you?" + +"Of course not, silly!" Nann's tone was reassuring. "There isn't a ghost +in the old ruin, or anywhere else for that matter. Now open the door and +let's ascend to our chamber." + +The fog on the back porch was so dense that it was difficult for the +girls to find the entrance to their boarded-in stairway. As they started +the ascent, Nann in the lead, they were both wondering what they would +find when they reached their loft bedroom. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + A LIGHT IN THE DARK + + +The girls cautiously crept up the back stairway which was sheltered from +fog and wind only by rough boards between which were often wide cracks. +Time and again a puff of air threatened to put out the flickering flame +in the lantern. With one hand Nann guarded it, lest it suddenly sputter +out and leave them in darkness. There was a closed door at the top of the +stairs, and of course, it was locked, but the key was in it. + +"Doesn't that seem sort of queer?" Dories asked as her friend unlocked +the door, removed the key and placed it on the inside. + +"Well, it does, sort of," Nann had to acknowledge, "but I'm mighty glad +it was there, or how else could we have entered?" + +Dories said nothing, but, deep in her heart, she was wishing that she and +Nann were safely back in Elmwood, where there were electric lights and +other comforts of civilization. + +Holding the lantern high, the girls stood in the middle of the loft room +and looked around. It was unfinished after the fashion of attics, and +though it was quite high at the peak, the sloping roof made a tent-like +effect. There were two windows. One opened out toward the rocky point, +above which a continuous inward rush of white breakers could be seen, and +the other, at the opposite side, opened toward swampy meadows, a mile +across which on clear nights could be seen the lights of Siquaw Center. + +A big, old-fashioned high posted bed, an equally old-fashioned mahogany +bureau and two chairs were all of the furnishings. + +They found bedding in the bureau drawers, as Miss Moore had told them. +Placing the lantern on the bureau, Nann said: "If we wish to have light +on the subject, we'd better make the bed in a hurry. You take that side +and I'll take this, and we'll have these quilts spread in a twinkling." + +Dories did as she was told and the bed was soon ready for occupancy. Then +the girls scrambled out of their dresses, and, just as they leaped in +between the quilts, the flame in the lantern sputtered and went out. + +Dories clutched her friend fearfully. "Oh, Nann," she said, "we never +looked under the bed nor behind that curtained-off corner. I don't dare +go to sleep unless I know what's there." + +Her companion laughed. "What do you 'spose is there?" she inquired. + +"How can I tell?" Dories retorted. "That's why I wish we had looked and +then I would know." + +Her friend's voice, merry even in the darkness, was reassuring. "I can +tell you just as well as if I had looked," she announced with confidence. +"Back of these curtains, you would find nothing but a row of nails or +hooks on which to hang our garments when we unpack our suitcases, and +under the bed there is only dust in little rolled-up heaps--like as not. +Now, dear, let's see who can go to sleep first, for you know we have an +engagement with our friend, Gibralter Strait, at sunrise tomorrow +morning." + +"You say that as though you were pleased with the prospect," Dories +complained. + +"Pleased fails to express the joy with which I anticipate the----" Nann +said no more, for Dories had clutched her, whispering excitedly, "Hark! +What was that noise? It sounds far off, maybe where the haunted ruin is." + +Nann listened and then calmly replied: "More than likely it's the fog +horn about which Gib told us, and that other noise is the muffled roar of +the surf crashing over the rocks out on the point. If there are any more +noises that you wish me to explain, please produce them now. If not, I'm +going to sleep." + +After that Dories lay very still for a time, confident that she wouldn't +sleep a wink. Nann, however, was soon deep in slumber and Dories soon +followed her example. It was midnight when she awakened with a start, sat +up and looked about her. She felt sure that a light had awakened her. At +first she couldn't recall where she was. She turned toward the window. +The fog had lifted and the night was clear. For a moment she sat watching +the white, rushing line of the surf, then, farther along, she saw a dark +looming object. + +Suddenly she clutched her companion. "Nann," she whispered dramatically, +"there it is! There's a light moving over by the point. Do you suppose +that's the ghost from the old ruin?" + +"The what?" Nann sat up, dazed from being so suddenly awakened. Then, +when Dories repeated her remark, her companion gazed out of the window +toward the point. + +"H'm-m!" she said, "It's a light all right. A lantern, I should say, and +its moving slowly along as though it were being carried by someone who is +searching for something among the rocks." + +Dori's hold on her friend's arm became tighter. "It's coming this way! +I'm just ever so sure that it is. Oh, Nann, why did we come to this +dreadful place? What if that light came right up to this cottage and saw +that it wasn't boarded up and knew someone was here and----" + +Nann chuckled. "Aren't you getting rather mixed in your figures of +speech?" she teased. "A lantern can't see or know, but of course I +understand that you mean the-well-er-person carrying the lantern. I +suppose you will agree that it is a person, for ghosts don't have to +carry lanterns, you know." + +"How do you know so much about ghosts, since you say there are no such +things?" Dori flared. + +"Well, nothing can't carry a lantern, can it?" was the unruffled reply. +Then the two girls were silent, watching the light which seemed now and +then to be held high as though whoever carried it paused at times to look +about him and then continued to search on the rocks. + +Slowly, slowly the light approached the row of boarded-up cabins. The +girls crept from bed and knelt at the window on the seaward side. Nann, +because she was interested, and Dori because she did not want to be left +alone. + +"Do you think it's coming this far?" came the anxious whisper. Nann shook +her head. "No," she said, "it's going back toward the point and so I'm +going back to bed. I'm chilled through as it is." + +They were soon under the covers and when they again glanced toward the +window the light had disappeared. "Seems to have been swallowed up," Nann +remarked. + +"Maybe it's fallen over the cliff. I almost hope that it has, and been +swept out to sea." + +"Meaning the lantern, I suppose, or do you mean the carrier thereof?" + +"Nann Sibbett, I don't see how you can help being just as afraid of +whatever it is, or, rather of whoever it is, as I am." + +"Because I am convinced that since it, or he, doesn't know of my +existence, I am not the object of the search, so why should I be afraid? +Now, Miss Dories Moore, if you wish to stay awake speculating as to what +became of that light, you may, but I'm going to sleep, and, if this loft +bedroom of ours is just swarming with ghosts and mysterious lights, don't +you waken me to look at them until morning." + +So saying, Nann curled up and went to sleep. Dories, fearing that she +would again be awakened by a light, drew the quilt up over her head so +that she could not see it. + +Although she was nearly smothered, like an ostrich, she felt safer, and +in time she too slept, but she dreamed of headless horsemen and +hollow-eyed skeletons that walked out on the rocky point at midnight +carrying lanterns. + +It was nearing dawn when a low whistle outside awakened the girls. + +"It's Gibralter Strait, I do believe," Nann declared, at once alert. +Then, as she sprang up, she whispered, "Do hurry, Dori. I feel ever so +sure that we are this day starting on a thrilling adventure." + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + THE PHANTOM YACHT + + +The girls dressed hurriedly and silently, then crept down the boarded-in +stairway and emerged upon the back porch of the cottage. It was not yet +dawn, but a rosy glow in the east assured them that the day was near. + +The waiting lad knew that the girls had something to tell, nor was he +wrong. + +"Oh, Gibralter, what do you think?" Dories began at once in an excited +whisper that they might not disturb Great-Aunt Jane, who, without doubt, +was still asleep. + +"I dunno. What?" the boy was frankly curious. + +"We saw it last night. We saw it with our very own eyes! Didn't we, +Nann?" The other maiden agreed. + +"You saw what?" asked the mystified boy, looking from one to the other. +Then, comprehendingly, he added: "Gee, you don' mean as you saw the spook +from the old ruin, do you?" + +Dories nodded, but Nann modified: "Not that, Gibralter. Since there is no +such thing as a ghost, how could we see it? But we did see the light you +were telling about. Someone was walking along the rocks out on the point +carrying a lighted lantern." + +"Wall," the boy announced triumphantly, "that proves 'twas a spook, +'cause human beings couldn't get a foothold out there, the rocks are so +jagged and irregular like. But come along, maybe we can find footprints +or suthin'." + +The sun was just rising out of the sea when the three young people stole +back of the boarded-up cottages that stood in a silent row, and emerged +upon the wide stretch of sandy beach that led toward the point. + +The tide was low and the waves small and far out. The wet sand glistened +with myriad colors as the sun rose higher. The air was tinglingly cold +and, once out of hearing of the aunt, the girls, no longer fearful, ran +along on the hard sand, laughing and shouting joyfully, while the boy, to +express the exuberance of his feelings, occasionally turned a hand-spring +just ahead of them. + +"Oh, what a wonderful morning!" Nann exclaimed, throwing out her arms +toward the sea and taking a deep breath. "It's good just to be alive." + +Dories agreed. "It's hard to believe in ghosts on a day like this," she +declared. + +"Then why try?" Nan merrily questioned. + +They had reached the high headland of jagged rocks that stretched out +into the sea, and Gibralter, bounding ahead, climbed from one rock to +another, sure-footed as a goat but the girls remained on the sand. + +When he turned, they called up to him: "Do you see anything suspicious +looking?" + +"Nixy!" was the boy's reply. Then anxiously: "D'ye think yo' girls can +climb on the tip-top rock?" Then, noting Dories' anxious expression as +she viewed the jagged cliff-like mass ahead of her, he concluded with. +"O, course yo' can't. Hold on, I'll give yo' a hand." + +Very carefully the boy selected crevices that made stairs on which to +climb, and the girls, delighted with the adventure, soon arrived on the +highest rock, which they were glad to find was so huge and flat that they +could all stand there without fear of falling. + +"This is a dizzy height," Dories said, looking down at the waves that +were lazily breaking on the lowest rocks. "But there's one thing that +puzzles me and makes me think more than ever that what we saw last night +was a ghost." + +"I know," Nann put in. "I believe I am thinking the same thing. _How_ +could a man walk back and forth on these jagged rocks carrying a +lantern?" + +"Huh," their companion remarked, "Spooks kin walk anywhar's they choose." + +"Why, Gibralter Strait, I do believe that you think there is a ghost +in--" She paused and turned to look in the direction that the boy was +pointing. On the other side of the point, below them, was a swamp, dense +with high rattling tullies and cat-tails. It looked dark and treacherous, +for, as yet, the sunlight had not reached it. About two hundred feet back +from the sea stood the forlorn ruin of what had once been, apparently, a +fine stone mansion. + +Two stained white pillars, standing in front, were like ghostly sentinels +telling where the spacious porch had been. Behind them were jagged heaps +of crumbling rock, all that remained of the front and side walls. The +wall in the rear was still standing, and from it the roof, having lost +its support in front, pitched forward with great yawning gaps in it, +where chimneys had been. + +Dories unconsciously clung to her friend as they stood gazing down at the +old ruin. "Poor, poor thing," Nann said, "how sad and lonely it must be, +for, I suppose, once upon a time it was very fine home filled with love +and happiness. Wasn't it, Gibralter? If you know the story of the old +house, please tell it to us?" + +The boy cast a quick glance at the timid Dories. "I dunno as I'd ought +to. She scares so easy," he told them. + +"I'll promise not to scare this time," Dories hastened to say. "Honest, +Gib, I am as eager to hear the story as Nann is, so please tell it." + +Thus urged, the boy began. He did not speak, however, in his usual merry, +bantering voice, but in a hollow whisper which he believed better fitted +to the tale he had to tell. + +"Wall," he said, as he seated himself on a rock, motioning the girls to +do likewise, "I might as well start way back at the beginnin'. Pa says +that this here house was built nigh thirty year ago by a fine upstandin' +man as called himself Colonel Wadbury and gave out that he'd come from +Virginia for his gal's health. Pa said the gal was a sad-lookin' creature +as ever he'd set eyes on, an' bye an' bye 'twas rumored around Siquaw +that she was in love an' wantin' to marry some furreigner, an' that the +old Colonel had fetched her to this out-o'-the-way place so that he could +keep watch on her. He sure sartin built her a fine mansion to live in. + +"Pa said 'twas filled with paintin's of ancestors, and books an' queer +furreign rugs a hangin' on the walls, though thar was plenty beside on +the floor. Pa'd been to a museum up to Boston onct, an' he said as 'twas +purty much like that inside the place. + +"Wall, when 'twas all finished, the two tuk to livin' in it with a man +servant an' an old woman to keep an eye on the gal, seemed like. + +"'Twan't swamp around here in those days, 'twas sand, and the Colonel had +a plant put in that grew all over--sand verbeny he called it, but folks +in Siquaw Center shook their heads, knowin' as how the day would come +when the old sea would rise up an' claim its own, bein' as that had all +been ocean onct on a time. + +"Pa says as how he tol' the Colonel that he was takin' big chances, +buildin' a house as hefty as that thar one, on nothin' but sand, but that +wan't all he built either. Furst off 'twas a high sea wall to keep the +ocean back off his place, then 'twas a pier wi' lights along it, and then +he fetched a yacht from somewhere. + +"Pa says he'd never seen a craft like it, an' he'd been a sea-farin' man +ever since the North Star tuk to shinin', or a powerful long time, +anyhow. That yacht, Pa says, was the whitest, mos' glistenin' thing he'd +ever sot eyes on. An' graceful! When the sailors, as wore white clothes, +tuk to sailin' it up and down, Pa says folks from Siquaw Center tuk a +holiday just to come down to the shore to watch the craft. It slid along +so silent and was so all-over white, Gus Pilsley, him as was school +teacher days and kep' the poolhall nights, said it looked like a 'phantom +yacht,' an' that's what folks got to callin' it. + +"Pa says it was well named, for, if ever a ghost rode on it, 'twas the +gal who went out sailin' every day. Sometimes the Colonel was with her, +but most times 'twas the old woman, but she never was let to go alone. +The Colonel's orders was that the sailors shouldn't go beyond the three +miles that was American. He wasn't goin' to have his gal sailin' in +waters that was shared by no furreigners, him bein' that sot agin them, +like as not because the gal wanted to marry one of 'em. So day arter day, +early and late, Pa says, she sailed on her 'Phantom Yacht' up and down +but keepin' well this side o' the island over yonder." + +Gibralter had risen and was pointing out to sea. The girls stood at his +side shading their eyes. "That's it!" he told them. "That's the island. +It's on the three-mile line, but Pa says it's the mos' treacherous island +on this here coast, bein' as thar's hidden shoals fer half a mile all +around it, an' thar's many a whitenin' skeleton out thar of fishin' boats +that went too close." The lad reseated himself and the girls did +likewise. Then he resumed the tale. "Wall, so it went on all summer long. +Pa says if you'd look out at sunrise like's not thar'd be that yacht +slidin' silent-like up and down. Pa says it got to hauntin' him. He'd +even come down here on moonlit nights an', sure nuf, thar'd be that +Phantom Yacht glidin' around, but one night suthin' happened as Pa says +he'll never forget if he lives to be as old as Methusalah's grandfather." + +"W-what happened?" the girls leaned forward. "Did the yacht run on the +shoals?" Nann asked eagerly. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + WHAT HAPPENED + + +Gibralter was thoroughly enjoying their suspense. "Wall," he drawled, +making the moment as dramatic as possible, "'long about midnight, once, +Pa heard a gallopin' horse comin' along the road from the sea. Pa knew +thar wan't no one as rode horseback but the old Colonel himself, an', +bein' as he'd been gettin' gouty, he hadn't been doin' much ridin' of +late days, Pa said, but thar was somethin' about the way the horse was +gallopin' that made Pa sit right up in bed. He an' Ma'd jest been married +an' started keepin' house in the store right whar we live now. Pa woke up +and they both listened. Then they heard someone hollerin' an' Pa knew +'twas the old Colonel's voice, an' Ma said, 'Like's not someone's sick +over to the mansion!' Pa got into his clothes fast as greased lightnin', +took a lantern and went down to the porch, and thar was the ol' Colonel +wi'out any hat on. His gray hair was all rumped up and his eyes was +wild-like. Pa said the ol' Colonel was brown as leather most times, but +that night he was white as sheets. + +"As soon as the Colonel saw Pa, he hollered, 'Whar kin I get a steam +launch? I wanta foller my daughter. She an' the woman that takes keer o' +her is plumb gone, an', what's more, my yacht's gone too. They've made +off wi' it. That scalawag of a furriner that's been wantin' to marry her +has kidnapped 'em all. She's only seventeen, my daughter is, an' I'll +have the law on him.' + +"Pa said when he got up clost to the horse the Colonel was ridin', he +could see the old man was shakin' like he had the palsy. Pa didn't know +no place at all whar a steam launch could be had, leastwise not near enuf +to Siquaw to help any, so the old Colonel said he'd take the train an' go +up the coast to a town whar he could get a launch an' he'd chase arter +that slow-sailin' yacht an' he'd have the law on whoever was kidnappin' +his daughter. + +"The ol' Colonel was in an awful state, Pa said. He went into the store +part o' our house and paced up an' down, an' up an' down, an' up an' +down, till Pa thought he must be goin' crazy, an' every onct in a while +he'd mutter, like 'twas just for himself to hear, 'She'll pay fer this, +Darlina will!'" + +The boy looked up and smiled at his listeners. "Queer name, wasn't it?" +he queried. "Most as funny as my name, but I guess likely 'taint quite." + +"I suppose they wanted to call her something that meant darling," Dories +began, but Nann put in eagerly with, "Oh, Gib, do go on. What happened +next? Did the old Colonel go somewhere and get a fast boat and overtake +the yacht. I do hope that he didn't." + +"Wall, than yo' get what yer hopin' fer, all right. About a week arter +he'd took the early mornin' train along back came the ol' Colonel, Pa +said, an' he looked ten year older. He didn't s'plain nothin', but gave +Pa some money fer takin' keer o' his horse while he'd been gone, an' then +back he came here to his house an' lived shut in all by himself an' his +man-servant for nigh ten year, Pa said. Nobody ever set eyes on him; his +man-servant bein' the only one who came to the store for mail an' +supplies, an' he never said nuthin', tho Pa said now an' then he'd ask if +Darlina'd been heard from. He knew when he'd ask, Pa said, as how he +wouldn't get any answer, but he couldn't help askin'; he was that +interested. But arter a time folks around here began to think morne'n +like the Phantom Yacht, as Pa'd called it, had gone to the bottom before +it reached wherever 'twas they'd been headin' fer, when all of a sudden +somethin' happened. Gee, but Pa said he'd never been so excited before in +all his days as he was the day that somethin' happened. It was ten year +ago an' Pa'd jest had a letter from yer aunt--" the boy leaned over to +nod at Dori, "askin' him to go to the Point an' open up her cottage as +she'd built the summer before. Thar was only two cottages on the shore +then; hers an' the Burtons', that's nearest the point. Pa said as how he +thought he'd get down thar before sun up, so's he could get back in time +to open up the store, bein' as Ma wan't well, an' so he set off to walk +to the beach. + +"Pa said he was up on the roof of the front porch takin' the blind off +thet little front window in the loft whar yo' girls sleep when the gray +dawn over to the east sort o' got pink. Pa said 'twas such a purty sight +he turned 'round to watch it a spell when, all of a sudden sailin' right +around that long, rocky island out thar, _what_ should he see but the +Phantom Yacht, her white sails glistening as the sun rose up out o' the +water. Pa said he had to hold on, he was so sure it was a spook boat. He +couldn't no-how believe 'twas real, but thar came up a spry wind wi' the +sun an' that yacht sailed as purty as could be right up to the long dock +whar the sailors tied it. Wall, Pa said he was so flabbergasted that he +fergot all about the blind he was to take off an' slid right down the +roof and made fer a place as near the long dock as he could an' hid +behind some rocks an' waited. Pa said nothin' happened fer two hours, or +seemed that long to him; then out of that yacht stepped the mos' +beautiful young woman as Pa'd ever set eyes on. He knew at onct 'twas the +ol' Colonel's daughter growed up. She was dressed all in white jest like +she'd used to be, but what was different was the two kids she had holdin' +on to her hands. One was a boy, Pa said, about nine year old, dressed in +black velvet wi' a white lace color. Pa said he was a handsome little +fellar, but 'twas the wee girl, Pa said, that looked like a gold and +white angel wi' long yellow curls. She was younger'n the boy by nigh two +year, Pa reckoned. Their ma's face was pale and looked like sufferin', Pa +said, as she an' her children walked up to the sea wall and went up over +the stone steps thar was then to climb over it. Pa knew they was goin' on +up to the house, but from whar he hid he couldn't see no more, an' so +bein' as he had to go on back to open up the store, he didn't see what +the meetin' between the ol' Colonel an' his daughter was like. +How-some-ever it couldn't o' been very pleasant, fer along about noon, Pa +said he recollected as how he had fergot to take off the blind on yer +aunt's cottage, an' knowin' how mad she'd be, he locked up the store an' +went back down to the beach, an' the first thing he saw was that +glistenin' white yacht a-sailin' away. The wind had been gettin' stiffer +all the mornin' an' Pa said as he watched the yacht roundin' the island, +it looked to him like it was bound to go on the shoals an' be wrecked on +the rocks. Whoever was steerin' Pa said, didn't seem to know nothin' +about the reefs. Pa stood starin' till the yacht was out of sight, an' +then he heard a hollerin' an' yellin' down the beach, an' thar come the +ol' man-servant runnin' an' stumblin' an' shoutin' to Pa to come quick. + +"'Colonel Wadbury's took a stroke!' was what he was hollerin', an' so Pa +follered arter him as fast as he could an' when they got into the big +library-room, whar all the books an' pictures was, Pa saw the ol' Colonel +on the floor an' his face was all drawed up somethin' awful. Pa helped +the man-servant get him to bed, and fer onct the man-servant was willin' +to talk. He told Pa all that had happened. He said how Darlina's furrin +husband had died an' how she wanted to come back to America to live. She +didn't ask to live wi' her Pa, but she did want him to give her the deed +to a country place near Boston. It 'pears her ma had left it for her to +have when she got to be eighteen, but the ol' Colonel wouldn't give her +the papers, though they was hers by rights, an' he wouldn't even look at +the two children; he jest turned 'em all right out, and then as soon as +they was gone, he tuk a stroke. 'Twan't likely, so Pa said, he'd ever be +able to speak again. The man-servant said as the last words the ol' +Colonel spoke was to call a curse down on his daughter's head. + +"Wall, the curse come all right," Gibralter nodded in the direction of +the crumbling ruin, "but 'twas himself as it hit. + +"You'll recollect awhile back I was mentionin' that folks in Siquaw +Center had warned ol' Colonel Wadbury not to build a hefty house on +shiftin' sand that was lower'n the sea. Thar was nothin' keepin' the +water back but a wall o' rocks. But the Colonel sort o' dared Fate to do +its worst, and Fate tuk the dare. + +"When November set in, Pa says, folks in town began to take in reefs, so +to speak; shuttin' the blinds over their windows and boltin' 'em on to +the inside. Gettin' ready for the nor'easter that usually came at that +time o' year, sort o' headin' the procession o' winter storms. Wall, it +came all right; an' though 'twas allays purty lively, Pa says that one +beat all former records, and was a howlin' hurricane. Folks didn't put +their heads out o' doors, day or night, while it lasted, an' some of 'em +camped in their cellars. That thar storm had all the accompaniments. Thar +was hail beatin' down as big and hard as marbles, but the windows, havin' +blinds on 'em, didn't get smashed. Then it warmed up some, and how it +rained! Pa says Noah's flood was a dribble beside it, he's sure sartin. +Then the wind tuk a turn, and how it howled and blustered. All the +outbuildin's toppled right over; but the houses in Siquaw Center was +built to stand, and they stood. Then on the third night, Pa says, 'long +about midnight, thar was a roarin' noise, louder'n wind or rain. It was +kinder far off at first, but seemed like 'twas comin' nearer. 'That thar +stone wall's broke down,' Pa told Ma, 'an' the sea's coverin' the +lowland.' + +"Wall, Pa was right. The tide had never risen so high in the memory of +Ol' Timer as had been around these parts nigh a hundred years. The waves +had banged agin that wall till it went down; then they swirled around the +house till they dug the sand out an' the walls fell jest like yo' see 'em +now. + +"The next mornin' the sky was clear an' smilin', as though nothin' had +happened, or else as though 'twas pleased with its work. Pa and Gus +Pilsley an' some other Siquaw men made for the coast to see what the +damage had been, but they couldn't get within half a mile, bein' as the +road was under water. How-some-ever, 'bout a week later, the road, bein' +higher, dried; but the water never left the lowlands, an' that's how the +swamp come all about the old ruin--reeds and things grew up, just like +'tis today. + +"Pa and Gus come up to this here point an' looked down at what was left +of the fine stone house. ''Pears like it served him right,' was what the +two of 'em said. Then they went away, and the ol' place was left alone. +Folks never tried to get to the ruin, sayin' as the marsh around it was +oozy, and would draw a body right in." + +"But what became of old Colonel Wadbury and the man-servant?" Dories +inquired. + +"Dunno," the boy replied, laconically. "Some thar be as guess one thing, +and some another. Ol' Timer said as how he'd seen two men board the train +that passes through Siquaw Center 'long 'bout two in the mornin', but Pa +says the storm was fiercest then, and no trains went through for three +days; and who'd be out to see, if it had? Pa thinks they tried to get +away an' was washed out to sea an' drowned, an' I guess likely that's +what happened, all right." + +Dories rose. "We ought to be getting back." She glanced at the sun as she +spoke. "Aunt Jane may be needing us." The other two stood up and for a +moment Nann gazed down at the ruin; then she called to it: "Some day I am +coming to visit you, old house, and find out the secret that you hold." + +Dories shuddered and seemed glad to climb down on the side of the rocks +where the sun was shining so brightly and from where one could not see +the dismal swamp and the crumbling old ruin. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE + + +As they walked along the hard, glistening beach, Nann glanced over the +shimmering water at the gray, forbidding-looking island in the distance, +almost as though she thought that the Phantom Yacht might again be seen +sailing toward the place where the dock had been. "Poor Darlina," she +said turning toward the others, "how I do hope that she is happy now." + +"Cain't no one tell as to that, I reckon," Gib commented, when Dories +asked: "Gibralter, how long ago did all this happen? How old would that +girl and boy be now?" + +"Pa was speakin' o' that 'long about last week," was the reply. "He +reckoned 'twas ten year since the Phantom Yacht sailed off agin with the +mother and the two little uns. That'd make the boy, Pa said, about +nineteen year old he cal'lated, an' the wee girl about fifteen." + +"Then little Darlina would be about our age," Dories commented. + +"Why do you think that her name would be the same as her mother's?" Nann +queried. + +"O, just because it is odd and pretty," was Dories' reason. Then, +stepping more spryly, she said: "I do hope Aunt Jane has not been awake +long, fretting for her breakfast. We've been gone over two hours I do +believe." + +"Gee!" Gib exclaimed, looking around for his horse. "I'll have ter gallop +as fast as the ol' colonel did that thar night I was tellin' yo' about or +Pa'll be in my wool. I'd ought to've had the milkin' done this hour past. +So long!" he added, bolting suddenly between two of the boarded-up +cottages they were passing. "Thar's my ol' steed out by the marsh," he +called back to them. + +The girls entered the kitchen very quietly and tiptoed through the +living-room hoping that their elderly hostess had not yet awakened, but a +querulous voice was calling: "Dories, is that you? Why can't you be more +quiet? I've heard you prowling around this house for the past hour. Going +up and down those outside stairs. I should think you would know that I +want quiet. I came here to rest my nerves. Bring my coffee at once." + +"Yes, Aunt Jane," the girl meekly replied. Then, darting back to the +kitchen, she whispered, her eyes wide and startled, "Nann, somebody has +been in this house while we've been away. I do believe it was that--that +person we saw at midnight carrying a lantern. Aunt Jane has heard +footsteps creaking up and down the stairs to our room." + +Nann's expression was very strange. Instead of replying she held out a +small piece of crumpled paper. "I just ran up to the loft to get my +apron," she said, "and I found this lying in the middle of our bed." + +On the paper was written in small red letters: "In thirteen days you +shall know all." + +"I have nine minds to tell Aunt Jane that the cabin must be haunted and +that we ought to leave for Boston this very day," Dories said, but her +companion detained her. + +"Don't, Dori," she implored. "I'm sure that there is nothing that will +harm us, for pray, why should anyone want to? And I'm simply wild to +know, well, just ever so many things. Who prowls about at midnight +carrying a lighted lantern, what he is hunting for, who left this +crumpled paper on our bed, and what we are to know in thirteen days; but, +first of all, I want to find a way to enter that old ruin." + +Dories sank down on a kitchen chair. "Nann Sibbett," she gasped, "I +believe that you are absolutely the only girl in this whole world who is +without fear. Well," more resignedly, "if you aren't afraid, I'll try not +to be." Then, springing up, she added, for the querulous voice had again +called: "Yes, Aunt Jane, I'll bring your coffee soon." Turning to Nann, +she added: "We ought to have a calendar so that we could count the days." + +"I guess we won't need to." Nann was making a fire in the stove as she +spoke. "More than likely the spook will count them for us. There, isn't +that a jolly fire? Polly, put the kettle on, and we'll soon have coffee." + +Dories, being the "Polly" her friend was addressing, announced that she +was ravenously hungry after their long walk and climb and that she was +going to have bacon and eggs. Nann said merrily, "Double the order." +Then, while Dories was preparing the menu, she said softly: "Nann, +doesn't it seem queer to you that Great-Aunt Jane can live on nothing but +toast and tea? Of course," she amended, "this morning she wishes toast +and coffee, but she surely ought to eat more than that, shouldn't you +think?" + +"She would if she got out in this bracing sea air, but lying abed is +different. One doesn't get so hungry." Nann was setting the kitchen table +for two as she talked. After the old woman's tray had been carried to her +bedside, Dories and Nann ate ravenously of the plain, but tempting, fare +which they had cooked for themselves. Nann laughed merrily. "This +certainly is a lark," she exclaimed. "I never before had such a good +time. I've always been crazy to read mystery stories and here we are +living one." + +Dories shrugged. "I'm inclined to think that I'd rather read about spooks +than meet them," she remarked as she rose and prepared to wash the +dishes. + +When the kitchen had been tidied, the two girls went into the sun-flooded +living-room, and began to make it look more homelike. The dust covers +were removed from the comfortable wicker chairs and the pictures, that +had been turned to face the walls while the cabin was unoccupied, were +dusted and straightened. + +"Now, let's take a run along the beach and gather a nice lot of drift +wood," Nann suggested. "You know Gibralter told us that this is the time +of year when the first winter storm is likely to arrive." + +Dories shuddered. "I hope it won't be like the one that wrecked Colonel +Wadbury's house eight years ago. If it were, it might undermine all of +these cabins, and, how pray, could we escape if the road was under +water?" + +"Oh, that isn't likely to happen," Nann said comfortingly. "Our beach is +higher than that lowland. It it does, we'd find a way out, but, Dories, +please don't be imagining things. We have enough mystery to puzzle us +without conjuring up frightful catastrophes that probably never will +happen." + +Dories stopped at her aunt's door to tell her their plans, but the old +woman was either asleep or feined slumber, and so, tiptoeing that she +might not disturb her, the girl went out on the beach, where Nann awaited +her. They were hatless, and as the sun had mounted higher, even the +bright colored sweater-coats had been discarded. + +"It's such a perfect Indian summer day," Nann said. "I don't even see a +tiny, misty cloud." As she spoke, she shaded her eyes with one hand and +scanned the horizon. + +"Isn't the island clear? Even that fog bank that we saw early this +morning has melted away." Then, whirling about, Dories inquired, "Nann, +if we should see something white coming around that bleak gray island, +what do you think it would be?" + +"Why, the Phantom Yacht, of course." + +"What would you do, if it were?" + +"I don't know, Dori. I hadn't even thought of the coming of that boat as +a possibility, and yet--" Nann turned a glowing face, "I don't know why +it might not happen. That little woman, for the sake of her children, +might try a second time to win her father's forgiveness. If she came, +what a desolate homecoming it would be; the old house in ruin and the +fate of her father unknown." + +For a moment the two girls stood silent. A gentle sea breeze blew their +sport skirts about them. They watched the island with shaded eyes as +though they really expected the yacht to appear. Then Nann laughed, and +leaping along the beach, she confessed: "I know that I'll keep watching +for the return of the Phantom Yacht just all of the while. The first +thing in the morning and the last thing at night." Then, as she picked up +a piece of whitening driftwood, she asked, "Dori, would you rather have +the glistening white yacht appear in the sunrise or in the moonlight?" + +Dories had darted for another piece of wood higher up the warm beach, +but, on returning, she replied: "Oh, I don't know; either way would make +a beautiful picture, I should think." Then, after picking up another +piece, she added: "I'd like to meet that pretty gold and white girl, +wouldn't you?" + +"Maybe we will," Nann commented, then sang out: "Do look, Dori, over by +the point of rocks, there is ever so much driftwood. I believe that will +be enough to fill our wood shed if we carry it all in. I've always heard +that there are such pretty colors in the flames when driftwood burns." + +The girls worked for a while carrying the wood to the shed; then they +climbed up on the rocks to rest, but not high enough to see the old ruin. +When at length the sun was at the zenith, they went indoors to prepare +lunch, and again the old woman asked only for toast and tea. + +After a leisurely noon hour, the girls returned to their task; there +really being nothing else that they wanted to do, and, as Nann suggested, +if the rains came they would be well prepared. For a time they rested, +lying full length on the warm sand, and so it was not until late +afternoon that they had carried in all of the driftwood they could find. + +"Goodness!" Dories exclaimed, shudderingly, as she looked down at her +last armful. "Doesn't it make you feel queer to know that this wood is +probably the broken-up skeleton of a ship that has been wrecked at sea?" + +"I suppose that is true," was the thoughtful response. They had started +for the cabin, and a late afternoon fog was drifting in. + +Suddenly Nann paused and stared at the one window in the loft that faced +the sea. Her expression was more puzzled than fearful. For one brief +second she had seen a white object pass that window. Dories turned to ask +why her friend had delayed. Nann, not wishing to frighten the more timid +girl, stooped to pick up a piece of driftwood that had slipped from her +arms. + +"I'm coming, dear," she said. + +On reaching the cabin, Nann went at once to the room of the elderly +woman, who had told them in the morning that she intended to remain in +bed for one week and be waited on. There she was, her deeply-set dark +eyes watching the door when Nann opened it and instantly she began to +complain: "I do wish you girls wouldn't go up and down those outside +stairs any oftener than you have to. They creaked so about ten minutes +ago, they woke me right up." Then she added, "Please tell Dories to bring +me my tea at once." + +Nann returned to the kitchen truly puzzled. It was always when they were +away from the cabin that the aunt heard someone going up and down the +outside stairway. What could it mean? To Dories she said, in so calm a +voice that suspicion was not aroused in the heart of her friend, "While +you prepare the tea for your aunt, I'll go up to the loft room and make +our bed before dark." + +Dories had said truly, Nann Sibbett seemed to be a girl without fear. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + SOUNDS IN THE LOFT + + +Nann half believed that the white object she had seen at the loft window +was but a flashing ray of the setting sun reflected from the opposite +window which faced the west, and yet, curiosity prompted her to go to the +loft and be sure that it was unoccupied. This resolution was strengthened +when, upon reaching the cabin, she heard Miss Moore's querulous voice +complaining that the outer stairs leading to the room above had been +creaking constantly, and she requested the girls not to go up and down so +often while she was trying to sleep. Nann, knowing that they had not been +to their bedroom since morning, was a little puzzled by this, and so, +bidding Dories prepare tea for her great-aunt, she went out on the back +porch and started to ascend the stairway. When the top was reached, she +discovered that the door was locked. For a puzzled moment the girl +believed that the key was on the inside, but, stopping, she found that +she could see through the keyhole. Although it was dusk, the window in +the loft room, which opened toward the sea, was opposite and showed a +faint reflection of the setting sun. Nann was relieved but still puzzled, +when a whispered voice at the foot of the stairway called to her. +Turning, Nann saw Dories standing in the dim light below, holding up the +key. "Did you forget that we brought it down?" she inquired. + +As Nann hurriedly descended, she noticed that the stairs did not creak, +nor indeed could they, for each step was one solid board firmly wedged in +grooves at the sides. + +"I believe that we are all of us allowing our imaginations to run away +with us, Miss Moore included," Nann said as she returned to the kitchen. +Then added, "Instead of making our bed now, I will clean the glass lamps +and fill them with the oil that Gibralter brought while it is still +twilighty." + +This she did, setting briskly to work and humming a gay little tune. + +It never would do for Nann Sibbett, the fearless, to allow her +imagination to run riot. + +Before the lamps were ready to be lighted, the fog, which stole in every +night from the sea, had settled about the cabin and the fog horn out +beyond the rocky point had started its constantly recurring, long +drawn-out wail. + +"Goodness!" Dories said, shudderingly, "listen to that!" + +"I'm listening!" Nann replied briskly. "I rather like it. It's so sort of +appropriate. You know, at the movies, when the Indians come on, the weird +Indian music always begins. Now, that's the way with the fog." + +She paused to scratch a match, applied the flame to the oil-saturated +wick of a small glass lamp and stood back admiringly. "There, friend o' +mine," she exclaimed, "isn't that cheerful?" + +Dories, instead of looking at the circle of light about the lamp, looked +at the wavering shadows in the corners, then at the heavy gray fog which +hung like curtains at the windows. She huddled closer to the stove. "If +this place spells cheerfulness to you," she remarked, "I'd like to know +what would be dismal." + +Nann whirled about and faced her friend and for a moment she was serious. + +"I'm going to preach," she threatened, "so be prepared. I haven't the +least bit of use in this world for people who are mercurial. What right +have we to mope about and create a dismal atmosphere in our homes, just +because we can't see the sunshine. We know positively that it is shining +somewhere, and we also know that the clouds never last long. I call it +superlative selfishness to be variable in disposition. Pray, why should +we impose our doleful moods on our friends?" + +Then, noting the downcast expression of her friend, Nann put her arms +about her as she said penitently, "Forgive me, dear, if I hurt your +feelings. Of course it is dismal here and we could be just miserable if +we wanted to be, but isn't it far better to think of it all as an +adventure, a merry lark? We know perfectly well that there is no such +thing as a ghost, but the setting for one is so perfect we just can't +resist the temptation to pretend that----" + +Nann said no more for something had suddenly banged in the loft room over +their heads. + +Dories sat up with a start, but Nann laughed gleefully. "You see, even +the ghost knows his cue," she declared. "He came into the story just at +the right moment. He can't scare me, however," Nann continued, "for I +know exactly what made the bang. When I was upstairs I noticed that the +blind to the front window had come unfastened, and now that the night +wind is rising, the two conspired to make us think a ghost had invaded +our chamber." Then, having placed a lighted lamp on the kitchen table and +another on a shelf near the stove, the optimistic girl whirled and with +arms akimbo she exclaimed, "Mistress Dori, what will we have for supper? +You forage in the supply cupboard and bring forth your choice. I vote for +hot chocolate!" + +"How would asparagus tips do on toast?" This doubtfully from the girl +peering into a closet where stood row after row of bags and cans. + +"Great!" was the merry reply. "And we'll have canned raspberries and +wafers for desert." + +It was seven when the meal was finished and nearly eight when the kitchen +was tidied. Nann noticed that Dories seemed intentionally slow and that +every now and then she seemed to be listening for sounds from above. +Ignoring it, however, Nann put out the light in one lamp and, taking the +other, she exclaimed, "The earlier we go to bed, the earlier we can get +up, and I'm heaps more interested in being awake by day than by night, +aren't you, Dori? Are you all ready?" + +Dories nodded, preparing to follow her friend out into the fog that hung +like a damp, dense mantle on the back porch. But, as soon as the door was +opened, a cold, penetrating wind blew out the flame. "How stupid of me!" +Nann exclaimed, backing into the kitchen and closing the door. "I should +have lighted the lantern. Now stand still where you are, Dori, and I'll +grope around and find where I left it after I filled it. Didn't you think +I hung it on the nail in the corner? Well, if I did, it isn't there. Get +the matches, dear, will you, and strike one so that I can see." + +But that did not prove to be necessary, as a sudden flaming-up of the +dying fire in the stove revealed the lantern standing on the floor near +the oil can. Nann pounced on it, found a match before the glow was gone, +and then, when the lantern sent forth its rather faint illumination, they +again ventured out into the fog. + +All the way up the back stairway Dories expected to hear a bang in the +room overhead, but there was no sound. She peered over Nann's shoulder +when the door was opened and the faint light penetrated the darkness. +"See, I was right!" Nann whispered triumphantly. "The blind blew shut and +the hook caught it. That's why we didn't hear it again." + +"Let's leave it shut," Dories suggested, "then we won't be able to see +the lantern out on the point of rocks if it moves about at midnight." + +Nann, realizing that her companion really was excitedly fearful, thought +best to comply with her request, and, as there was plenty of air entering +the loft room through innumerable cracks, she knew they would not +smother. + +Too, Dories wanted the lantern left burning, but as soon as Nann was sure +that her companion was asleep, she stealthily rose and blew out the +flickering flame. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + A QUERULOUS OLD AUNT + + +It was daylight when the girls awakened and the sun was streaming into +their bedroom. Nann leaped to her feet. "It must be late," she declared +as she felt under her pillow for her wristwatch. She drew it forth, but +with it came a piece of crumpled yellow paper on which in small red +letters was written, "In twelve days you shall know all." + +Dories luckily had not as yet opened her eyes and Nann was sitting on the +edge of the bed with her back toward her companion. For a moment she +looked into space meditatively. Should she keep all knowledge of that bit +of paper to herself? She decided that she would, and slipping it into the +pocket of her sweater-coat, which hung on a chair, she rose and walked +across the room to gaze at the door. She remembered distinctly that she +had locked it. How could anyone have entered? Not for one moment did the +girl believe that their visitor had been a ghostly apparition that could +pass through walls and locked doors. + +"Hmm! I see," she concluded after a second's scrutiny. "I did lock the +door, but I removed the key and put it on the table. A pass-key evidently +admitted our visitor." Then, while dressing, Nann continued to +soliloquize. "I wonder if the person who walks the cliff carrying the +lantern was our visitor. Perhaps it's the old Colonel himself or his +man-servant who hides during the day under the leaning part of the roof, +but who walks forth at night for exercise and air, although surely there +must be air enough in a house that has only one wall." + +Having completed her toilet, she shook her friend. "If you don't wake up +soon, you won't be downstairs in time for breakfast," she exclaimed. + +Dories sat up with a startled cry. "Oh, Nann," she pleaded. "Don't go +down and leave me up here alone, please don't! I'll be dressed before you +can say Jack Robinson, if only you will wait." + +"Well, I'll be opening this window. I want to see the ocean." As Nann +spoke, she lifted the hook and swung out the blind, then exclaimed: + +"How wonderfully blue the water is! Oho, someone is out in the cove with +a flat-bottomed boat. Why, I do believe it is our friend Gibralter. Come +to think of it, he did say that he had been saving his money for ever so +long to buy what he calls a sailing punt." + +Nann leaned out of the open window and waved her handkerchief. Then she +turned back to smile at her friend. "It is Gib and he's sailing toward +shore. Do hurry, Dori, let's run down to the beach and call to him." + +Tiptoeing down the flight of stairs, the two girls, taking hands, +scrambled over the bank to the hard sand that was glistening in the sun. + +The boy, having seen them, turned his boat toward shore, and, as there +was very little wind, he let the sail flap and began rowing. + +The tide was low and there was almost no surf. + +"Want to come out?" he called as soon as he was within hailing distance. + +"Oh, how I wish we could," Nann, the fearless, replied, "but we have +duties to attend to first. Come back in about an hour and maybe we'll be +ready to go." + +"All right-ho!" the sea breeze brought to them, then the lad turned into +the rising wind, pulled in the sheet and scudded away from the shore. + +"That surely looks like jolly sport," Nann declared as, with arms locked, +the two girls stood on a boulder, watching for a moment. Then, "We ought +to go in, for Great-Aunt Jane may have awakened," Dories said. + +When the girls tiptoed to the chamber on the lower floor, they found Miss +Moore unusually fretful. "What a noisy night it was," she declared, +peevishly. "I came to this place for a complete rest and I just couldn't +sleep a wink. I don't see why you girls have to walk around in the night. +Don't you know that you are right over my head and every noise you make +sounds as though it were right in this very room?" + +"I'm sorry you were disturbed, Aunt Jane," Dories said, but she was +indeed puzzled. Neither she nor Nann had awakened from the hour that they +retired until sunrise. + +When the girls were in the kitchen preparing breakfast, Dories asked, +"Nann, do you think that Great-Aunt Jane may be--I don't like to say it, +but you know how elderly people do, sometimes, wander mentally." + +"No, dear," the other replied, "I do not think that is true of your +aunt." Then chancing to put her hand in the pocket of her sweater-coat, +and feeling there the crumpled paper, Nann drew it out and handed it to +Dories. + +"Why, where did you find it?" that astonished maiden inquired when she +had read the finely written words, "In twelve days you shall know all." + +"Under my pillow," was the reply, "and so you see who ever leaves these +messages has no desire to harm us, hence there is no reason for us to be +afraid. At first I thought that I would not tell you, but I want you to +understand that your Great Aunt Jane may have heard footsteps over her +head last night, even though we did not awaken." + +"Well, if you are not afraid, I'll try not to be," Dories assured her +friend, but in her heart she knew that she would be glad indeed when the +twelve days were over. + +Later when Dories went into her aunt's room to remove the breakfast tray, +she bent over the bed to arrange the pillows more comfortably. Then she +tripped about, tidying the room. Chancing to turn, she found the dark, +deeply sunken eyes of the elderly woman watching her with an expression +that was hard to define. Jane Moore smiled faintly at the girl, and there +was a tone of wistfulness in her voice as she said, "I suppose you and +Nann will be away all day again." + +"Why, Aunt Jane," Dories heard herself saying as she went to the bedside, +"were you lonely? Would you like to have me stay for a while this morning +and read to you?" + +Even as she spoke she seemed to see her mother's smiling face and hear +her say, "The only ghosts that haunt us are the memories of loving deeds +left undone and kind words that might have been spoken." As yet Dories +had not even thought of trying to do anything to add to her aunt's +pleasure. She was gratified to see the brightening expression. "Well, +that would be nice! If you will read to me until I fall asleep, I shall +indeed be glad." + +Nann, who had come to the door, had heard, and, as the girls left the +room, she slipped an arm about her friend, saying, "That was mighty nice +of you, Dori, for I know how much pleasanter it would be for you to go +for a boat ride with Gibralter. I'll stay with you if you wish." + +"No, indeed, Nann. You go and see if you can't find another clue to the +mystery." + +"I feel in my bones that we will," that maiden replied as she poured hot +water over the few breakfast dishes. "It would be rather a good joke +on--well--on the ghost, if we solved the mystery sooner than twelve days. +Don't you think so?" + +"But there are so many things that puzzle us," Dories protested. "I wish +we might catch whoever it is leaving those messages. That, at least, +would be one mystery solved." + +"I'll tell you what," Nann said brightly. "Let's put on our thinking caps +and try to find some way to trap the ghost tonight. Well, good-bye for +now! Gib and I will be back soon, I am sure. I'm just wild to go for a +little sail with him in his queer punt boat." + +Dories stood in the open front door watching as her friend ran lightly +across the hard sand, climbed to a boulder and beckoned to the boy who +was not far away. + +With a half sigh Dories went into her aunt's room. Catching a glimpse of +her own reflection in a mirror she was surprised to behold a fretful +expression which plainly told that she was doing something that she did +not want to do in the least. She smiled, and then turning toward the bed, +she asked, "What shall I read, Aunt Jane?" + +"Are there any books in the living room?" the elderly woman inquired. The +girl shook her head. "There are shelves, but the books have been +removed." + +There was a sudden brightening of the deeply sunken eyes. "I recall now," +the older woman said, "the books were packed in a box and taken up to the +loft. Suppose you go up there and select any book that you would like to +read." + +For one panicky moment Dories felt that she must refuse to go alone to +that loft room which she believed was haunted. She had never been up +there without Nann. + +"Well, are you going?" The inquiry was not impatient, but it was puzzled. +"Yes, Aunt Jane, I'll go at once." There was nothing for the girl to do +but go. Taking the key from its place in the kitchen, she began to ascend +the outdoor stairway. How she did wish that she were as fearless as Nann. + +The door opened when the key turned, and Dories stood looking about her +as though she half believed that someone would appear, either from under +the bed or from behind the curtains that sheltered one corner. + +There was no sound, and, moreover, the loft room was flooded with +sunlight. The box, holding the books, was readily found. Dories +approached it, lifted the cover and was about to search for an +interesting title when a mouse leaped out, scattering gnawed bits of +paper. Seizing the book on top, Dories fled. + +"What is the matter?" her aunt inquired when, almost breathless, the girl +entered her room. + +"Oh--I--I thought it was--but it wasn't--it was only a mouse." + +"Of course it was only a mouse," Miss Moore said. "I sincerely hope that +a niece of mine is not a coward." + +"I hope not, Aunt Jane." Then the girl for the first time glanced at the +book she held. The title was "Famous Ghost Stories of England and +Ireland." + +"Very entertaining, indeed," the elderly woman remarked, as she settled +back among the pillows, and there was nothing for Dories to do but read +one hair-raising tale after another. Often she glanced at her +wrist-watch. It was almost noon. Why didn't Nann come? + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + A BLEACHED SKELETON + + +When Gibralter saw Nann crossing the wide beach that was shimmering in +the light of the early morning sun, he turned the punt boat and sailed as +close to the point of rocks as he dared go. Then, letting the sail flap, +he took the oars and was soon alongside a large flat boulder which, at +low tide, was uncovered, although an occasional wave did wash over it. + +"Quick! Watch whar ye step," he cautioned. "Thar now. Here's yer chance. +Heave ho." Then he added admiringly as the girl stepped into the middle +of the punt without losing her balance, "Bully fer you. That's as steady +as a boy could have done it. Whar's the other gal? Was she skeered to +come?" + +Nann seated herself on the wide stern seat of the flat-bottomed boat +before she replied. "Dori wanted to come just ever so much, but she +thought that she ought to stay at home this morning and read to her +Great-Aunt Jane." + +"Wall, I don't envy her none," the lad said as he stood up to push the +boat away from the rocks. "That ol' Miss Moore is sure sartin the +crabbiest sort o' a person seems like to me." Then as he sat on the +gunnel and pulled on the sheet, he added, beaming at the girl, "Say, Miss +Nann, are ye game to sail over clost to the island yonder? Like's not +we'd find the skeleton o' The Phantom Yacht if it got wrecked thar, as Pa +thinks mabbe it did." + +"Oh, Gib," the girl's voice expressed real concern, "I do hope that +beautiful snow-white yacht was not wrecked. I don't believe that it was. +I feel sure that those sailors took it safely back across the sea with +that poor heart-broken mother and the boy who was such a handsome little +chap, and the wee gold and white girl whom your daddy said looked like a +lily. Honestly, Gib, I'd almost rather not sail over to that cruel island +where so many boats have gone down. If the Phantom Yacht is there, I'd +rather not know it. I'd heaps rather believe that it is still sailing, +perhaps on the blue, blue waters of the Mediterranean." + +The boy looked his disappointment. "I say, Miss Nann," he pleaded, "come +on, say you'll go, just this onct. I'm powerful curious to see what the +shoals look like. I've been savin' and savin' for ever so long to buy +this here punt boat jest so's I could cruise around over thar. Miss Nann, +won't you go?" + +The girl laughed. "Gibralter, you look the picture of distress. I just +can't be hard-hearted enough to disappoint you. If you'll promise not to +wreck me, I'll consent to go at least near enough to see just what the +island looks like." + +With that promise the boy had to be content. A brisk breeze was blowing +from the land and so, before very long, the two and a half miles that lay +between the shore and the outer shoals were covered and the long gaunt +island of jagged gray rocks loomed large before them. + +"The shoals'll come up, sudden-like, clost to the top of the water, most +any time now," Gib said, "so keep watchin' ahead. If you see a place whar +the color's different, sort o' shallow lookin', jest sing out an' I'll +pull away." + +Nann, thrilling with the excitement of a new adventure, looked over the +side of the punt and into water so deep and dark green that it seemed +bottomless, but all at once they sailed right over a sharp-pointed rock. +Then another appeared, and another. + +"Gib!" the girl's cry was startled, "you'd better stop sailing now and +take the oars, slowly, for if we hit a rock, way out here, and capsize, +pray, who would there be to save us?" + +Nann shuddered as she gazed ahead at the gray, grim island. A flock of +long-legged, long-beaked and altogether ungainly looking seabirds arose +from the rocks with shrill, unearthly screams, and, after circling +overhead for a moment they landed a safe distance away. There was no +other sign of life. + +Gibralter let the sail flap at the girl's suggestion and began to row +slowly along on the sheltered side of the island. + +"Hark!" Nann said, lifting one hand. "Just hear how the surf is pounding +on the outer coast. Don't go too far, Gib; see how the water swirls +around the rocks where they jut out into the sea." + +As he rowed slowly along, the boy kept a keen-eyed watch along the shore. +"Thar'd ought to be a place whar a body could land safely," he said at +last. Then added excitedly as he pointed: "Look'et; thar's a big flat +shoal that goes way up to the island, an' I'm sure as anything this here +punt could slide right up over it an' never touch bottom. Are ye game to +try it, Miss Nann? Say, are ye?" + +The girl looked at the wide, flat shoal that was about two feet under +water and which was evidently connected with the island. Then she looked +at the eager face of the boy. "I dare, if you dare," she said with a +bright smile. + +Gibralter managed to row the punt boat within a length of the island over +the submerged shoal, and then it stuck. + +"Well," Nann remarked, "I suppose we will have to stay here until the +rising tide lifts us off." + +"Nary a bit of it," the boy replied as he stripped off his shoes and +stockings. This done he stepped over the side of the boat, which, +lightened of his weight, again floated. + +Taking the rope at the bow, the lad pulled and tugged until the punt was +high and dry, then Nann leaped out. Standing on a rock, she shaded her +eyes and gazed back across the three miles of sparkling blue waters. She +could see the eight cottages in a row on the sandy shore. How strange it +seemed to be looking at them from the island. + +"We mustn't stay long, Gib," she said to the lad who was examining the +rocks with interest. "When the tide rises the waves will be higher and +that punt boat of yours may not be very seaworthy." + +"Thar's nothin' onusual on this here side," the boy soon reported. +"'Twon't take long to climb up top and see what's on the other side." As +he spoke, he began to climb over the rocks, holding out his hand to +assist the sure-footed girl in the ascent. + +"There doesn't seem to be a green thing growing anywhere," Nann remarked +as she looked about curiously, "even in the crevices there is nothing but +a silvery gray moss." Then she inquired, "Are there any serpents on this +island, Gib?" + +The boy shook his head. "Never heard tell of anything hereabouts, 'cept +just an octopus. Pa says onct a fisherman's boat was pulled under by one +of them critters with a lot of arms sort o' like snakes." + +Nann stood still and stared at the boy. "Gibralter Strait," she cried, +"if I thought there was one of those terrible sea-serpents about here, +I'd go right home this very instant. Why, I'd rather meet a dozen ghosts +than one octopus." + +"I guess 'twant nothin' but a story," the boy said, sorry that he had +happened to mention it. "Guess likely that was all." Then, as they had +reached the top of the rocks that were piled high, they stood for a +moment side by side gazing down to the rugged shore far below. + +The boy suddenly caught the girl's arm. "Look! Look!" he cried. "That's +what I was wantin' to find." He pointed toward a whitening skeleton of a +boat that was high on the rocks well out of reach of the surf and about +two hundred feet to the left of where they were standing. "Like as not +that wreck's been thar nigh unto ten year, shouldn't you say? An' if so, +why mightn't it be 'The Phantom Yacht' as well as any other? I should +think it might, shouldn't you, Miss Nann?" + +"I suppose so," the girl faltered. "But oh, how I do hope that it isn't. +I want to believe that the mother with her boy and girl are safe, +somewhere." Then pleadingly, "Don't you think we'd better start for home +now, Gib? I do want to get away before the tide turns, and even if that +old skeleton should be 'The Phantom Yacht,' there would be no way for us +to prove it. You never did know the real name of the boat, did you?" + +"No." the boy confessed, "I never did. Sort o' got to thinkin' 'Phantom +Yacht' was its name, but like's not 'twasn't." + +The bleached skeleton of the boat was soon reached and the lad, leaving +Nann standing on a broad flat rock, scrambled down nearer and began +searching for something that might identify it as the craft which, many +years before, had sailed, white and graceful, to and fro in the sheltered +waters of the bay, and which had been called "The Phantom Yacht." + +Half an hour passed, but search as he might, the disappointed boy found +nothing that could identify the boat. The storms of many winters had +stripped it, leaving but a whitened skeleton and, before long, even that +would be broken up and washed on the shore where the cottages were, to be +gathered and burned as driftwood. + +It was with real regret that Gibralter at last left the wrecked boat and +returned to the side of the girl. He found her gazing into the swirling +green waters beyond the rocks as though she were fascinated. + +"What ye lookin' at, Miss Nann?" he inquired. + +She turned toward him, wide-eyed. "Gib," she said, "I thought I saw that +octopus you were telling about. Look, there it is again! See it +stretching out a long brown arm." + +The boy laughed heartily. "That thar's sea weeds, Miss Nann," he +chuckled, "one o' the long streamer kind." Then he added, more seriously, +"We'd better scud 'long. 'Pears like the tide is turnin'." Then his +optimistic self once again, "All the better if it has turned. It'll take +us to Siquaw Point a scootin'." + +When they reached the ridge of the island, the boy looked regretfully +back at the grim skeleton. "D'ye know, Miss Nann," he remarked, "I'm sure +sartin that we're leavin' without findin' a clue that's hidin' thar +waitin' to be found. I'm sure sartin we are." + +It was a habit with the boy to repeat, perhaps for the sake of emphasis. + +"Wall," Nann declared, "to be real honest, Gib, I'd heaps rather be +standing on that sandy stretch of beach over there where the cottages are +than I would to find any clue that the old skeleton may be concealing." +Then she laughed, as she accepted his proffered assistance to descend the +rocks. "I don't know why, but I feel as though something skeery is about +to happen. Maybe I'm more imaginative on water than I am on land." + +They slid and scrambled down the rocks and were nearing the bottom when +an ejaculation of mingled astonishment and dismay escaped from the boy. + +"What is it, Gib?" the girl asked anxiously. "Has the skeery something +happened already?" + +"The punt. 'Taint thar. The tide rose sooner'n I was countin' on and +like's not that boat o' mine is sailin' out to sea." + +For one panicky moment the girl stood very still, her hand pressed on her +heart. Then she recalled something that her father once had said: "When +danger threatens, keep a clear head. That will do more than anything else +to avert trouble." + +The boy, shading his eyes, was searching for the escaped punt far out on +the shining waters, but Nann, looking about her, made a discovery. Then +she laughed gleefully. The boy turned toward her in astonishment. Then, +being very quick witted, he too understood. "You don' need to tell me," +he said, "I'm on! We changed our location, so to speak, when we went to +look at the wreck, and that fetched us down at a different place on this +here side." + +Nann nodded. "I do believe that we'll find the punt beyond the rocks +yonder," she hazarded. And they did. Ten minutes later the boy had pushed +the boat safely over the submerged shoal. The rising tide carried them +swiftly out of danger of the hidden rocks. Although Nann said nothing, +she kept intently gazing into the dark green water. She would far rather +meet any number of ghosts on land, she assured herself, than even catch a +glimpse of one of those dreadful sea monsters. + +It was nearly one o'clock when Dories, who was standing on the porch of +the cabin, saw the flat-bottomed boat returning, and she ran down to the +shore to meet her friend. + +"Did you find a clue?" she called as Nan leaped ashore. + +"I don't believe so," was the merry response. "We found an old whitening +skeleton of some ill-fated boat, but I'm not going to believe it is the +Phantom Yacht. Not yet, anyway." Then Nann turned to call to the boy who +was pushing his punt away from the rocks, "See you tomorrow, Gib, if you +come this way. Thank you for taking me sailing." + +As soon as the girls had turned back toward the cottage, Dories +exclaimed, "Nann, I believe that I have thought of a splendid way to trap +the ghost tonight, but I'm not going to tell you until just before we go +to bed." + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + BELLING THE GHOST + + +There was a sharp, cold wind that afternoon and so Nann suggested that +they make a big fire on the hearth in the living room and write letters. +Miss Moore had told them that she wished to be left alone. + +"We have used up nearly all of the wood in the shed," Nann said as she +brought in an armful. + +"There's lots of driftwood on the shore. Let's gather some tomorrow," +Dories suggested as she made herself comfortable in a deep, easy willow +chair near the jolly blaze which Nann had started. "Now I'm going to +write the newsiest kind of a letter to mother and brother. I suppose +you'll write to your father." + +Nann nodded as she seated herself on the other side of the fireplace, +pencil and pad in readiness. For a few moments they scribbled, then +Dories glanced up to remark with a half shudder, "Do hear that mournful +wind whistling down the chimney, and here comes the fog drifting in so +early. If it weren't for the fire, this would be a gloomy afternoon." + +Again they wrote for a time, then Dories glanced up to find Nann gazing +thoughtfully into the fire. "A penny for your thoughts," she called. + +Nann smiled brightly. "They were rather a jumble. I was wondering if, by +any chance, you and I would ever meet the wee girl and the handsome +little boy who sailed away on the Phantom Yacht; then, too, I was +wondering who was playing a practical joke on us." + +"Meaning what?" + +"Why the notes, of course." Nann folded her finished letter, addressed +the envelope and after stamping it, she glanced up to ask, "Why not tell +me now, how you intend to trap the joker." + +"You mean the spook. Well this is it. I found a little bell today. One +that Aunt Jane used, I suppose, to call her maid in former years." + +Nann's merry laughter rang out. "I've heard of belling a cat," she said, +"but never before did I hear of belling a ghost." + +Dories smiled. "Oh, I didn't mean that we were to catch the--well, +whoever it is that leaves the messages, first, and then hang a bell on +him. That, of course, would be impossible." + +"Well, then, what is your plan?" + +But before Dories could explain, a querulous voice from the adjoining +room called, "Girls, its five o'clock! I do wish you would bring me my +toast and tea. The air is so chilly, I need it to warm me up." + +Contritely Dories sprang to the door. She had entirely forgotten her +aunt's existence all of the afternoon. "Wouldn't you like to have part of +the supper that Nann and I will prepare for ourselves?" she asked. "We'll +have anything that you would like." + +"Toast and tea are all I wish, and I want them at once," was the rather +ungracious reply. And so the girls went to the kitchen, made a fire in +the stove and set the kettle on to boil. + +"Goodness, I'd hate to have nothing to eat but tea and toast day in and +day out," was Dories' comment. Then to her companion, "It's your turn to +choose from the cupboard tonight and plan the supper." + +"All right, and I'll get it, too, while you wait on Miss Moore." + +An hour later the girls had finished the really excellent meal which Nann +had prepared, and, for a while, they sat close to the kitchen stove to +keep warm. The wind, which had been moaning all of the afternoon about +the cabin, had risen in velocity and Dories remarked with a shudder that +it might be the start of one of those dismal three-day storms about which +Gib had told them. + +"It may be as terrible as that hurricane that swept the sea up over the +wall and undermined old Colonel Wadbury's house," she continued, bent, it +would seem, on having the picture as dark as she could. + +"Won't it be great?" Nann smiled provokingly. "You ought to be glad, for +surely the spook that carries the lantern down on the point will be blown +away." Then, chancing to recall something, she asked, "But you haven't +told me your plan yet. How are you going to bell the ghost?" + +"My plan is to hang a little bell on the knob after we have locked our +door. Then, of course, if we have a midnight visitor, he won't be able to +enter without ringing the bell," Dories explained. + +"Poor Aunt Jane, if it does ring," Nann remarked. "How frightened she +will be." + +Dories drew her knees up and folded her arms about them. "Well, I do +believe that we would be most scared of all," she said. + +"Then why do it?" This merrily from Nann. "And, what's more, if it is a +ghost, it will be able to slip into our room without awakening us. +Whoever heard of a ghost having to stop to unlock a door?" + +"Maybe not," Dories agreed, "but if we are going to have any real +enjoyment during our stay in this cabin, we must frighten away the ghost +that seems to haunt it. I think my plan is an excellent one and, at +least, I'd like to try it." + +"Very well, maiden fair." Nann rose as she spoke. "On your head be the +result. Now, shall we ascend to our chamber?" + +Taking the lantern, she led the way, and Dories followed, carrying a +small bell. When the loft room was reached the lantern was placed on a +table. Nann carefully locked the door and, removing the key, she placed +it by the lamp. + +Then she held the small bell while Dories tied it to the knob. This done, +they hastily undressed and hopped into bed. + +"Let's leave the light burning all night so that we may watch the bell," +the more timid maiden suggested. + +How her companion laughed. "Why watch it?" she inquired. "We surely will +be able to hear it in the dark if it rings. There is very little oil left +in the lantern, so we'd better put the light out now, and then, if along +about midnight we hear the bell ringing, we can relight it and see who +our visitor may be." + +"Nann Sibbett, I'm almost inclined to think that you write those messages +yourself, just to tease me, for you don't seem to be the least bit +afraid." This accusingly. + +"Honest, Injun, I don't write them!" Nann said with sudden seriousness. +"I haven't the slightest idea where the messages come from, but I do know +that whoever leaves them does not mean harm to us, so why be afraid? Now +cuddle down, for I'm going to blow out the light." + +Dories ducked under the quilt and, a moment later, when she ventured to +peer out, she found the room in complete darkness, for, as usual, a heavy +fog shut out the light of the stars. + +"How long do you suppose it will be before the bell rings?" she +whispered. + +"Well, I'm not going to stay awake to listen," Nann replied, but she had +not slept long when she was suddenly awakened by her companion, who was +clutching her arm. "Did you hear that noise? What was it? Didn't it sound +like a faint tinkle?" + +The two girls sat up in bed and stared at the door. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + A PUNT RIDE + + +The faint tinkle sounded again. Nann sprang up and lighted the lantern. +To her amazement the bell was gone. Surprised as she was, she had +sufficient presence of mind not to tell her timid companion what had +happened. Very softly she turned the knob. The door was still locked. She +glanced at the window; the blind was still hooked. Then, blowing out the +light, she said in a tone meant to express unconcern, "All is serene on +the Potomac as far as I can see." After returning to bed, however, Nann +remained awake, long after her companion's even breathing told that she +was asleep, wondering what it could all mean. Toward morning Nann fell +into a light slumber, from which she was awakened by the sun streaming +into the room. Sitting up, she saw that Dories was dressed and had opened +the blinds. For a moment she sat in a dazed puzzling. What was it that +she had been pondering about in the night? Remembering suddenly, she +glanced quickly at the door. There hung the little bell as quietly as +though it had never disappeared. Dories, hearing a movement, turned from +the window where she had been gazing out at the sparkling sea. + +"Good morning to you, Nancy dear," she said gaily. "O, such a lovely day +this is! How I hope that I may go sailing with you and Gib." Then, as she +saw her friend continuing to stare at the bell as though fascinated, +Dories remarked, "Well, I guess the ghost took warning all right and +stayed away. We won't find a little paper in our room this morning, I'll +wager." As she talked, she was crossing the room to the door. Lifting the +little bell, she dropped it again with a clang. + +Nann sprang out of bed, all excited interest. "Dories, what happened? Why +did you drop the bell?" + +Dories pointed to the floor where it lay. Nann bent to pick it up. Tied +to the clapper was a bit of paper and on it was written in the familiar +penmanship and with the same red ink, "In eleven days you will know all." + +Instead of acting frightened, Dories' look was one of triumph. "There +now, Mistress Nann," she exclaimed, "you are always saying that it is not +a being supernatural that is leaving these notes. What have you to say +about it this morning?" + +"That I am truly puzzled," was the confession Nann was forced to make; +"that the joker is much too clever for us, but we'll catch him yet, if +I'm a prophet." She was dressing as she talked. + +Dories, standing near the window, was examining the paper. "It seems to +be the sort that packages are wrapped in," she speculated. Then, after a +silent moment and a closer scrutiny, "Nann, do you suppose that it is +written with blood?" + +"Good gracious, no!" the denial was emphatic. "Why do you ask such an +absurd question?" + +"Well, that was what the red ink was made of in one of the ghost stories +that I read to Aunt Jane yesterday morning." + +Nann, having completed her toilet, went to the window to look out. +"Good!" she exclaimed. "There is Gibralter Strait in his little punt +boat. He seems to have plenty of time to go sailing. Oh, I remember now. +He did tell me that their country school does not open until after +Christmas. So many boys are needed to help their fathers on the farms and +with the cranberries until snow falls." + +"I suppose I ought to stay at home again this morning and read to Aunt +Jane." Dories' voice sounded so doleful that her friend whirled about, +and, putting loving arms about her, she exclaimed: "Not a bit of it! You +may sail with Gibralter this morning and I will stay here and read to +your Great-Aunt Jane." + +But when the two girls visited the room of the elderly woman, she told +them that she wished to be left quite alone. + +Dories went to the bedside and, almost timidly, she touched the wrinkled +head. "Don't you feel well today, Aunt Jane!" she asked, feeling in her +heart a sudden pity for the old woman. "Isn't there something I could do +for you?" + +For one fleeting moment there was that strange expression in the dark, +deeply-sunken eyes. It might have been a hungry yearning for love and +affection. Impulsively the girl kissed the sallow cheek, but the elderly +woman had closed her eyes and she did not open them again, and so Nann +and Dories tiptoed out to the kitchen. + +"Poor Aunt Jane!" the latter began. "She hasn't had much love in her +life. I don't remember just how it was. She was engaged to marry somebody +once. Then something happened and she didn't. After that, Mother says she +just shut herself up in that fine home of hers outside of Boston and +grieved." + +"Poor Aunt Jane, indeed!" Nann commented as she began to prepare the +breakfast. "She must be haunted by many of the ghosts that your mother +told about, memories of loving deeds that she might have done. With her +money and her home, she could have made many people happy, but instead +she has spent her life just being sorry for herself." Then more brightly, +"I'm glad we can both go sailing with Gib." + +Half an hour later, the girls in their bright colored sweater-coats and +tams raced across the beach. The red-headed boy was on the watch for them +and he soon had the punt alongside the broad rock which served as a dock. +"Do you want passengers this morning?" Nann called gaily. + +"Sure sartin!" was the prompt reply. Then, when the two girls were seated +on the broad seat in the stem the lad hauled in the sheet and away they +went scudding. "Where are you going, Gib?" Nann inquired curiously. + +"We'll cruise 'long the water side o' the ol' ruin," he told them. "Pa +says he's sure sartin he saw a light burnin' thar agin late las' night, +an' like's not, we'll see suthin'." + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + A GLOOMY SWAMP + + +The girls were as eager as the boy to view the old ruin from the water, +and the breeze being brisk, they were quickly blown down the coast and +into the quiet sheltered water beyond the point. "O, Gib," Dories cried +fearfully, "do be careful! There are logs under the water along here that +come nearly to the top. Is it a wreck?" + +"No, 'taint. It's all that's left of the long dock I was tellin' yo' +about whar the Phantom Yacht used to tie up. Pa said ol' Colonel Wadbury +had lights clear to the end of it and that, when 'twas lit up, 'twas a +purty sight." + +"It must have been," Nann agreed. Then Dories inquired: "Doesn't it make +you feel strange to realize that you are on the very spot where the +Phantom Yacht once sailed?" + +"And where some day it may sail again," Nann completed. + +The high rocky point cut off the wind and so Gib let the sail flap as +they slowly drifted toward the swamp. + +"Thar's all that's left of that sea wall I was tellin' about," the boy +nodded at huge rocks half sunken in mire. + +"The reeds are higher than our heads," Dories commented; then she asked, +"Is there a path through the marsh, do you think, Gib?" + +"No, I'm _sure_ thar ain't one," the boy declared. "Me'n Dick Burton +would have found it if thar had been. We've looked times enough from the +land side. We never could get here by water, bein' as we didn't have a +boat. That's why I've been savin' to get a punt. Dick, he put in some +toward it, an' so its half his'n." + +"Who is Dick Burton?" Nann inquired. + +"Didn't I tell you?" Gib seemed surprised. "Sort o' thought o' course you +knew 'bout the Burtons. Dick's folks own the cabin that's nearest the +rocks. He's a city feller 'bout my age, or a leetle older, I reckon. He's +been comin' to these parts ever since we was shavers. You'd ought to know +him," this to Nann, "he lives in Boston, whar you come from." + +The girl addressed laughed good-naturedly. "Gib," she queried, "have you +ever been up to Boston?" + +The boy reluctantly confessed that he had not. Then the girl explained +that since it was much larger than Siquaw Center, two people might live +there forever and not become acquainted. + +"Yeah." Gib had evidently not been listening to the last part of Nann's +remark. "I do wish Dick was here now that we've got the punt," he said. +"I sure sartin wish he was." + +"Why?" Dories inquired as she let one hand drift in the cool water. + +"Wall, me'n he allays thought maybe thar was a channel through the swamp +up toward the old ruin. If he was here we'd set out to find it." + +"But why can't Dori and I help you as much as he could?" Nann queried. "I +believe you are right, Gib," she continued before the boy had time to +reply. "I've seen swamps before, and there was always a narrow channel +through them where the tide washed when it was high. See ahead there, +where the swamp comes down to the water's edge, I wish you'd take the +sail down, Gib, and row as close to it as you can." + +The boy looked his amazement. + +"But, I say, Miss Nann, like's not we'd hit a snag, like's not we would." + +"Who's skeered now?" the girl taunted. The boy flushed. "Not me!" he +protested, and taking down the sail he rowed along the water side of the +dense reedy growths. "Yo' see thar's nothin'," he began when Nann, +leaning forward, pointed as she cried excitedly, "There it is! There's an +opening in the swamp leading right up to that haunted house." + +Nann was right. A narrow channel of clear water appeared among the reeds +that were higher than their heads. It led toward the middle of the marsh +and was wide enough for a larger boat than theirs to pass through. + +"Now, the next question is, do we dare go in?" Nann was gleeful over her +find and how she wished that Gib's friend, Dick Burton, were there to +share with them that exciting moment. + +"Well, that question is easy to answer," Dories hastened to say. "We most +certainly do not dare." + +The boy, having removed his nondescript cap, was scratching his ear in a +way that he always did when puzzled. Then there was a sudden eager light +in his red-brown eyes. Replacing his hat, he seized the oars and began to +row rapidly back up the shore and toward the row of eight cottages. + +Nann was puzzled and voiced her curiosity. "Got to get back to Siquaw in +time for the ten-ten train," was all the information she received. + +Since he had said nothing of this when they started out, and had seemed +to be in no hurry whatever, Nann naturally wondered about it. + +Some light might have been thrown on his action had she seen him, one +hour later, as he sat on the high stool at his father's desk in the +general store. He was painstakingly writing, and, when the ten-ten train +arrived, Gibralter Strait was on the platform waiting to send to the +nearby city of Boston the very first letter that he had ever written. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + OUT IN THE DARK + + +All the next day the girls waited and watched, but Gibralter Strait +appeared neither on land nor on sea to explain his queer actions. Their +hostess asked Dories to read to her and so the morning was passed in that +way. Nann, busy at a piece of fancy work she was making for a Christmas +present, sat listening. In the afternoon the girls were told to amuse +themselves. This they did by climbing to the "tip-top rock," sitting +there in the balmy sun and speculating about the old ruin; about the +reason for Gib's sudden departure for his home the day before, and about +the boy and girl who had sailed away on the Phantom Yacht. It was not +until a fog, filmy at first, but rapidly increasing in density, began to +hide the sun that they thought of returning homewards. As they passed the +cabin nearest the rocks, Dories said, "This is the Burton cottage, I +suppose. I wonder if Dick is our kind of boy?" + +"Meaning what?" Nann wondered. + +"O, you know as well as I do. I like Gib, of course. He's a splendid boy, +but he hasn't had a chance. I merely meant a boy from families like our +own." + +"I rather think so," Nann replied, as she gazed at the boarded-up cabin. +Then suddenly she stopped and stared at one of the upper windows. The +blind had opened ever so slightly and then had closed again, but of this +Nann said nothing. She was afraid that she was becoming almost as +imaginative as Dories. Then suddenly she recalled something. Gib had said +that his father had seen a light in the old ruin the night before. And +what was more, she and Dories _knew_ there had been someone carrying a +lantern on the beach near the rocks at least twice since they had been +there. What if the lantern-carrier hid in the Burton cottage during the +day? He couldn't live in the old ruin, since it had only one wall +standing. + +Luckily, Dories had been interested in watching the waves breaking at her +feet. Turning, she called, "O, but it's getting cold and damp. Let's run +the rest of the way." + +When they reached their home cabin, Nann went at once to inquire if Miss +Moore wished her supper. The girl was sure that she heard a scurrying +noise in the old woman's room. The door was closed and there was silence +for a brief moment before she was told to enter. Puzzled, Nann glanced +quickly at the bed and noted that the old woman's cap was awry. She also +saw something else that puzzled her, but she merely said, "What would you +like tonight with your tea, Miss Moore?" + +"Nothing at all but toast, and tell Dories to be sure it doesn't burn. I +don't relish it when it has been scraped." The tone in which this was +said was impatient and fretful. It was evident that the old woman was not +in as pleasant a mood as she had seemed to be in the morning. + +Returning to the kitchen, where the kettle was already boiling, Nann made +the tea and toasted the bread as well as she could over the blaze; then +Dories arranged her aunt's tray attractively and took it in to her. While +she was gone, Nann stood staring out of the window at the gathering dusk. +She believed she had a clue to one of the mysteries surrounding them, but +decided not to tell her friend until she was a little more certain about +it herself. + +When Dories returned to the kitchen she said, "Day-dreaming, Nann?" + +"No, dusk-dreaming," was the smiling reply; then, "Now let's get our +evening repast. What shall it be?" + +Together they looked in the closet, each selecting a canned vegetable and +something for desert. "This is a lazy way to live," Nann began, when +Dories exclaimed: "Do you realize that we haven't had one of those notes +today? I believe my bell scared away the ghost after all." + +Nann laughed merrily. "Nary a bit of it, my friend. Didn't his spooky +highness tie his last note to the bell clapper? I suppose that is why we +didn't hear it tinkle again." + +"But we haven't found a note today--O dear!" Dories broke off to exclaim: +"The fire must be going out, Nann," she called; "you're the magician when +it comes to stirring up a blaze. What do you suppose is the matter?" + +A quick glance within brought the amused answer: "Wood needed, my dear, +that's all! Which reminds me of Dad's wondering why the car won't go when +it's out of gas." As she spoke she turned toward the wood box and found +it empty. "Hmm!" she ejaculated, "that means one of us will have to hie +out to the shed after more wood if we want a hot supper." + +Dories, after a swift glance at the black fog-hung window, suggested, +"Let's change our menu and have a cold spread." + +"Nixy, my dear," Nann said brightly. "I'll be wood-carrier. I'll sally +forth with a lighted lantern, like that mysterious midnight prowler. I +won't be able to bring in much wood, but I believe a piece or two will +provide all the heat we'll need to warm up canned things." She was +lighting the lantern as she talked. The lamp was burning on the kitchen +table, and, while her friend was gone, Dories laid out the dishes and +silver. + +Nann, having reached the shed, groped about for the leather thong. To her +surprise the door was not fastened, and, as she stood peering into the +dense blackness, she was sure that she heard a scrambling noise inside. +Then all was still. Nann scratched one of the matches that she had +brought with her. In the far corner stood an empty barrel and in front of +it was piled the wood that she and Dories had gathered on the beach. Not +another thing was to be seen, and although she stood listening intently +for several seconds, not another sound was heard. + +"A rat probably," the girl thought as she placed her lantern on the floor +and picked up several pieces of wood. + +Returning to the kitchen, Nann threw her armful of wood into the box near +the stove, when Dories suddenly leaped forward, exclaiming excitedly, +"There it is. There's the note we have been wondering about." + +"Why--why, so it is!" Nann stared as though she could hardly believe her +eyes. Then, springing up, she cried joyfully: "Dories Moore, we've caught +the ghost. He was leaving this paper when I went out. He must still be in +the woodshed somewhere, for I bolted the door on the outside. He must +have been hiding in that old empty barrel when I looked in. Light the +lantern again and let's go out this minute and see who is there." + +Although Dories was not enthusiastic over the prospect of capturing a +ghost in a woodshed on so dark a fog-damp night, yet, since her companion +was ready to start, she couldn't refuse to accompany her, and so, after +closing the kitchen door, they stole along the path leading from the +porch to the shed that was nearer the swamp. Suddenly Dories clutched her +friend's arm, whispering, "Hark. What's that?" + +"It's the ghost. He's still in there." This triumphantly from Nann, the +fearless. "That's the same scrambling noise that I heard before. Come on. +Don't be afraid. I'll throw open the door and at least we'll see who it +is." + +Leaping forward, Nann unbolted the door and held up the lantern. The shed +was as empty as it had been before, and there was nothing at all in the +barrel. + +Dories' sigh was one of relief, and she fairly darted back to the warm +kitchen, nor did she breathe naturally until the outer door was bolted. +Then Nann inquired, "What did the note say. We forgot to read it?" +Stooping, she took it from under a splinter of wood and, opening it, +read: "In ten days you will know all." + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + MORE MYSTERIES + + +Long after Dories slept that night Nann lay awake thinking of the several +mysteries surrounding them. Who was leaving the notes in places where the +girls could not help finding them; who was carrying a lantern on the +rocky point at night; was it the same light that was seen in the old ruin +by people living in Siquaw Center, and why had the blind in the Burton +cottage opened ever so little and then closed again as though someone had +peered out at them for a brief moment? It was indeed puzzling. Could it +possibly have anything to do with the Phantom Yacht? Nann decided that +was impossible. At last she fell asleep. When she awakened it was nearly +dawn. The fog had drifted away, the stars shone out and the full moon +made it as light as day. + +Nann, the fearless, decided to dress and go out on the sand and look at +the Burton cottage. She was nearly dressed before she realized that if +Dories woke and found her gone, she might scream out in her fright and +waken the old woman, and so she shook her gently, whispering her plan. +Dories' eyes showed her terror at being left alone. She got up at once. +"I simply will not stay in this haunted loft," she declared vehemently. +"I'm going with you." As it was still dark they took the lighted lantern +with them, but when they reached the back porch, Nann whispered that they +would have to put out the light as they would be seen if, indeed, there +was anyone to see them. "We'll take it, though. I have matches in my +pocket. We'll light it if we need it." + +Dories clung to her friend's hand as Nann led the way back of the row of +boarded-up cottages. When they reached the seventh, Dories suddenly drew +back and whispered, "Nann, why are we doing this? What are you expecting +to see? I'm simply scared to death." Her companion realized that this was +true, since Dories' teeth were chattering. Self-rebukingly, she said, "O, +I ought not have brought you. In fact, I probably shouldn't have come +myself, but I am so eager to solve at least one of the mysteries that +surround us." Then she told how she had been sure that she had seen a +blind open ever so slightly and close late the afternoon before as though +someone had been watching them. "I thought if someone goes every night to +the old ruin and returns to the Burton cottage to hide during the day, he +probably comes just about this hour, and that if we were watching, we +might at least see what the--the--well--whoever it is--looks like." They +had crouched down in the shadow of the seventh cottage as Nann made this +explanation. + +Slowly the darkness lightened, the stars and moon dimmed and the east +became gray; then rosy, but still there had been no sign of anyone +entering the Burton cabin. Nann had been sure that an entrance could not +be made in the front of the cottage as the lower windows and door on that +side were securely boarded up. The back door was not boarded, and so that +was where she was watching. + +An hour dragged slowly by. The sun rose and was well on its apparent +upward way, and still no one appeared. + +"Don't you think that maybe you imagined it all?" Dories inquired at +length as she tried to change her position, having become stiffened from +crouching so long. + +"Why, no, I am sure that I didn't." Then, fearless as usual, Nann +announced, "I'm going up to the back porch and try the door." + +This she did, and to her surprise it opened, creaking noisily as it swung +on rusty hinges. + +Dories leaped to her side. "Gracious, Nann, are you going in?" she +whispered tragically. "If anyone is in there, he might lock us in or +something." + +Nann turned to reply, but instead she exclaimed: "Why, Dories Moore, +you're whiter than any sheet I ever saw. If you're that scared, we'd +better go right home." + +"I am!" Dories nodded miserably. "I wouldn't any more dare go into this +cottage than--than----" + +"Then we won't." Nann took her friend by the hand and together they went +down the back steps, and Dories said: "I'd rather go home by the front +beach if you don't mind. It's more open. There's something so uncanny +about the swamps at the back." + +"Anything to please," was the laughing reply. As they rounded the +cottage, Nann looked curiously at the upper windows, and was sure that +she saw the same blind open ever so little, then close again. She said +nothing of this, and tried to change the trend of her companion's +thoughts by talking about Gibralter Strait and wondering if they would +see him during that day which had just dawned. Nann was deciding that she +would take Gib into her confidence. A boy as fearless as he was would not +mind entering the Burton cottage and finding out why that upper blind had +opened and closed as it seemed to do. + +As they neared their home cabin, Dories became more like her natural self +and even skipped along the hard beach, laughing back at Nann as she +called, "Another glorious, sparkling day! I hope something interesting is +going to happen." + +"I believe something will," Nann replied. They were nearing the front +steps when Dories stood still, pointing, "Look at that stone lying in the +middle of the top step. How do you suppose it ever got there?" + +Nann shook her head and, leaping up the steps, she lifted the small rock, +then turned back, exclaiming: "Just what I thought! Here is today's note +from your ghost. It's much too clever for us." Then she read: "In nine +days you shall know all." + +Not wishing to awaken Miss Moore at so early an hour, the girls tiptoed +down the steps and went around to the back of the cabin. + +"Let's look in the woodshed by daylight," Nann suggested as she unbolted +the door. "Nothing within, just as I supposed," she remarked. "Humm-ho. +We're not very good detectives, I guess." + +They started walking toward the kitchen. "But why try to find out what +the mysteries are about if every day brings us one nearer to the time +when we are to know all?" Dories inquired. + +Nann laughed. "O, I'd heaps rather ferret the thing out for myself than +be told." Then she said more seriously: "Honestly, Dori, I don't think +the notes refer to the mystery of the old ruin at all. I think, if that +is ever solved, we'll have to find it out for ourselves." + +"Why do you think that?" + +"I'd rather not tell quite yet." They entered the kitchen. "Now," Nann +said, "I'm going to make a fire and get breakfast. We've been up so long +that I'm ravenously hungry. I'm going to make flapjacks no less." + +"Good!" Dories replied. "I won't refuse to eat them." Although consumed +with curiosity concerning what her friend had said, Dories decided to +bide her time before asking Nann to explain. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + AN AIRPLANE SIGHTED + + +Miss Moore did not awaken, apparently, until midmorning and the girls did +not want to go away until they had served her breakfast. They had been to +her door several times and to all appearances the elderly woman had been +asleep. When, at length, Miss Moore did awaken, she complained of having +been disturbed by noises in the night. "Why did you girls tiptoe around +the living-room just before daybreak?" + +"Why, we didn't, Aunt Jane! Truly we didn't," Dories replied. She did not +like to tell that it would have been a physical impossibility for them to +have done so, as they were crouched behind "cabin seven" at that hour +watching "cabin eight." + +The old woman looked at the speaker sharply, then continued: "I called +your name and for a time the tiptoeing stopped. Then, when I pretended to +be asleep, it began again. I was sure that under the crack of the door I +could see a fire burning as though you had lighted wood on the grate." + +"Oh, no, Miss Moore, we didn't, I assure you," Nann exclaimed. "There +wasn't any wood on it. We swept it clean yesterday afternoon." A cry from +Dories caused the speaker to pause and turn toward her. She was pointing +at the fireplace. There was a small charred pile in the center of the +grate. The old woman's thoughts had evidently changed their direction for +she asked, querulously, if they were going to keep her waiting all the +morning for her breakfast. + +While out in the kitchen preparing it, Dories whispered, her eyes wide, +"Nann, _what_ do you make of it all? You are smiling to yourself as if +you had solved the mystery." + +"I believe I have, one of them; but, Dori, please don't ask me to explain +until I catch the ghost red-handed, so to speak." + +"White-handed, shouldn't it be?" Dories inquired, her fears lessened by +Nann's evident delight in something she believed she had discovered. + +When Miss Moore's breakfast had been served, the girls, wishing to tidy +up the cabin, set to work with a will. Nann was sweeping the porch and +Dories was dusting and straightening the living-room when a queer humming +noise was heard in the distance. "Dori," Nann called, "come out here a +moment. Can't you hear a strange buzzing noise? It sounds as though it +were high up in the air. What can it be?" + +The other girl appeared in the open doorway and they both listened +intently. + +"Maybe it's a flock of geese going south for the winter," Dories +ventured, but her friend shook her head. "That noise is coming nearer. +Not going farther away," she said. The buzzing and whizzing sounds +increased with great rapidity. Springing down the steps, Nann exclaimed, +"Whatever is making that commotion, is now right over our heads." + +Dories bounded to her friend's side and they both gazed into the gleaming +blue sky with shaded eyes. + +"There it is!" Nann cried excitedly. "Why, of course, it's an airplane! +We should have guessed that right away. I wonder where it is going to +land. There's nothing but marsh and water around here besides this narrow +strip of beach." + +"Oh, look! look!" This from Dories. "It's dropping right down into the +ocean and so it must be one of those combination air and sea planes." + +"Unless it has broken a wing and is falling," Nann suggested. The +airplane, nose downward, had seemed verily to plunge into the sea. + +"Let's run to the Point o' Rocks." Dories started as she spoke and Nann, +throwing down the broom, raced after her. It was hard to go very rapidly +where the sand was deep and dry, and so by the time they had climbed up +on the highest boulder out on the rocky point, there was no sign whatever +of the airplane either sailing safely on the water nor lying on the shore +disabled. + +"Hmm! That certainly is puzzling," Nann said as she half closed her eyes +in meditative thought. "Now, where can that huge thing have gone that it +has disappeared so entirely?" + +"I can't imagine," Dories replied. "If only Gibralter were here with his +punt, we might be able to find out." Then she exclaimed merrily, "Nann, +there is another mystery added to the twenty and nine that we already +have." + +"Not quite that many," the other maid replied, giving one last long look +in the direction they believed the plane had descended or fallen. "I'm +inclined to think," she ventured, "that there is a bay or something +beyond the swamp. O, well, let's go back to our task. It's lunch time, if +nothing else." + +They decided, as the day was unusually warm for that time of the year, to +eat a cold lunch, and, as their aunt did not wish anything then, the +girls decided to walk along the beach in the opposite direction and see +if they could find the cove where Gib kept his punt in hiding. But, just +as they reached the spot where the road from town ended at the beach, +they heard a merry hallooing, and, turning, they beheld Gibralter Strait +riding the white horse that was usually hitched to the coach. + +"Oh, good, good!" was Dories' delighted exclamation. "Now perhaps we will +find out about the plane. Of course the people in town saw it and Gib may +know----" She stopped talking to stare at the approaching steed and rider +in wide-eyed amazement. "How queer!" she ejaculated. "Nann, am I seeing +double? I'm sure that I see four legs and Gib certainly has only two." + +There were undeniably four long, slim legs, two on either side of the big +white horse, but the mystery was quickly explained by the appearance, +over Gib's shoulder, of a head belonging to another boy. + +"Nann Sibbett!" Dories whirled, the light of inspiration in her eyes, "I +do believe that other boy is Dick Burton, of whom Gib has so often +spoken." + +And Dories was right. Gib waved his cap, then leaped to the sand, closely +followed by the newcomer. One glance at the young stranger assured the +girls that he was a city lad. His merry brown eyes twinkled when +Gibralter introduced him merely as the "kid that was crazy to find a way +into the old ruin." + +The city boy took off his cap in a manner most polite, adding, "By name, +Richard Ralston Burton, but I'm usually called Dick." + +Nann, realizing that Gib hadn't the remotest idea how to introduce his +friend to them, then told the lad their names, adding, "Oh, Gib, you just +can't guess how glad we are that you have come at last. The mysteries are +heaping up so high and fast that we simply must solve a few of them." + +But it was quite evident that the boys were equally excited about the +airplane, which they, too, had seen as they were riding on the white +horse along the road in the swamps. "I say," Gib began at once, "did +yo'uns see where that airplane fellow dove to? D'you 'spose he's smashed +all to smithereens on the rocks over yonder?" + +The girls shook their heads. "No," Dories replied, "we just came from +there and there wasn't a sign of that airplane. We thought that at least +we would see the wreck of it." + +"It must o' landed round the curve whar the swamp comes down to the +shore," Gib said. + +"Come on, old man, let's investigate." Then Dick smiled directly at Nann +as he added, "We won't be gone long." + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + TWO BOYS INVESTIGATE + + +Turning, the two girls, with arms locked, walked slowly back toward their +home cabin, but their gaze was following the rapidly disappearing boys. + +"My, how they did scramble over the rocks. I wonder why they went over +the top. I'm sure one can see better from up there," Dories turned to her +friend to exclaim with enthusiasm. "Isn't Dick Burton the nicest boy? I'm +ever so glad he came. He'll add a lot to our good times." + +Nann nodded. "One can tell in a moment that Dick has been well brought +up," she commented. "Isn't it too bad that Gib isn't going to have a +chance to make something of himself? I believe he would be a writer if he +had an education. You know how imaginative he is and how he enjoyed +telling us the story of the Phantom Yacht." + +The girls sauntered along to the point of rocks and stood watching the +waves break over the boulders that projected into the water. + +"Isn't it queer how calm it is sometimes and how rough at others, and yet +there isn't a bit of wind blowing, and it's as warm and balmy one time as +another," Dories said, then leaped back with a merry laugh as an +unusually large breaker pursued her up the beach. + +"I think it may be the stage of the tides," Nann speculated, "or else +there may have been a storm at sea. O good! Here come the boys." + +Dick's expressive face told the girls of his disappointment before he +spoke. "Didn't see a thing unusual," he said. "Of course we couldn't go +far because of the marsh." + +"It sure is too bad the surf's crashin' in the way 'tis today," Gibralter +told them. "Here's Dick, come all the way from Boston to stay till Sunday +night, jest so's we could go up that little creek in the marsh. He's wild +to get into the ol' ruin, aren't you, Dick?" + +"Yep," the other boy agreed, "but if we can't make it this week end, I'll +come down next." Then with sudden interest, "How long are you girls going +to be here on Siquaw Point?" + +Although Dick asked the question of Nann, it was Dories who replied. +"Aunt Jane said this morning that she thinks we will be leaving in about +ten days now. You see," by way of explanation, "my elderly aunt came down +here for absolute rest, and now that she is rested, we may go back to +town sooner than we expected." + +The four young people had seated themselves on the rocks. + +Nann put in with: "I, for one, don't want to leave this place until we +have cleared up a few of the mysteries." Then, chancing to thrust her +hand in the pocket of her sweater-coat, she drew out a half dozen slips +of crumpled yellow paper. "Oh, Gib," she exclaimed, "where in the world +do you suppose these came from? We find them in the queerest places. We +can't understand in the least who is leaving them." + +Gibralter's face was a blank. "What's that writin' on 'em?" He picked one +up as he spoke and scrutinized it closely. + +"In nine days you shall know all," Dick read as he looked over his +friend's shoulder. + +"Know all o' what?" Gib queried. + +The boys looked from Dories to Nann. The girls shook their heads. "We +thought maybe you could help clear up some of the mysteries," the latter +said. "Have you ever heard of any queer person hanging around this beach? +A hermit or a--a----" + +Gib leaned forward, his red-brown eyes gleaming. "D'y mean, mabbe, the +lantern person that yo' uns saw one night on the rocks?" + +Nann nodded. "We thought it might be someone who visited the ruin by +night and--" the speaker glanced at the visiting boy, then interrupted +herself to inquire, "Dick, do you remember whether your people left your +cabin locked or not?" + +The lad addressed turned and looked at the cottage nearest for a moment +as though trying to recall something. Then a lightening in his eyes +proved that he had succeeded. Springing to his feet, he exclaimed, "I +declare if I hadn't forgotten it. I'm glad you spoke, Miss Nann. Mother +said that in the hurry of getting away she wasn't sure whether or not she +had locked the back door. She always hides the key under the back porch, +so that if any one of us comes down out of season, he can get in." Then, +when the others had also risen, Dick suggested, "Let's walk around that +way and see what we will see." + +Dories glanced quickly at Nann and saw that her friend was gazing +steadily at an upper window. She surmised that Nann was trying to decide +whether or not to tell the boys that she had seen the blind moving, for, +after all, how could she be sure but that it had been her imagination. +The watcher saw Nann's expression change to one of suppressed excitement, +then she whirled with her back to the cottage and said in a low voice, +"Everybody turn and look at the ocean. I want to tell you something." + +Puzzled indeed, the boys and Dories faced about as Nann had done, and, to +help her friend, the other maid pointed out toward the island. "What's +this all about?" Dick inquired. "Miss Nann, you look as though you had +seen something startling. What is it?" + +Very quietly Nann explained how for the third time she had seen an upper +blind open ever so little as though someone was peering out at them, and +then close again. + +"You think someone is hiding in our cottage?" Dick asked in amazement. +Nann nodded. "Well then, we'll soon find out." The city boy's tone did +not suggest hesitancy or fear. "You girls would better go over to your +own cabin and wait until we join you." + +It was quite evident that Nann did not like this suggestion, but Dories +did, and said so frankly. "I'll run home anyway," she said when she saw +how disappointed Nann was. "Probably Aunt Jane would like me to read to +her." + +And so it was that Nann accompanied the two boys around to the back of +the Burton cottage. As before, the door creaked open, and very stealthily +they entered the dark kitchen. This being the largest cottage in the row, +the stairway was boarded off from a narrow hall; there being a door at +the foot and another at the top. The one at the bottom was unlocked, and +so the three investigators began the ascent, groping their way in the +dark. "Wish't we had along some matches," Gib began, when Nann whispered, +"I do believe that I have some. I took a dozen with us this morning. Yes, +here they are in my watch pocket." Dick, in the lead, took the matches, +and as he opened the upper door, he scratched one. It very faintly +illumined a long hall with a boarded-up window at the end. + +There were four closed doors along the hall. The one at the right front +would lead into the room where a window blind had moved. Nann almost held +her breath as Dick, after scratching another match, tried the door. It +did not open. "Mabbe it's jest stuck," Gib suggested. "Let's all push." +This they did and the door burst open so suddenly that they plunged +headlong into the room and the flicker of the match went out. How musty +and dark it was! Quickly another match was lighted; but there seemed to +be no occupant other than themselves. The closet door, standing open, +revealed merely row after row of hooks and shelves. There was no +furniture in the room of a concealing nature. Nann went at once to the +blind and found that it was swinging slightly. "Well," she had to +acknowledge, "I believe after all I was wrong in my surmise. Let's get +back. Dories will be worried about me." + +Dick, before leaving the room, hooked the blind carefully on the inside, +and, after closing the window, he remarked, "It's queer Mother should +have left a window open as well as the back door. But I remember now. She +said that they were afraid of losing the train. Something had delayed +them. I had gone on ahead to start school." + +When they were again safely out in the sunshine, Nann inquired, "I wonder +where your mother left the key. It isn't in the door." + +Before replying Dick went to one corner beneath the porch, removed a +lattice door which could not have been discovered by anyone not knowing +about it, reached his hand around to one of the uprights where, on a +nail, he found the key hanging. He held it up triumphantly. Then, after +locking the kitchen door, he replaced the key and the lattice, exclaiming +as he did so, "I believe I understand now what happened. In the hurry, +Mother put the key in the right place without having locked the door, so +that's that." But Nann was not entirely convinced. + +The late afternoon fog was drifting in when the three started to walk +along the beach. They saw Dories running to meet them. "Well, thanks be +you're all alive," was her relieved exclamation. + +Nann laughed. "Did you think a cannibal was hiding in the Burton +cottage?" Then she added, pretending to be disappointed, "I had at least +hoped to find a ghost or a----" + +"Look! Look!" Gib cried excitedly, pointing beyond the rocks. + +"What? Where?" the girls scrambled to the top step of cabin three, which +they happened to be passing, that they might have a better view of +whatever had aroused Gib's interest. + +"Is it the Phantom Yacht?" Nann asked, almost hoping that it was. + +"No, 'tisn't that, I'm sure, because it isn't white." Gib continued to +stare into the gathering dusk. "It's some queer kind of craft, as best I +can make out, and it's scooting away from the shore at a pretty speedy +rate and heading right for the island." For a moment the young people +fairly held their breath as they watched. + +Dick was the first to break in with, "Gee-whiliker! I know what it is! +Stupid that I didn't get on to it from the very first." + +"Why, Dick, what do you think it is?" Dories inquired. + +"I don't think; I know! It's that seaplane! Look! There she soars. See +her take the air! Now the pilot's turning her nose, and heading straight +for Boston." + +"Whoever 'tis in that airplane is takin' a purty big chance," Gibralter +commented, "startin' up with night a comin' on and fog a sailin' in." + +Dick was optimistic. "He'll keep ahead of the fog all right, and those +high-powered machines travel so fast he'll be at the landing place, +outside of Boston, before it's really dark. He's safe enough, but the big +question is, who is he, and what was he doing over there close to the old +ruin?" + +"Maybe he knows about that opening in the swamp," Nann ventured. + +"I bet ye he does! Like's not he has a little boat and goes up to the ol' +ruin in it." + +"But where do you suppose his airship was anchored?" Dories inquired. +"Probably in the cove beyond the marsh," Dick replied, when Gib broke in +with, "Gee, I sure sartin wish we'd taken a chance and gone out in the +punt. I sure do. I'd o' gone, but Dick, he was afraid!" + +The city lad flushed, but he said at once, "You are wrong, Gib, but I +promised my mother that I would only go out in your punt when the tide +was low, and when I give my word, she knows that she can depend upon it." + +"You are right, Dick. It is worth more to have your mother able to trust +you, when you are out of her sight, than it is to solve all the mysteries +that ever were or will be." Nann's voice expressed her approval of the +city lad. Gib's only comment was, "Wall, how kin we go at low tide? It +comes 'long 'bout midnight!" + +"What if it does? We can--" Dick had started to say, but interrupted +himself to add, "'Twouldn't be fair to go without the girls since they +found the opening in the swamp. It will be low tide again tomorrow noon, +and I vote we wait until then." + +"O, Dick, that's ever so nice of you! We girls are wild to go." Nann +fairly beamed at him. + +"Wall, so long. We'll see you 'bout noon tomorrow." This from Gib. Dick +waved his cap and smiled back over his shoulder. + +"I can hardly wait," Nann said, as the two girls went into the cabin. "I +feel in my bones that we're going to find clues that will solve all of +the mysteries soon." + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + ONE MYSTERY SOLVED + + +A glorious autumn morning dawned and Dories sat up suddenly. Shaking +Nann, she whispered excitedly: "I hear it again." + +"What? The ghost? Was he ringing the bell?" This sleepily from the girl +who seemed to have no desire to waken, but, at her companion's urgent: +"No, not the bell! Do sit up, Nann, and listen. Isn't that the airplane +coming back? Hark!" + +Fully awake, the other girl did sit up and listen. Then leaping from the +bed, she ran to the window that overlooked the wide expanse of marsh. + +"Yes, yes," she cried. "There it is! It's flying low, as though it were +going to land, and it's heading straight for the old ruin. Get dressed as +quickly as you can." + +"But why?" queried the astonished Dories. "We can't get any nearer than +we did yesterday; that is, not by land, and the tide is high again, and +so we can't go out in the punt." + +Nann did not reply, but continued to dress hurriedly, and so her friend +did likewise. + +"I don't know why it is," the former confided a moment later, "but I feel +in my bones that this is the day of the great revelation." + +"Not according to the yellow messages. They would tell us that in seven +days we would know all." Dories was brushing her brown hair preparing to +weave it into two long braids. + +"But, as I told you before," Nann remarked, "I don't believe the papers +refer to the old ruin mystery at all. In fact, I think the ghost that +writes the message on the papers does not even know there is an old ruin +mystery." + +"Well, you're a better detective than I am," Dories confessed as she tied +a ribbon bow on the end of each braid. "I haven't any idea about anything +that is happening." + +The girls stole downstairs and ran out on the beach, hoping to see the +airplane, but the long, shining white beach was deserted and the only +sound was the crashing of the waves over the rocks and along the shore, +for the tide was high. + +"I wonder if Dick and Gib heard the plane passing over their town?" +Dories had just said, when Nann, glancing in the direction of the road, +exclaimed gleefully, "They sure did, for here they come at headlong speed +this very minute." The big, boney, white horse stopped so suddenly when +it reached the sand that both of the boys were unseated. Laughingly they +sprang to the beach and waved their caps to the girls, who hurried to +meet them. + +"Good morning, boys!" Nann called as soon as they were near enough for +her voice to be heard above the crashing of the waves. "I judge you also +saw the plane." + +"Yeah! We'uns heerd it comin' 'long 'fore we saw it, an' we got ol' +Spindly out'n her stall in a twinklin', I kin tell you." + +The city lad laughed as though at an amusing memory. "The old mare was +sound asleep when we started, but when she heard that buzzing and +whirring over her head, she thought she was being pursued by a regiment +of demons, seemed like. She lit out of that barn and galloped as she +never had before. Of course the airplane passed us long ago, but that +gallant steed of ours was going so fast that I wasn't sure that we would +be able to stop her before we got over to the island." + +Gib, it was plain, was impatient to be away, and so promising to report +if they found anything of interest, the lads raced toward the point of +rocks, while the girls went indoors to prepare breakfast. Dories found +her Great-Aunt Jane in a happier frame of mind than usual. She was +sitting up in bed, propped with pillows, when her niece carried in the +tray. And when a few moments later the girl was leaving the room, she +chanced to glance back and was sure that the old woman was chuckling as +though she had thought of something very amusing. Dories confided this +astonishing news item to Nann while they ate their breakfast in the +kitchen. "What do you suppose Aunt Jane was thinking about? It was surely +something which amused her?" Dories was plainly puzzled. + +Nann smiled. "Doesn't it seem to you that your aunt must be thoroughly +rested by this time? I should think that she would like to get out in the +sunshine these wonderful bracing mornings. It would do her a lot more +good than being cooped up indoors." + +Dories agreed, commenting that old people were certainly queer. It was +midmorning when the girls, having completed their few household tasks, +again went to the beach to look for the boys. The tide was going out and +the waves were quieter. Arm in arm they walked along on the hard sand. +Dories was saying, "Aunt Jane told me that she would like to read to +herself this morning. I was so afraid that she would ask me to read to +her. Not but that I do want to be useful sometimes, but this morning I am +so eager to know what the boys are doing. I wish they would come. I +wonder where they went." + +"I think I know," Nann replied. "I believe they are lying flat on the big +smooth rock on which we sat that day Gibralter told us the story of the +Phantom Yacht. You recall that we had a fine view of the old ruin from +there." + +"But why would they be lying flat?" Dories, who had little imagination, +looked up to inquire. + +"So that they could observe whoever might enter the old ruin without +being observed, my child." + +"But, Nann, why would anyone want to get into that dreadful place unless +it was just out of curiosity, which, of course, is our only motive." + +"I'm sure I don't know," the older girl had to confess, adding: "That is +a mystery that we have yet to solve." + +Suddenly Nann laughed aloud. "What's the joke?" This from her astonished +companion. Since Nann continued to laugh, and was pointing merrily at +her, Dories began to bristle. "Well, what's funny about me? Have I +buttoned my dress wrong?" + +The other maid shook her head. "It's something about your braids," she +replied. + +"Oh, I suppose I put on different colored ribbons. I remember noticing a +yellow one near the red." She swung both of the braids around as she +spoke, but the ribbon bows were of the same hue. Tossing them back over +her shoulder, she said complacently: "This isn't the first of April, my +dear. There's nothing the matter with my braids and so--" But Nann +interrupted, "Isn't there? Unbeliever, behold!" Leaping forward, she +lifted a braid, held it in front of her friend, and pointed at a bit of +crumpled yellow paper. Dories laughed, too. + +"Well," Nann exclaimed, "that proves to my entire satisfaction that a +supernatural being does _not_ write the notes and hide them just where we +will be sure to find them." + +"But who do you suppose does write them?" Dories asked. "This morning +I've been close enough to four people to have them slip that folded paper +in my hair ribbon. Their names are Nann Sibbett, Great-Aunt Jane, +Gibralter Strait and Dick Moore. Dick, of course, is eliminated because +he was nowhere about when the messages first began to appear. It isn't +_your_ hand-writing," the speaker was closely scrutinizing the note, +"and, as for Gib, I'm not sure that he can write at all." Then a light of +conviction appeared in her eyes. "Do you know what I believe?" she turned +toward her friend as one who had made an astonishing discovery. "I +believe Great-Aunt Jane writes these notes and that she gets up out of +bed when we are away from home and hides them." + +Nann laughed. "I agree with you perfectly. I suspected her the other day, +but I didn't want to tell you until I was more sure. But why do you +suppose she does it--if she does?" + +Dories shook her head, then she exclaimed: "Now I know why Aunt Jane was +chuckling to herself when I looked back. She had just slipped the folded +paper into my hair ribbon, I do believe." + +"The next thing for us to find out is when and why she does it?" The +girls had stopped at the foot of the rocks and Nann changed the subject +to say: "I wonder why the boys don't come. It's almost noon. We'll have +to go back and prepare your Aunt Jane's lunch." She turned toward the +home cottage as she spoke. Dories gave a last lingering look up toward +the tip-top rock. "Maybe they have been carried off in the airplane," she +suggested. + +"Impossible!" Nann said. "It couldn't depart without our hearing." + +When they reached the cabin, Dories whispered, "I've nine minds to show +Aunt Jane the notes and watch her expression. I am sure I could tell if +she is guilty." + +"Don't!" Nann warned. "Let her have her innocent fun if she wishes." +Then, when they were in the kitchen making a fire in the wood stove, Nann +added, "I believe, my dear girl, that there is more to the meaning of +those messages than just innocent fun. I believe your Aunt Jane is going +to disclose to you something far more important than the solving of the +ruin mystery. She may tell you where the fortune is that your father +should have had, or something like that." + +Dories, who had been filling the tea-kettle at the kitchen pump, whirled +about, her face shining. "Nann Sibbett," she exclaimed in a low voice, +"do you really, truly think that may be what we are to know in seven +days? O, wouldn't I be glad I came to this terrible place if it were? +Then Mother darling wouldn't have to sew any more and you and I could go +away to school. Why just all of our dreams would come true." + +"Clip fancy's wings, dearie," Nann cautioned as she cut the bread +preparing to make toast. "Usually I am the one imagining things, but now +it is you." + +Dories looked at her aunt with new interest when she went into her room +fifteen minutes later with the tray, but the old woman, who was again +lying down, motioned her to put the tray on a small table near and not +disturb her. As Dories was leaving the room, her aunt called, "I won't +need you girls this afternoon." + +"Just as though she divined our wish to go somewhere," Nann commented, a +few moments later, when Dories had told her. + +"I'll tell you what let's do," the younger girl suggested, "let's pack a +lunch of sandwiches and olives and cookies. Then when the boys come we +can have a picnic. It's noon and they didn't have a lunch with them, I am +sure." + +"Good, that will be fun," Nann agreed. "I'll look now and see if they are +coming. We don't want them to escape us." + +A moment later she returned from the front porch shaking her head. "Not a +trace of them," she reported. Hurriedly they prepared a lunch and packed +it in a box. Then, after donning their bright-colored tams and sweater +coats, they went out the back door and were just rounding the front of +the cabin when Nann exclaimed, "Here they come, or rather there they go, +for they do not seem to have the least idea of stopping here." + +Nann was right. The two lads had appeared, scrambling over the point of +rocks, and away they ran along the hard sand of the beach, acknowledging +the existence of the girls merely by a hilarious waving of the arms. + +Nann turned toward her friend, her large eyes glowing. "They've found a +clue, I'm sure certain! You can tell by the way they are racing that they +are just ever so excited about something." As she spoke the boys +disappeared over a hummock of sand, going in the direction of the inlet +where Gibralter kept his punt hidden. + +Dories clapped her hands. "I know!" she cried elatedly. "They're going +out in the punt. The tide has turned! Oh, Nann, what do you suppose they +saw?" + +"I believe they saw the pilot of the airplane enter the old ruin, so now +they are going to get the punt, and they're in a great hurry to get back +to the creek before the airplane leaves." + +"Oh! How exciting! Do you suppose they will make it?" + +Nann intently watched the blue water beyond the hummock of sand as she +replied, "I believe they will." Then she added, "Oh, dear, I do hope +they'll take time to stop and get us. It wouldn't be fair for them to +have all the thrills, since we girls found the channel in the marsh." + +"Of course they'll take us," Dories replied, although in her heart of +hearts she rather hoped they would not, as she was not as eager as Nann +for adventure. "You know Dick said it wouldn't be fair to go without us." + +Nann nodded. Then, with sudden brightening, "Hurry! Here they come! Let's +race down to the point o' rocks and see if they want to hail us." + +Then, as they started, "Do you know, Dori, I feel as though something +most unexpected is about to happen. I mean something very different from +what we think." + +The girls had reached the point of rocks and were standing with shaded +eyes, gazing out at the glistening water. + +The flat-bottomed boat slowly neared them. Dick held one oar and Gib the +other. They both had their backs toward the point and evidently they had +not seen the girls. + +"Why, I do declare! They aren't going to stop. They're going right by +without us." Nann felt very much neglected, when suddenly Gib turned and +grinned toward them with so much mischief in his expression that Dories +concluded: "They did that just to tease. See, they're heading in this way +now." + +This was true, and Dick, making a trumpet of his hands, called: "Want to +come, girls? If so, scramble over to the flat rock, quick's you can! +We're in a terrifical hurry!" + +Dories and Nann needed no second invitation, but climbed over the jagged +rocks and stood on the broad one which was uncovered at low tide and +which served as a landing dock. + +Dick, the gallant, leaped out to assist them into the punt, then, seizing +his oar, he commanded his mate, "Make it snappy, old man. We want to +catch the modern air pirate before he gets away with his treasure." + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + A CHANNEL IN THE SWAMP + + +The wind was from the shore and Gib suggested that the small sail be run +up. This was soon done and away the little craft went bounding over the +evenly rolling waves and, before very many minutes, the point was rounded +and the swamp reached. + +"Where is the airplane anchored?" Nann inquired, peering curiously into +the cove which was unoccupied by craft of any kind. + +"Well, we aren't sure as to that," Dick told her, speaking softly as +though fearing to be overheard. "We climbed to the top of the rocks and +lay there for hours, or so it seemed to me. We were waiting for the tide +to turn so we could go out in the punt. But all the time we were there we +didn't see or hear anything of the airplane or the pilot. Of course, +since it's a seaplane, too, it's probably anchored over beyond the marsh. + +"Now my theory is that the pilot has a little tender and that in it he +rowed up the creek and probably, right this very minute, he is in the old +ruin, and like as not if we go up there we will meet him face to face." + +"Br-r-r!" Dories shuddered and her eyes were big and round. "Don't you +think we'd better wait here? We could hide the punt in the reeds and +watch who comes out. You wouldn't want to meet--a--a--" + +Dories was at a loss to conjecture who they might meet, but Gib chimed in +with, "Don't care who 'tis!" Then, looking anxiously at the girl who had +spoken, he said, "'Pears we'd ought to've left you at home. 'Pears like +we'd ought." + +The boy looked so truly troubled that Dories assumed a courage she did +not feel. "No, indeed, Gib! If you three aren't afraid to meet whoever it +is, neither am I. Row ahead." + +Thus advised, the lad lowered the small sail, and the two boys rowed the +punt to the opening in the marsh. + +It was just wide enough for the punt to enter. "Wall, we uns can't use +the oars no further, that's sure sartin." Gib took off his cap to scratch +his ear as he always did when perplexed. + +"I have it!" Dick seized an oar, stepped to the stern, asked Nann to take +the seat in the middle of the boat and then he stood and pushed the punt +into the narrow creek. + +They had not progressed more than two boat-lengths when a whizzing, +whirring noise was heard and the seaplane scudded from behind a reedy +point which had obscured it, and crossed their cove before taking to the +air. Then it turned its nose toward the island. All that the watchers +could see of the pilot was his leather-hooded, dark-goggled head, and, as +he had not turned in their direction, it was quite evident that he didn't +know of their existence. + +"Gone!" Dick cried dramatically. "'Foiled again,' as they say on the +stage." + +"Wall, anyhow, we're here, so let's go on up the creek and see what's in +the ol' ruin." + +Dick obeyed by again pushing the boat along with the one oar. Dories said +not a word as the punt moved slowly among the reeds that stood four feet +above the water and were tangled and dense. + +"There's one lucky thing for us," Nann began, after having watched the +dark water at the side of the craft. "That sea serpent you were telling +about, Gib, couldn't hide in this marsh." + +"Maybe not," Dick agreed, "but it's a favorite feeding ground for slimy +water snakes." Nann glanced anxiously at her friend, then, noting how +pale she was, she changed the subject. "How still it is in here," she +commented. + +A breeze rustled through the drying reed-tops, but there was indeed no +other sound. + +In and out, the narrow creek wound, making so many turns that often they +could not see three feet ahead of them. + +For a moment the four young people in the punt were silent, listening to +the faint rustle of the dry reeds all about them in the swamp. There was +no other sound save that made by the flat-bottomed boat, as Dick, +standing in the stern, pushed it with one oar. + +"There's another curve ahead," Nann whispered. Somehow in that silent +place they could not bring themselves to speak aloud. + +"Seems to me the water is getting very shallow," Dories observed. She was +staring over one side of the boat watching for the slimy snakes Dick had +told her made the marsh their feeding ground. + +"H-m-m! I wonder!" Nann, with half closed eyes looked meditatively ahead. + +"Wonder what?" her friend glanced up to inquire. + +"I was thinking that perhaps we won't be able to go much farther up this +channel, since the tide is going out. The water in the marsh keeps +getting lower and lower." + +"Gee-whiliker, Nann!" Dick looked alarmed. "I believe you're right. I've +been thinking for some seconds that the pushing was harder than it has +been." + +They had reached a turn in the narrow channel as he spoke, but, when he +tried to steer the punt into it, the flat-bottomed boat stopped with such +suddenness that, had he not been leaning hard on the oar, he would surely +have been thrown into the muddy water. As it was, he lost his balance and +fell on the broad stern seat. Dories, too, had been thrown forward, while +Gib leaped to the bow to look ahead and see what had obstructed their +progress. + +"Great fish-hooks! If we haven't run aground," was the result of his +observation. + +"Nann's right. This here channel dries up with the tide goin' out." + +"Then the only way to get to the old ruin is to come when the turning +tide fills this channel in the marsh," Dick put in. + +"Wall, it's powerful disappointin'," Gib looked his distress, "bein' as +the tide won't turn till 'long about midnight, an' you've got to go back +to Boston on the evening train." + +"I'd ought to go, to be there in time for school on Monday," the lad +agreed. + +"Couldn't you make it if you took the early morning train?" Nann +inquired. + +"May be so," Dick replied, "but we can decide that later. The big thing +just now is, how're we going to get out of this creek?" + +"Why--" The girls looked helplessly from one boy to the other. "Is there +any problem about it? Can't you just push out the way you pushed in?" + +Dick's expression betrayed his perplexity. "Hmm! I'm not at all sure, +with the tide going out as fast as it is now." + +"Gracious!" Dories looked up in alarm. "We won't have to stay in this +dreadful marsh until the tide turns, will we?" Then appealingly, "Oh, +Dick, please do hurry and try to get us out of here. Aunt Jane will be +terribly worried if we don't get home before dark." + +The boy addressed had already leaped to the stern of the boat and was +pushing on the one oar with all his strength. Gib snatched the other oar +and tried to help, but still they did not move. Then Nann had an +inspiration. "Dori," she said, "you catch hold of the reeds on that side +and I will on this and let's pull, too. Now, one, two, three! All +together!" + +Their combined efforts proved successful. The punt floated, but it was +quite evident that they would have to travel fast to keep from again +being grounded, so they all four continued to push and pull, and it was +with a sigh of relief that they at last reached deeper water as the +channel widened into the sea. + +"Well, that certainly was a narrow escape," Nann exclaimed as the punt +slipped out of the narrow channel of the marsh into the quiet waters of +the cove. + +"Now we know why the pilot of the airplane left. He probably visits the +old ruin only at high tide, when he is sure that there is water enough in +the creek," Dick announced. + +Dories seemed greatly relieved that the expedition had returned to the +open, and, as it was sheltered in the cove, the boys soon rowed across to +the point of rocks. "If Gib could leave the punt here where the water is +so sheltered and quiet, your mother, Dick, would not object even if you +went out when the tide is high, would she?" Nann inquired. + +"No, indeed," the boy replied. "Mother merely had reference to the open +sea. A punt would have little chance out there if it were caught between +the surf and the rocks, but here it is always calm." + +While they had been talking, Gib had been busy letting his home-made +anchor overboard. It was a heavy piece of iron tied to a rope, which in +turn was fastened to the bow. + +"Hold on there, Cap'n!" Dick merrily called. "Let the passengers ashore +before you anchor." Gib grinned as he drew the heavy piece of iron back +into the punt. Then Dick rowed close to the rocks and assisted the girls +out. + +"What shall we do now?" he turned to ask when he saw that Gib had pushed +off again. He dropped the anchor a little more than a boat length from +the point, pulled off his shoes and stockings and waded to the rocks. +After putting them on again he joined the others, who had started to +climb. + +When they reached the wide, flat "tiptop" rock Dories sank down, +exclaiming, "Honestly, I never was so hungry before in all my life." +Then, laughingly, she added, "Nann Sibbett, here we have been carrying +that box of lunch all this time and forgot to eat it. The boys must be +starved." + +"Whoopla!" Dick shouted. "Starved doesn't half express my famished +condition. Does it yours, Gib?" + +The red-headed boy beamed. "I'm powerful hungry all right," he +acknowledged, "but I'm sort o' used to that." However, he sat down when +he was invited to do so and ate the good sandwiches given him with as +much relish as the others. + +Half an hour later they were again on the sand walking toward the row of +cottages. Nann glanced at the upper window of the Burton cabin, and Dick, +noticing, glanced in the same direction. Then, smiling at the girl, he +said, "I guess, after all, there has been no one in the cottage. The +blind is still closed just as I left it yesterday." + +"We'll look again tonight," Nann said, adding, "We'll each have to carry +a lantern." + +"What are you two planning?" Dories asked suspiciously. + +"Can't you guess the meaning that underlies our present conversation?" +Nann smilingly inquired. + +"Goodness, I'm almost afraid that I can," was her friend's queer +confession. "I do believe you are plotting a visit to the old ruin at the +turn of the tide, and that will not be until midnight, Gib said." + +"It's something like that," Dick agreed. + +"Well, you can count me out." Dories shuddered as she spoke. + +Nann laughed. "I know just exactly what will happen (this teasingly) when +you hear me tiptoeing down the back stairs. You'll dart after me; for you +know you're afraid to stay alone in our loft at night." + +"You are wrong there," Dories contended. "Now that I know about the +ghost, I won't be afraid to stay alone, and I would be terribly afraid to +go to the ruin at midnight, even with three companions." + +"Speaking of lanterns," Dick put in, "if it's foggy we won't be able to +go at all. That would be running unnecessary risks, but if it is clear, +there ought to be a full moon shining along about midnight, and that will +make all the light we will need." Then he hastened to add, "But we'll +take lanterns, for we might need them inside the old ruin, and what is +more, I'll take my flashlight." + +The boys had left the white horse tied to the cottage nearest the road. +When they had mounted, Spindly started off as suddenly as hours before it +had stopped. + +"Good-bye," Dick waved his cap to the girls, "we'll whistle when we get +to the beach." + +"Just look at Spindly gallop," Dories said. "The poor thing is eager to +get to its dinner, I suppose." Arm in arm they turned toward their +home-cabin. + +"My, such exciting things are happening!" Nann exclaimed joyfully. "I +wouldn't have missed this month by the sea for anything." + +Dories shuddered. "I'll have to confess that I'm not very keen about +visiting the old ruin at----" She interrupted herself to cry out +excitedly, "Nann, do look over toward the island. We forgot all about +that sea plane. There it is just taking to the air. What do you suppose +it has been doing out on that desolate island all this time?" + +Nann shook her head, then shaded her eyes to watch the airplane as it +soared high, again headed for Boston. + +"Little do you guess, Mr. Pilot," she called to him, "that tonight we are +to discover the secret of your visits to the old ruin." + +"Maybe!" Dories put in laconically. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + THE OLD RUIN AT MIDNIGHT + + +Never had two girls been more interested and excited than were Dories and +Nann as midnight neared. Of course they neither of them slept a wink nor +had they undressed. Nann had truly prophesied. Dories declared that when +she came to think of it, nothing could induce her to stay alone in that +loft room at midnight, and that if she were to meet a ghost or any other +mysterious person, she would rather meet him in company of Nann, Dick and +Gib. + +Every hour after they retired, they crept from bed to gaze out of the +small window which overlooked the ocean. At first the fog was so dense +that they could see but dimly the white line of rushing surf out by the +point of rocks. + +"Well, we might as well give up the plan," Dories announced as it neared +eleven and the sky was still obscured. + +But Nann replied that when the moon was full it often succeeded in +dispelling the fog by some magic it seemed to possess, and that she +didn't intend to go to sleep until she was sure that the boys weren't +coming. She declared that she wouldn't miss the adventure for anything. + +Dories fell asleep, however, and, for that matter, so, too, did Nann, and +since they were both very weary from the unusual excitement and late +hours, they would not have awakened until morning had it not been for a +low whistle at the back of the cabin. + +Instantly Nann sprang up. "That must be Gib," she whispered. Then added, +jubilantly: "It's as bright as day. The moon is shining now in all its +splendor." + +In five seconds the two girls had crept down the outer stairway, and as +they tiptoed across the back porch, two dark forms emerged from the +shadows and approached them. + +"Hist!" Gib whispered melodramatically, bent on making the adventure as +mysterious as possible. "You gals track along arter us fellows, and don't +make any noise." + +Then without further parley, Gib darted into the shadow of the woodshed, +and from there crept stealthily along back of the seven boarded-up +cabins. + +"What's the idea of stealing along like this?" Nann inquired when the +wide sandy spaces were reached. + +"We thought we'd keep hidden as much as possible," Dick told her. "For if +that airplane pilot is anywhere around, we don't want him to get wise to +us." + +"But, of course, he isn't around," Dories said. "How could he be? An +airplane can't fly over our beach without being heard. It would waken us +from the deepest sleep, I am sure." + +They were walking four abreast toward the point which loomed darkly ahead +of them. "I suppose you're right," Dick agreed, "but it sort of adds to +the zip of it to pretend we're going to steal upon that airplane pilot +and catch him at whatever it is that he comes here to do." + +The girls did not need much assistance in climbing the rocks nor in +descending on the side of the cove. Gibralter, as before, removed his +shoes and stockings, waded out to the punt, drew up the anchor and then +returned for the others. The moon had risen high enough in the clear +starlit sky to shine down into the narrow channel in the marsh and, as +the water deepened continually and was flowing inward, it was merely a +matter of steering the flat-bottomed boat, which the boys did easily, +Dick in the stern with an oar while Gib in the bow caught the reeds first +on one side and then on the other, thus keeping the blunt nose of the +punt always in the middle of the creek. + +"Sh! Don't say a loud word," Gib cautioned, as they reached the curve +where the afternoon before they had run aground. + +"Goodness, you make me feel shivery all over," Dories whispered. "Who do +you suppose would hear if we did speak out loud?" + +"Dunno," Dick replied, "but we won't take any chances." + +The creek was perceptibly widening and the rising tide carried them along +more swiftly, but still the reeds were high over their heads and so, even +though Dick was standing as he pushed with an oar, he could not see the +old ruin, but abruptly the marsh ended and there, high and dry on a +mound, stood the object of their search, looking more forlorn and haunted +than it had from a distance. + +The boys had been about to run the boat up on the mound, when suddenly, +and without a sound of warning, Dick shoved the punt as fast he could +back into the shelter of the reeds from which they had just emerged. + +"Why d'y do that?" Gib inquired in a low voice. "D'y see anything that +scared you, kid?" + +"I saw it, too!" Dories eyes were wide and startled. "That is, I thought +I saw a light, but it went out so quickly I decided maybe it was the +moonlight flashing on something." + +"Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't." Dick moved the punt close to the edge +of the reeds that they might observe the ruin from a safe distance. + +"But who could be in there?" Nann wondered. "We have never seen anyone +around except the pilot of the airplane and we have all agreed that he +can't be here tonight." + +"No, he isn't!" Dick was fast recovering his courage. "I believe Dories +may have been right Probably it was only reflected moonlight. Perhaps you +girls had better remain in the punt while we fellows investigate." + +"No, indeed, we'll all go together." Nann settled the matter. "Now shove +back up to the mound, Dick, and let's get out." This was done and the +four young people climbed from the punt and stood for a long silent +moment staring at the ruin that loomed so dark and desolate just ahead of +them. + +"Thar 'tis! Thar's that light agin!" Gib seized his friend's arm and +pointed, adding with conviction: "Dori was right. It's suthin' swingin' +in the wind an' flashin' in the moonlight." + +"Gib," Nann said, "that is probably what the people in Siquaw Center have +seen on moonlight nights." + +"Like's not!" the red-headed lad agreed. Then stealthily they tiptoed +toward the two tall pillars that stood like ghostly sentinels in front of +the roofless part of the house which had once been the salon. + +The side walls were crumbled, but the rear wall stood erect, supporting +one side of the roof which tipped forward till it reached the ground, +although one corner was upheld by a heap of fallen stone. + +"I suppose we'll have to creep beneath that corner if we want to see +what's under the roof," Dick said. He looked anxiously at the girls as he +spoke, but Nann replied briskly, "Of course we will. Who'll lead the +way?" + +"Since I have a flashlight, I will," the city boy offered. "Here, Nann, +give me your lantern and I'll light it. Then if you girls get separated +from us boys, you won't be in the dark." + +"Goodness, Dick!" Dories shivered. "What in the world is going to +separate us? Can't we keep all close together?" + +"Course we can," Gib cheerfully assured her. "Dick kin go in furst, you +girls follow, an' I'll be rear guard." + +"You mean I can go in when I find an opening," the city boy turned back +to whisper. Somehow they just couldn't bring themselves to talk out loud. + +Nann held her lantern high and looked at the corner nearest where a +crumbling wall upheld the roof. "There ought to be room to creep in over +there," she pointed, "if it weren't for all that debris on the ground." + +"We'll soon dispose of that," Dick said, going to the spot and placing +his flashlight on a rock that it might illumine their labors. The two +boys fell to work with a will tossing away bricks and stones and broken +pieces of plaster. + +At last an opening large enough to be entered on hands and knees +appeared. Dick cautioned the girls ta stay where they were until he had +investigated. Dories gave a little startled cry when the boy disappeared, +fearing that the wall or the roof might fall on him. After what seemed +like a very long time, they heard a low whistle on the inside of the +opening. Gib peered under and received whispered instructions from Dick. +"It's safe enough as far as I can see. Bring the girls in." And so Dories +crept through the opening, followed by Nann and Gib. Rising to their feet +they found themselves in what had one time been a large and handsomely +furnished drawing-room. A huge chandelier with dangling crystals still +hung from the cross-beams, and in the night wind that entered from above +they kept up a constant low jangling noise. Heavy pieces of mahogany +furniture were tilted at strange angles where the rotting floor had given +way. + +"Watch your step, girls," Dick, in the lead, turned to caution. "See, +there's a big hole ahead. I'll go around it first to be sure that the +boards will hold. Aha, yonder is a partition that is still standing. I +wonder what room is beyond that." + +"Look out, Dick!" came in a low terrorized cry from Dories. The boy +turned to see the girl, eyes wide and frightened, pointing toward a dark +corner ahead. "There's a man crouching over there. I'm sure of it! I saw +his face." + +Instantly Dick swung the flashlight until it illumined the corner toward +which Dories was still pointing. There was unmistakably a face looking at +them with piercing dark eyes that were heavily overhung with shaggy grey +brows. + +For one terrorized moment the four held their breath. Even Dick and Gib +were puzzled. Then, with an assumption of bravery, the former called: +"Say, who are you? Come on out of there. We're not here to harm +anything." + +But the upper part of the face (that was all they could see) did not +change expression, and so Dick advanced nearer. Then his relieved +laughter pealed forth. + +"Some man--that," he said, as he flashed the light beyond the pile of +debris which partly concealed the face. + +"Why, if it isn't an old painting!" Nann ejaculated. + +And that, indeed, was what it proved to be. Battered by its fall, the +broken frame stood leaning against a partition. + +"I believe its a portrait of that cruel old Colonel Woodbury himself," +Dories remarked. Then eagerly added, "I do wish we could find a picture +of that sweet girl, his daughter. Ever since Gib told us her story I have +thought of her as being as lovely as a princess. Though I don't suppose a +real princess is always beautiful." + +"I should say not! I've seen pictures of them that couldn't hold a candle +to Nann, here." This was Dick's blunt, boyish way of saying that he +admired the fearless girl. + +Gib, having found a heavy cane, was poking around in the piles of debris +that bordered the partition and his exclamation of delight took the +others to his side as rapidly as they could go. + +"What have you found, old man?" Dick asked, eagerly peering at a heap of +rubbish. + +"Nuther picture, seems like, or leastwise I reckon it's one." + +Gib busied himself tossing stones and fragments of plaster to one side, +and when he could free it, he lifted a canvas which faced the wall and +turned it so that light fell full upon it. + +"Gee-whiliker, it's yer princess all right, all right!" he averred. "Say, +wasn't she some beaut, though?" + +There were sudden tears in Nann's eyes as she spoke. "Oh, you poor, poor +girl," she said as she bent above the pictured face, "how you have +suffered since that long-ago day when some artist painted your portrait." + +"Even then she wasn't happy," Dories put in softly. "See that little +half-wistful smile? It's as though she felt much more like crying." + +"And now she is a woman and over in Europe somewhere with a little girl +and boy," Nann took up the tale; but Gib amended: "Not so very little. +Didn't we cal'late that if they're livin' the gal'd be about sixteen, an' +the boy eighteen or nineteen?" + +"Why, that's so." Nann looked up brightly. "When I spoke I was +remembering the story as you told it, and how sad the young mother looked +when she landed from the snow-white yacht and led a little boy and girl +up to this very house to beg her father to forgive her. But I recall now, +you said that was at least ten years ago." + +"What shall we do with this beautiful picture?" Dories inquired. "It +doesn't seem a bit right to leave it here in all this rubbish, now that +we've found it." + +"Let's take it into the next room," Dick said; "maybe we'll find a better +place to leave it." + +They had reached an opening in the rear partition, but the heavy carved +door still hung on one hinge, obstructing their passage. + +"We _must_ get through somehow," Nann, the adventurous, said. "I feel in +my bones that the next room holds something that will help solve the +mystery of the air pilot's visits." + +Dories held the painting while Nann flashed the light where it would best +aid the boys in removing the debris that held the old door in such a way +that it obstructed their passage into the room back of the salon. + +A long half-hour passed and the boys labored, lifting stones and heavy +pieces of ceiling, but, when at last the floor space in front of the +heavy door was cleared, they found that something was holding it tight +shut on the other side. + +"Gee-whiliker!" Dick ejaculated, removing his cap and wiping his brow. +"Talk about buried treasure. If it's as hard to get at as it is to get +through this door, I----" + +He was interrupted by the younger girl, who said: "Let's pretend there is +a treasure behind this door, and after all, maybe there is. Perhaps the +air pilot is a smuggler of some kind and brings things here to hide." +Dories had made a suggestion which had not occurred to the boys. + +"That's so!" Dick agreed. "But if he gets into the next room, he must +have an entrance around at the back of the ruin. No one has been through +this door since the flood undermined the old house." + +Gib was still trying to open the stubborn door. He put his shoulder +against it. "Come on, Dick, help a fellow, will you?" he sang out. + +The boys pushed as hard as they could and the door moved just the least +bit, then seemed to wedge in a way that no further assaults upon it could +effect. + +"Whizzle! What if that pilot feller is on the other side holdin' it. What +if he is?" + +"But he couldn't be," Nann protested. "We all agreed long ago that he +couldn't be here because how could he arrive in the airplane without +being heard?" + +"I know what I'm a-goin' to do," Gib's expression was determined. "I'm +a-goin' to smash a hole in that ol' door and crawl through." + +Dick sprang to get a heavy stone from one of the crumbling side walls and +Gib, having procured another, the two boys began a battering which soon +resulted in a loud splintering sound and one of the heavy panels was +crashed in. + +Gib wiggled his way through and Dick handed him the searchlight. "Huh, +we're bright uns, we are!" came in a muffled voice from the other room. +"Thar's as much rubbish a holdin' the door on this side as thar was on +the other, but I, fer one, jest won't move a stick o' it." + +"No need to!" Nann said blithely. "Make that hole a little bigger and we +can all go through the way you did." + +This was quickly done and the boys assisted the two girls through the +opening. Then they stood close together looking about them as Dick +flashed the light. The room was not quite as much of a wreck as the salon +had been. In it a mahogany table stood and the chairs with heavily carved +legs and backs had been little harmed. With a little cry of delight, Nann +dragged Dories toward an old-fashioned mahogany sideboard. "Don't you +love it?" she said enthusiastically, turning a glowing face toward her +companion. "Wouldn't you adore having it?" But before Dories could voice +her admiration, Dick, having looked at his watch, exclaimed: +"Gee-whiliker, I'll have to beat it if I am to catch that early train +back to Boston. I hate to break up the party." He hesitated, glancing +from one to the other. + +"Of course you must go!" Nann, the sensible, declared. "There's another +week-end coming." Then turning to her friend, who was still holding the +picture, she said: "Dori, let's leave the painting of our princess +standing on the old mahogany sideboard." When this had been done, she +addressed the picture: "Good-bye, Lady of the Phantom Yacht. Keep those +sweet blue eyes of yours wide open that you may tell us what mysterious +things go on in this old ruin while we are away." + +The pictured eyes were to gaze upon more than the pictured lips would be +able to tell. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + LETTERS OF IMPORTANCE + + +The young people found the grey of dawn in the sky when they emerged +through the hole under one corner of the roof and a new terror presented +itself. "What if the receding tide had left their boat high and dry." But +luckily there was still enough water in the narrow creek to take them out +to the cove. Since they were in haste, the sail was put in place and a +brisk wind from the land took them out and around the point. There was +still too high a surf to make possible a landing on the platform rock and +so the girls were obliged to go with the boys as far as the inlet in +which Gib kept his punt. The white horse had been tied to a scrubby tree +near, but, before he mounted, Dick took off his hat and held out a hand +to each of the girls in turn, assuring them that he had been ever so glad +to meet them and that if all went well, he would return the following +week-end. + +"And we will promise not to visit the old ruin again until you come," +Nann told him. The boy's face brightened. "O, I say!" he exclaimed, +"that's too much to ask." But Gib assured him that half the fun was +having him along. + +Just before they rode away, Dick turned to call: "Keep a watch-out on our +cabin, will you, Nann? I really don't believe anyone has been there, +however. Mother remembered that she had left the back door open." + +"All right. We will. Good-bye." + +Slowly the girls walked toward their home-cabin. "Do you suppose we ought +to tell Aunt Jane that we visited the old ruin at midnight?" Dories +asked. + +"Why, no, dear, I don't," was the thoughtful reply. "Your Aunt Jane told +us to do anything we could find to amuse us, don't you recall, that very +first day after we had opened up the cottage and were wondering what to +do?" + +Dories nodded. "I remember. She must have heard us talking while we were +dusting and straightening the living-room. That was the day that I said I +believed the place was haunted, and you said you hoped there was a ghost +or something mysterious." + +Nann stopped and faced her companion. Her eyes were merry. "Dori Moore," +she exclaimed, "I believe your aunt _did_ hear my wish and that she has +been trying to grant it by writing those mysterious messages and leaving +them where we would find them." + +"Maybe you are right," her friend agreed. "I wish we could catch her in +the act." Then Dories added: "Nann, if Aunt Jane is really doing that +just for fun, then she can't be such an old grouch as I thought her. You +know I told you how I was sure that I heard her chuckling." + +The older girl nodded, then as the back porch of the cabin had been +reached, they went quietly up the steps and into the kitchen. + +"It's going to be a long week waiting for Dick to return," Dories said as +she began to make a fire in the stove. "What shall we do to pass away the +time?" + +Nann smiled brightly. "O, we'll find plenty to do!" she said. "There is +that box of books in the loft. Surely there will be a few that we would +like to read and that your Aunt Jane would like to hear. We have left her +alone so much," Nann continued, "don't you think this last week that we +ought to spend more time adding to her happiness if we can?" + +Dories flushed. "I wish I'd been the one to say that," she confessed, +"since Great-Aunt Jane loved my father so much when he was a boy." + +Although the girls had their breakfast early, it was not until the usual +hour that Dories took the tray in to her aunt. Nann followed with +something that had been forgotten. They were surprised to see the old +woman propped up in bed reading the book of ghost stories which Dories +had left in the room. She fairly beamed at them when they entered. Then +she asked, "Do you girls believe in ghosts?" + +"Oh, no. Aunt Jane," Dories began rather hesitatingly. "That is, I don't +believe that I do." + +The sharp grey eyes, in which a twinkle seemed to be lurking, turned +toward Nann. "Do you?" she asked briefly. + +"No, indeed, Miss Moore, I do not," was the emphatic reply, then, just +for mischief, the girl asked, "Do you?" + +"Indeed I do," was the unexpected response. "A ghost visited me last +night and told me that you girls had gone with Gibralter Strait and the +Burton boy over to visit the old ruin." + +"Aunt Jane! Miss Moore!" came in two amazed exclamations. + +"We did go. I sincerely hope you do not object," the older girl hastened +to say. + +"No, I don't object. There's nothing over there that can hurt you. Now +I'd like my breakfast, if you please." + +When the girls returned to the kitchen, Dories whispered, "Nann, how in +the world did she know?" + +The older girl shook her head. "Mysteries seem to be piling up instead of +being solved," she said. + +"Do you suppose Aunt Jane knows who the air pilot is and why he goes to +the old ruin?" Dories wondered as they went about their morning tasks. + +"I'll tell you what, let's stay around home pretty closely for a few days +and see if anyone does visit Aunt Jane, shall we?" + +The old woman seemed to be glad to have the companionship of the girls. +They read to her in the morning, and on the third afternoon their +suspicions were aroused by the fact that their hostess asked them why +they stayed around the cabin all of the time. It was quite evident to +them that she wanted to be left alone. + +"Would it be too far for you to walk into town and see if there isn't +some mail for me?" Miss Moore inquired early on the fourth morning of the +week. "I am expecting some very important letters. That boy Gibralter was +told to bring them the minute they came, but these Straits are such a +shiftless lot." Then, almost eagerly, looking from one girl to another, +she inquired: "It isn't too far for you to walk, is it? You can hire +Gibralter to bring you back in the stage." + +"We'd love to go," Nann said most sincerely, and Dories echoed the +sentiment. The truth was the girls had been puzzled because Gib had not +appeared. Indeed, nothing had happened for four days. Although they had +searched everywhere they could think of, there had been no message for +them telling in how many days they would know all. An hour later, when +they were walking along the marsh-edged sandy road leading to town, they +discussed the matter freely, since no one could possibly overhear. "If +Aunt Jane really has been writing those notes and leaving them for us to +find, do you suppose that she has stopped writing them because she thinks +we suspect her of being the ghost?" Dories asked. + +"I don't see why she should suspect, as we have said nothing in her +hearing; in fact, we were out on the beach when I told you that I thought +your Aunt Jane might be writing the notes," Nann replied. + +Dories nodded. "That is true," she agreed. Then she stopped and stared at +her companion as she exclaimed: "Nann Sibbett, I don't believe that Aunt +Jane writes them at all. I believe Gibralter Strait does. There hasn't +been a note for four days anywhere in the cabin, and Gib hasn't been to +the point in all that time. There, now, doesn't that seem to prove my +point?" + +"It surely does!" Nann said as they started walking on toward the town. +"Only I thought we agreed that probably Gib couldn't write. But I do +recall that he said he went to a country school in the winter months when +his father didn't need him to help in the store." + +"If Gib writes them he is a good actor," Dories commented. "He certainly +seemed very much surprised when we showed him the notes, you remember." + +Nann agreed. "It's all very puzzling," she said, then added, "What a +queer little hamlet this is?" They were passing the first house in Siquaw +Center. "I don't suppose there are more than eight houses in all," she +continued. "What do you suppose the people do for a living?" + +"Work on the railroad, I suppose," Nann guessed. They had reached the +ramshackle building that held the post office and general store when they +saw Gib driving the stage around from the barns. "Hi thar!" he called to +them excitedly. "I got some mail for yo'uns. I was jest a-goin' to fetch +it over, like I promised Miss Moore. It didn't come till jest this +mornin'. Thar's some mail for yo'uns, too. A letter from Dick Burton. He +writ me one along o' yourn." + +The girls climbed up on the high seat by Gib's side. The day had been +growing very warm as noon neared and they had found it hard walking in +the sand, and so they were not sorry that they were to ride back. Gib +gave them two long legal envelopes addressed to Miss Moore and the letter +from Dick. + +Eagerly Nann opened it, as it had been written especially to her, and +after reading it she exclaimed: "Well, isn't this queer?" + +"What?" Dories, who was consumed with curiosity, exclaimed. + +"Dick writes that he told his mother that he had found that upper front +room window open and the blind swinging, but she declares that she +_knows_ all of the upper windows were closed and the blinds securely +fastened. She had been in every room to try them just before she left, +and that was what had delayed her so long that, in her hurry, she took +the key out of the back door, hung it in its hiding place, without having +turned it in the lock. Dick says that he's wild to get back to Siquaw, +and that the first thing he is going to do is to search in that upper +room for clues." + +Gib nodded. "That's what he wrote into my letter. He's comin' down Friday +arter school lets out, so's we'll have more time over to the ruin. Dick +says he's sot on ferritin' out what that pilot fella does thar." + +Old Spindly seemed to feel spryer than usual and trotted along the sandy +road at such a pace that in a very little while they had reached the end +of it at the beach. + +"Wall, so long," Gib called when the girls had climbed down from the high +seat, but before they had turned to go, he ejaculated: "By time, if I +didn't clear fergit ter give yo'uns the rest o' yer mail. Here 'tis!" +Leaning down, he handed them another envelope. Before they could look at +it, he had snapped his whip and started back toward town. The girls +watched the old coach sway in the sand for a minute, then they glanced at +the envelope. On it in red ink was written both of their names. + +"Well of all queer things!" Nann ejaculated. Tearing it open, they found +a message: "_Today you will know all._" + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV. + A SURPRISING REVELATION + + +The girls stood where Gib had left them staring at each other in puzzled +amazement. "Well, what do you make of it?" Dories was the first to +exclaim. Nann laughingly shook her head. "I don't know unless this +confirms our theory that Gib writes the notes. I almost think it does." + +They started walking toward the cabin. "Well, time will tell and a short +time, too, if we are to know all today," Dories remarked, then added, +"That long walk has made me ravenously hungry and we haven't a thing +cooked up." Then she paused and sniffed. "What is that delicious odor? It +smells like ham and something baking, doesn't it?" + +"We surely are both imaginative," Nann agreed, "for I also scent a most +appetizing aroma on the air. But who could be cooking? We left Miss Moore +in bed and anyway, of course, it is not she." + +They had reached the kitchen door and saw that it was standing open and +that the tempting odor was actually wafting therefrom. Puzzled indeed, +they bounded up the steps. + +A surprising sight met their gaze. Miss Jane Moore, dressed in a soft +lavender gown partly covered with a fresh white apron, turned from the +stove to beam upon them; her eyes were twinkling, her cheeks were rosy +from the excitement and the heat. + +"Aunt Jane! Miss Moore!" the girls cried in astonishment. "Ought you to +be cooking? Are you strong enough?" + +"Of course I am strong enough," was the brisk reply. "Haven't I been +resting for nearly two weeks? I thought probably you girls would be +hungry after your long walk." Then, as she saw the legal envelopes, she +added with apparent satisfaction: "Well, they have come at last, have +they? Put them in on my dresser, Dories; then come right back. It is such +a fine day I thought we would take the table out on the sheltered side +porch and have a sort of picnic-party." + +It was hard for the girls to believe that this was the same old woman who +had been so grouchy most of the time since they had known her. Would +surprises never cease? The girls were delighted with the plan and carried +the small kitchen table to the sunny, sheltered side porch and soon had +it set for three. + +When they returned they found the flushed old woman taking a pan of +biscuits from the oven. How good they looked! Then came baked ham and +sweet potatoes, and a brown Betty pudding. The elderly cook seemed to +greatly enjoy the girls' surprise and delight. They made her comfortable +in an easy willowed chair at one end of the table facing the sea and, +when the viands had been served, they ate with great relish. To their +amazement their hostess partook of the entire menu with as evident a zest +as their own. Dories could no longer remain silent. "Aunt Jane," she +blurted out, "ought you to eat so heartily after such a long fast? You +haven't had anything but tea and toast since we came." + +Nann had glanced quickly and inquiringly at the old woman, and the +suspicions she had previously entertained were confirmed by the merry +reply: "I'll have to confess that I've been an old fraud." Miss Moore was +chuckling again. "Every time you girls went away and I was sure you were +going to be gone for some time, I got up and had a good meal." + +"But, Aunt Jane," Dories' brow gathered in a puzzled frown, "why did you +have to do that? It would have been a lot more fun all along to have had +our dinners all together like this." + +Miss Moore nodded. "Yes, it would have been, but I'm an odd one. There +was something I wanted to find out and I took my own queer way of going +about it." + +"D--did you find it out, Aunt Jane?" Dories asked, almost anxiously. + +"Yes and no," was the enigmatical answer. Then, tantalizingly, she +remarked as she leaned back in her comfortable willow chair, having +finished her share of the pudding, "This is wonderful weather, isn't it, +girls? If it keeps up I won't want to go back next Monday. Perhaps we'll +stay a week longer as I had planned when we first came." Then before the +girls could reply, the grey eyes that could be so sharply penetrating +turned to scrutinize Dories. "You look much better than you did when we +came. You had a sort of fretful look as though you had a grudge against +life. Now you actually look eager and interested." Then, after a glance +at Nann, "You are both getting brown as Indians." + +Would Miss Moore never come to the subject that was uppermost in the +thoughts of the two girls? If she had written the message telling them +that today they were to know all, why didn't she begin the story, if it +was to be a story? + +How Dories hoped that she was to hear what had become of the fortune she +had always believed should have been her father's. Her own mother had +never told her anything about it, but she had heard them talking before +her father died; she had not understood them, but as she grew older she +seemed vaguely to remember that there should have been money from +somewhere, enough to have kept poverty from their door and more, +probably, since her father's Aunt Jane had so much. + +But Miss Moore rose without having satisfied their burning curiosity. +"Now, girls," she said, "I'll go in and read my letters while you wash +the dishes. Later, when the fog drifts in, build a fire on the hearth and +I'll tell you a story." Then she left them, going to her own room and +closing the door. + +"I'm so excited that I can hardly carry the dishes without dropping +them," Dories confided to Nann when at last they had returned the table +to its place in the kitchen and were busily washing and drying the +dishes. "What do you suppose the story is to be about?" + +"You and your mother and father chiefly, I believe," Nann said with +conviction. + +"Aunt Jane's saying that she had a story to tell us proves, doesn't it, +that she wrote the messages?" + +"I think so, Dori." + +"I hope the fog will come in early," the younger girl remarked as she +hung up the dish-wiper on the line back of the stove. + +"It will. It always does. Now let's go out to the shed and bring in a big +armful of driftwood. There's one log that I've been saving for some +special occasion. Surely this is it." + +As Nann had said, the fog came in soon after midafternoon; the girls had +drawn the comfortable willow chair close to the hearth. The wood was in +place and eagerly the girls awaited the coming of their hostess. At last +the bedroom door opened and Miss Moore, without the apron over her +lavender dress, emerged. Although she smiled at them, the discerning Nann +decided that the letters had contained some disappointing news. Dories at +once set fire to the driftwood and a cheerful blaze leaped up. When Miss +Moore was seated the girls sat on lower chairs close together. Their +faces told their eager curiosity. + +Glancing from one to the other, their hostess said: "Dori, you and Nann +have been the best of friends for years, I think you wrote me." + +"Oh, yes, Aunt Jane," was the eager reply, "we started in kindergarten +together and we've been in the same classes through first year High, but +now Nann's father has taken her away from me. They are going to live in +Boston. And so a favorite dream of ours will never be fulfilled, and that +was to graduate together." + +"If only your mother would consent to come and live with me, then your +wish would be fulfilled," the old woman began when Dories exclaimed, +"Why, Aunt Jane, I didn't even know that you _wanted_ us to live with you +in Boston." + +Miss Moore nodded gravely. "But I do and have. I have written your mother +repeatedly, since my dear nephew died, telling her that I would like you +three to make your home with me, but it seems that she cannot forget." + +"Forget what?" Dories leaned forward to inquire. Nann had been right, she +was thinking. The something they were to know did relate to her father's +affairs, she was now sure. + +The old woman seemed not to have heard, for she continued looking +thoughtfully at the fire. "I know that she has forgiven," she said at +last. "Your mother is too noble a woman not to do that, but her pride +will not let her forget." Then, turning toward the girls who sat each +with a hand tightly clasped in the others, the speaker continued: "I must +begin at the beginning to make the sad story clear. I loved your father, +as I would have loved a son. I brought him up when his parents were gone. +The money belonged to my father and he used to say that he would leave +your father's share in my keeping, as he believed in my judgment. I was +to turn it over to my nephew when I thought best." She was silent a +moment, then said: "When your father was old enough to marry, I wanted +him to choose a girl I had selected, but instead, when he went away to +study art, he married a school teacher of whom I had never heard. I +believed that she was designing and marrying him for his money, and I +wrote him that unless he freed himself from the union I would never give +him one cent. Of course he would not do that, and rightly. Later, in my +anger, I turned over to him some oil stock which had proved valueless and +told him that was all he was to have. Then began long, lonely years for +me because I never again heard from the nephew whose boyish love had been +the greatest joy life had ever brought me. I was too stubborn to give him +the money which legally I had the right to withhold from him, and he was +so hurt that he would not ask my forgiveness. But, when I heard that my +boy had died, my heart broke, and I knew myself for what I was--a +selfish, stubborn old woman who had not deserved love and consideration. +Then, but far too late, I tried to redeem myself in the eyes of your +mother. I wrote, begging her to come and bring her two children to my +home. I told her how desolate I had been since my boy, your father, had +left. Very courteously your mother wrote that, as long as she could sew +for a living for herself and her two children, she would not accept +charity. Then I conceived the plan of becoming acquainted with you, for +two reasons: one that I might discover if in any way you resembled your +father, and the other was that I wanted you to use your influence to +induce your mother to forget, as well as forgive, and to live with me in +Boston and make my cheerless mansion of a house into a real home." + +She paused and Dories, seeing that there were tears in the grey eyes, +impulsively reached out a hand and took the wrinkled one nearest her. + +"Dear Aunt Jane, how you have suffered." Nann noted with real pleasure +that her friend's first reaction had been pity for the old woman and not +rebellion because of the act that had caused her to be brought up in +poverty. "Mother has always said that you meant to be kind, she was +convinced of that, but she never told me the story. This is the first +time that I understood what had happened. Truly, Aunt Jane, if you really +wish it, I shall urge Mother to let us all three come and live with you. +Selfishly I would love to, because I would be near Nann, if for no other +reason, but I have another reason. I believe my father would wish it. +Mother has often told me that, as a boy, he loved you." + +The old woman held the girl's hand in a close clasp and tears unheeded +fell over her wrinkled cheeks. "But it's too late now," she said +dismally. + +Dories and Nann exchanged surprised glances. "Too late, Aunt Jane?" +Dories inquired. "Do you mean that you do not care to have us now?" + +"No, indeed, not that!" The old woman wiped away the tears, then smiled +tremulously. "I haven't finished the story as yet. This is the last +chapter, I fear. I ought to be glad for your mother's sake, but O, I have +been so lonely." + +Then, seeing the intense eagerness in her niece's face, she concluded +with, "I must not keep you in such suspense, my dear. That long legal +envelope brought me news from your father's lawyer. It is news that your +mother has already received, I presume. The stock, which I turned over to +your father years ago, believing it to be worthless, has turned out to be +of great value. Your mother will have a larger income than my own, and +now, of course, she will not care to make her home with me." + +"O, Aunt Jane!" To the surprise of both of the others, the girl threw her +arms about the old woman's neck and clung to her, sobbing as though in +great sorrow, but Nann knew that the tears were caused by the sudden +shock of the joyful revelation. The old woman actually kissed the girl, +and then said: "I expected to be very sad because I cannot do something +for you all to prove the deep regret I feel for my unkind action, but, +instead, I am glad, for I know that only in this way would your mother +acquire the real independence which means happiness for her." With a +sigh, she continued: "I've lived alone for many years, I suppose I can go +on living alone until the end of time." Then she added, a twinkle again +appearing in her grey eyes, "and now you know all." + +"O, Aunt Jane, then you _did_ write those messages and leave them for us +to find?" + +"I plead guilty," the old woman confessed. "I overheard you and Nann +saying that you wished something mysterious would happen. I had been +wondering when to tell you the story, and I decided to wait until I heard +from the lawyer. I know you are wondering how Gibralter Strait happened +to give you that last message the very day a letter came telling about +the stock. That is very simple. One day when Mr. Strait came for a +grocery order, you were all away somewhere. I gave him that last message +and told him to keep it in our box at the office until a letter should +arrive from my lawyer, then they were to be brought over and that letter +was to be given to you girls." The old woman leaned back in her chair and +it was quite evident that her recent emotion had nearly exhausted her. +Nann, excusing herself thoughtfully, left the other two alone. + +"Dori," the old woman said tenderly, "as you grow older, don't let +circumstances of any nature make you cold and critical. If I had been +loving and kind when your girl mother married my boy, my life, instead of +being bleak and barren, would have been a happy one. No one knows how I +have grieved; how my unkindness has haunted me." + +Just then Dories thought of her sweet-faced mother who had borne the +trials of poverty so bravely, and again she heard her saying, "The only +ghosts that haunt us are the memories of loving words that might have +been spoken and loving deeds that might have been done." + +Impulsively the girl leaned over and kissed the wrinkled face. "I love +you, Aunt Jane," she whispered. "And I shall beg Mother to let us all +live together in your home, if it is still your wish." Then, as Miss +Moore had risen, seeming suddenly feeble, Dories sprang up and helped her +to her room and remained there until the old woman was in her bed. + +When the girl went out to the kitchen where her friend was preparing +supper, she exclaimed, half laughing and half crying: "Nann Sibbett, I'm +so brimming full of conflicting emotions, I don't feel at all real. Pinch +me, please, and see if I am." + +"Instead I'll give you a hard hug; a congratulatory one. There! Did that +seem real?" Then Nann added in her most sensible, matter-of-fact voice: +"Now, wake up, Dori. You mustn't go around in a trance. Of course the +only mystery that _you_ are interested in is solved, and wonderfully +solved, but I'm just as keen as ever to know the secret the old ruin is +holding." + +"I'll try to be!" Dories promised, then confessed: "But, honestly, I am +not a bit curious about any mystery, now that my own is solved." A moment +later she asked: "Nann, do you suppose Mother will want me to come home +right away?" + +"Why, I shouldn't think so, Dori," her friend replied. "You always hear +from your mother on Friday, so wait and see what tomorrow brings." + +The morrow was to hold much of interest for both of the girls. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV. + PUZZLED AGAIN + + +As soon as their breakfast was over, Dories asked her Aunt if she were +willing that the girls go to Siquaw Center for the mail. "I always get a +letter from Mother on the Friday morning train," was the excuse she gave, +"and, of course, I am simply wild to hear what she will have to say +today; that is, if she does know about--well, about what you told us that +father's lawyer had written." + +Miss Moore was glad to be alone, for she had had a sleepless night. She +had long dreamed that, perhaps, when she became acquainted with her +niece, that young person might be able to influence the stubborn mother +to accept the home that the old woman had offered, and that peace might +again be restored to the lonely, repentant heart. But now, just as that +dream seemed about to be fulfilled, the mother was placed in a position +of complete independence, and so, of course, she would never be willing +to share the home of her husband's great-aunt. The desolate loneliness of +the years ahead, however few they might be, depressed the old woman +greatly. Dories, seeing tears in the grey eyes, stooped impulsively, and, +for the second time, she kissed her great-aunt. "If you will let me, I'm +coming to visit you often," she whispered, as though she had read her +aunt's thoughts. Then away the two girls went. + +It was a glorious morning and they skipped along as fast as they could on +the sandy road. Mrs. Strait, with a baby on one arm, was tending the +general store and post office when the girls entered. No one else was in +sight. + +"Good morning, Mrs. Strait. Is there any mail for Miss Dories Moore?" +that young maiden inquired. + +"Yeah, thar is, an' a picher card for tother young miss," was the welcome +reply. + +Dories fairly pounced on the letter that was handed her. "Good, it _is_ +from Mother! I am almost sure that she will want me to come home," she +exclaimed gleefully. But when the message had been read, Dories looked up +with a puzzled expression. "How queer!" she said. "Mother doesn't say one +thing about the stock; not even that she has heard about it, but she does +say that she and Brother are leaving today on a business journey and that +she may not write again for some time. I'll read you what she says at the +end: 'Daughter dear, if your Aunt Jane wishes to return to Boston before +you again hear from me, I would like you to remain with her until I send +for you. Peter is standing at my elbow begging me to tell you that he is +going to travel on a train just as you did. I judge from your letters +that you and Nann are having an interesting time after all, but, of +course, you would be happy, I am sure, anywhere with Nann!'" Dories +looked up questioningly. "Don't you think it is very strange that Mother +should go somewhere and not tell me where or why?" + +Nann laughed. "Maybe she thought that she would add another mystery to +those we are trying to solve," she suggested, but Dories shook her head. +"No, that wasn't Mother's reason. Perhaps--O, well, what's the use of +guessing? Who was your card from?" + +"Dad, of course. I judge that he will be glad when his daughter returns. +O, Dori," Nann interrupted herself to exclaim, "do look at that pair of +black eyes peering at us out of that bundle!" She nodded toward the baby, +wrapped in a blanket, that had been placed in a basket on the counter. + +The girls leaned over the little creature, who actually tried to talk to +them but ended its chatter with a cracked little crow. "He ain't a mite +like Gib," the pleased mother told them. "The rest of us is sandy +complected, but this un is black as a crow, an' jest as jolly all the +time as yo'uns see him now." + +"What is the little fellow's name, Mrs. Strait?" Nann asked. + +The woman looked anxiously toward the door; then said in a low voice: +"I'm wantin' to give the little critter a Christian name--Moses, Jacop, +or the like, but his Pa is set on the notion of namin' 'em all after +geography straits, an' I ain't one to hold out about nothin'." She +sighed. "But it's long past time to christen the poor little mite." + +Nann and Dories tried hard not to let their mirth show in their faces. +The older girl inquired: "Why hasn't he been christened, Mrs. Strait? +Can't you decide on a name?" + +"Wall, yo' see it's this a-way," the gaunt, angular woman explained. "Gib +didn't fetch home his geography books, an' school don't open up till snow +falls in these here parts. So baby'll have to wait, I reckon, bein' as +Gib don't recollect no strait names." Then, with hope lighting her plain +face, the woman asked: "Do you girls know any of them geography names?" + +Dories and Nann looked at each other blankly. "Why, there is Magellan," +one said. "And Dover," the other supplemented. + +Mrs. Strait looked pleased. "Seems like that thar Dover one ought to do +as wall as any. Please to write it down so's Pa kin see it an' tother un +along side of it." + +The girls left the store as soon as they could, fearing that they would +have to laugh, and they did not want to hurt the mother's feelings, and +so, after purchasing some chocolate bars, they darted away without having +learned where Gib was. + +"Not that it matters," Nann said when they were nearing the beach. "He +won't come over, probably, until tomorrow morning with Dick." + +"But Dick said he would arrive on Friday," Dories reminded her friend. + +"Yes, I know, but if he leaves Boston after school is out in the +afternoon, he won't get there until evening." + +"They might come over then," Dories insisted. A few moments later, as +they were nearing the cabin, she added: "There is no appetizing aroma to +greet us today. Aunt Jane is probably still in bed." Then, turning toward +Nann, the younger girl said earnestly: "Truly, I feel so sorry for her. +She seems heartbroken to think that Mother and Peter and I will not need +to share her home. I believe she fretted about it all night; she looked +so hollow-eyed and sick this morning." + +Dories was right. The old woman was still in bed, and when her niece went +in to see what she wanted, Miss Moore said: "Will you girls mind so very +much if we go home on Monday. I am not feeling at all well, and, if I am +in Boston I can send for a doctor. Here I might die before one could +reach me." + +"Of course we want to go whenever you wish," Dories declared. She did not +mention what her mother had written. There would be time enough later. + +Out in the kitchen Dories talked it over with Nann. "You'll be sorry to +go before you solve the mystery of the old ruin, won't you?" the younger +girl asked. + +Nann whirled about, eyes laughing, stove poker upheld. "I'll prophesy +that the mystery will all be solved before our train leaves on Monday +morning," she said merrily. + +After her lunch, which this time truly was of toast and tea, Miss Moore +said that she felt as though she could sleep all the afternoon if she +were left alone, and so Dories and Nann donned their bright-colored tams +and sweater-coats, as there was a cool wind, and went out on the beach +wondering where they would go and what they would do. "Let's visit the +punt and see that nothing has happened to it," Dories suggested. + +They soon reached the end of the sandy road. Nann glanced casually in the +direction of Siquaw, then stopped and, narrowing her eyes, she gazed +steadily into the distance for a long moment. "Don't you see a moving +object coming this way?" she inquired. + +Dories nodded as she declared: "It's old Spindly, of course, and I +suppose Gib is on it. I wonder why he is coming over at this hour. It +isn't later than two, is it?" + +"Not that even." Dories glanced at her wrist-watch as she spoke. For +another long moment they stood watching the object grow larger. Not until +it was plain to them that it was the old white horse with two riders did +they permit their delight to be expressed. "Dick has come! He must have +arrived on the noon train. It must be a holiday!" Dories exclaimed, and +Nann added, "Or at least Dick has proclaimed it one." Then they both +waved for the boys, having observed them from afar, were swinging their +caps. + +"Isn't it great that I could come today?" was Dick's first remark after +the greetings had been exchanged. "Class having exams and I was exempt." + +Nann's eyes glowed. "Isn't that splendid, Dick? I know what that means. +Your daily average was so high you were excused from the test." + +The city boy flushed. "Well, it wasn't my fault. It's an easy subject for +me. I'm wild about history and I don't seem able to forget anything that +I read." Then, smiling at the country boy, he added: "Gib, here, tells me +that you haven't visited the old ruin since I left. That was mighty nice +of you. I've been thinking so much about that mysterious airplane chap +this past week, it's a wonder I could get any of my lessons right." + +"Isn't it the queerest thing?" Nann said. "That airplane hasn't been seen +or heard since you left." + +"I ain't so sure." Gib had removed his cap and was scratching one ear as +he did when puzzled. "Pa 'n' me both thought we heard a hummin' one +night, but 'twas far off, sort o'. I reckon'd, like's not, that pilot +fellar lit his boat way out in the water and slid back in quiet-like." + +Dick, much interested, nodded. "He could have done that, you know. He may +realize that there are people on the point and he may not wish to have +his movements observed." Then eagerly: "Can you girls go right now? The +tide is just right and we wanted to give that old dining-room a thorough +overhauling, you know." + +"Yes, we can go. Aunt Jane is going to sleep all of the afternoon." Then +impulsively Dories turned toward the red-headed boy. "Gib," she exclaimed +contritely, "I'm just ever so sorry that I called Aunt Jane queer or +cross. Something happened this week which has proved that she is very +different in her heart from what we supposed her to be. She has just been +achingly lonely for years, and some family affairs which, of course, +would interest no one but ourselves, have made her shut herself away from +everyone. I'm ever so sorry for her, and I know that from now on I'm +going to love her just dearly." + +"So am I," Nann said very quietly. "I wish we had realized that all this +time Miss Moore has been hungering for us to love and be kind to her. We +girls sometimes forget that elderly people have much the same feelings +that we have." + +"I know," Dick agreed as they walked four abreast toward the creek where +the punt was hid, "I have an old grandmother who is always so happy when +we youngsters include her in our good times." Then he added in a changed +tone: "Hurray! There's the old punt! Now, all aboard!" Ever chivalrous, +Dick held out a hand to each girl, but it was to Nann that he said with +conviction: "This is the day that we are to solve the mystery." + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI. + A CLUE TO THE OLD RUIN MYSTERY + + +The voyage up the narrow channel in the marsh was uneventful and at last +the four young people reached the opening near the old ruin. They stopped +before entering to look around that they might be sure the place was +unoccupied. Then Dick crept through the opening in the crumbling wall to +reconnoiter. "All's well!" he called to them a moment later, and in the +same order as before the others followed. Everything was just as it had +been on their former visit. + +Dick flashed his light in the corner where they had seen the picture of +old Colonel Wadbury, and the sharp eyes, under heavy brows, seemed to +glare at them. Dories, with a shudder, was secretly glad that they were +only pictured eyes. + +"Sh! Hark!" It was Dick in the lead who, having stopped, turned and held +up a warning finger. They had reached the door out of which they had +broken a panel the week before. + +"What is it? What do you hear?" Nann asked. + +"A sort of a scurrying noise," Dick told her. "Nothing but rats, I guess, +but just the same you girls had better wait here until Gib and I have +looked around in there. Perhaps you'd better go back to the opening," he +added as, in the dim light, he noted Dories' pale, frightened face. The +younger girl was clutching her friend's arm as though she never meant to +let go. "I'm just as afraid of rats," she confessed, "as I am of ghosts." + +"We'll wait here," Nann said calmly. "Rats won't hurt us. They would be +more afraid of us than even Dori is of them." + +Dick climbed through the hole in the door, followed closely by Gib. Nann, +holding a lighted lantern, smiled at her friend reassuringly. Although +only a few moments passed, they seemed like an eternity to the younger +girl; then Dick's beaming face appeared in the opening. It was very +evident that he had found something which interested him and which was +not of a frightening nature. The boys assisted the girls over the heap of +debris which held the door shut and then flashed the light around what +had once been a handsomely furnished dining-room. Dories' first glance +was toward the sideboard where they had left the painting of the +beautiful girl. It was not there. + +The boys also had made the discovery. "Which proves," Dick declared, +"that Gib was right about that airplane chap having been here. He must +have taken the picture, but _why_ do you suppose he would want it?" + +"I guess you're right," Dick had been looking behind the heavy piece of +mahogany furniture as he spoke, "and, whoever was here has left +something. The rats we heard scurrying about were trying to drag it away, +to make into a nest, I suppose." + +Arising from a stooping posture, the boy revealed a note book which he +had picked up from behind the sideboard. + +He opened it to the first page and turned his flashlight full upon it. +"Those plaguity little rats have torn half of this page nearly off," he +complained, "but I guess we can fit it together and read the writing on +it." + +"October fifteen," Dick read aloud. Then paused while he tried to fit the +torn pieces. "There, now I have it," he said, and continued reading: "At +Mother's request, I came to her father's old home, but found it in a +ruined state. The natives in the village tell me there is no way to reach +the place, as it is in a dangerous swamp, sort of a 'quick-mud', all +about it, and what's more, one garrulous chap tells me that the place is +haunted. Well, I don't care a continental for the ghost, but I'm not +hankering to find an early grave in oozy mud." + +"I don't recollect any sech fellow," Gib put in, but Dick was continuing +to read from the note book: + +"I didn't let on who I was. Didn't want to arouse curiosity, so I took +the next train back to Boston. I simply can't give up. I _must_ reach +that old house and give it a real ransacking. Mother is sure her papers +are there, and if they are, she must have them." + +The next page revealed a rapidly scrawled entry: "October 16th. Lay awake +nearly all night trying to think out a way to visit that old ruin. Had an +inspiration. Shall sail over it in an airplane and get at least a +bird's-eye view. Glad I belong to the Boston Aviation Club. + +"October 18. Did the deed! Sailed over Siquaw in an aircraft and saw, +when I flew low, that there was a narrow channel leading through the +marsh and directly up to the old ruin. + +"I'll come in a seaplane next time, with a small boat on board. Mother's +coming soon and I want to find the deed to the Wetherby place before she +arrives. It is her right to have it since her own mother left it to her, +but her father, I just can't call the old skinflint my grandfather, had +it hidden in the house that he built by the sea. When Mother went back, +she asked for that deed, but he wouldn't give it to her. She told him +that her husband was dead and that she wanted to live in her mother's old +home near Boston, but he said that she never should have it, that he had +destroyed the deed. He was mean enough to do it, without doubt, but I +don't believe he did it, somehow. I have a hunch that the papers are +still there. + +"October 20. Well, I went in a seaplane, made my way up that crooked +little channel in the swamp. Found more in the ruin than I had supposed I +would. First of all, I hunted for an old chest, or writing desk, the +usual place for papers to be kept. Located a heavy walnut desk in what +had once been a library, but though there were papers enough, nothing +like a deed. Had a mishap. Had left the seaplane anchored in a quiet +cove. It broke loose and washed ashore. Wasn't hurt, but I couldn't get +it off until change of tide, along about midnight. Being curious about a +rocky point, I took my flashlight and prowled around a bit. Saw eight +boarded-up cottages in a row, and to pass away the time I looked them +over. Was rather startled by two occurrences. First was a noise regularly +repeated, but that proved to be only a blind on an upper window banging +in the wind. That was the cottage nearest the point. Then later I was +sure I saw two white faces in an upper window of a cottage farther along. +Sort of surprising when you suppose you're the only living person for a +mile around. O well, ghosts can't turn me from my purpose. Got back to +the plane just as it was floating and made off by daybreak. Haven't made +much headway yet, but shall return next week." + +Dick looked up elated. "There, that proves that Mother did forget to +fasten that blind," he exclaimed. Dories was laughing gleefully. "Nann," +she chuckled, "to think that we scared him as much as he scared us. You +know we thought the person carrying a light on the rocks was a ghost, and +he, seeing us peer out at him, thought we were ghosts." + +Nann smiled at her friend, then urged Dick continue reading, but Dick +shook his head. "Can't," he replied, "for there is no more." + +"But he came again," Nann said. "We know that he did, because he left +this little note book." + +"And what is more, he took away with him the painting of his lovely +girl-mother," Dories put in. + +Dick nodded. "Don't you see," he was addressing Nann, "can't you guess +what happened? When he came and found a panel had been broken in this +door and the painting on the sideboard, he realized that he was not the +only person visiting the old ruin." + +"Even so, that wouldn't have frightened him away. He evidently is a +courageous chap, shouldn't you say?" Nann inquired, and Dick agreed, +adding: "Well then, what _do_ you think happened?" + +It was Gib who replied: "I reckon that pilot fellar found them papers he +was lookin' fer an' ain't comin' back no more." + +"But perhaps he hasn't," Nann declared. "Suppose we hunt around a little. +We might just stumble on that old deed, but even if we did, would we know +how to send it to him?" + +Dick had been closely scrutinizing the small note book. "Yes, we would," +he answered her. "Here is his name and address on the cover. He goes to +the Boston Tech, I judge." + +"O, what is his name?" Dories asked eagerly. + +"Wouldn't you love to meet him?" the younger girl continued. + +"I intend to look him up when I get back to town," Dick assured them, +"and wouldn't it be great if we had found the papers; that is, of course, +if he hasn't." + +Nann glanced about the dining-room. "There's a door at the other end. +It's so dark down there I hadn't noticed it before." + +The boys went in that direction. "Perhaps it leads to the room where the +desk is. We haven't seen that yet." Dories and Nann followed closely. + +Dick had his hand on the knob, when again a scurrying noise within made +him pause. "Like's not all this time that pilot fellar's been in there +waitin' fer us to clear out." Gib almost hoped that his suggestion was +true. But it was not, for, where the door opened, as it did readily, the +young people saw nothing but a small den in which the furniture had been +little disturbed, as the walls that sheltered it had not fallen. + +One glance at the desk proved to them that it had been thoroughly +ransacked, and so they looked elsewhere. "In all the stories I have ever +read," Dories told them, "there were secret drawers, or sliding panels, +or----" + +"A removable stone in a chimney," Nann merrily added. "But I believe that +old Colonel Wadbury would do something quite novel and different," she +concluded. + +While the girls had been talking, Dick had been flashing his light around +the walls. An excited exclamation took the others to his side. "There is +the pilot chap's entrance to the ruin." He pointed toward a fireplace. +Several stone in the chimney had fallen out, leaving a hole big enough +for a person to creep through. + +"Perhaps he had never been in the front room, then," Nann remarked. + +"I hate to suggest it," Dories said hesitatingly, "but I think we ought +to be going. It's getting late." + +"I'll say we ought!" Dick glanced at his time-piece. "Tides have a way of +turning whether there is a mystery to ferret out or not. We have all day +tomorrow to spend here, or at least part of it," he modified. + +At Gib's suggestion they went out through the hole in the back of the +fireplace. The narrow channel was easily navigated and again they left +the punt, as on a former occasion, anchored in the calm waters on the +marsh side of the point. Then they climbed over the rocks, and walked +along the beach four abreast. They talked excitedly of one phase of what +had occurred and then of another. + +"You were right, Dick, when you said that the mystery about the pilot of +the airplane would be solved today." Nann smiled at the boy who was +always at her side. Then she glanced over toward the island, misty in the +distance. "And to think that that girl-mother and her daughter are really +coming back to America." + +"Do you suppose they will come in the Phantom Yacht?" Dories turned +toward Gib to inquire. + +"I don't reckon so," that boy replied. "I cal'late we-uns saw the +skeleton of the Phantom Yacht over to the island that day we was thar, +Miss Nann. A storm came up, Pa said, an' he allays thought that thar +yacht was wrecked." + +"If that's true, then everyone on board must have been saved," Nann said. +"Of that much, at least, we're sure." + +The boys left the girls in front of their home-cabin, promising to be +back early the next day. On entering the cottage, Dories went at once to +her aunt's room and was pleased to see that she looked rested. A wrinkled +old hand was held out to the girl, and, when Dories had taken it, she was +surprised to hear her aunt say, "I'm trying to be resigned to my big +disappointment, Dories; but even if I _do_ have to live alone all the +rest of my days, I'm going to make you and Peter my heirs. Your mother +can't refuse me that." Tears sprang to the girl's eyes. She tried to +speak, but could not. + +Her aunt understood, and, as sentimentality was, on the whole, foreign to +her nature, she said, with a return of her brusque manner, "There! That's +all there is to that. Please fetch me a poached egg with my toast and +tea." + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII. + RANSACKING THE OLD RUIN + + +It was midmorning when the girls, busy about their simple household +tasks, heard a hallooing out on the beach. Nann took off her apron, +smiling brightly at her friend. "Good, there are the boys!" she +exclaimed, hurrying out to the front porch to meet them. Dories followed +with their tams and sweater-coats. + +"We've put up a lunch," Nann told the newcomers. "Miss Moore said that we +might stay over the noon hour. We have told her all about the mystery we +are trying to fathom and she was just ever so interested." They were +walking toward the point of rocks while they talked. + +Gib leaned forward to look at the speaker. "Say, Miss Dori," he +exclaimed, "Miss Moore's been here sech a long time, like's not she knew +ol' Colonel Wadbury, didn't she now?" + +"No, she didn't know him," Dories replied. "He was such an old hermit he +didn't want neighbors, but she did hear the story about his daughter's +return and how cruel he had been to her. Aunt Jane wasn't here the year +of the storm. She and her maid were in Europe about that time, so she +really doesn't know any more than we do." + +"We didn't start coming here until after it had all happened," Dick put +in. + +"I'm so excited." Nann gave a little eager skip. "I almost hope the pilot +of the seaplane has not found the deed and that we may find it and give +it to him." + +"So do I!" Dick seconded. Over the rugged point they went, each time +becoming more agile, and into the punt they climbed when Gib, barefooted +as usual, had waded out and rowed close to a flat-rock platform. The tide +was in and with its aid they floated rapidly up the channel in the marsh. +"Shall we enter by the front or the back?" Nann asked of Dick. + +"The front is nearer our landing place," was the reply. "Let's give the +old salon a thorough ransacking. I feel in my bones that we are going to +make some interesting discovery today, don't you, Gib?" + +"Dunno," was that lad's laconic reply. "Mabbe so." + +A few moments later they were standing under the twisted chandelier +listening to the faint rattle of its many crystal pendants. Nann made a +suggestion: "Let's each take a turn in selecting some place to look for +the deed, shall we?" + +"Oh, yes, let's," Dories seconded. "That will make sort of a game of it +all." + +Dick held the flashlight out to the older girl. "You make the first +selection," he said. + +Nann took the light and, standing still with the others under the +chandelier, she flashed the bright beam around the room. "There's a +broken door almost crushed under the sagging roof." She indicated the +front corner opposite the one by which they had entered. "There must have +been a room beyond that. I suggest that we try to get through there." + +But Dick demurred. "I'm not sure that it would be wise," he told her. +"The roof might sag more if that door were pulled away." They heard a +noise back of them and turned to see Gib making for the entrance. "I'll +be back," was all that he told them. When, a moment later, he did return, +he beckoned. "Come along out," he said. "There's a way into that thar +room from the outside." + +He led them to a window, the pane of which had been broken, leaving only +the frame. They peered in and beheld what had been a large bedroom. A +heavy oak bed and other pieces of furniture to match were pitched at all +angles as the rotting floor had given way. Dick stepped back and looked +critically at the sagging roof, then he beckoned Gib and together they +talked in low tones. Seeming satisfied with their decision, they returned +to the spot where the girls were waiting. "We don't want you to run any +risk of being hurt while you are with us," Dick explained. "We want to +take just as good care of you as if you were our sisters." Then he +assured them: "We think it is safe. Gib showed me how stout the +cross-beam is which has kept the roof from sagging farther." + +And so they entered the room through the window. For an hour they +ransacked. There was no evidence that anyone had been in that room since +the storm so long ago. "Queer, sort of, ain't it?" Gib speculated, +scratching his ear. "Yo'd think that pilot fellar'd a been all over the +place, wouldn't yo' now?" + +"Let's go back to the front room again and let Dori choose next for a +place to search," the ever chivalrous Dick suggested. + +A few seconds later they again were under the chandelier. Dories, as +interested and excited now as any of them, took the light and flashed it +about the room, letting the round glow rest at last on the huge +fireplace. "That's where I'll look," she told the others. "Let's see if +there is a loose rock that will come out and behind which we may find a +box with the deed in it." + +Nann laughed. "Like the story we read when we were twelve or thirteen +years old," she told the boys. But though they all rapped on the stones +and even tried to pry them out, so well had the masonry been made, each +rock remained firmly in place and not one of them was movable. + +"Now, Dick, you have a turn." Dories held the flashlight toward him, but +he shook his head. "No, Gib first." + +The red-headed boy grinned gleefully. "I'll choose a hard place. I reckon +ol' Colonel Wadbury hid that thar deed somewhar's up in the attic under +the roof." Dories looked dismayed. "O, Gib, don't choose there, for we +girls couldn't climb up among the rafters." But Nann put in: "Of course, +dear, Gib may choose the loft if he wishes. But how would you get there?" + +Gib had been flashing the light along the cracked, tipped ceiling of the +room. Suddenly his freckled face brightened. "Come on out agin." He +sprang for the low opening as he spoke. Then, when they were outside, he +pointed to the spot where the roof was lowest. "Yo' gals stay here whar +the punt is," he advised, "while me 'n' Dick shinny up to whar the +chimney's broke off. Bet yo' we kin git into the garrit from thar. Bet +yo' we kin." + +Dick was gazing at the roof appraisingly. "O, I guess it's safe enough," +he answered the anxious expression he saw in the face of the older girl. +"If our weight is too much, the roof will sag more and close up our +entrance perhaps, but we can slide down without being hurt, I am sure of +that." + +The girls sat in the punt to await the return of the boys, who, after a +few moments' scrambling up the sloping roof, actually disappeared into +what must have once been an attic. + +"I never was so interested or excited in all my life," Nann told her +friend. "I do hope we will find that deed today, for tomorrow will be +Sunday, and I feel that we ought to remain with your Aunt Jane and put +things in readiness for our departure on Monday." + +"Yes, so do I." Dories glanced up at the roof, but as the boys were not +to be seen, she continued: "I am interested in finding the deed, of +course, but I just can't keep my thoughts from wandering. I am so glad +that Mother will not have to keep on sewing. She has been so wonderful +taking care of Peter and me the way she has ever since that long ago day +when father died." Then she sighed. "Of course I wish she hadn't been too +proud to accept help from Aunt Jane." But almost at once she contradicted +with, "In one way, though, I don't, for if I had lived in Boston all +these years, I would never have known you. But now that you are going to +live in Boston, how I do wish that Mother and Peter and I were to live +there also." + +"Maybe you will," Nann began, but Dories shook her head. "I don't believe +Mother would want to leave her old home. It isn't much of a place, but +she and Father went there when they were married, and we children were +born there." Then, excitedly pointing to the roof, Dories exclaimed: +"Here come the boys, and they have a packet of papers, haven't they?" + +Nann stepped out of the punt to the mound as she called, "O, boys, have +you found the deed?" + +"We don't know yet," Dick replied, but the girls could see by his glowing +expression that he believed that they had. + +They all sat in the punt, which had been drawn partly up on the mound and +which afforded the only available seats. Dick and Nann occupied the wide +stern seat, while Dories and Gib in the middle faced them. Dick +unfastened the leather thong which bound the papers and, closing his +eyes, just for the lark of it, he passed a folded document to each of his +companions. Then he opened them as he said laughingly: + +"Just four. How kind of old Colonel Wadbury to help us with our game! +Now, Nann, report about yours first. Is it the Wetherby deed?" + +After a moment's eager scrutiny, Nann shook her head. "Alas, no! It's +something telling about shares in some corporation," she told them. + +"Well, we'll keep it anyway to give to our pilot friend," Dick commented. + +"Mine," Dories said, "is a deed, but it seems to be for this Siquaw Point +property." + +Dick reported that his was a marriage license, and Gib dolefully added +that his was some government paper, the meaning of which he could not +understand. He handed it to Dick, who, after scrutinizing it, said: +"Well, at least one thing is certain, it isn't the deed for which we are +searching." Then, rising, he exclaimed: "Now it's my turn. I want to go +back to the salon. I had a sort of inspiration awhile ago. I thought I +wouldn't mention it until my turn came." + +They left the punt and followed the speaker to their low entrance in the +wall. Although they were curious to know Dick's plan, no one spoke until +again they stood beneath the rattling chandelier. At once the boy flashed +the round light toward the corner where the piercing eyes under shaggy +brows seemed to be watching them. Then he went in that direction. Dories +shuddered as she always did when she saw that stern, unrelenting old +face. "Why, Dick," Nann exclaimed, "do you suspect that the picture of +the old Colonel can reveal the deed's hiding-place?" + +The boy was on his knees in front of the painting. "Yes, I do," he said. +"At least I happened all of a sudden to remember of having heard of +valuable papers that were hidden in a frame back of a painting. That is +why I wanted to look here." He had actually lifted the large painting in +the broken frame. Dories cried out in terror: "O, Dick, how dare you +touch that terrible thing? He looks so real and so scarey." The boy +addressed evidently did not hear her. Handing the flashlight to Nann, he +asked her to hold it close while he tore off the boards at the back. + +For a tense moment the four young people watched, almost holding their +breath. + +"Wall, it ain't thar, I reckon." Gib was the first to break the silence. + +"You're right!" Dick placed the painting from which the frame had been +removed against the wall and was about to step back when the rotting +boards beneath him caved in and he fell, disappearing entirely. Dories +screamed and Gib, taking the light from Nann, flashed the glow from it +down into the dark hole. "Dick! Dick! Are you hurt?" Nann was calling +anxiously. + +After what seemed like a very long time, Dick's voice was heard: "I'm all +right. Don't worry about me. Gib, see if there isn't a trap-door or +something. I seem to have fallen into a vault of some kind." Then after +another silence, "I guess I've stumbled onto steps leading up." A second +later a low door in the dark corner opened and Dick, smiling gleefully, +emerged, covered with dust and cobwebs. "Give me the light and let's see +what this door is." Then, after a moment's scrutiny, "Aha! That vault was +meant to be a secret. The door looks, from this side, like part of the +paneling." + +"Oh, Dick!" Nann cried exultingly. "_That's_ where the Wetherby deed is. +Down in that old vault." + +"I bet yo' she's right." Gib stooped to peer into the dark hole. + +"Can't we all go down and investigate?" Nann asked eagerly. + +Dick hesitated. "I'd heaps rather you girls stayed out in the punt," he +began, but when he saw the crestfallen expression of the adventurous +older girl he ended with, "Well, come, if you want to. I don't suppose +anything will hurt us." + +Although Dories was afraid to go down, she was even more fearful of +remaining alone with those pictured sharp grey eyes glaring at her, and +so, clinging to Nann, she descended the rather rickety short flight of +steps. The flashlight revealed casks which evidently had contained +liquor, and a small iron box. "That box," Dick said with conviction, +"contains the Wetherby deed." He was about to try to lift it when Nann +grasped his arm. "Hark," she whispered. "I heard someone walking. It +sounds as though it might be someone in that library or den where the +desk was." + +They all listened and were convinced that Nann had been right. "It's that +pilot chap, I reckon," Gib said. But Dick was not so sure. "Please, +Nann," he pleaded, "you and Dories go out to the punt and wait, while Gib +and I discover who is prowling around. I didn't hear an airplane pass +overhead, but then, of course, he might have come in from the sea as he +did before." + +The girls were glad to get out in the sunlight. They stood near the punt +with hands tightly clasped while the boys went around to the back to +enter the opening in the wall of the den. It seemed a very long while +before Nann and Dories heard voices. + +Then three boys approached them. A tall, slender lad, dressed after the +fashion of aviators, with a dark handsome face lighted with interest, was +listening intently to what Dick was telling him. + +The girls heard him say, "Of course, I knew someone else was visiting my +grandfather's home, especially after I found the painting of my +mother----" He paused when he saw the girls, and Nann was sure that the +boys had neglected to tell him that they were not alone. Dick, in his +usual manly way, introduced Carl Ovieda. Dories thought the newcomer the +nicest looking boy she had ever seen. At once Dick made a confession. "I +know that we ought not to have done it, Mr. Ovieda. We read the note book +that we found, hoping that it would throw some light on the mystery." + +"I'm glad you did!" was the frank reply. "The truth is, I was getting +rather desperate. You see, Mother and Sister are to arrive tomorrow from +overseas, and I did so want to have the deed of Grandma Wetherby's old +home to give to Mother. The place has been vacant for years, but the +taxes have been paid. Of course no one would dispute our right to live +there, but there couldn't be a clear title without having the deed +recorded." + +Gib asked a question in his usual indifferent manner, but Nann knew how +eager he really was to hear the answer, "Air they comin' in that thar +Phantom Yacht, yer mother and sister?" + +The newcomer looked at the questioner as though he did not understand his +meaning; then turning toward Nann and Dories he asked, "What is the +Phantom Yacht?" + +Nann told him. Then the lad, with a friendly smile, answered Gib: "No, +indeed. That yacht was sold, Mother told me, when we returned to +Honolulu. That is where we have lived nearly all of our lives, but ever +since my father died, Mother has longed to return to her own home +country." + +Nann, glancing at Dick, realized that he was very eager to speak, but was +courteously waiting until the others were finished, and so she said: "Mr. +Ovieda, I believe Dick wishes to tell you of an iron box in which he is +almost sure the lost deed will be found." + +The dark, handsome face lightened. Turning to the boy at his side, he +inquired: "Have you really unearthed an iron box? Lead me to it, I beg." + +"We'll wait in the punt," Nann told the three boys. Dories knew how hard +it was for her friend to say that, since she so loved adventure. + +However, it was not long before a joyful shouting was heard and the three +boys appeared creeping through the low opening. Carl Ovieda waved a +folded document toward them. "It is found!" Never before had three words +caused those young people so much rejoicing. After they had each examined +the paper, yellowed with age, and Carl had assured them that he and his +mother and sister would never be able to thank them enough for the +service they had rendered, Nann exclaimed: "I don't know how the rest of +you feel, but I am just ever so hungry." + +"I have a suggestion to make," Dories put in. "Let's all go back to the +point of rocks and have a picnic." Then, as the newcomer demurred, the +pretty young girl hastened to say, "Oh, indeed we want you, Mr. Ovieda." + +The tall, handsome youth went to the place where he had left his small +portable canoe and paddled it around. + +"Miss Dories," he called, "this craft rides better if there are two in +it. May I have the pleasure of your company?" + +Blushing prettily, Dories took Carl's proffered hand and stepped in the +canoe. Nann, Dick and Gib, in the punt, led the way. + +Half an hour later, high on the rocks, the five young people ate the good +lunch the girls had prepared and told one another the outstanding events +of their lives. "I'm wild to meet your sister, Mr. Ovieda," Dories told +him. "Does she still look like a lily, all gold and white. That was the +way Gib's father described her." + +The tall lad nodded. "Yes, Sister is a very pretty blonde. She has iris +blue eyes and hair like spun gold, as fairy books say. I want you all to +come to our home in Boston just as soon as we are settled." His +invitation, Nann was pleased to see, included Gib as well as the others. +That embarrassed lad replied, with a hunch of his right shoulder, "Dunno +as I'll ever be up to the big town. Dunno's I ever will." + +"You're wrong there, Gib!" Dick exclaimed in the tone of one who could no +longer keep a most interesting secret. "You know how you have wished and +wished that you could have a chance to go to a real school. Well, Dad has +been trying to work it so that you might have that chance, and, just +before I came away, he told me that he had managed to get a scholarship +for you in a boys' school just out of Boston. Why, what's the matter, +Gib? It's what you wanted, isn't it?" + +It was hard to understand the country boy's expression. "Yeah!" he +confessed. "That thar's what I've been hankerin' fer. It sure is." Then, +as a slow grin lit his freckled face, he exclaimed: "It's hit me so +sudden, sort of, but I reckon I kinder feel the way yo're feelin'," he +nodded toward the grandson of old Colonel Wadbury, "as though I'd found a +deed to suthin, when I'd never expected to have nuthin' not as long as +I'd live." + +The girls were deeply touched by Gib's sincere joy and they told him how +glad they were for his good fortune. Then Carl Ovieda sprang to his feet, +saying that he was sorry to break up the party, but that he must be +winging on his way. He held out his hand to each of the group as he bade +them good-bye, turning, last of all, to Dories, to whom he said: "I shall +let you know as soon as we are settled. I want you and my sister to be +good friends." + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + THE BEST SURPRISE OF ALL + + +As the four young people neared the home cabin, they were amazed to +behold Miss Moore seated in a rocker on the front porch and, instead of +her house dress, she had on her traveling suit. Dories leaped up the +steps, exclaiming, "Why, Aunt Jane, what has happened?" + +The old woman replied suavely: "Nothing at all, my dear; that is, nothing +startling. Mr. Strait drove over this morning with some mail for me and I +asked him to return at two. Now hurry and pack up your things. We're +going home." + +Dories put her hand to her heart. "O," she exclaimed, "I was afraid there +had been bad news from Mother." Then, hesitatingly, "I thought we weren't +going home until Monday." + +"We are going now," was all that her aunt said. + +Dories ran back to the beach to explain to the three standing there, then +the girls bade the boys good-bye and hastened up to the loft to pack +their satchels and don their traveling costumes. + +"What can it mean?" Dories almost whispered. "There must have been +something urgent in the letter Aunt Jane received this morning," she +concluded. + +Nann snapped down the cover of her suitcase, then flashed a bright smile +at her friend. "To tell you the truth," she confessed, "I am glad that we +are going today. Since your Aunt Jane will not travel on Sunday, and +since the mysteries have all been solved, there would be nothing to do +from now until Monday." + +Before the other girl could reply Nann, with eyes glowing, continued +enthusiastically: "And how wonderfully the old ruin mystery turned out, +didn't it? I feel ever so sure that Carl Ovieda and his sister will prove +good friends." Then, teasingly, "Carl seemed to like you especially +well." + +Dories' surprised expression was sincere. "Me?" she exclaimed +dramatically, then shook her head. "Of course you are wrong! You are so +much prettier and wittier and wiser, Nann, boys _always_ like you better +than they do your friends." + +"I hold to my opinion," was the laughing response. "But come along now, I +hear the rattly old stage coming. If we are to make the 3:10 train, +Spindly will have to make good time." Nann glanced at her wrist watch as +she spoke; then, taking their suitcases, they went down the rickety +stairs. On the front porch they found Miss Moore waiting among her bags; +her heavy black veil thrown back over her bonnet. Gib's father, having +left the stage at the beach end of the road, was coming for the baggage. +"O, Aunt Jane!" Dories suddenly exclaimed, "aren't we going to put the +covers on the furniture and fasten the blinds?" + +It was Mr. Strait who answered: "Me'n Amandy'll tend to all them things, +Miss. We'll come over fust off Monday an' take the key back to the +store." + +Miss Moore nodded her assent. Then, with the help of the two girls, she +picked her way through the sand to the stage and was soon seated between +the two black bags as she had been three weeks previous, but now how +different was the expression on the wrinkled old face. On that other ride +the girls had been justified in believing her to be a grouchy old woman, +but today Dories noticed that when her aunt smiled across at her, there +was a wistful expression in the grey eyes that could be so sharp and a +quivering about the thin lips. "Poor Aunt Jane," was the thought that +accompanied her answering smile, "she dreads going back to her lonely +mansion of a home, but of course I am to remain with her for a few days, +or, at least, until I hear from Mother." + +When Siquaw was reached the girls saw that the train was even then +approaching the small station, and, in the rush that followed, they quite +forgot to look for Dick and Gibralter to say good-bye. It was not until +they were seated in the coach, and the train well under way, that Dories +exclaimed: "We didn't see the boys! Don't you think that is queer, Nann? +They knew we were going on that train. I wonder why they weren't at the +station to see us off." + +A merry laugh back of them was the unexpected answer. Seated directly +behind them were the two boys about whom they had been talking. Rising, +they skipped around and took the seat facing the girls. + +"Well, where did you come from?" Dories began, then noticed that Gib wore +his one best suit and that he was carrying a funny old hand satchel. His +freckled face was shining from more than a recent hard scrubbing. Nann +interpreted that jubilant expression. "Gibralter Strait," she exclaimed, +"you're going away to school, aren't you?" Then impulsively she held out +her hand. "You don't know how glad I am. I have great faith in you. I +know you will amount to something." + +As the country lad was squirming in very evident embarrassment, his +friend drew the attention of the girls to himself by saying: "I suppose, +Mistress Nann, that you don't expect _me_ to amount to anything." The +good-looking boy tried so hard to assume an abused expression that the +girls laughingly assured him that they had some slight hope of his +ultimate success in life. + +Dories glanced across at the seat where her aunt was sitting and, +excusing herself, she went over and sat with the elderly woman, although +Nann could see that they talked but little, her heart warmed toward her +friend, who was growing daily more thoughtful of others. After a time +Miss Moore said: "Dories, dear, I think I'll try to take a little nap. +You would better go back to your friends. I am sure that they are missing +you." + +Then as the old lady did close her eyes and seem to sleep, the four young +people talked over the past three weeks in quiet voices and made plans +for the future. "I hope we will be friends forever," Dories exclaimed, +and Nann added, "Perhaps, when we have made the acquaintance of Mr. +Ovieda's sister, we can form a sort of friendship club with six members. +We could meet now and then, and have merry times." Dories' doleful +expression at this happy suggestion caused Nann to add, as she placed a +hand on her friend's arm, "I know what you are thinking, dear. That all +the rest of us will be in Boston, but that you will be in Elmwood. But +surely you will come to visit your Aunt Jane often during vacations." + +Before Dories could reply the boys informed them that they were entering +the city. Dories, who had traveled little, was eager to stand on the +platform at the back of the car that she might have a better view, and +later when the young people returned to the coach it was time to collect +their baggage and prepare to descend. First of all, Dick and Gib assisted +Miss Moore to the platform and then carried out her bags. Then they +hailed a taxi driver at her request. Then Miss Moore surprised the girls +by saying hospitably: "Come over and see us tomorrow, Dick and Gibralter. +You know where I live." She actually smiled at the older boy. "Dories +will be with me for a few days, I suppose, and Nann as well." Then, when +the older girl started to speak, the old woman said firmly, "You accepted +an invitation to be my guest for one month, and only three weeks of that +month have passed." This being true, Nann did not protest. + +Dories squeezed her friend's arm ecstatically. She had dreaded the moment +when Nann would leave for the hotel where her father stayed. Gib lifted +his cap as he saw Dick doing when the taxi drove away. + +Then the old woman addressed the girls. "They're fine boys, both of +them!" she said. "That's why I was willing you should go anywhere with +them that you wished. I knew they would take as good care of you as they +would of their sisters." + +Dusk came early that autumn afternoon, and so, try as she might, Dories +could see little of the neighborhoods through which the taxi was taking +them. It was a long ride. At first it was through a business district +where many lights flashed on, and where their progress was very slow +because of the traffic. Then the noise gradually lessened, big elm trees +could be seen lining the streets, and far back among other trees and on +wide lawns, lights from large homes flickered. At last the taxi turned in +between two high stone gate posts. Miss Moore was sitting ram-rod +straight and the girls, watching, found it hard to interpret her +expression. Dories asked: "Aunt Jane, have we reached your home?" + +They were surprised at the bitterness of the tone in which the reply was +given: "Home? No! We have reached my house. A place where there is only a +housekeeper and a maid to welcome you is _not_ a home." + +Dories slipped a hand in her aunt's and held it close. She wanted to say +something comforting, but could think of nothing. The taxi had stopped +under the portico by the front steps, and, when she had been helped out, +Miss Moore paid the driver. Then they went upon the wide stone porch, +followed by the man, laden with their baggage. "I can't understand why +there isn't a light in the house. The maids knew I was to return almost +any day." Miss Moore rang the bell as she spoke. + +Suddenly lights within were flashed on. The heavy oak door was thrown +open and a small boy leaped out and hurled himself at one of the girls. +"Dori! Hello, Dori!" he cried jubilantly. "Here's Mother and me waiting +to surprise you all." And truly enough, there back of him was Mrs. Moore, +smiling and holding out her hand to the old woman, who stood as one +dazed. Then, comprehending what it all meant, she went in, tears falling +unheeded down her wrinkled cheeks. She took the outstretched hand as she +said tremulously, "My Peter's wife is here to welcome me _home_." She was +so deeply affected that Mrs. Moore, after stooping to quietly kiss her +daughter, led the old woman into a formally furnished parlor and sat with +her on a handsome old lounge. Then to the small boy in the doorway she +said, "Little Peter, show Dori and Nann up to their room." + +What those two women had to say to each other, no one ever knew, but that +it drew them very close together was evident by the loving expression in +the grey eyes of the older woman when she looked at the younger. + +Meanwhile the two girls, led by the small boy, entered a large upper room +which seemed to overlook a garden. Like the rooms below, it was formally +furnished after the style of an earlier period, but it seemed very grand +indeed to Dories. + +Her eyes were star-like with wonderment. "Nann," she half whispered in an +awed voice when Peter had gleefully displayed the wardrobe where the +girls were to hang their dresses and had opened each empty bureau drawer +that they were to use, "do you suppose that Mother, Peter and I are to +live here forever?" + +"I'm sure of it!" Nann replied. "And O, Dori, isn't it wonderful?" + +Just then a bell in some room below tinkled musically. "That's the supper +bell," the small boy told them. "Hilda's the cook, and O, Dori, such nice +puddings as she can make. Yum! Jum!" Then he cried excitedly: "Quick! +Take off your hats. Here's the bathroom that belongs to you. Honestly, +Dori, you have one all to yourself, and Mother and I, we have one." + +The girls smiled at the little fellow's enthusiasm. Dories felt as though +she must be dreaming. It all seemed so unreal. + +A few moments later they went downstairs and found that Miss Moore, whose +room was on the first floor, had changed to a house dress. She was seated +in a comfortable chair by the fireplace, on which a log was burning, and +she looked content, at peace with the world. She was saying to her +nephew's wife: "I do love Dories; she is a dear girl, but I will confess +that I was disappointed because she does not look like the lad I had so +loved." + +Hearing a sound at the door, the old woman turned, and for the first time +really beheld the small boy who appeared in front of the girls. + +"Peter!" was her amazed exclamation; the light of a great joy in her +eyes. Then she pointed to a life-size painting over the mantle in which +was a pictured boy of about the same age. "They are so alike," she said, +with tears in her eyes, as she looked up at Mrs. Moore, who, having +risen, was standing by the older woman's chair. Dories, gazing up at the +picture, thought that it might have been a painting of her small brother +except for the old-fashioned costume. + +The elderly woman was holding out her arms to the little fellow, and, +unafraid, he went to her trustingly. "My cup of joy is now full!" she +said, her voice tremulous with emotion. Then, smiling over the boy's head +at his mother, she asked: "Niece, shall we tell our plan to the girls +that _their_ cup of joy may also be full?" + +Mrs. Moore nodded and the old woman continued: "Nann, your father has +written to Dories' mother for advice. It seems that a change in his +business will take him traveling about the country for at least a year, +and he wanted to know what she thought would be best for you. He was +thinking of sending you to some distant relatives, but we, my Peter's +wife and I, have decided to keep you as a sister-companion for our Dori." +Then, before the girls could express their joy, the old woman concluded, +as she held little Peter close: "And so, at last, after many years of +desolate loneliness, this old house among the elms is to be a real +_home_." + + + THE END. + + + + + _SAVE THE WRAPPER!_ + + +If you have enjoyed reading about the adventures of the new friends you +have made in this book and would like to read more clean, wholesome +stories of their entertaining experiences, turn to the book jacket--on +the inside of it, a comprehensive list of Burt's fine series of carefully +selected books for young people has been placed for your convenience. + +_Orders for these books, placed with your bookstore or sent to the +Publishers, will receive prompt attention._ + + + THE + Ann Sterling Series + + + By HARRIET PYNE GROVE + Stories of Ranch and College Life + For Girls 12 to 16 Years + + _Handsome Cloth Binding with Attractive Jackets in Color_ + + ANN STERLING + The strange gift of Old Never-Run, an Indian whom she has befriended, + brings exciting events into Ann's life. + THE COURAGE OF ANN + Ann makes many new, worthwhile friends during her first year at + Forest Hill College. + ANN AND THE JOLLY SIX + At the close of their Freshman year Ann and the Jolly Six enjoy a + house party at the Sterling's mountain ranch. + ANN CROSSES A SECRET TRAIL + The Sterling family, with a group of friends, spend a thrilling + vacation under the southern Pines of Florida. + ANN'S SEARCH REWARDED + In solving the disappearance of her father, Ann finds exciting + adventures, Indians and bandits in the West. + ANN'S AMBITIONS + The end of her Senior year at Forest Hill brings a whirl of new + events into the career of "Ann of the Singing Fingers." + ANN'S STERLING HEART + Ann returns home, after completing a busy year of musical study abroad. + + + The Camp Fire Girls Series + + + By HILDEGARD G. FREY + + A Series of Outdoor Stories for Girls 12 to 16 Years. + All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles + PRICE 50 CENTS EACH + Postage 10c. Extra. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The Winnebagos go Camping. + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL; or, The Wohelo Weavers. + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT ONOWAY HOUSE; or, The Magic Garden. + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS GO MOTORING; or, Along the Road That Leads the Way. + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' LARKS AND PRANKS; or, The House of the Open Door. + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The Trail of the Seven Cedars. + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD; or, Glorify Work. + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over the Top with the Winnebagos. + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or, The Christmas Adventure at + Carver House. + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN; or, Down Paddles. + + + The Girl Scouts Series + + BY EDITH LAVELL + +A new copyright series of Girl Scouts stories by an author of wide +experience in Scouts' craft, as Director of Girl Scouts of Philadelphia. + + Clothbound, with Attractive Color Designs. + PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH + POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + + THE GIRL SCOUTS AT MISS ALLENS SCHOOL + THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP + THE GIRL SCOUTS' GOOD TURN + THE GIRL SCOUTS' CANOE TRIP + THE GIRL SCOUTS' RIVALS + THE GIRL SCOUTS ON THE RANCH + THE GIRL SCOUTS' VACATION ADVENTURES + THE GIRL SCOUTS' MOTOR TRIP + THE GIRL SCOUTS' CAPTAIN + THE GIRL SCOUTS' DIRECTOR + + + The Greycliff Girls Series + + By HARRIET PYNE GROVE + +Stories of Adventure, Fun, Study and Personalities of girls attending +Greycliff School. + + For Girls 10 to 15 Years + PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH + POSTAGE 10c EXTRA. + Cloth bound, with Individual Jackets in Color. + + CATHALINA AT GREYCLIFF + THE GIRLS OF GREYCLIFF + GREYCLIFF WINGS + GREYCLIFF GIRLS IN CAMP + GREYCLIFF HEROINES + GREYCLIFF GIRLS IN GEORGIA + GREYCLIFF GIRLS' RANCHING + GREYCLIFF GIRLS' GREAT ADVENTURE + + + MARJORIE DEAN POST-GRADUATE SERIES + + + By PAULINE LESTER + + Author of the Famous Marjorie Dean High School and College Series. + + All Cloth Bound. Copyright Titles. + _With Individual Jackets in Colors._ + PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH + POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + + MARJORIE DEAN, POST GRADUATE + MARJORIE DEAN, MARVELOUS MANAGER + MARJORIE DEAN AT HAMILTON ARMS + MARJORIE DEAN'S ROMANCE + MARJORIE DEAN MACY + + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers + A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK + + + + + Transcriber's Notes + + +--Rearranged front matter to a more-logical streaming order and added a + Table of Contents. + +--Preserved the copyright notice from the printed edition, although this + book is in the public domain in the country of publication. + +--Silently corrected a few typos (but left nonstandard spelling and + dialect unchanged). + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Phantom Yacht, by Carol Norton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHANTOM YACHT *** + +***** This file should be named 44401.txt or 44401.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/4/0/44401/ + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |