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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e999e12 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #50961 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50961) diff --git a/old/50961-0.txt b/old/50961-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 717513a..0000000 --- a/old/50961-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4361 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Slipper Point Mystery, by Augusta Huiell Seaman - -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/license - - -Title: The Slipper Point Mystery - -Author: Augusta Huiell Seaman - -Illustrator: C. M. Relyea - -Release Date: January 18, 2016 [EBook #50961] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan, -Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team -at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - THE SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY - - [Illustration: “Why, it’s a room!” she gasped] - - - - - THE - SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY - - BY - AUGUSTA HUIELL SEAMAN - - Author of “Three Sides of Paradise Green,” “The - Girl Next Door,” “The Sapphire Signet,” etc. - - ILLUSTRATED BY - C. M. RELYEA - - [Illustration: colophon] - - NEW YORK - THE CENTURY CO. - 1921 - - Copyright, 1919, by - THE CENTURY CO. - - _Published, September, 1919_ - - - - -CONTENTS - - -CHAPTER PAGE - -I THE ENCOUNTER 3 - -II THE ACQUAINTANCE RIPENS 18 - -III SALLY CAPITULATES 32 - -IV ON SLIPPER POINT 43 - -V MYSTERY 55 - -VI WORKING AT THE RIDDLE 65 - -VII THE FIRST CLUE 77 - -VIII ROUNDTREE’S 87 - -IX DORIS HAS A NEW THEORY 102 - -X BEHIND THE CEDAR PLANK 116 - -XI SOME BITS OF ROUNDTREE HISTORY 131 - -XII LIGHT DAWNS ON MISS CAMILLA 141 - -XIII WORD FROM THE PAST 164 - -XIV THE REAL BURIED TREASURE 178 - -XV THE SUMMER’S END 198 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - -“Why, it’s a room!” she gasped _Frontispiece_ - - FACING - PAGE - -She led the others up the cellar steps 128 - -“Why, there’s nothing there but numbers” 160 - -They sat together in the canoe 198 - - - - -THE SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY - - - - -CHAPTER I - -THE ENCOUNTER - - -She sat on the prow of a beached rowboat, digging her bare toes in the -sand. - -There were many other rowboats drawn up on the sandy edge of the -river,--as many as twenty or thirty, not to speak of the green and red -canoes lying on the shore, bottoms up, like so many strange insects. A -large number of sailboats were also anchored near the shore or drawn up -to the long dock that stretched out into the river. - -For this was Carter’s Landing, the only place on lovely little Manituck -River where pleasure-boats could be hired. Beside the long dock there -was, up a wide flight of steps a large pavilion where one could sit and -watch the lights and shadows on the river and its many little -activities. There were long benches and tables to accommodate -picnic-parties and, in an inner room, a counter where candies, ice cream -and soda-water were dispensed. And lastly, one part of the big pavilion -was used as a dancing-floor where, afternoons and evenings, to the music -of a violin and piano, merry couples whirled and circled. - -Down on the sand was a signboard which said: - - “CHILDREN MUST NOT PLAY IN THE BOATS.” - -Nevertheless, she sat on the prow of one, this girl of fourteen, digging -her bare toes aimlessly in the sand, and by her side on the prow-seat -sat a tiny child of about three, industriously sucking the thumb of her -right hand, while she pulled at a lock of her thick straight hair with -her left. So she sat, saying nothing, but staring contentedly out over -the water. The older girl wore a blue skirt and a soiled white -middy-blouse. She had dark brown eyes and thick auburn hair, hanging -down in a ropelike braid. Her face was somewhat freckled, and apart from -her eyes and hair she was not particularly pretty. - -The afternoon was hot, though it was only the early part of June, and -there was no one else about except one or two helpers of the Landing. -The girl stared moodily out over the blue river, and dug her bare toes -deeper into the sand. - -“Stop sucking your thumb, Genevieve!” she commanded suddenly, and the -baby hastily removed the offending member from her mouth. But a moment -later, when the older girl’s attention was attracted elsewhere, she -quietly slipped it back again. - -Presently, from around the bend of the river, there slid into sight a -red canoe, paddled vigorously by one person sitting in the stern. The -girl in the prow of the rowboat sat up and stared intently at the -approaching canoe. - -“There it is,” she announced to her younger sister. “The first canoe -Dad’s hired this season. Wonder who has it?” The baby made no reply and -placidly continued to suck her thumb, her older sister being too -absorbed to notice the forbidden occupation. - -The canoe approached nearer, revealing its sole occupant to be a girl of -fourteen or fifteen, clad in a dazzlingly white and distinctly tailored -linen Russian blouse suit, with a pink satin tie, her curly golden hair -surmounted by an immense bow of the same hue. She beached her canoe -skilfully not six feet away from the rowboat of the occupied prow. And -as she stepped out, further details of her costume could be observed in -fine white silk stockings and dainty patent leather pumps. Scarcely -stopping to drag her canoe up further than a few inches on the sand, she -hurried past the two in the rowboat and up the broad steps to the -pavilion. - -“You’d better drag up your canoe further,” called out the barefooted -girl. “It’ll float away if you leave it like that.” - -“Oh, I’m coming right back!” replied the other. “I’m only stopping a -moment to get some candy.” She disappeared into the pavilion and was -out again in two minutes, bearing a large box of candy, of the most -expensive make boasted by Carter’s Landing. Down the steps she tripped, -and crossed the strip of sand toward her canoe. But in front of the -occupied rowboat she stopped, drawn perhaps by the need of companionship -on this beautiful but solitary afternoon. - -“Have some?” she asked, proffering the open box of candy. The barefooted -girl’s eyes sparkled. - -“Why, yes, thanks!” she answered, and gingerly helped herself to one -small piece. - -“Oh, take some more! There’s plenty!” declared her companion, emptying -fully a quarter of the box into her new friend’s lap. “And give some to -the baby.” The younger child smiled broadly, removed her thumb from her -mouth and began to munch ecstatically on a large piece of chocolate -proffered by her sister. - -“You’re awfully kind,” remarked the older girl between two bites, “but -what’ll your mother say?” - -“Why, she won’t care. She gave me the money and told me to go get it and -amuse myself. It’s awfully dull up at the hotel. It’s so early in the -season that there’s almost nobody else there,--only two old ladies and a -few men that come down at night,--besides Mother and myself. I hate -going to the country so early, before things start, only Mother has been -sick and needed the change right away. So here we are--and I’m as dull -as dishwater and _so_ lonesome! What’s your name?” - -The other girl had been drinking in all this information with such -greedy interest that she scarcely heard or heeded the question which -ended it. Without further questioning she realized that this new -acquaintance was a guest at “The Bluffs,” the one exclusive and -fashionable hotel on the river. She at once became guiltily conscious of -her own bare brown toes, still wriggling in the warm sand. She blamed -herself fiercely for not taking the trouble to put on her shoes and -stockings that afternoon. Up till this moment it had scarcely seemed -worth while. - -“Tell me, what’s your name?” the girl in white and pink reiterated. - -“Sarah,” she answered, “but most every one calls me Sally. What’s -yours?” - -“Doris Craig,” was the reply and the girl of the bare toes unconsciously -noted that “Doris” was an entirely fitting name for so dainty a -creature. And somehow she dreaded to answer the question as to her own. - -“My name’s horrid,” she added, “and I always did hate it. But baby’s is -pretty,--Genevieve. Mother named her that, ’cause Father had insisted -that mine must be ‘Sarah,’ after his mother. She said she was going to -have one pretty name in the family, anyway. Genevieve, take your thumb -out of your mouth!” - -“Why do you tell her to do that?” demanded Doris, curiously. - -“‘Cause Mother says it’ll make her mouth a bad shape if she keeps it up, -and she told me it was up to me to stop it. You see I have Genevieve -with me most of the time. Mother’s so busy.” But by this time, Doris’s -roving eye had caught the sign forbidding children to play in the -boats. - -“Do you see that?” she asked. “Aren’t you afraid to be sitting around in -that boat?” - -“Huh!” exclaimed Sally scornfully. “That doesn’t mean Genevieve and me.” - -“Why not?” cried Doris perplexedly. - -“‘Cause we belong here. Captain Carter’s our father. All these boats -belong to him. Besides, it’s so early in the season that it doesn’t -matter anyway. Even we don’t do it much in July and August.” - -“Oh!” exclaimed Doris, a light beginning to break on her understanding. -“Then that--er--lady up at the candy counter is your mother?” She -referred to the breathlessly busy, pleasant, though anxious-faced woman -who had sold her the candy. - -“Yes. She’s awfully busy all the time, ’cause she has to wait on the -soda and candy and ice cream, and see that the freezer’s working all -right, and a lot of other things. In July and August we have to have -girls from the village to help. We don’t see much of her in the -summer,--Genevieve and I. We just have to take care of ourselves. And -that’s Dad, down on the dock.” She pointed to a tall, lanky, slouchily -dressed man who was directing the lowering of a sail in one of the -catboats. - -“Yes, I know Captain Carter,” averred Doris. “I hired this canoe of -him.” - -“Did you go and hire a canoe--all by yourself?” inquired Sally, eyeing -her very youthful new acquaintance with some wonder. “How did your -mother come to let you?” - -“Well, you see Mother’s been awfully sick and she isn’t at all well yet. -Has to stay in bed a good deal of the day and just sits around on the -veranda the rest of the time. _She_ couldn’t tend to things like that, -so I’ve got used to doing them myself lately. I dress myself and fix my -hair all by myself, without the least help from her,--which I couldn’t -do three months ago. I did it today. Don’t you think I look all right?” - -Again Sally flushed with the painful consciousness of her own unkempt -appearance, especially her bare feet. “Oh, yes! You look fine,” she -acknowledged sheepishly. And then added, as a concession to her own -attire: - -“I hate to get all dressed up these hot days, ’specially when there’s no -one around. Mother often makes me during ‘the season,’ ’cause she says -it looks bad for the Landing to see us children around so sloppy.” - -“My mother says,” remarked Doris, “that one always feels better to be -nicely and cleanly dressed, especially in the afternoons, if you can -manage it. You feel so much more self-respecting. I often hate to bother -to dress, too, but I always do it to please her.” - -Sally promptly registered the mental vow that she would hereafter array -herself and Genevieve in clean attire every single afternoon, or perish -in the attempt. But clothes was not a subject that ever interested Doris -Craig for any length of time, so she soon switched to another. - -“Can’t you and the baby come out with me in my canoe for a while?” she -suggested. “I’m so lonesome. And perhaps you know how to paddle. You -could sit in the bow, and Genevieve in the middle.” - -“Yes, I know how to paddle,” admitted Sally. To tell the truth she knew -how to run every species of boat her father owned, not even omitting the -steam launches. “But we can’t take Genevieve in a canoe. She won’t sit -still enough and Mother has forbidden it. Let’s go out in my rowboat -instead. Dad lets me use old 45 for myself any time I want, except in -the very rush season. It’s kind of heavy and leaks a little, but I can -row it all right.” She indicated a boat far down at the end of the line. - -“But I can’t row!” exclaimed Doris. “I never learned because we’ve -always had a canoe up at Lake Placid in the Adirondacks where we’ve -usually gone.” - -“Oh, that doesn’t matter,” laughed Sally. “I can row the whole three. -You sit in the stem with Genevieve, and I’ll take you around the river -to some places I warrant you’ve never seen.” - -Filled with the spirit of the new adventure, the two hurried along, -bearing a somewhat reluctant Genevieve between them, and clambered into -the boat numbered “45” at the end of the line. Doris seated herself in -the stern with Genevieve and the box of candy. And the baby was soon -shyly cuddling up to her and dipping her chubby little fist into the box -at frequent intervals. Sally established herself in the bow rowing seat, -pushed off with a skilful twist of her oars, and was soon swinging out -into the tide with the short, powerful strokes of the native-born to -Manituck. - -It was a perfect June afternoon. The few other boats on the river were -mainly those of the native fishermen treading for clams in the shallows, -and one or two dipping sailboats. Overhead the fish-hawks sailed and -plunged occasionally with a silver flash into the river. The warm scent -of the pines was almost overpoweringly sweet, and a robin sang -insistently on the farther shore. Even the thoughtless children were -unconsciously swayed by the quiet beauty of the day and place. - -“Do you know,” commented Doris, “I like it here. Really I like it a lot -better than any other place we’ve ever been. And I’ve only been here two -days. Do you live here all the year round?” - -“Yes, but it isn’t half so nice in winter,” said Sally; “though the -skating’s good when it’s cold enough. But I get awfully tired of all -this all the time. I’d love to live in New York a while. There’s the -island,” she indicated. “You can see that from most anywhere on the -river. It’s pretty, but there isn’t anything much interesting about it. -I think I’ve explored every inch of this river ’cause I’ve so little -else to do in the summer. Genevieve and I know more about it than the -oldest inhabitant here, I reckon.” - -There was something about the way she made this last remark that aroused -Doris’s curiosity. - -“Why do you say that?” she demanded. “Of course it’s all lovely around -here, and up above that bridge it seems rather wild. I went up there -yesterday in the canoe. But what is there to ‘know’ about this river or -its shores? There can’t be anything very mysterious about a little New -Jersey river like this.” - -“You wouldn’t think so to look at it,” said Sally, darkly. “Especially -this lower part with just the Landing and the hotel and the summer -bungalows along the shore. But above the bridge there in the wild part, -things are different. Genevieve and I have poked about a bit, haven’t -we, Genevieve?” The baby nodded gravely, though it is doubtful if she -understood much of her older sister’s remark. - -“Oh, _do_ tell me what you’ve found?” cried Doris excitedly. “It all -sounds so mysterious. I’m just crazy to hear. Can’t you just give me a -little hint about it, Sally?” - -But the acquaintance was too new, and the mystery was evidently too -precious for the other to impart just yet. She shook her head -emphatically and replied: - -“No, honestly I somehow don’t want to. It’s Genevieve’s secret and mine. -And we’ve promised each other we’d never tell any one about it. Haven’t -we, Genevieve?” The baby gravely nodded again, and Sally headed her -boat for the wagon-bridge that crossed the upper part of the river. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE ACQUAINTANCE RIPENS - - -Doris said no more on the subject. She was too well-bred to persist in -such a demand when it did not seem to be welcome. But though she -promptly changed the subject and talked about other things, inwardly she -had become transformed into a seething cauldron of curiosity. - -Sally headed the boat for the draw in the bridge, and in another few -moments they had passed from the quiet, well-kept, bungalow-strewn -shores of the lower river, to the wild, tawny, uninhabited beauty of the -upper. The change was very marked, and the wagon bridge seemed to be the -dividing line. - -“How different the river is up here,” remarked Doris. “Not a house or a -bungalow, or even a fisherman’s shack in sight.” - -“It is,” agreed Sally. And then, in an unusual burst of confidence, she -added, “Do you know what I always think of when I pass through that -bridge into this part of the river? It’s from the ‘Ancient Mariner’: - - “‘We were the first that ever burst - Into that silent sea.’” - -Doris stared at her companion in amazement. How came this barefooted -child of thirteen or fourteen, in a little, out-of-the-way New Jersey -coast village to be quoting poetry? Where had she learned it? Doris’s -own father and mother were untiring readers of poetry and other -literature, and they were bringing their daughter up in their footsteps. -But surely, this village girl had never learned such things from _her_ -parents. Sally must have sensed the unspoken question. - -“That’s a long poem in a big book we have,” she explained. “It has -lovely pictures in it made by a man named Doré.” (She pronounced it -“Door.”) “The book was one of my mother’s wedding presents. It always -lies on our parlor table. I don’t believe any one else in our house has -ever read it but Genevieve and me. I love it, and Genevieve likes to -look at the pictures. Did you ever hear of that poem?” - -“Oh, yes!” cried Doris. “My father has often read me to sleep with it, -and we all love it. I’m so glad it is a favorite of yours. Do you like -poetry?” - -“That’s about the only poem I know,” acknowledged Sally, “‘cept the ones -in the school readers--and they don’t amount to much. That book’s about -the only one we have ’cept a Bible and a couple of novels. But I’ve -learned the poem all by heart.” She rowed on a way in silence, while -Doris marvelled at the bookless condition of this lonely child and -wondered how she could stand it. Not to have books and papers and -magazines unnumbered was a state unheard of to the city child. She had -brought half a trunkful with her, to help while away the time at -Manituck. But before she could speak of it, Sally remarked: - -“That’s Huckleberry Heights,--at least I’ve named it that, ’cause -Genevieve and I have picked quarts and quarts of huckleberries there.” -She pointed to a high, sandy bluff, overgrown at the top with scrub-oak, -stunted pines and huckleberry bushes. “And that’s Cranberry Creek,” she -went on, indicating a winding stream that emptied into the river nearby. -“‘Way up that creek there’s an old, deserted mill that’s all falling to -pieces. It’s kind of interesting. Want to go sometime?” - -“Oh, I’m crazy to!” cried Doris. “There’s nothing I enjoy more than -exploring things, and I’ve never had the chance to before. We’ve always -gone to such fashionable places where everything’s just spic and span -and cut and dried, and nothing to do but what every one else does. I’m -deathly sick of that sort of thing. Our doctor recommended Mother to -come to this place because the sea and pine air would be so good for -her. But he said it was wild, and different from the usual summer -places, and I was precious glad of the change, I can tell you.” There -was something so sincere in Doris’s manner that it won Sally over -another point. After a few moments of silent rowing, she said: - -“We’re coming to a place, in a minute, that Genevieve and I like a lot. -If you want, we can land there and get a dandy drink of water from a -spring near the shore.” Doris was flattered beyond words to be taken -further into the confidence of this strange new acquaintance, and -heartily assented. Around a bend of the river, they approached a point -of land projecting out several hundred feet into the tide, its end -terminating in a long, golden sandbar. Toward the shore, the land gently -ascended in a pretty slope, crowned with velvety pines and cedars. The -conformation of slope and trees gave the outjut of land a curious shape. - -“Do you know what I call this point?” questioned Sally. Doris shook her -head. “Well, you see what a queer shape it is when you look at it from -the side. I’ve named it ‘Slipper Point.’ Doesn’t it look like a -slipper?” - -“It certainly does,” agreed Doris enthusiastically. “Why, you’re a -wonder at naming things, Sally.” Her companion colored with pleasure, -and beached the boat sharply on the sandbar. The three got out, put the -anchor in the sand and clambered up the piny slope. At the top, the view -up and down the river was enchanting, and the three sat down on the pine -needles to regain their breath and rest. At length Sally suggested that -they find the spring, and she led the way down the opposite side of the -slope to a spot near the shore. Here, in a bower of branches, almost -hidden from sight, a sparkling spring trickled down from a small cave of -reddish clay, filled an old, moss-covered box, and rambled on down the -sand into the river. Sally unearthed an old china cup from some hidden -recess of her own, and Doris drank the most delicious water she had ever -tasted. - -But while Sally was drinking and giving Genevieve a share, Doris glanced -at the little gold wrist-watch she wore. - -“Gracious sakes!” she exclaimed. “It’s nearly five o’clock and Mother’ll -begin to think I’ve tumbled into the river and drowned. She’s always -sure I’m going to do that some time. We must hurry back.” - -“All right,” said Sally. “Jump into the boat and I’ll have you home in a -jiffy.” They raced back to the boat, clambered into their former places, -and were soon shooting down the river under the impetus of the tide and -Sally’s muscular strokes. The candy was by now all consumed. Genevieve -cuddled down close to Doris, her thumb once more in her mouth, and went -peacefully to sleep. The two other girls talked at intervals, but Sally -was too busy pulling to waste much breath in conversation. - -“I’ll land you right at the hotel dock,” she remarked, when at last they -had come within sight of it. “Don’t worry about your canoe. I’ll bring -that up myself, right after supper, and walk back.” - -“Thanks,” said Doris gratefully. “That’ll save me a lot of time.” In -another moment Sally had beached the boat on the shore directly in front -of “The Bluffs,” and Doris, gently disengaging the still sleeping -Genevieve, hopped ashore. “I’ll see you soon again, Sally,” she said, -“but I’ve got to just scamper now, I’m so worried about Mother.” She -raced away up the steps, breathless with fear lest her long absence had -unduly upset her invalid mother, and Sally again turned her boat out -into the tide. - - * * * * * - -After supper that evening, Doris sat out at the end of the hotel pier, -watching the gradual approach of sunset behind the island. Her mind was -still full of the afternoon’s encounter, and she wondered vaguely -whether she should see more of the strange village child, so ignorant -about many things, so careless about her personal appearance, who could -yet quote such a wonderful poem as “The Ancient Mariner” in appropriate -places and seemed to be acquainted with some queer mystery about the -river. Presently she noticed a red canoe slipping into sight around a -bend, and in another moment recognized Sally in the stern. - -There was no Genevieve with her this time. And to Doris’s wondering -eyes, the change in her appearance was quite amazing. No longer -barefooted, she was clothed in neat tan stockings and buttoned shoes. -Added to that, she boasted a pretty, well-fitting blue serge skirt and -dainty blouse. But the only jarring note was a large pink bow of hideous -hue, a patent imitation of the one Doris wore, balanced on her beautiful -bronze hair. She managed the canoe with practiced ease, and waved her -hand at Doris from afar. - -“Here’s your canoe!” she called, as Doris hurried down the long dock to -meet her on the shore. And as they met, Doris remarked: - -“It’s early yet. How would you like to paddle around a while? I’ll run -in and ask Mother if I may.” Again Sally flushed with pleasure as she -assented, and when Doris had rushed back and seated herself in the bow -of the canoe, they pushed out into the peaceful tide, wine-colored in -the approaching sunset. But the evening was too beautiful for strenuous -paddling. Doris soon shipped her paddle and, skilfully turning’ in her -seat, faced Sally. - -“Let’s not go far,” she suggested, “let’s just drift--and talk.” Sally -herself was privately only too willing. Dipping her paddle only -occasionally to keep from floating in shore, she nodded another -approving assent. But her country unaccustomedness to conversation held -her tongue-tied for a time. - -“Where’s Genevieve?” demanded Doris. - -“Oh, I put her to bed at half-past six most always,” said Sally. “She’s -usually so sleepy she can’t even finish her supper. But I miss her -evenings. She’s a lot of company for me.” - -“She’s a darling!” agreed Doris. “I just love the way she cuddles up to -me, and she looks so--so appealing when she tucks that little thumb in -her mouth. But, Sally, will you forgive my saying it?--you look awfully -nice tonight.” Sally turned absolutely scarlet in her appreciation of -this compliment. Truth to tell, she had spent quite an hour over her -toilet when Genevieve had been put to bed, and had even gone flying to -the village to purchase with her little hoard of pocket-money the pink -ribbon for her hair. - -“But I wonder if you’d mind my saying something else,” went on Doris, -eyeing her companion critically. “You’ve got the loveliest colored hair -I ever saw, but I think you ought never to wear any colored ribbon but -black on it. Pink’s all right for very light or very dark people, but -not for any one with your lovely shade. You don’t mind my saying that, -do you? Sometimes other people can tell what looks best on you so much -better than you can yourself.” - -“Oh, no. I don’t mind--and thank you for telling me,” stammered Sally, -in an agony of combined delight that this dainty new friend should -approve her appearance and shame that she had made such an error of -judgment in selecting the pink ribbon. Mentally, too, she was -calculating just how long it would take her to save, from the stray -pennies her mother occasionally gave her, enough to purchase the -suggested black one. While she was figuring it out, Doris had something -else to suggest: - -“Sally, let’s be good friends. Let’s see each other every day. I’m -awfully lonesome when I’m not with Mother,--even more so than you, -because you’ve got Genevieve. I expect to stay here all summer, and they -say there are very few young folks coming to ‘The Bluffs.’ It’s mostly -older people there, because the younger ones like the hotels on the -ocean best. So things won’t be much better for me, even during the -season. Can’t we be good friends and see each other a lot, and have a -jolly time on the river,--you and Genevieve and I?” - -The appeal was one that Sally could scarcely have resisted, even had she -not herself yearned for the same thing. “It--it would be fine!” she -acknowledged, shyly. “I’m--I’m awfully glad--if you want to.” - -They drifted about idly a while longer, discussing a trip for the next -morning, in which Sally proposed to show her new friend the deserted -mill, up Cranberry Creek. And Doris announced that she was going to -learn to row, so that the whole burden of that task might not fall on -Sally. - -“But now I must go in,” she ended. “It’s growing dark and Mother will -worry. But you be here in the morning at half-past nine with your boat, -if we’d better not take the canoe on account of Genevieve, and we’ll -have a jolly day.” - -Not once during all this time, had there been the least reference to the -mysterious hint of Sally’s during the earlier afternoon. But this was -not at all because Doris had forgotten it. She was, to tell the truth, -even more curious about it than ever. Her vivid imagination had been -busy with it ever since, weaving all sorts of strange and fantastic -fancies about the suggestion. Did the river have a mystery? What could -its nature be, and how had Sally discovered it? Did any one else know? -The deepening shadows on the farther shore added the last touch to her -busy speculations. They suggested possibilities of every hue and kind. -But not for worlds would she have had Sally guess how ardently she -longed for its revelation. Sally should tell her in good time, or not -at all, if she were so inclined: never because she (Doris) had _asked_ -to be admitted to this precious secret. - -They beached the canoe, still talking busily about the morrow’s plans, -and together hauled it up in the sea-grass and turned it bottom upward. -And then Sally prepared to take her departure. But after she had said -good-bye, she still lingered uncertainly, as if she had something else -on her mind. It was only when she had turned to walk away across the -beach, that she suddenly wheeled and ran up to Doris once more. - -“I--I want to tell you something,” she hesitated. “I--perhaps--sometime -I’ll tell you more, but--the _secret_--Genevieve’s and mine--is up on -Slipper Point!” - -And before Doris could reply, she was gone, racing away along the -darkening sand. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -SALLY CAPITULATES - - -It was the beginning of a close friendship. For more than a week -thereafter, the girls were constantly together. They met every morning -by appointment at the hotel dock, where Sally always rowed up in “45,” -and Genevieve never failed to be the third member of the party. The -canoe was quite neglected, except occasionally, in the evening, when -Doris and Sally alone paddled about in her for a short time before -sunset, or just after. Sally introduced Doris to every spot on the -river, every shady bay and inlet or creek that was of the slightest -interest. They explored the deserted mill, gathered immense quantities -of water-lilies in Cranberry Creek, penetrated for several miles up the -windings of the larger creek that was the source of the river, camped -and picnicked for the day on the island, and paddled barefooted all one -afternoon in the rippling water across its golden bar. - -Beside that, they deserted the boat one day and walked to the ocean and -back, through the scented aisles of an interminable pine forest. On the -ocean beach they explored the wreck of a schooner cast up on the sand in -the storm of a past winter, and played hide-and-seek with Genevieve -among the billowy dunes. But in all this time neither had once mentioned -the subject of the secret on Slipper Point. Doris, though consumed with -impatient curiosity, was politely waiting for Sally to make any further -disclosures she might choose, and Sally was waiting for--she knew not -quite what! But had she realized it, she would have known she was -waiting for some final proof that her confidence in her new friend was -not misplaced. - -Not even yet was she absolutely certain that Doris was as utterly -friendly as she seemed. Though she scarcely acknowledged it to herself, -she was dreading and fearing that this new, absorbing friendship could -not last. When the summer had advanced and there were more companions -of Doris’s own kind in Manituck, it would all come to an end. She would -be forgotten or neglected, or, perhaps even snubbed for more suitable -acquaintances. How could it be otherwise? And how could she disclose her -most precious secret to one who might later forsake her and even impart -it to some one else? No, she would wait. - -In the meantime, while Doris was growing rosy and brown in the healthful -outdoor life she was leading with Sally, Sally herself was imbibing new -ideas and thoughts and interests in long, ecstatic draughts. Chief among -all these were the books--the wonderful books and magazines that Doris -had brought with her in a seemingly endless amount. Sometimes Doris -could scarcely extract a word from Sally during a whole long morning or -afternoon, so deeply absorbed was she in some volume loaned her by her -obliging friend. And Doris also knew that Sally sat up many a night, -devouring by candle-light the book she wanted to return next day--so -that she might promptly replace it by another! - -One thing puzzled Doris,--the curious choice of books that seemed to -appeal to Sally. She read them all with equal avidity and appeared to -enjoy them all at the time, but some she returned to for a second -reading, and one in particular she demanded again and again. Doris’s own -choice lay in the direction of Miss Alcott’s works and “Little Lord -Fauntleroy” and her favorites among Dickens. Sally took these all in -with the rest, but she borrowed a second time the books of a more -adventurous type, and to Doris’s constant wonder, declared Stevenson’s -“Treasure Island” to be her favorite among them all. So frequently did -she borrow this, that Doris finally gave her the book for her own, much -to Sally’s amazement and delight. - -“Why do you like ‘Treasure Island’ best?” Doris asked her point-blank, -one day. Sally’s manner immediately grew a trifle reserved. - -“Because--because,” she stammered, “it is like--like something--oh! I -can’t just tell you right now, Doris. Perhaps I will some day.” And -Doris said no more, but put the curious remark away in her mind to -wonder over. - -“It’s something connected with her secret--that I’m sure!” thought -Doris. “I do wish she felt like telling me, but until she does, I’ll try -not even to think about it.” - -But, all unknown to Doris, the time of her final testing, in Sally’s -eyes, was rapidly approaching. Sally herself, however, had known of it -and thought over it for a week or more. About the middle of June, there -came every year to the “Bluffs” a certain party of young folks, half a -dozen or more in number, with their parents, to stay till the middle of -July, when they usually left for the mountains. They were boys and girls -of about Doris’s age or a trifle older, rollicking, fun-loving, a little -boisterous, perhaps, and on the go from morning till night. They spent -their mornings at the ocean bathing-beach, their afternoons steaming up -and down the river in the fastest motor-boat available, and their -evenings dancing in the hotel parlor when they could find any one to -play for them. Sally had known them by sight for several years, though -never once, in all that time, had they so much as deigned to notice her -existence. - -“If Doris deserts me for them,” she told herself, “then I’ll be mighty -glad I never told her my secret. Oh, I do wonder what she’ll do when -they come!” - -And then they came. Sally knew of their arrival that evening, when they -rioted down to the Landing to procure the fastest launch her father -rented. And she waited, inwardly on tenterhooks of anxiety, for the -developments of the coming days. But, to her complete surprise, nothing -happened. Doris sought her company as usual, and for a day or two never -even mentioned the presence of the newcomers. At last Sally could bear -it no longer. - -“How do you like the Campbells and Hobarts who are at your hotel now?” -she inquired one morning. - -“Why, they’re all right,” said Doris indifferently, feathering her oars -with the joy of a newly-acquired accomplishment. - -“But you don’t seem to go around with them,” ventured Sally uncertainly. - -“Oh, they tire me to death, they’re so rackety!” yawned Doris. “I like -fun and laughing and joking and shouting as well as the next -person--once in a while. But I can’t stand it for steady diet. It’s a -morning, noon and night performance with them. They’ve invited me to go -with them a number of times, and I will go once in a while, so as not to -seem unsociable, but much of it would bore me to death. By the way, -Sally, Mother told me to ask you to come to dinner with us tonight, if -you care to. She’s very anxious to meet you, for I’ve told her such a -lot about you. Do you think your mother will allow you to come?” - -Sally turned absolutely scarlet with the shock of surprise and joy this -totally unexpected invitation caused her. - -“Why--yes--er--that is, I think so. Oh, I’m sure of it! But, Doris, do -you _really_ want me? I’m--well, I’m only Sally Carter, you know,” she -stammered. - -“Why, of course I want you!” exclaimed Doris, opening her eyes wide -with surprise. “I shouldn’t have asked you if I hadn’t.” And so it was -settled. Sally was to come up that afternoon, for once without -Genevieve, and have dinner at “The Bluffs” with the Craigs. She spent an -agonized two hours making her toilet for the occasion, assisted by her -anxious mother, who could scarcely fathom the reason for so -unprecedented an invitation. When she was arrayed in the very best -attire she owned (and a very creditable appearance she made, since she -had adopted some of Doris’s well-timed hints), her mother kissed her, -bade her “mind how she used her knife and fork,” and she set out for the -hotel, joyful on one score, but thoroughly uncomfortable on many others. - -But she forgot much of her agitation in the meeting with Mrs. Craig, a -pale, lovely, golden-haired woman of the gentlest and most winning -manner in the world. In five minutes she had put the shy, awkward -village girl completely at her ease, and the three were soon conversing -as unrestrainedly as if the mother of Doris was no more than their own -age. But Sally could easily divine, from her weakness and pallor, how -ill Mrs. Craig had been, and how far from strong she still was. - -Dinner at their own cosy little table was by no means the ordeal Sally -had expected, and when it was over Mrs. Craig retired to her room and -Sally and Doris went out to sit for a while on the broad veranda. It was -here that Doris passed the final test that Sally had set for her. There -approached the sound of trooping footsteps and laughing voices, and in -another moment, the entire Campbell-Hobart clan clattered by. - -“Hello, Doris!” they greeted her. “Coming in to dance tonight?” - -“I don’t know,” answered Doris. “Have you met my friend, Sally Carter?” -And she made all the introductions with unconcerned, easy grace. The -Campbell-Hobart faction stared. They knew Sally Carter perfectly well by -sight, and all about who she was. What on earth was she doing here--at -“The Bluffs”? A number of them murmured some indistinct rejoinder and -one of them, in the background, audibly giggled. Sally heard the giggle -and flushed painfully. But Doris was superbly indifferent to it all. - -“Do you dance, Sally?” she inquired, and Sally stammered that she did -not. - -“Then we’ll go down to the river and paddle about awhile,” went on -Doris. “It’s much nicer than stampeding about that hot parlor.” The -Campbell-Hobart crowd melted away. “Come on, Sally!” said Doris, and, -linking arms with her new friend, she strolled down the steps to the -river, without alluding, by so much as a single syllable, to the -rudeness of that noisy, thoughtless group. - -And in the heart of Sally Carter there sprang into being such an -absolute idolatry of adoration for this glorious new girl friend that -she was ready to lie down and die for her at a moment’s notice. The last -barrier, the last doubt, was swept completely away. And, as they drifted -about in the fading after-glow, Sally remarked, apropos of nothing: - -“If you like, we’ll go up to Slipper Point tomorrow, and--I’ll show -you--that secret!” - -“Oh, Sally,” breathed Doris in an awestruck whisper, “will -you--_really_?” - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -ON SLIPPER POINT - - -It would be exaggeration to say that Doris slept, all told, one hour -during the ensuing night. She napped at intervals, to be sure, but hour -after hour she tossed about in her bed, in the room next to her mother, -pulling out her watch every twenty minutes or so, and switching on the -electric light to ascertain the time. Never in all her life had a night -seemed so long. Would the morning ever come, and with it the revelation -of the strange secret Sally knew? - -Like many girls of her age, and like many older folks too, if the truth -were known, Doris loved above all things, _a mystery_. Into her -well-ordered and regulated life there had never entered one or even the -suspicion of one. And since her own life was so devoid of this -fascination, she had gone about for several years, speculating in her -own imagination about the lives of others, and wondering if mystery ever -entered into _their_ existences. But not until her meeting with little -Sally Carter, had there been even the faintest suggestion of such a -thing. And now, at last--! She pulled out her watch and switched on her -light for the fortieth time. Only quarter to five. But through her -windows she could see the faint dawn breaking over the river, so she -rose softly, dressed, and sat down to watch the coming of day. - -At nine o’clock she was pacing nervously up and down the beach. And when -old “45” at last grated on the sand, she hopped in with a glad cry, -kissed and hugged Genevieve, who was devoting her attention to her -thumb, in the stern seat, as usual, and sank down in the vacant -rowing-seat, remarking to Sally: - -“Hello, dear! I’m awfully glad you’ve come!” This remark may not seem to -express very adequately her inward state of excitement but she had -resolved not to let Sally see how tremendously anxious she was. - -The trip to Slipper Point was a somewhat silent one. Neither of the -girls seemed inclined to conversation and, besides that, there was a -stiff head-wind blowing and the pulling was difficult. When they had -beached the boat, at length, on the golden sandbar of Slipper Point, -Doris only looked toward Sally and said: - -“So you’re going to show me at last, dear?” But Sally hesitated a -moment. - -“Doris,” she began, “this is my secret--and Genevieve’s--and I never -thought I’d tell any one about it. It’s the only secret I ever had worth -anything, but I’m going to tell you,--well, because I--I think so much -of you. Will you solemnly promise--cross your heart--that you’ll never -tell any one?” - -Doris gazed straight into Sally’s somewhat troubled eyes. “I don’t need -to ‘cross my heart,’ Sally. I just give you my word of honor I won’t, -unless sometime you wish it. I’ve not breathed a word of the fact that -you _had_ a secret, even to Mother. And I’ve never kept anything from -her before.” And this simple statement completely satisfied Sally. - -“Come on, then,” she said. “Follow Genevieve and me, and we’ll give you -the surprise of your life.” - -She grasped her small sister’s hand and led the way, and Doris -obediently followed. To her surprise, however, they did not scramble up -the sandy pine-covered slope as usual, but picked their way, instead, -along the tiny strip of beach on the farther side of the point where the -river ate into the shore in a great, sweeping cove. After trudging along -in this way for nearly a quarter of a mile, Sally suddenly struck up -into the woods through a deep little ravine. It was a wild scramble -through the dense underbrush and over the boughs of fallen pine trees. -Sally and Genevieve, more accustomed to the journey, managed to keep -well ahead of Doris, who was scratching her hands freely and doing -ruinous damage to her clothes plunging through the thorny tangle. At -last the two, who were a distance of not more than fifty feet ahead of -her, halted, and Sally called out: - -“Now stand where you are, turn your back to us and count ten--slowly. -Don’t turn round and look till you’ve finished counting.” Doris -obediently turned her back, and slowly and deliberately “counted ten.” -Then she turned about again to face them. - -To her complete amazement, there was not a trace of them to be seen! - -Thinking they had merely slipped down and hidden in the undergrowth to -tease her, she scrambled to the spot where they had stood. But they were -not there. She had, moreover, heard no sound of their progress, no -snapping, cracking or breaking of branches, no swish of trailing through -the vines and high grass. They could not have advanced twenty feet in -any direction, in the short time she had been looking away from them. Of -both these facts she was certain. Yet they had disappeared as completely -as if the earth had opened and swallowed them. Where, in the name of all -mystery, could they be? - -Doris stood and studied the situation for several minutes. But, as they -were plainly nowhere in her vicinity, she presently concluded she must -have been mistaken about their not having had time to get further away, -and determined to hunt them up. - -So away she pursued her difficult quest, becoming constantly more -involved in the thick undergrowth and more scratched and dishevelled -every moment, till at length she stood at the top of the bluff. From -this point she could see in every direction, but not a vestige of Sally -or Genevieve appeared. More bewildered than ever, Doris clambered back -to the spot where she had last seen them. And, as there was plainly now -no other course, she stood where she was and called aloud: - -“Sally! Sal--ly! I give it up. Where in the world are you?” - -There was a low, chuckling laugh directly behind her, and, whirling -about, she beheld Sally’s laughing face peeping out from an aperture in -the tangled growth that she was positive she had not noticed there -before. - -“Come right in!” cried Sally. “And I won’t keep it a secret any longer. -Did you guess it was anything like this?” - -She pushed a portion of the undergrowth back a little farther and Doris -scrambled in through the opening. No sooner was she within than Sally -closed the opening with a swift motion and they were all suddenly -plunged into inky darkness. - -“Wait a moment,” she commanded, “and I’ll make a light.” Doris heard her -fumbling for something; then the scratch of a match and the flare of a -candle. With an indrawn breath of wonder, Doris looked about her. - -“Why, it’s a room!” she gasped. “A little room all made right in the -hillside. How did it ever come here? How did you ever find it?” - -It was indeed the rude semblance of a room. About nine feet square and -seven high, its walls, floor and ceiling were finished in rough planking -of some kind of timber, now covered in the main with mold and fungus -growths. Across one end was a low wooden structure evidently meant for a -bed, with what had once been a hard straw mattress on it. There was -likewise a rudely constructed chair and a small table on which were the -rusted remains of a tin platter, knife and spoon. There was also a metal -candle-stick in which was the candle recently lit by Sally. It was a -strange, weird little scene in the dim candle-light, and for a time -Doris could make nothing of its riddle. - -“What _is_ it? What does it all mean, Sally?” she exclaimed, gazing -about her with awestruck eyes. - -“I don’t know much more about it than you do,” Sally averred. “But I’ve -done some guessing!” she ended significantly. - -“But how did you ever come to discover it?” cried Doris, off on another -tack. “I could have searched Slipper Point for years and never have come -across _this_.” - -“Well, it was just an accident,” Sally admitted. “You see, Genevieve and -I haven’t much to do most of the time but roam around by ourselves, so -we’ve managed to poke into most of the places along the shore, the whole -length of this river, one time and another. It was last fall when we -discovered this. We’d climbed down here one day, just poking around -looking for beach-plums and things, and right about here I caught my -foot in a vine and went down on my face plumb right into that lot of -vines and things. I threw out my hands to catch myself, and instead of -coming against the sand and dirt as I’d expected, something gave way, -and when I looked there was nothing at all there but a hole. - -“Of course, I poked away at it some more, and found that there was a -layer of planking back of the sand. That seemed mighty odd, so I pushed -the vines away and banged some more at the opening, and it suddenly gave -way because the boards had got rotten, I guess, and--I found _this_!” - -Doris sighed ecstatically. “What a perfectly glorious adventure! And -what did you do then?” - -“Well,” went on Sally simply, “although I couldn’t make very much out of -what it all was, I decided that we’d keep it for our secret,--Genevieve -and I--and we wouldn’t let another soul know about it. So we pulled the -vines and things over the opening the best we could, and we came up next -day and brought some boards and a hammer and nails--and a candle. Then I -fixed up the rotten boards of this opening,--you see it works like a -door, only the outside is covered with vines and things so you’d never -see it,--and I got an old padlock from Dad’s boathouse and I screwed it -on the outside so’s I could lock it up besides, and covered the padlock -with vines and sand. Nobody’d ever dream there was such a place here, -and I guess nobody ever has, either. That’s my secret!” - -“But, Sally,” exclaimed Doris, “how did it ever come here to begin with? -Who made it? It must have some sort of history.” - -“There you’ve got _me_!” answered Sally. - -“Some one must have stayed here,” mused Doris, half to herself. “And, -what’s more, they must have _hidden_ here, or why should they have taken -such trouble to keep it from being discovered?” - -“Yes, they’ve hidden here, right enough,” agreed Sally. “It’s the best -hiding place any one ever had, I should say. But the question is, what -did they hide here for?” - -“And also,” added Doris, “if they were hiding, how could they make such -a room as this, all finished with wooden walls, without being seen doing -it? Where did they get the planks?” - -“Do you know what that timber is?” asked Sally. - -“Why, of course not,” laughed Doris. “How should I?” - -“Well, I do,” said her companion. “I know something about lumber because -Dad builds boats and he’s shown me. I scratched the mold off one -place,--here it is,--and I discovered that this planking is real -seasoned cedar like they build the best boats of. And do you know where -I think it was got? It came from some wrecked vessel down on the beach. -There are plenty of them cast up, off and on, and always have been.” - -“But gracious!” cried Doris, “how was it got here?” - -“Don’t ask me!” declared Sally. “The beach is miles away.” - -They stood for some moments in silence, each striving to piece together -the story of this strange little retreat from the meagre facts they saw -about them. At last Doris spoke. - -“Sally,” she asked, “was this all you ever found here? Was there -absolutely nothing else?” Sally started, as if surprised at the question -and hesitated a moment. - -“No,” she acknowledged finally. “There _was_ something else. I wasn’t -going to tell you right away, but I might as well now. I found this -under the mattress of the bed.” - -She went over to the straw pallet, lifted it, searched a moment and, -turning, placed something in Doris’s hands. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -MYSTERY - - -Doris received the object from Sally and stood looking at it as it lay -in her hands. It was a small, square, very flat tin receptacle of some -kind, rusted and moldy, and about six inches long and wide. Its -thickness was probably not more than a quarter of an inch. - -“What in the world is it?” she questioned wonderingly. - -“Open it and see!” answered Sally. Doris pried it open with some -difficulty. It contained only a scrap of paper which fitted exactly into -its space. The paper was brown with age and stained beyond belief. But -on its surface could be dimly discerned a strange and inexplicable -design. - -“Of _all_ things!” breathed Doris in an awestruck voice. “This certainly -is a mystery, Sally. What _do_ you make of it?” - -“I don’t make anything of it,” Sally averred. “That’s just the trouble. -I can’t imagine what it means. I’ve studied and studied over it all -winter, and it doesn’t seem to mean a single thing.” - -It was indeed a curious thing, this scrap of stained, worn paper, hidden -for who knew how many years in a tin box far underground. For the riddle -on the paper was this: - -[Illustration] - -“Well, I give it up!” declared Doris, after she had stared at it -intently for several more silent moments. “It’s the strangest puzzle I -ever saw. But, do you know, Sally, I’d like to take it home and study it -out at my leisure. I always was crazy about puzzles, and I’d just enjoy -working over this, even if I never made anything out of it. Do you think -it would do any harm to remove it from here?” - -“I don’t suppose it would,” Sally replied, “but somehow I don’t like to -change anything here or take anything away even for a little while. But -you can study it out all you wish, though, for I made a copy of it a -good while ago, so’s I could study it myself. Here it is.” And Sally -pulled from her pocket a duplicate of the strange design, made in her -own handwriting. - -At this point, Genevieve suddenly became restless and, clinging to -Sally’s skirts, demanded to “go and play in the boat.” - -“She doesn’t like to stay in here very long,” explained Sally. - -“Well, I don’t wonder!” declared Doris. “It’s dark and dreary and weird. -It makes me feel kind of curious and creepy myself. But, oh! it’s a -glorious secret, Sally,--the strangest and most wonderful I ever heard -of. Why, it’s a regular _adventure_ to have found such a thing as this. -But let’s go out and sit in the boat and let Genevieve paddle. Then we -can talk it all over and puzzle this out.” - -Sally returned the tin box and its contents to the hiding-place under -the mattress. Then she blew out the candle, remarking as she did so that -she’d brought a lot of candles and matches and always kept them there. -In the pall of darkness that fell on them, she groped for the entrance, -pushed it open and they all scrambled out into the daylight. After that -she padlocked the opening and buried the key in the sand nearby and -announced herself ready to return to the boat. - -During the remainder of that sunny morning they sat together in the -stern of the boat, golden head and auburn one bent in consultation over -the strange combination of letters and figures, while Genevieve, -barefooted, paddled in silent ecstasy in the shallow water rippling over -the bar. - -“Sally,” exclaimed Doris, at length, suddenly straightening and looking -her companion in the eyes, “I believe you have some idea about all this -that you haven’t told me yet! Several remarks you’ve dropped make me -think so. Now, honestly, haven’t you? What _do_ you believe is the -secret of this cave and this queer jumble of letters and things, -anyway?” - -Sally, thus faced, could no longer deny the truth. “Yes,” she -acknowledged, “there _is_ something I’ve thought of, and the more I -think of it, the surer I am. And something that’s happened since I knew -you, has made me even surer yet.” She paused, and Doris, wild with -impatience, demanded, “Well?” - -“_It’s pirates!_” announced Sally, slowly and distinctly. - -“_What?_” cried Doris, jumping to her feet. “Impossible! There’s no such -thing, nowadays.” - -“I didn’t say ‘nowadays,’” remarked Sally, calmly. “I think it _was_ -pirates, then, if that suits you better.” - -Doris sank down in her seat again in amazed silence. “A pirate cave!” -she breathed at last. “I do believe you’re right, Sally. What else -_could_ it be? But where’s the treasure, then? Pirates always had some -around, didn’t they? And that cave would be the best kind of a place to -keep it.” - -“That’s what this tells,” answered Sally, pointing to the scrap of -paper. “I believe it’s buried somewhere, and this is the secret plan -that tells where it is. If we could only puzzle it out, we’d find the -treasure.” - -A great light suddenly dawned on Doris. “_Now_ I know,” she cried, “why -you were so crazy over ‘Treasure Island.’ It was all about pirates, and -there was a secret map in it. You thought it might help you to puzzle -out this. Wasn’t that it?” - -“Yes,” said Sally, “that was it, of course. I was wondering if you’d -guess it. I’ve got the book under the bow seat of the boat now. Let’s -compare the things.” She lifted the seat, found the book, which fell -open of its own accord, Doris noticed, at the well-known chart of that -well-loved book. They laid their own riddle beside it. - -“But this is entirely different,” declared Doris. “That one of ‘Treasure -Island’ is a map or chart, with the hills and trees and everything -written plainly on it. This is nothing but a jumble of letters and -figures in little squares, and doesn’t make the slightest sense, no -matter how you turn or twist it.” - -“I don’t care,” insisted Sally. “I suppose all secret charts aren’t -alike. I believe if we only knew how to work this one, it would -certainly direct us straight to the place where that treasure is -buried.” - -So positive was she, that Doris could not help but be impressed. “But -pirates lived a long time ago,” she objected, “and I don’t believe there -were ever any pirates around this place, anyway. I thought they were -mostly down around Cuba and the southern parts of this country.” - -“Don’t you believe it!” cried Sally. “I’ve heard lots of the old -fishermen about here tell how there used to be pirates right along this -coast, and how they used to come in these little rivers once in a while -and bury their stuff and then go out for more. Why there was one famous -one they call ‘Captain Kidd,’ and they say he buried things all about -here, but mostly on the ocean beach. My father says there used to be an -old man (he’s dead now) right in our village, and he was just sure he -could find some buried treasure, and he was always digging around on the -beach and in the woods near the ocean. Folks thought he was just kind of -crazy. But once he really did find something, way down deep, that looked -like it might have been the bones of a skeleton, and a few queer coins -and things all mixed up with them. And then every one went wild and -began digging for dear life, too, for a while, but they never found -anything more, so gradually they left off and forgot it.” - -Doris was visibly stirred by this curious story. After all, why should -it not be so? Why, perhaps could not _they_ be on the right track of the -buried treasure of pirate legend? The more she thought it over, the more -possible it became. And the fascination of such a possibility held her -spellbound. - -“Yes,” she agreed, “I do believe you’re right, Sally. And now that I -look it over, these letters and numbers might easily be the key to it -all, if we can only work it out. Oh, I never heard of anything so -wonderful happening to two girls like ourselves before! Thank you, a -million times, Sally, for sharing this perfectly marvelous secret with -me.” - -“I do believe I’m enjoying it a great deal better myself, now that I’ve -told you,” answered Sally. “I didn’t think it could be so before I did. -And if we ever discover what it all means----” - -“Why, precious!” interrupted Doris, turning to Genevieve, who all -unnoticed had come to lean disconsolately against the side of the boat, -her thumb tucked pathetically in her mouth, her eyes half tearful. -“What’s the matter?” - -“I’m hung’y and s’eepy!” moaned Genevieve. With a guilty start, Doris -gazed at her wrist watch. It was nearly one o’clock. - -“Merciful goodness! Mother will be frantic!” she exclaimed. “It’s -lunch-time now, and we’re way up here. And just see the way I look!” She -was indeed a scratched, grimy and tattered object. “Whatever will I -tell her?” They scrambled to their oars and were out in the river before -Sally answered this question. - -“Can’t you tell her you were exploring up on Slipper Point?” - -“Yes,” agreed Doris. “That is the real truth. And she never minds if I -get mussed and dirty, as long as I’ve enjoyed myself in some way that’s -all right. But I hope I haven’t worried her by being so late.” - -They rowed on in mad, breathless haste, passed the wagon-bridge, and -came at last in sight of the hotel. But as they beached the boat, and -Doris scrambled out, she said in parting: - -“I’ve been thinking, all the way down, about that secret map, or -whatever it is, and I have a new idea about it. I’ll tell you tomorrow -morning. This afternoon I’ve promised to go for a drive with Mother.” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -WORKING AT THE RIDDLE - - -But Doris did not have an opportunity to communicate her idea on the -following morning, nor for several days after that. A violent three or -four days’ northeaster had set in, and for forty-eight hours after their -expedition to Slipper Point, the river was swept by terrific gales and -downpouring sheets of rain. Doris called up Sally by telephone from the -hotel, on the second day, for she knew that Sally would very likely be -at the Landing, where there was a telephone connection. - -“Can’t you get well wrapped up and come up here to see me a while?” she -begged. “I’d go to you, but Mother won’t let me stir out in this awful -downpour.” - -“I could, I s’pose, but, honestly, I’d rather not,” replied Sally, -doubtfully. “I don’t much like to come up to the hotel. I guess you -know why.” Doris did know. - -“But you can come up to my room, and we’ll be alone there,” she -suggested. “I’ve so much I want to talk to you about. I’ve thought of -something else,--a dandy scheme.” The plan sorely tempted Sally, but a -new thought caused her to refuse once more. - -“I’d have to bring Genevieve,” she reminded Doris, “and she mightn’t -behave, and--well, I really guess I’d better not.” - -“Perhaps tomorrow will be nice again,” ended Doris, hopefully, as she -hung up the receiver. - -But the morrow was not at all “nice.” On the contrary, it was, if -anything, worse than ever. After the morning mail had come, however, -Doris excitedly called up Sally again. - -“You simply must come up here, if it’s only for a few minutes!” she told -her. “I’ve something awfully important that I just must talk to you -about and show you.” The “show you” was what convinced Sally. - -“All right,” she replied. “I’ll come up for half an hour. I’ll leave -Genevieve with Mother. But I can’t stay any longer.” - -She came, not very long after, and Doris rushed to meet her from the -back porch, for she had walked up the road. Removing her dripping -umbrella and mackintosh, Doris led her up to her room, whispering -excitedly: - -“I don’t know what you’ll think of what I’ve done, Sally, but one thing -I’m certain of. It can’t do any harm and it may do some good.” - -“What in the world is it?” questioned Sally, wonderingly. - -Doris drew her into her own room and shut the door. The communicating -door to her mother’s room was also shut, so they were quite alone. When -Sally was seated, Doris laid a bulky bundle in her lap. - -“What is it?” queried Sally, wide-eyed, wondering what all this could -have to do with their mystery. - -“I’ll tell you,” said Doris. “If it hadn’t been for this awful storm, -I’d have told you and asked you about it next morning, but I didn’t want -to over the ’phone. So I just took things in my own hands, and here’s -the result.” Sally was more bewildered than ever. - -“What’s the result?” - -“Why, just this,” went on Doris. “That night, after we’d been to Slipper -Point, I lay awake again the longest time, thinking and thinking. And -suddenly a bright idea occurred to me. You know, whenever I’m worried or -troubled or puzzled, I always go to Father and ask his advice. I can go -to Mother too, but she’s so often ill and miserable, and I’ve got into -the habit of not bothering her with things. But Father’s always ready, -and he’s never failed me yet. So I got to wondering how I could get some -help from him in this affair without, of course, his suspecting anything -about the secret part of it. And then, all of a sudden, I thought -of--_books_! There must be _some_ books that would help us,--books that -would give us some kind of information that might lead to a clue. - -“So next morning, very first thing, I sent a special delivery letter to -Father asking him to send me down _at once_ any books he could find -about _pirates_ and such things. And, bless his heart, he sent me down a -whole bundle of them that just got here this morning!” - -Sally eyed them in a sort of daze. “But--but won’t your father guess -just what we’re up to?” she ventured, dubiously. “He will ask you what -you want them for, won’t he?” - -“No, indeed,” cried Doris. “That’s just the beauty of Father. He’d never -ask me _why_ I want them in a hundred years. If I choose to explain to -him, all right, and if I don’t he knows that’s all right too, for he -trusts me absolutely, not to do anything wrong. So, when he comes down, -as I expect he will in a week or so, he’ll probably say, ‘Pirates all -right, daughter?’ and that’s all there’ll be to it.” Sally was at last -convinced, though she marvelled inwardly at this quite wonderful species -of father. - -“But now, let’s look at the books,” went on Doris. “I’m perfectly -certain we’ll find something in them that’s going to give us a lift.” -She unwrapped the bundle and produced three volumes. One, a very large -one, was called “The Book of Buried Treasure.” Another, “Pirates and -Buccaneers of Our Own Coasts,” and, last but not least, “The Life of -Captain Kidd.” Sally’s eyes fairly sparkled, especially at the last, and -they hurriedly consulted together as to who should take which books -first. At length it was decided that Sally take the “Buried Treasure -Book,” as it was very bulky, and Doris would go over the other two. Then -they would exchange. This ought to keep them fully occupied till fair -weather set in again, after which, armed with so much valuable -information, they would again tackle their problem on its own ground--at -Slipper Point. - -It was two days later when they met again. There had not been an -opportunity to exchange the books, but on the first fair morning Sally -and Genevieve rowed up in “45,” and Doris leaped in exclaiming: - -“Let’s go right up to Slipper Point. I believe I’ve got on the track of -something--at last! What have you discovered, Sally?” - -“Nothing at all,--just nothing,” declared Sally rather discouragingly. -“It was an awfully interesting book, though. I just devoured it. But it -didn’t tell a thing that would help us out. And I’ve made up my mind, -since reading it, that we might as well give up any idea of Captain Kidd -having buried anything around here. That book said he never buried a -thing, except one place on Long Island, and that was all raked up long -ago. All the rest about him is just silly nonsense and talk. He never -_was_ much of a pirate, anyway!” - -“Yes, I discovered the same thing in the book I had about him,” agreed -Doris. “We’ll have to give up Captain Kidd, but there were some pirates -who did bury somewhere, and one I discovered about did a lot of work -right around these shores.” - -“He _did_?” cried Sally, almost losing her oars in her excitement. “Who -was he? Tell me--quick!” - -“His name was Richard Worley,” answered Doris. “He was a pirate about -the year 1718, the same time that Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet were -‘pirating’ too.” - -“Yes, I know about them,” commented Sally. “I read of them in that book. -But it didn’t say anything about Worley.” - -“Well, he was only a pirate for six weeks before he was captured,” went -on Doris, “but in that time he managed to do a lot, and it was all along -the coast of New Jersey here. Now why isn’t it quite possible that he -sailed in here with his loot and made that nice little cave and buried -his treasure, intending to come back some time. He was captured finally -down off the coast of the Carolinas, but he might easily have disposed -of his booty here before that.” - -Sally was filled with elated certainty. “It surely must have been he!” -she cried. “For there was some one,--that’s certain, or there wouldn’t -have been so much talk about buried treasure. And he’s the likeliest -person to have made that cave.” - -“There’s just one drawback that I can see,” Doris reminded her. “It was -an awfully long time ago,--1718, nearly two hundred years. Do you think -it would all have lasted so long? The wood and all, I mean?” - -“That cedar wood lasts forever,” declared Sally. “He probably wrecked -some vessel and then took the wood and built this cave with it. Probably -he built it because he thought it would be a good place to hide in some -time, if they got to chasing him. No one in all the world would ever -find him there.” - -“That’s a good idea!” commented Doris. “I’d been wondering why a pirate -should take such trouble to fix up a place like that. They usually just -dug a hole and put in the treasure and then killed one of their own -number and buried his body on top of it. I hope to goodness that Mr. -Richard Worley didn’t do that pleasant little trick! When we find the -treasure, we don’t want any skeletons mixed up with it.” - -They both laughed heartily over the conceit, and rowed with increased -vigor as Slipper Point came in sight. - -“You said you had an idea about that queer paper we found, too,” Sally -reminded her. “What was it?” - -“Oh, I don’t know whether it amounts to much, and I’ll try to explain it -later. The first thing to do is to try to discover, if we can, some idea -of a date, or something connected with this cave, so that we can see if -we are on the right track. I’ve been thinking that if that wood was from -an old, wrecked vessel, we might perhaps find something on it somewhere -that would give us a clue.” - -“That’s so,” said Sally. “I hadn’t thought of that before.” - -With this in mind, they entered the cave, lit the candle, seated -Genevieve on the chair with a bag of candy in her lap for solace, and -proceeded to their task. - -“The only way to find anything is just to scrape off all we can of this -mold,” announced Sally. “You take one side, and I’ll take the other and -we’ll use these sticks. It won’t be an easy job.” - -It was not. For over an hour they both dug away, scraping off what they -could of the moss and fungus that covered the cedar planks. Doris made -so little progress that she finally procured the ancient knife from the -table and worked more easily with that implement. Not a vestige nor a -trace of any writing was visible anywhere. - -When the arms of both girls had begun to ache cruelly, and Genevieve had -grown restless and was demanding to “go out,” Sally suggested that they -give it up for the day. But just at that moment, working in a far -corner, Doris had stumbled upon a clue. The rusty knife had struck a -curious knobby break in the wood, which, on further scraping, developed -the shape of a raised letter “T.” At her exultant cry, Sally rushed over -and frantically assisted in the quest. Scraping and digging for another -fifteen minutes revealed at last a name, raised on the thick planking, -which had evidently been the stern name-plate of the vessel. When it all -stood revealed, the writing ran: - - _The Anne Arundel - England 1843._ - -The two stood gazing at it a moment in puzzled silence. Then Doris threw -down her knife. - -“It’s all off with the pirate theory, Sally!” she exclaimed. - -“Why so?” demanded her companion, mystified for the moment. - -“Just because,” answered Doris, “if Richard Worley lived in 1718, he -couldn’t possibly have built a cave with the remains of a vessel dated -1843, and neither could any other pirate, for there weren’t any more -pirates as late as 1843. Don’t you see?” - -Sally did see and her countenance fell. - -“Then what in the world _is_ the mystery?” she cried. - -“That we’ve got to find the answer to in some other way,” replied Doris, -“for we’re as much in the dark as ever!” - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE FIRST CLUE - - -It was a discouraged pair that rowed home from Slipper Point that -morning. Sally was depressed beyond words by their recent discovery, for -she had counted many long months on her “pirate theory” and the ultimate -unearthing of buried treasure. Doris, however, was not so much depressed -as she was baffled by this curious turn of the morning’s investigation. -Thinking hard, she suddenly shipped her oars and turned about to face -Sally with an exultant little exclamation. - -“Do you realize that we’ve made a very valuable find this morning, after -all, Sally?” she cried. - -“Why, no, I don’t. Everything’s just spoiled!” retorted Sally dubiously. -“If it isn’t pirates, it isn’t anything that’s _worth_ anything, is -it?” - -“I don’t know yet how much it’s worth,” retorted Doris, “but I do know -that we’ve unearthed enough to start us on a new hunt.” - -“Well, what is it?” demanded Sally, still incredulous. - -“Can’t you guess? The _name_ of this vessel that the lumber came -from,--and the _date_. Whatever happened that cave couldn’t have been -made before 1843, anyhow, and that isn’t so terribly long ago. There -might even be persons alive here today who could remember as far back as -that date, if not further. And if this _Anne Arundel_ was wrecked -somewhere about here, perhaps there’s some one who will remember that, -and--” - -But here Sally interrupted her with an excited cry. “My grandfather!--He -surely would know. He was born in 1830, ’cause he’s eighty-seven now, -and he ought to remember if there was a wreck on this beach when he was -thirteen years old or older. He remembers lots about wrecks. I’ll ask -him.” - -Doris recalled the hearty old sea-captain, Sally’s grandfather, whom she -had often seen sitting on Sally’s own front porch, or down at the -Landing. That he could remember many tales of wrecks and storms she did -not doubt, and her spirits rose with Sally’s. - -“But you must go about it carefully,” she warned. “Don’t let him know, -at first that you know much about the _Anne Arundel_, or he’ll begin to -suspect something and ask questions. I don’t see quite how you _are_ -going to find out about it without asking him anyway.” - -“You leave that to me!” declared Sally. “Grandfather’s great on spinning -yarns when he gets going. And he grows so interested about it generally -that he doesn’t realize afterward whether he’s told you a thing or -you’ve asked him about it, ’cause he has so much to tell and gets so -excited about it. Oh, I’ll find out about the _Anne Arundel_, all -right--if there’s anything _to_ find out!” - -They parted that morning filled anew with the spirit of adventure and -mystery, stopping no longer to consider the dashed hopes of the earlier -day. - -“I probably shan’t get a chance to talk to Grandfather alone before -evening,” said Sally in parting, “though I’m going to be around most of -the afternoon where he is. But I’ll surely talk to him tonight when he’s -smoking on our porch and Mother and Dad are away at the Landing. Then -I’ll find out what he knows, and let you know tomorrow morning.” - - * * * * * - -It was a breathless and excited Sally that rowed up to the hotel at an -early hour next day. - -“Did he say anything?” demanded Doris breathlessly, flying down to the -sand to meet her. - -“Come out in the boat,” answered Sally, “and I’ll tell you all about it. -He certainly _did_ say something!” - -Doris clambered into the boat, and they headed as usual for Slipper -Point. - -“Well?” queried Doris, impatiently, when they were in midstream. - -“Grandfather was good and ready to talk wrecks with me last night,” -began Sally, “for there was no one else about to talk to. You know, the -pavilion opened for dancing the first time this season, and every one -made a bee-line for that. Grandfather never goes down to the Landing at -night, so he was left stranded for some one to talk to and was right -glad to have me. I began by asking him to tell me something about when -he was a young man and how things were around here and how he came to go -to sea. It always pleases him to pieces to be asked to tell about those -times, so he sailed in and I didn’t do a thing but sit and listen, -though I’ve heard most of all that before. - -“But after a while he got to talking about how he’d been shipwrecked and -along about there I saw how it would be easy to switch him off to the -shipwrecks that happened around here. When I did that he had plenty to -tell me and it was rather interesting too. By and by I said, just -quietly, as if I wasn’t awfully interested: - -“‘Grandfather, I’ve heard tell of a ship called the _Anne Arundel_ that -was wrecked about here once. Do you know anything of her?’ And he said -he just guessed he _did_. She came ashore one winter night, along about -1850, in the worst storm they’d ever had on this coast. He was a young -man of twenty then and he helped to rescue some of the sailors and -passengers. She was a five-masted schooner, an English ship, and she -just drove right up on the shore and went to pieces. They didn’t get -many of her crew off alive, as most of them had been swept overboard in -the heavy seas. - -“But, listen to this. He said that the queer part of it all was that, -though her hulk and wreckage lay on the beach for a couple of months or -so, and nobody gave it any attention, suddenly, in one week, it all -disappeared as clean as if another hurricane had hit it and carried it -off. But this wasn’t the case, because there had been fine weather for a -long stretch. Everybody wondered and wondered what had become of the -_Anne Arundel_ but nobody ever found out. It seemed particularly -strange because no one, not even beach-combers, would be likely to carry -off a whole wreck, bodily, like that.” - -“And he never had a suspicion,” cried Doris, “that some one had taken it -to build that little cave up the river? How perfectly wonderful, Sally!” - -“No, but there’s something about it that puzzles me a lot,” replied -Sally. “They took it to fix up that cave, sure enough. But, do you -realize, Doris, that it only took a small part of a big vessel like -that, to build the cave. What became of all the rest of it? Why was it -all taken, when so little of it was needed? What was it used for?” - -This was as much a puzzle to Doris as to Sally. “I’m sure I can’t -imagine,” she replied. “But one thing’s certain. We’ve got to find out -who took it and why, if it takes all summer. By the way! I’ve got a new -idea about why that cave was built. I believe it was for some one who -wanted to hide away,--a prisoner escaped from jail, for instance, or -some one who was afraid of being put in prison because he’d done -something wrong, or it was thought that he had. How about that?” - -“Then what about the queer piece of writing we found?” demanded Sally. -Doris had to admit she could not see where that entered into things. - -“Well,” declared Sally, at length, “I’ve got a brand new idea about it -too. It came from something else Grandfather was telling me last night. -If it wasn’t pirates it was--_smugglers_!” - -“Mercy!” cried Doris. “What makes you think so?” - -“Because Grandfather was telling me of a lot of smugglers who worked a -little farther down the coast. They used to run in to one of the rivers -with a small schooner they cruised in, and hide lots of stuff that -they’d have to pay duty on if they brought it in the proper way. They -hid it in an old deserted house near the shore and after a while would -sell what they had and bring in some more. By and by the government -officers got after them and caught them all. - -“It just set me to thinking that this might be another hiding place that -was never discovered, and this bit of paper the secret plan to show -where or how they hid the stuff. Perhaps they were all captured at some -time, and never got back here to find the rest of their things. I tell -you, we may find some treasure yet, though it probably won’t be like -what the pirates would have hidden.” - -Doris was decidedly fired by the new idea. “It sounds quite possible to -me,” she acknowledged, “and what we want to do now is to try and work -out the meaning of that queer bit of paper.” - -“Yes, and by the way, you said quite a while ago that you had an idea -about that,” Sally reminded her. “What was it?” - -“Oh, I don’t know as it amounts to much,” said Doris. “So many things -have happened since, that I’ve half forgotten about it. But if we’re -going up to Slipper Point, I can show you better when we get there. Do -you know, Sally, I believe I’m just as much interested if that’s a -smuggler’s cave as if it had been a pirate’s. It’s actually thrilling!” - -And without further words, they bent their energies toward reaching -their destination. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -ROUNDTREE’S - - -At Slipper Point, they established Genevieve, as usual, on the old chair -in the cave, to examine by candle-light the new picture-book that Doris -had brought for her. This was calculated to keep her quiet for a long -while, as she was inordinately fond of “picters,” as she called them. - -“Now,” cried Sally, “what about that paper?” - -“Oh, I don’t know that it amounts to very much,” explained Doris. “It -just occurred to me, in looking it over, that possibly the fact of its -being square and the little cave also being square might have something -to do with things. Suppose the floor of the cave were divided into -squares just as this paper is. Now do you notice one thing? Read the -letters in their order up from the extreme left hand corner diagonally. -It reads r-i-g-h-t-s and the last square is blank. Now why couldn’t that -mean ‘right’ and the ‘s’ stand for square,--the ‘right square’ being -that blank one in the extreme corner?” - -“Goody!” cried Sally. “That’s awfully clever of you. I never thought of -such a thing as reading it that way, in all the time I had it. And do -you think that perhaps the treasure is buried under there?” - -“Well, of course, that’s all we _can_ think it means. It might be well -to investigate in that corner.” - -But another thought had occurred to Sally. “If that’s so,” she inquired -dubiously, “what’s the use of all the rest of those letters and numbers. -They must be there for _something_.” - -“They may be just a ‘blind,’ and mean nothing at all,” answered Doris. -“You see they’d have to fill up the spaces somehow, or else, if I’m -right, they’d have more than one vacant square. And one was all they -wanted. So they filled up the rest with a lot of letters and figures -just to puzzle any one that got hold of it. But there’s something else -I’ve thought of about it. You notice that the two outside lines of -squares that lead up to the empty squares are just numbers,--not letters -at all. Now I’ve added each line together and find that the sum of each -side is exactly _twenty-one_. Why wouldn’t it be possible that it means -the sides of this empty square are twenty-one--something--in length. It -can’t possibly mean twenty-one _feet_ because the whole cave is only -about nine feet square. It must mean twenty-one inches.” - -Sally was quite overcome with amazement at this elaborate system of -reasoning it out. “You certainly are a wonder!” she exclaimed. “I never -would have thought of it in the world.” - -“Why, it was simple,” declared Doris, “for just as soon as I’d hit upon -that first idea, the rest all followed like clockwork. But now, if all -this is right, and the treasure lies somewhere under the vacant square, -our business is to find it.” - -Suddenly an awful thought occurred to Sally. “But how are you going to -know _which_ corner that square is in? It might be any of the four, -mightn’t it?” - -For a moment Doris was stumped. How, indeed, were they going to tell? -Then one solution dawned on her. “Wouldn’t they have been most likely to -consider the square of the floor as it faces you, coming in at the door, -to be the way that corresponds to the plan on the paper? In that case, -the extreme right-hand corner from the door, for the space of twenty-one -inches, is the spot.” - -It certainly seemed the most logical conclusion. They rushed over to the -spot and examined it, robbing Genevieve of her candle in order to have -the most light on the dark corner. It exhibited, however, no signs of -anything the least unusual about it. The rough planks of the flooring -joined quite closely to those of the wall, and there was no evidence of -its having ever been used as a place of concealment. At this -discouraging revelation, their faces fell. - -“Let’s examine the other corners,” suggested Doris. “Perhaps we’re not -right about this being the one.” - -The others, however, revealed no difference in their appearance, and the -girls restored her candle to Genevieve at the table, and stood gazing at -each other in disconcerted silence. - -“But, after all,” suggested Doris shortly, “would you expect to see any -real sign of the boards being movable or having been moved at some time? -That would only give their secret away, when you come to think of it. -No, if there _is_ some way of opening one of those corners, it’s pretty -carefully concealed, and I don’t see anything for it but for us to bring -some tools up here,--a hammer and saw and chisel, perhaps,--and go to -work prying those boards up.” The plan appealed to Sally. - -“I’ll get some of Dad’s,” she declared. “He’s got a lot of tools in the -boathouse, and he’d never miss a few of the older ones. We’ll bring them -up tomorrow and begin. And I think your first idea about the corner was -the best. We’ll start over there.” - -“I’s cold,” Genevieve began to whimper, at this point. “I don’t _like_ -it in here. I want to go out.” - -The two girls laughed. “She isn’t much of a treasure-hunter, is she!” -said Doris. “Bless her heart. We’ll go out right away and sit down under -the pine trees.” - -They emerged into the sunlight, and Sally carefully closed and concealed -the entrance to their secret lair. After the chill of the underground, -the warm sunlight was very welcome and they lay lazily basking in its -heat and inhaling the odor of the pine-needles. Far above their heads -the fish-hawks swooped with their high-pitched piping cry, and two wrens -scolded each other in the branches above their heads. Sally sat -tailor-fashion, her chin cupped in her two hands, thinking in silence, -while Doris, propped against a tree, was explaining the pictures in her -new book to Genevieve. In the intervals, while Genevieve stared -absorbedly at one of them, Doris would look about her curiously and -speculatively. Suddenly she thrust the book aside and sprang to her -feet. - -“Do you realize, Sally,” she exclaimed, “that I’ve never yet explored a -bit of this region _above ground_ with you? I’ve never seen a thing -except this bit right about the cave. Why not take me all round here for -a way. It might be quite interesting.” - -Sally looked both surprised and scornful. “There’s nothing at all to see -around here that’s a bit interesting,” she declared. “There’s just this -pine grove and the underbrush, and back there,--quite a way back, is an -old country road. It isn’t even worth getting all hot and tired going to -see.” - -“Well, I don’t care, I want to see it!” insisted Doris. “I somehow have -a feeling that it would be worth while. And if you are too tired to come -with me, I’ll go by myself. You and Genevieve can rest here.” - -“No, I want to go wis Dowis!” declared Genevieve, scrambling to her feet -as she scented a new diversion. - -“Well, I’ll go too,” laughed Sally. “I’m not as lazy as all that, but I -warn you, you won’t find anything worth the trouble.” - -They set off together, scrambling through the scrub-oak and bay-bushes, -stopping now and then to pick and devour wild strawberries, or gather a -great handful of sassafras to chew. All the while Doris gazed about her -curiously, asking every now and then a seemingly irrelevant question of -Sally. - -Presently they emerged from the pine woods and crossed a field covered -only with wild blackberry vines still bearing their white blossoms. At -the farther edge of this field they came upon a sandy road. It wound -away in a hot ribbon till a turn hid it from sight, and the heat of the -morning tempted them no further to explore it. - -“This is the road I told you of,” explained Sally with an -“I-told-you-so” expression. “You see it isn’t anything at all, only an -old back road leading to Manituck. Nobody much comes this way if they -can help it,--it’s so sandy.” - -“But what’s that old house there?” demanded Doris, pointing to an -ancient, tumbledown structure not far away. “And isn’t it the -queerest-looking place, one part so gone to pieces and unkempt, and that -other little wing all nicely fixed up and neat and comfortable!” - -It was indeed an odd combination. The structure was a large -old-fashioned farmhouse, evidently of a period dating well back in the -nineteenth century. The main part had fallen into disuse, as was quite -evident from the closed and shuttered windows, the peeling, blistered -paint, the unkempt air of being not inhabited. But a tiny “L” at one -side bore an aspect as different from the main building as could well be -imagined. It had lately received a coat of fresh white paint. Its -windows were wide open and daintily curtained with some pretty but -inexpensive material. The little patch of flower-garden in front was as -trim and orderly. - -“I don’t understand it,” went on Doris. “What place is it?” - -“Oh, that’s only Roundtree’s,” answered Sally indifferently. “That’s old -Miss Roundtree now, coming from the back. She lives there all alone.” - -As she was speaking, the person in question came into view from around -the back of the house, a basket of vegetables in her hand. Plainly she -had just been picking them in the vegetable-garden, a portion of which -was visible at the side of the house. She sat down presently on her tiny -front porch, removed her large sun-bonnet and began to sort them over. -From their vantage-point behind some tall bushes at the roadside, the -girls could watch her unobserved. - -“I like her looks,” whispered Doris after a moment. “Who is she and why -does she live in this queer little place?” - -“I told you her name was Roundtree,--Miss Camilla Roundtree,” replied -Sally. “Most folks call her ‘old Miss Camilla’ around here. She’s -awfully poor, though they say her folks were quite rich at one time, and -she’s quite deaf too. That big old place was her father’s, and I s’pose -is hers now, but she can’t afford to keep it up, she has so little -money. So she just lives in that small part, and she knits for a -living,--caps and sweaters and things like that. She does knit -beautifully and gets quite a good many orders, especially in summer, but -even so it hardly brings her in enough to live on. She’s kind of queer -too, folks think. But I don’t see why you’re so interested in her.” - -“I like her looks,” answered Doris. “She has a fine face. Somehow she -seems to me like a lady,--a _real_ lady!” - -“Well, she sort of puts on airs, folks think, and she doesn’t care to -associate with everybody,” admitted Sally. “But she’s awfully good and -kind, too. Goes and nurses people when they’re sick or have any trouble, -and never charges for it, and all that sort of thing. But, same time, -she always seems to want to be by herself. She reads lots, too, and has -no end of old books. They say they were her father’s. Once she lent me -one or two when I went to get her to make a sweater for Genevieve.” - -“Oh, do you know her?” cried Doris. “How interesting!” - -“Why, yes, of course I know her. Everyone does around here. But I don’t -see anything very interesting about it.” To tell the truth, Sally was -quite puzzled by Doris’s absorption in the subject. It was Genevieve -who broke the spell. - -“I’s sirsty!” she moaned. “I want a djink. I want Mis Camilla to gi’ me -a djink!” - -“Come on!” cried Doris to Sally. “If you know her, we can easily go over -and ask her for a drink. I’m crazy to meet her.” - -Still wondering, Sally led the way over to the tiny garden and the three -proceeded up the path toward Miss Roundtree. - -“Why, good morning!” exclaimed that lady, looking up. Her voice was very -soft, and a little toneless, as is often the case with the deaf. - -“Good morning!” answered Sally in a rather loud tone, and a trifle -awkwardly presented Doris. But there was no awkwardness in the manner -with which Miss Camilla acknowledged the new acquaintance. Indeed it was -suggestive of an old-time courtesy, now growing somewhat obsolete. And -Doris had a chance to gaze, at closer range, on the fine, high-bred face -framed in its neatly parted gray hair. - -“Might Genevieve have a drink?” asked Doris at length. “She seems to be -very thirsty.” - -“Why, assuredly!” exclaimed Miss Camilla. “Come inside, all of you, and -rest in the shade.” So they trooped indoors, into Miss Camilla’s tiny -sitting-room, while she herself disappeared into the still tinier -kitchen at the back. While she was gone, Doris gazed about with a new -wonder and admiration in her eyes. - -The room was speckless in its cleanliness, and full of many obviously -home-made contrivances and makeshifts. Yet there were two or three -beautiful pieces of old mahogany furniture, of a satiny finish and -ancient date. And on the mantel stood one marvelous little piece of -pottery that, even to Doris’s untrained eye, gave evidence of being a -rare and costly bit. But Miss Camilla was now coming back, bearing a -tray on which stood three glasses of water and a plate of cookies and -three little dishes of delicious strawberries. - -“You children must be hungry after your long morning’s excursion,” she -said. “Try these strawberries of mine. They have just come from the -garden.” - -Doris thought she had never tasted anything more delightful than that -impromptu little repast. And when it was over, she asked Miss Camilla a -question, for she had been chatting with her all along, in decided -contrast to the rather embarrassed silence of Sally. - -“What is that beautiful little vase you have there, Miss Roundtree, may -I ask? I’ve been admiring it a lot.” A wonderful light shone suddenly in -Miss Camilla’s eyes. Here, it was plain, was her hobby. - -“That’s a Louis XV Sèvres,” she explained, patting it lovingly. “It _is_ -marvelous, isn’t it, and all I have left of a very pretty collection. It -was my passion once, this pottery, and I had the means to indulge it. -But they are all gone now, all but this one. I shall never part with -this.” The light died out of her eyes as she placed the precious piece -back on the mantel. - -“Good-bye. Come again!” she called after them, as they took their -departure. “I always enjoy talking to you children.” - -When they had retraced their way to the boat and pushed off and were -making all speed for the hotel, Sally suddenly turned to Doris and -demanded: - -“Why in the world are you so interested in Miss Camilla? I’ve known her -all my life, and I never talked so much to her in all that time as you -did this morning.” - -“Well, to begin with,” replied Doris, shipping her oars and facing her -friend for a moment, “I think she’s a lovely and interesting person. But -there’s something else besides.” She stopped abruptly, and Sally, filled -with curiosity, demanded impatiently, - -“Well?” - -Doris’s reply almost caused her to lose her oars in her astonishment. - -“_I think she knows all about that cave!_” - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -DORIS HAS A NEW THEORY - - -“Well, for gracious sake!” was all Sally could reply to this astonishing -remark. And a moment later, “How on earth do you know?” - -“I don’t _know_. I’m only guessing at it,” replied Doris. “But I have -one or two good reasons for thinking we’ve been on the wrong track right -along. And if I’d known about _her_ before, I’d have thought so long -ago.” - -“But what _is_ it?” cried Sally again, bursting with impatience and -curiosity. - -“Sally,” said Doris soberly, “I’m going to ask you not to make me -explain it all just yet. I would if I had it all clear in my mind, but -the whole idea is just as hazy as can be at present. And you know a -thing is very hard to explain when it’s hazy like that. It sounds silly -if you put it into words. So won’t you just let it be till I get it -better thought out?” - -“Why, yes, of course,” replied Sally with an assumed heartiness that she -was far from feeling. Truth to tell, she was not only badly disappointed -but filled with an almost uncontrollable curiosity to know what Doris -had discovered about her secret that she herself did not know. - -“And I’m going to ask you another thing,” went on Doris. “Do you suppose -any one around here knows much about the history of Miss Camilla and her -family? Would your grandfather be likely to know?” - -“Why, yes, I guess so,” replied Sally. “If anybody knows I’m sure it -would be he, because he’s the oldest person around here.” - -“Then,” said Doris, “I want you to let me talk to your grandfather about -it. We’ll both seem to be talking to him together, but I want to ask him -some questions very specially myself. But I don’t want him to suspect -that we have any special interest in the thing, so you try and make him -talk the way you did that night when he told you all about the wrecks, -and the _Anne Arundel_. Will you?” - -“Oh, yes,” agreed Sally. “That’s easy. When shall we do it? This -afternoon? I think he’ll be down at the Landing, and we won’t have any -trouble getting him to talk to us. There aren’t many around the Landing -yet, ’cause the season is so early, and I’ll steer him over into a -corner where we can be by ourselves.” - -“That’s fine!” cried Doris. “I knew you could manage it.” - -“But tell me--just one thing,” begged Sally, “What made you first think -that Miss Camilla had anything to do with this? You can tell me just -_that_, can’t you?” - -“It was the little Sèvres vase on the mantel,” explained Doris, “and the -way she spoke of it, I know a little,--just a tiny bit about old china -and porcelains, because my grandfather is awfully interested in them and -has collected quite a lot. But it was the way she _spoke_ of it that -made me think.” - -Not another word would she say on the subject. And though Sally racked -her brains over the matter for the rest of the day, she could find no -point where Miss Camilla and her remarks had the slightest bearing on -that secret of theirs. - - * * * * * - -It was about two o’clock that afternoon, and the pavilion at the Landing -was almost deserted. Later it would be peopled by a throng, young and -old, hiring boats, crabbing from the long dock, drinking soda-water or -merely watching the river life, idly. But, during the two or three hot -hours directly after noon, it was deserted. On this occasion, however, -not for long. Old Captain Carter, corn-cob pipe in mouth, and stumping -loudly on his wooden leg, was approaching down the road from the -village. At this hour he seldom failed to take his seat in a corner of -the pavilion and wait patiently for the afternoon crowd to appear. His -main diversion for the day consisted in his chats with the throngs who -haunted the Landing. - -He had not been settled in his corner three minutes, his wooden leg -propped on another chair, when up the wide stairs from the beach -appeared his two granddaughters, accompanied by another girl. Truth to -tell, they had been waiting below exactly half an hour for this very -event. Doris, who had met him before, went over and exchanged the -greetings of the day, then casually settled herself in an adjacent -chair, fanning herself frantically and exclaiming over the heat. Sally -and Genevieve next strolled up and perched on a bench close by. For -several minutes the two girls exchanged some rather desultory -conversation. Then, what appeared to be a chance remark of Doris’s but -was in reality carefully planned, drew the old sea-captain into their -talk. - -“I wonder why some people around here keep a part of their houses nicely -fixed and live in that part and let the rest get all run down and go to -waste?” she inquired with elaborate indifference. Captain Carter pricked -up his ears. - -“_Who_ do that, I’d like to know?” he snorted. “I hain’t seen many of -’em!” - -“Well, I passed a place this morning and it looked that way,” Doris -went on. “I thought maybe it was customary in these parts.” - -“Where was it?” demanded the Captain, on the defensive for his native -region. - -“Way up the river,” she answered, indicating the direction of Slipper -Point. - -“Oh, _that_!” he exclaimed in patent relief. “That’s only Miss -Roundtree’s, and I guess you won’t see another like it in a month of -Sundays.” - -“Who is she and why does she do it?” asked Doris with a great (and this -time real) show of interest. And thus, finding what his soul delighted -in, a willing and interested listener, Captain Carter launched into a -history and description of Miss Camilla Roundtree. He had told all that -Sally had already imparted, when Doris broke in with some skilfully -directed questions. - -“How do you suppose she lost all her money?” - -“Blest if I know, or any one else!” he grunted. “And what’s more, I -don’t believe _she_ lost it all, either. I think it was her father and -her brother before her that did the trick. They were great folks around -here,--high and mighty, we called ’em. Nobody among us down at the -village was good enough for ’em. This here Miss Camilla,--her mother -died when she was a baby--she used to spend most of her time in New York -with a wealthy aunt. Some swell, she was!--used to go with her aunt -pretty nigh every year to Europe and we didn’t set eyes on her once in a -blue moon. Her father and brother had a fine farm and were making money, -but she didn’t care for this here life. - -“Well, one time she come back from Europe and things didn’t seem to be -going right down here at her place. I don’t know what it was, but there -were queer things whispered about the two men folks and all the money -seemed to be gone suddenly, too. I was away at the time on a -three-years’ cruise, so I didn’t hear nothin’ about it till long after. -But they say the brother he disappeared and never came back, and the -father died suddenly of apoplexy or something, and Miss Camilla was -left to shift for herself, on a farm mortgaged pretty nigh up to the -hilt. - -“She was a bright woman as ever was made, though, I’ll say that for her, -and she kept her head in the air and took to teaching school. She taught -right good, too, for a number of years and got the mortgages off the -farm. And then, all of a sudden, she began to get deaf-like, and -couldn’t go on teaching. Then she took to selling off a lot of their -land lying round, and got through somehow on that, for a while. But -times got harder and living higher priced, and finally she had to give -up trying to keep the whole thing decent and just scrooged herself into -those little quarters in the ‘L.’ She’s made a good fight, but she never -would come down off her high horse or ask for any help or let any one -into what happened to her folks.” - -“How long ago was all that?” asked Doris. - -“Oh, about forty or fifty years, I should think,” he replied, after a -moment’s thought. “Yes, fifty or more, at the least.” - -“You say they owned a lot of land around their farm?” interrogated -Doris, casually. - -“Surest thing! One time old Caleb Roundtree owned pretty nigh the whole -side of the river up that way, but he’d sold off a lot of it himself -before he died. She owned a good patch for a while, though, several -hundred acres, I guess. But she hain’t got nothin’ but what lies right -around the house, now.” - -“Didn’t you ever hear what happened to the brother?” demanded Doris. - -“Never a thing. He dropped out of life here as neatly and completely as -if he’d suddenly been dropped into the sea. And by the time I’d got back -from my voyage the nine-days’ wonder about it all was over, and I never -could find out any more on the subject. Never was particularly -interested to, either. Miss Camilla hain’t nothin’ to me. She’s always -kept to herself and so most folks have almost forgotten who she is.” - -As the Captain had evidently reached the end of his information on the -subject, Doris rose to take her leave and Sally followed her eagerly. - -“Well, did you find out what you wanted?” she cried, as soon as they -were once more out on the river in old “45.” - -“I found out enough,” answered Doris very seriously, “to make me feel -pretty sure I’m right. Of course, I can only guess at lots of it, but -_one_ thing I’m certain of: that cave had nothing to do with smugglers -or pirates--or anything of that sort!” - -Sally dropped her oars with a smothered cry of utmost disappointment. - -“I can’t believe it!” she cried. “I just can’t. I’ve counted on it _so_ -long--finding treasure or something like that, I mean. I just can’t -believe it isn’t so.” - -“It may be something far more interesting,” Doris replied soothingly. -“But there’s just one trouble about it. If it’s what I think it is, and -concerns Miss Camilla, I’ve begun to feel that we haven’t any business -meddling with it now. We oughtn’t even to go into it.” - -Sally uttered a moan of absolute despair. “I thought it would be that -way,” she muttered, half to herself, “if I shared the secret. I _knew_ -they’d take it away from me!” She shipped her oars and buried her face -in her hands. After a moment she raised her head defiantly. “Why, I -don’t even know why you say so. You haven’t told me yet a single thing -of what it’s all about. Why _should_ I stay away from that place?” - -“Listen, Sally,” said Doris, also shipping her oars and laying an -appealing hand on her arm, “I ought to tell you now, and I will. Perhaps -you won’t feel the same about it as I do. We can talk that over -afterward. But don’t feel so badly about it. Just hear what I have to -say first. - -“I think there has been some trouble in Miss Camilla’s life,--something -she couldn’t tell any one about, and probably connected with that cave. -What your grandfather said about her father and brother makes me all the -more sure of it. I believe one or the other of them did something -wrong,--something connected with money, perhaps, embezzled it or forged -checks or something of that kind. And perhaps whoever it was had to hide -away and be kept so for a long time, and so that cave was made and he -hid there. Don’t you remember, your grandfather said the brother -disappeared suddenly and never came back? It must have been he, then. -And perhaps Miss Camilla had to sell most of her valuable things and -make up what he had done. That would explain her having parted with all -her lovely porcelains and china. And if so much of the land around the -house once belonged to her, probably that part where the cave is did -too.” - -“But what about that bit of paper, then?” demanded Sally, who had been -drinking in this explanation eagerly. “I don’t see what that would have -to do with it.” - -“Well, I don’t either,” confessed Doris. “Perhaps it _is_ the plan of -the place where something is hidden, but I’m somehow beginning to think -it isn’t. I’ll have to think that over later. - -“But now, can’t you see that if what I’ve said is right, it wouldn’t be -the thing for us to do any more prying into poor Miss Camilla’s secret? -It would really be a dreadful thing, especially if she ever suspected -that we knew. She probably doesn’t dream that another soul in the world -knows of it at all.” - -Sally was decidedly impressed with this explanation and argument, but -she had one more plea to put forward. - -“What you say sounds very true, Doris, and I’ve almost got to believe -it, whether I want to or not. But I’m going to ask just one thing. Let’s -give our other idea just a trial, anyway. Let’s go there once more and -see if that scheme about the floor and the place in the corner is any -good. It _might_ be, you know. It sounded awfully good to me. And it -won’t hurt a thing for us to try it out. If we don’t find anything, -we’ll know there’s nothing in it. And if we do find anything that -concerns Miss Camilla, we’ll let it alone and never go near the place -again. What do you say?” - -Doris thought it over gravely. The argument seemed quite sound, and yet -some delicate instinct in her still urged that they should meddle no -further. But, after all, she considered, they were sure of nothing. It -might have no concern with Miss Camilla at all. And, to crown it, the -secret was Sally’s originally, when all was said and done. Who was she, -Doris, to dictate what should or should not be done about it? She -capitulated. - -“All right, Sally,” she agreed. “I believe it can do no harm to try out -our original scheme. We’ll get at it first thing tomorrow morning.” - - - - -CHAPTER X - -BEHIND THE CEDAR PLANK - - -They set out on the following morning. Elaborate preparations had been -made for the undertaking and, so that they might have ample time -undisturbed, Doris had begged her mother to allow her to picnic for the -day with Sally, and not come back to the hotel for luncheon. As Mrs. -Craig had come to have quite a high opinion of Sally, her judgment and -knowledge of the river and vicinity, she felt no hesitation in trusting -Doris to be safe with her. - -Sally had provided the sandwiches and Doris was armed with fruit and -candy and books to amuse Genevieve. In the bow of the boat Sally had -stowed away a number of tools borrowed from her father’s boathouse. -Altogether, the two girls felt as excited and mysterious and -adventurous as could well be imagined. - -“I wish we could have left Genevieve at home,” whispered Sally as they -were embarking. “But there’s no one to take care of her for all day, so -of course it was impossible. But I’m afraid she’s going to get awfully -tired and restless while we’re working.” - -“Oh, never you fear!” Doris encouraged her. “I’ve brought a few new -picture-books and we’ll manage to keep her amused somehow.” - -Once established in the cave, having settled Genevieve with a book, the -girls set to work in earnest. - -“I’m glad I thought to bring a dozen more candles,” said Sally. “We were -down to the end of the last one. Now shall we begin on that corner at -the extreme right-hand away from the door? That’s the likeliest place. -I’ll measure a space around it twenty-one inches square.” - -She measured off the space on the floor carefully with a folding ruler, -while Doris stood over her watching with critical eyes. Then, having -drawn the lines with a piece of chalk, Sally proceeded to begin on the -sawing operation with one of her father’s old and somewhat rusty saws. - -It was a heartbreakingly slow operation. Turn and turn about they worked -away, encouraging each other with cheering remarks. The planks of the -old _Anne Arundel_ were very thick and astonishingly tough. At the end -of an hour they had but one side of the square sawed through, and -Genevieve was beginning to grow fractious. Then they planned it that -while one worked, the other should amuse the youngest member of the -party by talking, singing, and showing pictures to her. - -This worked well for a time, and a second side at last was completed. By -the time they reached the third, however, Genevieve flatly refused to -remain in the cave another moment, so it was agreed that one of them -should take her outside while the other remained within and sawed. This -proved by far the best solution yet, as Genevieve very shortly fell -asleep on the warm pine needles. They covered her with a shawl they had -brought, and then both went back to the undertaking, of which they were -now, unconfessedly, very weary. - -It was shortly after the noon hour when the saw made its way through the -fourth side of the square. In a hush of breathless expectation, they -lifted the piece of timber, prepared for--who could tell what wondrous -secret beneath it? - -The space it left was absolutely empty of the slightest suggestion of -anything remarkable. It revealed the sandy soil of the embankment into -which the cave was dug, and nothing else whatever. The disgusted silence -that followed Doris was the first to break. - -“Of course, something may be buried down here, but I doubt it awfully. -I’m sure we would have seen some sign of it, if this had been the right -corner. However, give me that trowel, Sally, and we’ll dig down a way.” -She dug for almost a foot into the damp sand, and finally gave it up. - -“How could any one go on digging down in the space of only twenty-one -inches?” she exclaimed in despair. “If one were to dig at all, the -space ought to be much larger. No, this very plainly isn’t the right -corner. Let’s go outside and eat our lunch, and then, if we have any -courage left, we can come back and begin on another corner. Personally, -I feel as if I should scream, if I had to put my hand to that old saw -again!” - -But a hearty luncheon and a half hour of idling in the sunlight above -ground after it, served to restore their courage and determination. -Sally was positive that the corner diagonally opposite was the one most -likely to yield results, and Doris was inclined to agree with her. -Genevieve, however, flatly refused to re-enter the cave so they were -forced to adopt the scheme of the morning, one remaining always outdoors -with her, as they did not dare let her roam around by herself. Sally -volunteered to take the first shift at the sawing, and after they had -measured off the twenty-one inch square in the opposite corner she set -to work, while Doris stayed outside with Genevieve. - -Seated with a picture-book open on her lap, and with Genevieve cuddled -close by her side, she was suddenly startled by a muffled, excited cry -from within the cave. Obviously, something had happened. Springing up, -she hurried inside, Genevieve trailing after her. She beheld Sally -standing in the middle of the cave, candle in hand, dishevelled and -excited, pointing to the side of the cave near which she had been -working. - -“Look, look!” she cried. “What did I tell you?” Doris looked, expecting -to see something about the floor in the corner to verify their surmises. -The sight that met her eyes was as different as possible from that. - -A part of the wall of the cave, three feet in width and reaching from -top to bottom had opened and swung inward like a door on its hinges. - -“What _is_ it?” she breathed in a tone of real awe. - -“It’s a _door_, just as it looks,” explained Sally, “and we never even -guessed it was there. I happened to be leaning against that part of the -wall as I sawed, balancing myself against it, and sometimes pushing -pretty hard. All of a sudden it gave way, and swung out like that, and I -almost tumbled in. I was so astonished I hardly knew what had happened!” - -“But what’s behind it?” cried Doris, snatching the candle and hurrying -forward to investigate. They peered together into the blackness back of -the newly revealed door, the candle held high above their heads. - -“Why, it’s a _tunnel_!” exclaimed Sally. “A great, long tunnel, winding -away. I can’t even see how far it goes. Did you ever?” - -The two girls stood looking at each other and at the opening in a maze -of incredulous speculation. Suddenly Sally uttered a satisfied cry. - -“I know! I know, now! We never could think where all the rest of the -wood from the _Anne Arundel_ went. It’s right here!” It was evidently -true. The tunnel had been lined, top and bottom and often at the sides -with the same planking that had lined the cave and at intervals there -were stout posts supporting the roof of it. Well and solidly had it -been constructed in that long ago period, else it would never have -remained intact so many years. - -“Doris,” said Sally presently, “where do you suppose this leads to?” - -“I haven’t the faintest idea,” replied her friend, “except that it -probably leads to the treasure or the secret, or whatever it is. That -much I’m certain of now.” - -“So am I,” agreed Sally, “but, here’s the important thing. Are we to go -in there and find it?” - -Doris shrank back an instant. “Oh, I don’t know!” she faltered. “I’m not -sure whether I dare to--or whether Mother would allow me to--if she -knew. It--it _might_ be dangerous. Something might give way and bury us -alive.” - -“Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” announced Sally courageously. “I’ll -take a candle and go in a way by myself and see what it’s like. You stay -here with Genevieve, and I’ll keep calling back to you, so you needn’t -worry about me.” Before Doris could argue the question with her, she had -lighted another candle and stepped bravely into the gloom. - -Doris, at the opening, watched her progress nervously, till a turn in -the tunnel hid her from sight. - -“Oh, Sally, do come back!” she called. “I can’t stand this suspense!” - -“I’m all right!” Sally shouted back. “After that turn it goes on -straight for the longest way. I can’t see the end. But it’s perfectly -safe. The planks are as strong as iron yet. There isn’t a sign of a -cave-in. I’m coming back a moment.” She presently reappeared. - -“Look here!” she demanded, facing her companion. “Are you game to come -with me? We can bring Genevieve along. It’s perfectly safe. If you’re -not, you can stay here with her and I’ll go by myself. I’m determined to -see the end of this.” Her resolution fired Doris. After all, it could -not be so very dangerous, since the tunnel seemed in such good repair. -Forgetting all else in her enthusiasm, she hastily consented. - -“We must take plenty of candles and matches,” declared Sally. “We -wouldn’t want to be left in the dark in there. It’s lucky I brought a -lot today. Now, Genevieve, you behave yourself and come along like a -good girl, and we’ll buy you some lolly-pops when we get back home!” -Genevieve was plainly reluctant to add her presence to the undertaking, -but, neither, on the other hand, did she wish to be left behind, so she -followed disapprovingly. - -Each with a candle lit, they stepped down from the floor of the cave and -gingerly progressed along the narrow way. Doris determinedly turned her -eyes from the slugs and snails and strange insects that could be seen on -the ancient planking, and kept them fastened on Sally’s back as she led -the way. On and on they went, silent, awe-stricken, and wondering. -Genevieve whimpered and clung to Doris’s skirts, but no one paid any -attention to her, so she was forced to follow on, willy-nilly. - -So far did this strange, underground passage proceed that Doris -half-whispered: “Is it never going to end, Sally? Ought we to venture -any further?” - -“I’m going to the end!” announced Sally stubbornly. “You can go back if -you like.” And they all went on again in silence. - -At length it was evident that the end was in sight, for the way was -suddenly blocked by a stone wall, apparently, directly across the -passage. They all drew a long breath and approached to examine it more -closely. It was unmistakably a wall of stones, cemented like the -foundation of a house, and beyond it they could not proceed. - -“What are we going to do now?” demanded Doris. - -“The treasure must be here,” said Sally, “and I’ve found one thing that -opened when you pushed against it. Maybe this is another. Let’s try. -Perhaps it’s behind one of these stones. Look! The plaster seems to be -loose around these in the middle.” She thrust the weight of her strong -young arm against it, directing it at the middle stone of three large -ones, but without avail. They never moved the fraction of an inch. Then -she began to push all along the sides where the plaster seemed loose. At -last she threw her whole weight against it--and was rewarded! - -The three stones swung round, as on a pivot, revealing a space only -large enough to crawl through with considerable squeezing. - -“Hurrah! hurrah!” she shouted. “What did I tell you, Doris? There’s -something else behind here,--another cave, I guess. I’m going through. -Are you going to follow?” Handing her candle to Doris, she scrambled -through the narrow opening. And Doris, now determined to stick at -nothing, set both candles on the ground, and pushed the struggling and -resisting Genevieve in next. After that, she passed in the candles to -Sally, who held them while she clambered in herself. - -And, once safely within, they stood and stared about them. - -“Why, Sally,” suddenly breathed Doris, “this isn’t a cave. It’s a -_cellar_! Don’t you see all the household things lying around? Garden -tools, and vegetables and--and all that? Where in the world can we be?” -A great light suddenly dawned on her. - -“Sally Carter, what did I tell you? This cellar is Miss Camilla’s. I -know it. I’m _certain_ of it. There’s no other house anywhere near -Slipper Point. I _told_ you she knew about that cave!” - -Sally listened, open-mouthed. “It can’t be,” she faltered. “I’m sure we -didn’t come in that direction at all.” - -“You can’t tell how you’re going--underground,” retorted Doris. -“Remember, the tunnel made a turn, too. Oh, Sally! Let’s go back at -once, before anything is discovered, and never, never let Miss Camilla -or any one know what we’ve discovered. It’s none of our business.” - -Sally, now convinced, was about to assent, when Genevieve suddenly broke -into a loud howl. - -“I won’t go back! I won’t go back--in that nas’y place!” she announced, -at the top of her lungs. - -“Oh, stop her!” whispered Doris. “Do stop - -[Illustration: She led the others up the cellar steps] - -her, or Miss Camilla may hear!” Sally stifled her resisting sister by -the simple process of placing her hand forcibly over her mouth,--but it -was too late. A door opened at the top of a flight of steps, and Miss -Camilla’s astounded face appeared in the opening. - -“What is it? Who is it?” she called, obviously frightened to death -herself at this unprecedented intrusion. Huddled in a corner, they all -shrank back for a moment, then Doris stepped boldly forward. - -“It’s only ourselves, Miss Camilla,” she announced. “We have done a very -dreadful thing, and we hadn’t any right to do it. But, if you’ll let us -come upstairs, we’ll explain it all, and beg your pardon, and promise -never to speak of it or even think of it again.” She led the others up -the cellar steps, and into Miss Camilla’s tiny, tidy kitchen. Here, -still standing, she explained the whole situation to that lady, who was -still too overcome with astonishment to utter a word. And she ended her -explanation thus: - -“So you see, we didn’t have the slightest idea we were going to end at -this house. But, all the same, we sort of felt that this cave was a -secret of yours and that we really hadn’t any right to be interfering -with it. But won’t you please forgive us, this time, Miss Camilla? And -we’ll really try to forget that it ever existed.” - -And then Miss Camilla suddenly found words. “My dear children,” she -stuttered, “I--I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t -the faintest idea what this all means. _I never knew till this minute -that there was anything like a cave or a tunnel connected with this -house!_” - -And in the astounded silence that followed, the three stood gaping, -open-mouthed, at each other. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -SOME BITS OF ROUNDTREE HISTORY - - -“But come into the sitting-room,” at length commanded Miss Camilla, “and -let us talk this strange thing over. You must be tired and hungry, too, -after this awful adventure of coming through that dreadful tunnel. You -must have some of this hot gingerbread and a glass of lemonade.” And -while she bustled about, on hospitable thoughts intent, they heard her -muttering to herself: - -“A cave--and a tunnel--and connected with _this_ house!--What _can_ it -all mean?” - -They sat in restful silence for a time, munching the delicious hot -gingerbread and sipping cool lemonade. Never did a repast taste more -welcome, coming as it did after the adventures and uncertainties of that -eventful day. And while they ate, Miss Camilla sat wiping her glasses -and putting them on and taking them off again and shaking her head over -the perplexing news that had been so unexpectedly thrust upon her. - -“I simply cannot understand it all,” she began at last. “As I told you, -I’ve never had the slightest idea of such a strange affair, nor can I -imagine how it came there. When did you say that _Anne Arundel_ vessel -was wrecked?” - -“Grandfather said in 1850,” answered Sally. - -“Eighteen hundred and fifty,” mused Miss Camilla. “Well, I couldn’t have -been more than four or five years old, so of course I would scarcely -remember it. Besides, I was not at home here a great deal. I used to -spend most of my time with my aunt who lived in New York. She used to -take me there for long visits, months on a stretch. If this cave and -tunnel were made at that time, it was probably done while I was away, or -else I would have known of it. My father and brother and one or two -colored servants were the only ones in the house, most of the time. I -had a nurse, an old Southern colored ‘mammy’ who always went about with -me. She died about the time the Civil War broke out.” - -There was no light on the matter here. Miss Camilla relapsed again into -puzzled silence, which the girls hesitated to intrude upon by so much as -a single word, lest Miss Camilla should consider that they were prying -into her past history. - -“Wait a moment!” she suddenly exclaimed, sitting up very straight and -wiping her glasses again in great excitement. “I believe I have the -explanation.” She looked about at her audience a minute, hesitantly. “I -shall have to ask you girls please to keep what I am going to tell you -entirely to yourselves. Few if any have ever known of it, and, though it -would do no harm now, I have other reasons for not wishing it discussed -publicly. Since you have discovered what you have, however, I feel it -only right that you should know.” - -“You may rely on us, Miss Camilla,” said Doris, speaking for them both, -“to keep anything you may tell us a strict secret.” - -“Thank you,” replied their hostess. “I feel sure of it. Well, I learned -the fact, very early in my girlhood, that my father and also my brother, -who was several years older than I, were both very strict and -enthusiastic abolitionists. While slavery was still a national -institution in this country, they were firm advocates of the freedom of -the colored people. And, so earnest were they in the cause, that they -became members of the great ‘Underground Railway’ system.” - -“What was that?” interrupted both girls at a breath. - -“Did you never hear of it?” exclaimed Miss Camilla in surprise. “Why, it -was a great secret system of assisting runaway slaves from the Southern -States to escape from their bondage and get to Canada where they could -no longer be considered any one’s property. There were many people in -all the Northern States, who, believing in freedom for the slaves, -joined this secret league, and in their houses runaways would be -sheltered, hidden and quietly passed on to the next house of refuge, or -‘station,’ as they were called, till at length the fugitives had passed -the boundary of the country. It was, however, a severe legal offense to -be caught assisting these fugitives, and the penalty was heavy fines and -often imprisonment. But that did not daunt those whose hearts were in -the cause. And so very secret was the whole organization that few were -ever detected in it. - -“It was in a rather singular way that I discovered my father to be -concerned in this matter. I happened to be at home here, and came -downstairs one morning, rather earlier than usual, to find our kitchen -filled with a number of strange colored folk, in various stages of rags -and hunger and evident excitement. I was a girl of ten or eleven at the -time. Rushing to my father’s study, I demanded an explanation of the -strange spectacle. He took me aside and explained the situation to me, -acknowledging that he was concerned in the ‘Underground Railway’ and -warning me to maintain the utmost secrecy in the matter or it would -imperil his safety. - -“When I returned to the kitchen, to my astonishment, the whole crowd -had mysteriously disappeared, though I had not been gone fifteen -minutes. And I could not learn from any one a satisfactory explanation -of their lightning disappearance. I should certainly have seen them, had -they gone away above ground. I believe now that the cave and tunnel must -have been the means of secreting them, and I haven’t a doubt that my -father and brother had had it constructed for that very purpose. A -runaway, or even a number of them, could evidently be kept in the cave -several days and then spirited away at night, probably by way of the -river and some vessel out at sea that could take them straight to New -York or even to Canada itself. Yes, it is all as clear as daylight to me -now.” - -“But how do you suppose they were able to build the cave and tunnel and -bring all the wood from the wreck on the beach without being -discovered?” questioned Sally. - -“That probably was not so difficult then as it would seem now,” answered -Miss Camilla. “To begin with, there were not so many people living -about here then, and so there was less danger of being discovered. If my -father and brother could manage to get men enough to help and a number -of teams of oxen or horses such as he had, they could have brought the -wreckage from the beach here, over what must then have been a very -lonely and deserted road, without much danger of discovery. If it -happened that at the time they were sheltering a number of escaped -slaves, it would have been no difficult matter to press them into -assisting on dark nights when they could be so well concealed. Yes, I -think that was undoubtedly the situation.” - -They all sat quietly for a moment, thinking it over. Miss Camilla’s -solution of the cave and tunnel mystery was clear beyond all doubting, -and it seemed as if there was nothing further for them to wonder about. -Suddenly, however, Sally leaned forward eagerly. - -“But did we tell you about the strange piece of paper we found under the -old mattress, Miss Camilla? I’ve really forgotten what we did say.” - -Miss Camilla looked perplexed. “Why, no. I don’t remember your -mentioning it. Everything was so confused, at first, that I’ve forgotten -it if you did. What about a piece of paper?” - -“Here is a copy of what was on it,” said Sally. “We never take the real -piece away from where we first found it, but we made this copy. Perhaps -you can tell what it all means.” She handed the paper to Miss Camilla, -who stared at it for several moments in blank bewilderment. Then she -shook her head. - -“I can’t make anything of it at all,” she acknowledged. “It must have -been something left there by one of the fugitives. I don’t believe it -concerns me at all.” She handed the paper back, but as she did so, a -sudden idea occurred to Doris. - -“Mightn’t it have been some secret directions to the slaves left there -for them by your father or brother?” she suggested. “Maybe it was to -tell them where to go next, or something like that.” - -“I think it very unlikely,” said Miss Camilla. “Most of them could -neither read nor write, and they would hardly have understood an -explanation so complex. No, it must be something else. I wonder--” She -stopped short and stood thinking intently a moment while her visitors -watched her anxiously. A pained and troubled expression had crept into -her usually peaceful face, and she seemed to be reviewing memories that -caused her sorrow. - -“Can you get the original paper for me?” she suddenly exclaimed in great -excitement. “Now--at once? I have just thought of something.” - -“I’ll get it!” cried Sally, and she was out of the house in an instant, -flying swift-footed over the ground that separated them from the -entrance of the cave by the river. While she was gone Miss Camilla sat -silent, inwardly reviewing her painful memories. - -In ten minutes Sally was back, breathless, with the precious, rusty tin -box clasped in her hand. Opening it, she gave the contents to Miss -Camilla, who stared at it for three long minutes in silence. - -When she looked up her eyes were tragic. But she only said very quietly: - -“It is my brother’s writing!” - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -LIGHT DAWNS ON MISS CAMILLA - - -“What do you make of it all, Sally?” - -The two girls were sitting in the pine grove on the heights of Slipper -Point. They sat each with her back against a tree and with the -enchanting view of the upper river spread out panoramically before them. -Each of them was knitting,--an accomplishment they had both recently -acquired. - -“I can’t make anything of it at all, and I’ve thought of it day and -night ever since,” was Sally’s reply. “It’s three weeks now since the -day we came through that tunnel and discovered where it ended. And -except what Miss Camilla told us that day, she’s never mentioned a thing -about it since.” - -“It’s strange, how she stopped short, just after she’d said the writing -was her brother’s,” mused Doris. “And then asked us in the next breath -not to question her about it any more, and to forgive her silence in -the matter because it probably concerned something that was painful to -her.” - -“Yes, and kept the paper we found in the cave,” went on Sally. “I -believe she wanted to study it out and see what she could make of it. If -she’s sure it was written by her brother, she will probably be able to -puzzle it out better than we would. One thing, I guess, is certain, -though. It isn’t any secret directions where to find treasure. All our -little hopes about that turned out very differently, didn’t they?” - -“Sally, are you glad or sorry we’ve discovered what we did about that -cave?” demanded Doris suddenly. - -“Oh, glad, of course,” was Sally’s reply. “At first, I was awfully -disgusted to think all my plans and hopes about it and finding buried -treasure and all that had come to nothing. But, do you know what has -made me feel differently about it?” She looked up quickly at Doris. - -“No, what?” asked her companion curiously. - -“It’s Miss Camilla herself,” answered Sally. “I used to think you were -rather silly to be so crazy about her and admire her so much. I’d never -thought anything about her and I’d known her ‘most all my life. But -since she asked us that day to come and see her as often as we liked and -stop at her house whenever we were up this way, and consider her as our -friend, I’ve somehow come to feel differently. I’m glad we took her at -her word and did it. I don’t think I would have, if it hadn’t been for -you. But you’ve insisted on our stopping at her house so frequently, and -we’ve become so well acquainted with her that I really think I--I -almost--love her.” - -It pleased Doris beyond words to hear Sally make this admission. She -wanted Sally to appreciate all that was fine and admirable and lovely in -Miss Camilla, even if she were poor and lonely and deaf. She felt that -the friendship would be good for Sally, and she knew that she herself -was profiting by the increased acquaintance with this friend they had so -strangely made. - -“Wasn’t it nice of her to teach us to knit?” went on Sally. “She said we -all ought to be doing it now to help out our soldiers, since the country -is at war.” - -“She’s taught me lots beside that,” said Doris. “I just love to hear her -talk about old potteries and porcelains and that sort of thing. I do -believe she knows more about them than even grandfather does. She’s -making me crazy to begin a collection myself some day when I’m old -enough. She must have had a fine collection once. I do wonder what -became of it.” - -“Well, I don’t understand much about all that talk,” admitted Sally. “I -never saw any porcelains worth while in all my life, except that little -thing she has on her mantel. And I don’t see anything to get so crazy -about in that. It’s kind of pretty, of course, but why get excited about -it? What puzzles me more is why she never has said what became of all -her other things.” - -“That’s a part of the mystery,” said Doris. “And her brother’s mixed up -in it somehow, and perhaps her father. That much I’m sure of. She talks -freely enough about everything else except those things, so that must be -it. Do you know what I’m almost tempted to think? That her brother _did_ -commit some crime, and her father hid him away in the cave to escape -from justice, but she couldn’t have known about it, that’s plain. -Because she did not know about the cave and tunnel at all till just -lately. Perhaps she wondered what became of him. And maybe they sold all -her lovely porcelains to make up for what he’d done somehow.” - -“Yes,” cried Sally in sudden excitement. “And another idea has just come -to me. Maybe that queer paper was a note her brother left for her and -she can’t make out how to read it. Did you ever think of that?” - -“Why, no!” exclaimed Doris, struck with the new idea. “I never thought -of it as anything he might have left for _her_. Do you remember, she -said once they were awfully fond of each other, more even than most -brothers and sisters? It would be perfectly natural if he _did_ want to -leave her a note, if he had to go away and perhaps never come back. And -of course he wouldn’t want any one else to understand what it said. Oh, -wait!--I have an idea we’ve never thought of before. Why on earth have -we been so _stupid_!--” - -She sprang up and began to walk about excitedly, while Sally watched -her, consumed with curiosity. At length she could bear the suspense no -longer. - -“Well, for pity’s sake tell me what you’ve thought of!” she demanded. -“I’ll go wild if you keep it to yourself much longer.” - -“Where’s that copy?” was all Doris would reply. “I want to study it a -moment.” Sally drew it from her pocket and handed it to her, and Doris -spent another five minutes regarding it absorbedly. - -“It is. It surely is!” she muttered, half to herself. “But how are we -ever going to think out how to work it?” At last she turned to the -impatient Sally. - -“I’m a fool not to have thought of this before, Sally. I read a book -once,--I can’t think what it was now, but it was some detective -story,--where there was something just a little like this. Not that it -looked like this, but the idea was the same. If it is what I think, it -isn’t the note itself at all. The note, if there is one, must be -somewhere else. This is only a secret _code_, or arrangement of the -letters, so that one can read the note by it. Probably the real note is -written in such a way that it could never be understood at all without -this. Do you understand?” - -Sally had indeed grasped the idea and was wildly excited by it. - -“Oh, Doris,” she cried admiringly. “You certainly _are_ a wonder to have -thought all this out! It’s ten times as interesting as what we first -thought it was. But how do you work this code? I can’t make anything out -of it at all.” - -“Well, neither can I, I’ll have to admit. But here’s what I _think_. If -we could see what that note itself looks like, we could perhaps manage -to puzzle out just how this code works.” - -“But how are we going to do that?” demanded Doris. “Only Miss Camilla -has the note, if there _is_ a _note_; and certainly we couldn’t very -well ask her to let us see it, especially after what she said to us that -day.” - -“No, we couldn’t, I suppose,” said Doris, thoughtfully. “And yet--” she -hesitated. “I somehow feel perfectly certain that Miss Camilla doesn’t -know the meaning of all this yet, hasn’t even guessed what we have, -about this paper. She doesn’t act so. Maybe she doesn’t even know there -_is_ a note,--you can’t tell. If she hasn’t guessed, it would be a mercy -to tell her, wouldn’t it?” - -“Yes, I suppose so,” admitted Sally dubiously. “But I wouldn’t know how -to go about it. Would you?” - -“I could only try and do my best, and beg her to forgive me if I were -intruding,” said Doris. “Yes, I believe she ought to be told. You can’t -tell how she may be worrying about all this. She acts awfully worried, -seems to me. Not at all like she did when we first knew her. I believe -we ought to tell her right now. Call Genevieve and we’ll go over.” - -Sally called to Genevieve, who was playing in the boat on the beach -below, and that young lady soon came scrambling up the bank. Hand in -hand, all three started to the home of Miss Camilla and when they had -reached it, found her sitting on her tiny porch knitting in apparently -placid content. But, true to Doris’s observation, there were anxious -lines in her face that had not been seen a month ago. She greeted them, -however, with real pleasure, and with her usual hospitality proffered -refreshments, this time in the shape of some early peaches she had -gathered only that morning. - -But Doris who, with Sally’s consent, had constituted herself spokesman, -before accepting the refreshment, began: - -“Miss Camilla, I wonder if you’ll forgive us for speaking of something -to you? It may seem as if we were intruding, but we really don’t intend -to.” - -“Why, speak right on,” exclaimed that lady in surprise. “You are too -well-bred to be intrusive, that I know. If you feel you must speak of -something to me, I know it is because you think it wise or necessary.” - -Much relieved by this assurance, Doris went on, explaining how she had -suddenly had a new idea concerning the mysterious paper and detailing -what she thought it might be. As she proceeded, a new light of -comprehension seemed to creep into the face of Miss Camilla, who had -been listening intently. - -“So we think it must be a code,--a secret code,--Miss Camilla. And if -you happen to have any queer sort of note or communication that you’ve -never been able to make out, why this may explain it,” she added. - -When she had finished, Miss Camilla sat perfectly still--thinking. She -thought so long and so intently that it seemed as if she must have -forgotten completely the presence of the three on the porch with her. -And after what seemed an interminable period, she did a strange thing. -Instead of replying with so much as a word, she got up and went into -the house, leaving them open-mouthed and wondering. - -“Do you suppose she’s angry with us?” whispered Sally. “Do you think we -ought to stay?” - -“No, I don’t think she’s angry,” replied Doris in a low voice. “I think -she’s so--so absorbed that she hardly realizes what she’s doing or that -we are here. We’d better stay.” - -They stayed. But so long was Miss Camilla gone that even Doris began to -doubt the wisdom of remaining any longer. - -But presently she came back. Her recently neat dress was grimy and -dishevelled. There was a streak of dust across her face and a cobweb lay -on her hair. Doris guessed at once that she had been in the old, unused -portion of her house. But in her hand she carried something, and -resuming her seat, she laid it carefully on her knee. It was a little -book about four inches wide and six or seven long, with an old-fashioned -brown cover, and it was coated with what seemed to be the dust of years. -The two girls gazed at it curiously, and when Miss Camilla had got her -breath, she explained: - -“I can never thank you enough for what you have told me today. It throws -light on something that has never been clear to me,--something that I -have even forgotten for long years. If what you surmise is true, then a -mystery that has surrounded my life for more than fifty years will be at -last explained. It is strange that the idea did not occur to me when -first you girls discovered the cave and the tunnel, but even then it -remained unconnected in my mind with--_this_.” She pointed to the little -book in her lap. Then she went on: - -“But, now, under the circumstances, I feel that I must explain it all to -you, relying still on your discretion and secrecy. For I have come to -know that you are both unusually trustworthy young folks. There has been -a dark shadow over my life,--a darker shadow than you can perhaps -imagine. I told you before of my father’s opinions and leanings during -the years preceding the Civil War. When that terrible conflict broke -out, he insisted that I go away to Europe with my aunt and stay there -as long as it lasted, providing me with ample funds to do so. I think -that he did not believe at first that the struggle would be so long. - -“I went with considerable reluctance, but I was accustomed to obeying -his wishes implicitly. I was gone two years, and in all that time I -received the most loving and affectionate letters constantly, both from -him and also my brother. They assured me that everything was well with -them. My brother had enlisted at once in the Union Army and had fought -through a number of campaigns. My father remained here, but was doing -his utmost, so he said, in a private capacity, to further the interests -of the country. Altogether, their reports were glowing. And though I was -often worried as to the outcome, and apprehensive for my brother’s -safety, I spent the two years abroad very happily. - -“Then, in May of 1863, my first calamity happened. My aunt died very -suddenly and unexpectedly, while we were in Switzerland, and, as we had -been alone, it was my sad duty to bring her back to New York. After her -funeral, I hurried home here, wondering very much that my father had not -come on to be with me, for I had sent him word immediately upon my -arrival. My brother, I suspected, was away with the army. - -“I was completely astounded and dismayed, on arriving home, at the -condition of affairs I found here. To begin with, there were no servants -about. Where they had gone, or why they had been dismissed, I could not -discover. My father was alone in his study when I arrived, which was -rather late in the evening. He was reserved and rather taciturn in his -greeting to me, and did not act very much pleased to welcome me back. -This grieved me greatly, after my long absence. But I could see that he -was worried and preoccupied and in trouble of some kind. I thought that -perhaps he had had bad news about my brother Roland, but he assured me -that Roland was all right. - -“Then I asked him why the house was in such disorder and where the -servants were, but he only begged me not to make inquiries about that -matter at present, but to go to my room and make myself as comfortable -as I could, and he would explain it all later. I did as he asked me and -went to my room. I had been there about an hour, busying myself with -unpacking my bag, when there was a hurried knock at my door. I went to -open it, and gave a cry of joy, for there stood my brother Roland. - -“Instead of greeting me, however, he seized my hand and cried: ‘Father -is very ill. He has had some sort of a stroke. Hurry downstairs to him -at once. I must leave immediately. I can’t even wait to see how he is. -It is imperative!’ - -“‘But, Roland,’ I cried, ‘surely you won’t go leaving Father like this!’ -But he only answered, ‘I must. I must! It’s my duty!’ He seized me in -his arms and kissed me, and was gone without another word. But before he -went, I had seen--a dreadful thing! He was enveloped from head to foot -in a long, dark military cape of some kind, reaching almost to his feet. -But as he embraced me under the light of the hall lamp, the cloak was -thrown aside for an instant and I had that terrible glimpse. Under the -concealing cloak my brother was wearing a uniform of _Confederate gray_. - -“I almost fainted at the sight, but he was gone before I could utter a -word, without probably even knowing that I _had_ seen. This, then, was -the explanation of the mysterious way they had treated me. They had gone -over to the enemy. They were traitors to their country and their faith, -and they did not want me to know. For this they had even sent me away -out of the country!... - -“But I had no time to think about that then. I hurried to my father and -found him on the couch in his study, inert in the grip of a paralytic -stroke that had deprived him of the use of his limbs and also of -coherent speech. I spent the rest of the night trying to make him -easier, but the task was difficult. I had no one to send for a doctor -and could not leave him to go myself, and of course the nearest doctor -was several miles away. There was not even a neighbor who could be -called upon for assistance. - -“All that night, however, my father tried to tell me something. His -speech was almost absolutely incoherent, but several times I caught the -sound of words like ‘notebook’ and ‘explain.’ But I could make nothing -of it. In the early morning another stroke took him, and he passed away -very quietly in my arms. - -“I can scarcely bear, even now, to recall the days that followed. After -the funeral, I retired very much into myself and saw almost no one. I -felt cut off and abandoned by all humanity. I did not know where my -brother was, could not even communicate with him about the death of our -father. Had he been in the Union Army I would have inquired. But the -glimpse I had had that night of his rebel uniform was sufficient to seal -my lips forever. There was no one in the village whom I knew well enough -to discuss any such matters with, nor any remaining relative with whom I -was in sympathy. I could only wait for my brother’s return to solve the -mystery. - -“But my brother never returned. In all these years I have neither seen -him nor heard of him, and I know beyond doubt that he is long since -dead. And I have remained here by myself like a hermit, because I feel -that the shame of it all has hung about me and enveloped me, and I -cannot get away from it. Once, a number of years ago, an old village -gossip here, now long since gone, said to me, ‘There was something queer -about your father and brother, now wasn’t there, Miss Camilla? I’ve -heard tell as how they were “Rebs” on the quiet, during the big war -awhile back. Is that so?’ Of course, the chance remark only served to -confirm the suspicions in my mind, though I denied it firmly to her when -she said it. - -“I also found to my amazement, when I went over the house after all was -over, that many things I had loved and valued had strangely disappeared. -All the family silver, of which we had had a valuable set inherited from -Revolutionary forefathers, was gone. Some antique jewelry that I had -picked up abroad and prized highly was also missing. But chief of all, -my whole collection of precious porcelains and pottery was nowhere to be -found. I searched in every conceivable nook and cranny in vain. And at -last the disagreeable truth was forced on me that my father and brother -had sold or disposed of them, for what ends I could not guess. But it -only added to my bitterness to think they could do such a despicable -thing without so much as consulting me. - -“But now, at last, I come to the notebook. I found it among some papers -in my father’s study desk, a while after his death, and I frankly -confess I could make nothing of it whatever. It seemed to be filled with -figures, added and subtracted, and, as my father had always been rather -fond of dabbling with figures and mathematics, I put it down as being -some quiet calculations of his own that had no bearing on anything -concerning me. I laid it carefully away with his other papers, however, -and there it has been, in an old trunk in the attic of the unused part -all these years. When you spoke of a ‘secret code,’ however, it -suddenly occurred to me that the notebook might be concerned in the -matter. Here it is.” - -She held it out to them and they crowded about her eagerly. But as she -laid it open and they examined its pages, a disappointed look crept into -Sally’s eyes. - -“Why, there’s nothing here but _numbers_!” she exclaimed, and it was -even so. The first few lines were as follows: - - 56 + 14 - 63 + 43 + 34 + 54 + 64 + 43 + - 16 - 52 + 66 + 52 + 15 + 23 - 66 + 24 - - 15 + 44 + 43 - 43 + 64 + 43 + 24 + 15 - - 61 + 53 - 36 + 24 + 14 - 51 + 15 + 53 + - 54 + 43 + 52 + 43 + 43 + 15 - 16 + 66 + - 52 + 36 + 52 + 15 + 43 + 23 - - -And all the rest were exactly like them in character. - -But Doris, who had been quietly examining it, with a copy of the code in -her other hand, suddenly uttered a delighted cry: - -“I have it! At least, I _think_ I’m on the right track. Just examine -this code a moment, Miss Camilla. If you notice, leaving out the line of -figures at the top and right of the whole square, the rest is just the -letters of - -[Illustration: “Why, there’s nothing there but numbers”] - -the alphabet and the figures one to nine and another ‘o’ that probably -stands for ‘naught.’ There are six squares across and six squares down, -and those numbers on the outside are just one to six, only all mixed up. -Don’t you see how it could be worked? Suppose one wanted to write the -letter ‘t.’ It could be indicated by the number ‘5’ (meaning the square -it comes under according to the top line of figures) and ‘1’ (the number -according to the side line). Then ‘51’ would stand for letter ‘T,’ -wouldn’t it?” - -“Great!” interrupted Sally, enthusiastically, who had seen the method -even quicker than Miss Camilla. “But suppose it worked the other way, -reading the side line first? Then ‘T’ would be ‘15.’” - -“Of course, that’s true,” admitted Doris. “I suppose there must have -been some understanding between those who invented this code about which -line to read first. The only way we can discover it is to puzzle it out -both ways, and see which makes sense. One will and the other won’t.” - -It all seemed as simple as rolling off a log, now that Doris had -discovered the explanation. Even Miss Camilla was impressed with the -value of the discovery. - -“But what is the meaning of these plus and minus signs?” she queried. “I -suppose they stand for something.” - -“I think that’s easy,” answered Doris. “In looking over it, I see there -are a great many more plus than minus signs. Now, I think the plus signs -must be intended to divide the numbers in groups of two, so that each -group stands for a letter. Otherwise they’d be all hopelessly mixed up. -And the minus signs divide the words. And every once in a while, if you -notice, there’s a multiplication sign. I imagine those as the periods at -the end of sentences.” - -They all sat silent a moment after this, marveling at the simplicity of -it. But at length Doris suggested: - -“Suppose we try to puzzle out a little of it and see if we are really on -the right track? Have you a piece of paper and a pencil, Miss Camilla?” -Miss Camilla went indoors and brought them out, quivering with the -excitement of the new discovery. - -“Now, let’s see,” began Doris. “Suppose we try reading the top line -first. ‘56’ would be ‘1’ and ‘14’ would be ‘2.’ Now ‘12’ may mean a word -or it may not. It hardly seems as if a note would begin with that. Let’s -try it the other way. Side line first. Then ‘56’ is ‘m,’ and ‘14’ is -‘y.’ ‘_My_’ is a word, anyway, so perhaps we’re on the right track. -Let’s go on.” - -From the next series of letters she spelled the word “beloved” and after -that “sister.” It was plain beyond all doubting that at last they had -stumbled on a wonderful discovery. - -But she got no further than the words, “my beloved sister,” for, no -sooner had Miss Camilla taken in their meaning than she huddled back in -her chair and, very quietly, fainted away. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -WORD FROM THE PAST - - -None of the three had ever seen any one unconscious before. Sally stood -back, aghast and helpless. Genevieve expressed herself as she usually -did in emergencies, with a loud and resounding howl. But Doris rushed -into the house, fetched a dipper of cold water and dashed it into Miss -Camilla’s face. Then she began to rub her hands and ordered Sally to fan -her as hard as she could. The simple expedients worked in a short time, -and Miss Camilla came to herself. - -“I--I never did such a foolish thing before!” she gasped, when she -realized what had happened. “But this is all so--so amazing and -startling! It almost seemed like my brother’s own voice, speaking to me -from the past.” Again she sat back in her chair and closed her eyes, but -this time only to regain her poise. And then Doris did a very tactful -thing. - -“Miss Camilla,” she began, “we’ve discovered how to read the notebook, -and I’m sure you won’t have any trouble with it. I think we had better -be getting home now, for it is nearly five o’clock. So we’ll say -good-bye for today, and hope you won’t feel faint any more.” - -Miss Camilla gave her a grateful glance. Greatly as she wished to be -alone with this message left her by a brother whose fate she did not -dare to guess, yet she was too courteous to dismiss these two girls who -had done so much toward helping her solve the problem. And she was more -appreciative of Doris’s thoughtful suggestion of departure than she -could have put into words. - -“Thank you, dear,” she replied, “and come again tomorrow, all of you. -Perhaps I shall have--something to tell you then!” - -And with many a backward glance and much waving of hands, they took -their departure across the fields. - - * * * * * - -It was with the wildest impatience that they waited for the following -afternoon to obey Miss Camilla’s behest and “come again.” But promptly -at two o’clock they were trailing through the pine woods and the meadow -that separated it from the Roundtree farmhouse. - -“Do you know,” whispered Sally, “crazy as I am to hear all about it, I -almost dread it, too. I’m so afraid it may have been bad news for her.” - -“I feel just the same,” confided Doris, “and yet I’m bursting with -impatience, too. Well, let’s go on and hear the worst. If it’s very bad, -she probably won’t want to say much about it.” - -But their first sight of Miss Camilla convinced them that the news was -not, at least, “very bad.” She sat on the porch as usual, knitting -serenely, but there was a new light in her face, a sweet, satisfied -tranquillity that had never been there before. - -“I’m glad you’ve come!” she greeted them. “I have much to tell you.” - -“Was it--was it all right?” faltered Doris. - -“It was more than ‘all right,’” she replied. “It was wonderful. But I am -going to read the whole thing to you. I spent nearly all last night -deciphering the letter,--for a letter it was,--and I think it is only -right you should hear it, after what you have done for me.” She went -inside the house and brought out several large sheets of paper on which -she had transcribed the meaning of the mysterious message. - -“Listen,” she said. “It is as wonderful as a fairy-tale. And how I have -misjudged him!” - -“‘My beloved sister,’” she read, “‘in the event of any disaster -befalling us, I want you to know the danger and the difficulties of what -we have undertaken. It is only right that you should, and I know of no -other way to communicate it to you, than by the roundabout means of this -military cipher which I am using. You are away in Europe now, and safe, -and Father intentionally keeps you there because of the very dangerous -enterprise in which we are involved. Lest any untoward thing should -befall before your return, we leave this as an explanation. - -“‘Contrary to any appearances, or anything you may hear said in the -future, I am a loyal and devoted soldier of the Union. But I am serving -it in the most dangerous capacity imaginable,--as a scout or spy in the -Confederate Army, wearing its uniform, serving in its ranks, but in -reality spying on every move and action and communicating all its -secrets that I am capable of obtaining to the Government and our own -commanders. I stand in hourly danger of being discovered--and for that -there is but one end. You know what it is. Of course, I am not serving -under my own name, so that if you never hear word of my fate, you may -know it is the only one possible for those who are serving as I serve. - -“‘Father is also carrying on the work, but in a slightly different -capacity. There are a set of Confederate workers up here secretly -engaged in raising funds and planning new campaigns for the South. -Father has identified himself with them, and they hold many meetings at -our house to discuss plans and information. Apparently he is hand in -glove with them, but in reality is all the while disclosing their plans -to the Government. They could doubtless kill him without scruple, if -they suspected it, and get away to the safety of their own lines -unscathed, before anything was discovered. So you see, he also stands -hourly on the brink of death. - -“‘For two years we have carried on this work unharmed, but I suppose it -cannot go on forever. Some day my disguise will be penetrated, and all -will be over with me. Some day Father will meet with some violent end -when he is alone and unprotected, and no one will be found to answer for -the deed. But it will all be for the glory of the Union we delight to -serve. Now do you understand the situation? - -“‘I do not get home here often, and never except for the purpose of -conveying some message that will best be sent to headquarters through -this channel. My field of service is with the armies south of the -Potomac. But while I am here now, Father and I have consulted as to the -best way of communicating this news to you and have decided on this -means. We cannot tell how soon our end may come. Father tells me there -are rumors about here that we are serving the Confederate side. Should -you return unexpectedly and find us gone, and perhaps hear those rumors, -you would certainly be justified in putting the worst construction on -our actions. - -“‘So we have decided to write and leave you this message. It will be -left carelessly among Father’s papers, and without the cipher will, of -course, be unreadable by any one. But we have not yet decided in what -place to conceal the cipher where there is no danger of its being -discovered. That is a military secret and, if it were disclosed, would -be fatal and far-reaching in its consequences.’” - -Miss Camilla stopped there, and her spellbound listeners drew a long -breath. - -“Isn’t it wonderful!” breathed Doris. “And they were loyal and devoted -to the Union all the time. How happy you must be, Miss Camilla.” - -“I am happy,--beyond words!” she replied. “But that is not quite all of -it. So far, it was evidently written at one sitting, calmly and -coherently. There is a little more, but it is hasty and confused, and -somewhat puzzling. It must have been added at another time, and I -suspect now, probably just at the time of my return. There is a blank -half-page, and then it goes on: - -“‘In a great hurry. Most vital and urgent business has brought me back -to see Father. Just learned you were here. There is grave, terrible -danger. The rebels are invading. I am with them, of course. Not far -away. Must return tonight, at once, to lines, if I ever get there alive. -Have a task before me that will undoubtedly see the end of me. In this -rig and in this place am open to danger from friend and foe alike. But -there is no time to change. Hope for best. Forgive haste but there is -not a moment to lose. Father seems ill and unlike himself. He saw two -or three Confederate spies at the house today. Always suspect something -is wrong after such a meeting. Don’t be surprised at state of the house. -Unavoidable but all right. Father will explain where I have hidden this -cipher code. Always your loving brother, - -“‘Roland.’ - -“And there is one more strange line,” ended Miss Camilla. “It is this: - -“‘In case you should forget, or Father doesn’t tell you, right hand side -from house, behind 27.’” - -“That is all!” She folded up the paper and sat looking away over the -meadow, as did the others, in the awed silence that followed naturally -the receipt of this message of one whose fate could be only too well -guessed. - -“And he never came back?” half-whispered Doris, at last. - -“No, he never came back,” answered Miss Camilla softly. “I haven’t a -doubt but that he met the fate he so surely predicted. I have been -thinking back and reading back over the events of that period, and I can -pretty well reconstruct what must have happened. It was in the month of -June of 1863, when Lee suddenly invaded Pennsylvania. From that time -until his defeat at Gettysburg, there was the greatest panic all through -this region, and every one was certain that it spelt ruin for the entire -North, especially Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I suppose my brother was -with his army and had made his way over home here to get or communicate -news. How he came or went, I cannot imagine, and never shall know. But I -can easily see how his fate would be certain were he seen by any of the -Federal authorities in a Confederate uniform. Probably no explanation -would save him, with many of them. For that was the risk run by every -scout, to be the prey of friend and foe alike, unless he could get hold -of the highest authority in time. He doubtless lies in an unknown grave, -either in this state or in Pennsylvania.” - -“But--your father?” hesitated Sally. “Do you--do you think anything -queer--happened to him?” - -“That I shall never know either,” answered Miss Camilla. “His symptoms -looked to me like apoplexy, at the time. Now that I think it over, they -might possibly have been caused by some slow and subtle poison having a -gradually paralyzing effect. You see, my brother says he had seen some -of the Confederate spies that day. Perhaps they had begun to suspect -him, and had taken this means to get him out of the way. I cannot tell. -As I could not get a doctor at the time, the village doctor, who had -known us all our lives, took my word for it next day that it was -apoplexy. But, whatever it may have been, I know that they both died in -the service of the country they loved, and that is enough for me. It has -removed the burden of many years of grief and shame from my shoulders. I -can once more lift up my head among my fellow-countrymen!” - -And Miss Camilla did actually radiate happiness with her whole -attractive personality. - -“But I cannot make any meaning out of that queer last line,” mused Sally -after a time. “Will you read it to us again, Miss Camilla, please?” - -And Miss Camilla repeated the odd message,--“‘In case you should forget, -or Father does not tell you, right hand side from house, behind -twenty-seven.’” - -“Now what in the world can that all mean?” she demanded. “At first I -thought perhaps it might mean where they had hidden the code, but that -couldn’t be because we found that under the old mattress in the cave. -Your brother probably went out that way that night and left it there on -the way.” - -“Wait a minute,” suddenly interrupted Doris. “Do you remember just -before the end he says, ‘do not be surprised at the state of the house. -Unavoidable but all right.’ Now what could he mean by _that_? Do you -know what I think? I believe he was apologizing because things seemed so -upset and--and many of the valuable things were missing, as Miss Camilla -said. If there was such excitement about, and fear of Lee’s invasion, -why isn’t it possible that they _hid_ those valuable things somewhere, -so they would be safe, whatever happened, and this was to tell her, -without speaking too plainly, that it was all right? The brother thought -his father would explain, but in case he didn’t, or it was forgotten, he -gave the clue where to find them.” - -Miss Camilla sat forward in renewed excitement, her eye-glasses brushed -awry. “Why, of course! Of course! I’ve never thought of it. Not once -since I read this letter. The other was so much more important. But -naturally that is what they must have done,--hidden them to keep them -safe. They never, never would have disposed of them in any other way or -for any other reason. But where in the world can that place be? ‘Right -hand side from the house behind 27’ means nothing at all--to me!” - -“Well, it does to _me_!” suddenly exclaimed Sally, the natural-born -treasure-hunter of them all. “Where else _could_ they hide anything so -safely as in that cave or tunnel? Nobody would ever suspect in the -world. And I somehow don’t think it meant the cave. I believe it means -somewhere in the tunnel, on the right hand side as you enter from the -cellar.” - -“But what about 27?” demanded Miss Camilla. “That doesn’t seem to mean -anything, does it?” - -“No, of course it doesn’t mean anything to you, because you haven’t been -through the tunnel, and wouldn’t know. But every once in a while, along -the sides, are planks from that old vessel, put there to keep the sides -more firm, I guess. There must be seventy-five or a hundred on each -side. Now I believe it means that if we look behind the twenty-seventh -one from the cellar entrance, on the right hand side, we’ll find -the--the things hidden there.” - -Then Miss Camilla rose, the light of younger days shining adventurously -in her eyes. - -“If that’s the case, we’ll go and dig them out tomorrow!” she announced -gaily. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE REAL BURIED TREASURE - - -It had been a very dull day indeed for Genevieve. Had she been able to -communicate her feelings adequately, she would have said she was -heartily sick and tired of the program she had been obliged to follow. -As she sat solitary on the porch of Miss Camilla’s tiny abode, thumb in -mouth and tugging at the lock of hair with her other hand, she thought -it all over resentfully. - -Why should she be commanded to sit here all by herself, in a spot that -offered no attractions whatever, told, nay, _commanded_ not to move from -the location, when she was bored beyond expression by the entire -proceeding? True, they had left her eatables in generous quantities, but -she had already disposed of these, and as for the picture-books of many -attractive descriptions, given her to while away the weary hours, they -were an old story now, and the afternoon was growing late. She longed to -go down to the shore and play in the rowboat, and dabble her bare toes -in the water, and indulge in the eternally fascinating experiment of -catching crabs with a piece of meat tied to a string and her father’s -old crab-net. What was the use of living when one was doomed to drag out -a wonderful afternoon on a tiny, hopelessly uninteresting porch out in -the backwoods? Existence was nothing but a burden. - -True, the morning had not been without its pleasant moments. They had -rowed up the river to their usual landing-place, a trip she always -enjoyed, though it had been somewhat marred by the fear that she might -be again compelled to burrow into the earth like a mole, forsaking the -glory of sunshine and sparkling water for the dismal dampness of that -unspeakable hole in the ground. But, to her immense relief, this -sacrifice was not required of her. Instead, they had made at once -through the woods and across the fields to Miss Camilla’s, albeit -burdened with many strange and, to her mind, useless tools and other -impedimenta. - -Miss Camilla’s house offered attractions not a few, chiefly in the way -of unlimited cookies and other eatables. But her enjoyment of the -cookies was tempered by the fact that the whole party suddenly took it -into their heads to proceed to the cellar and, what was even worse, to -attempt again the loathsome undertaking of scrambling through the narrow -place in the wall and the journey beyond. She herself accompanied them -as far as the cellar, but further than that she refused to budge. So -they left her in the cellar with a candle and a seat conveniently near a -barrel of apples. - -It amazed her, moreover, that a person of Miss Camilla’s years and sense -should engage in this foolish escapade. She had learned to expect -nothing better of Sally and “Dowis,” but that Miss Camilla herself -should descend enthusiastically to so senseless a performance, caused -her somewhat of a shock. She had not expected it of Miss Camilla. - -It transpired, however, that they did not proceed far into the tunnel. -She could hear them talking and exclaiming excitedly, and discussing -whether “this was really twenty-seven,” and “hadn’t we better count -again,” and “shall we saw it out,” and other equally pointless remarks -of a similar nature. Wearying of listening to such idle chatter, and -replete with cookies and russet apples, she had finally put her head -down on the edge of the barrel and had fallen fast asleep. - -When she had awakened, it was to find them all back in the cellar, and -Miss Camilla making the pleasant announcement that “they would have -luncheon now and get to work in earnest afterward.” A soul-satisfying -interval followed, the only really bright spot in the day for Genevieve. -But gloom had settled down upon her once more when they had risen from -the table. Solemnly they had taken her on their laps (at least Miss -Camilla had!) and ominously Sally had warned her: - -“Now, Genevieve, we’ve got something awfully important to do this -afternoon. You don’t like to go down in that dark place, so we’ve -decided not to take you with us. You’d rather stay up here in the -sunshine, wouldn’t you?” And she had nodded vigorously an unqualified -assent to that proposition. “Well, then,” Sally had continued, “you stay -right on this porch or in the sitting-room, and don’t you dare venture a -foot away from it. Will you promise?” Again Genevieve had nodded. -“Nothing will hurt you if you mind what we say, and by and by we’ll come -back and show you something awfully nice.” Genevieve had seriously -doubted the possibility of this latter statement, but she was helpless -in their hands. - -“And here’s plenty of cookies and a glass of jam,” Miss Camilla had -supplemented, “and we’ll come back to you soon, you blessed baby!” Then -they had all hugged and kissed her and departed. - -Well, they had not kept their word. She had heard the little clock in -the room within, strike and strike and strike, sometimes just one -bell-like tone, sometimes two and three and four. She could not yet -“tell the time” but she knew enough about a clock to realize that this -indicated the passing of the moments. And still there had been no sign -of return on the part of the exploring three. - -Genevieve whimpered a little and wiped her eyes, sad to say, on her -sleeve. Then she thrust her hand, for the fortieth time into the -cooky-jar. But it was empty. And then, in sheer boredom and despair, she -put her head down on the arm of her chair, tucked her thumb into her -mouth and closed her eyes to shut out the tiresome scene before her. In -this position she had remained what seemed a long, long time, and the -clock had sounded another bell-like stroke, when she was suddenly -aroused by a sound quite different. - -At first she did not give it much thought, but it came again louder this -time, and she sat up with a jerk. Was some one calling her? It was a -strange, muffled sound, and it seemed as if it were like a voice trying -to pronounce her name. - -“Genev--! Genev--!” That was all she could distinguish. Did they want -her, possibly to go down into the horrible cellar and hole? She went to -the door giving on the cellar steps and listened. But, though she stood -there fully five minutes, she heard not so much as a breath. No, it -could not be that. She would go out doors again. - -But, no sooner had she stepped onto the porch than she heard it again, -fainter this time, but undeniable. Where _could_ it come from? They had -commanded her not to venture a step from the porch but surely, if they -were calling her she ought to try and find them. So she stepped down -from the veranda and ran around to the back of the house. This time she -was rewarded. The sound came clearer and more forcefully: - -“Genevieve!--Genev--ieve!” But where, still, could it come from? There -was not a soul in sight. The garden (for it was Miss Camilla’s vegetable -garden) was absolutely deserted of human occupation. But Genevieve -wisely decided to follow the sound, so she began to pick her way -gingerly between the rows of beans, climbing on quite a forest of tall -poles. It was when she had passed these that she came upon something -that caused her a veritable shock. - -The ground in Miss Camilla’s cucumber patch, for the space of ten or -twelve feet square, had sunk down into a strange hole, as if in a sudden -earthquake. What did it all mean? And, as Genevieve hesitated on its -brink, she was startled almost out of her little shoes to hear her name -called faintly and in a muffled voice from its depths. - -“Genev--ieve!” It was the voice of Doris, though she could see not the -slightest vestige of her. - -“Here I am!” answered Genevieve quaveringly. “What do you want, Dowis?” - -“Oh, thank God!” came the reply. “Go get--some one. Quick. We’re--buried -alive! It--caved in. Hurry--baby!” - -“Who s’all I get?” demanded Genevieve. And well she might ask, for as -far as any one knew, there was not a soul within a mile of them. - -“Oh--I don’t--know!” came the answering voice. “Go find--some one. Any -one. We’ll die--here--if you--don’t!” Genevieve was not sure she knew -just what that last remark meant, but it evidently indicated something -serious. - -“All right!” she responded. “I will twy!” And she trotted off to the -front of the house. - -Here, however, she stopped to consider. Where _was_ she to go to find -any one? She could not go back home,--she did not know the way. She -could not go back to the river,--the way was full of pitfalls in the -shape of thorny vines that scratched her face and tripped her feet, and -besides, Sally had particularly warned her not to venture in that -direction--ever. After all, the most likely place to find any one was -surely along the road, for she had, very rarely when sitting on Miss -Camilla’s porch, observed a wagon driven past. She would walk along the -road and see if she could find anybody. - -Had Genevieve been older and with a little more understanding, she would -have comprehended the desperate plight that had befallen her sister and -Doris and Miss Camilla. And she would have lent wings to her feet and -scurried to the nearest dwelling as fast as those feet would carry her. -But she was scarcely more than a baby. The situation, though peculiar, -did not strike her as so much a matter for haste as for patient waiting -till the person required should happen along. As she didn’t see any one -approaching in either direction, she decided to return to the house and -keep a strict eye on the road. - -And so she returned, seated herself on the porch steps, tucked her thumb -in her mouth--and waited. There was no further calling from the curious -hole in the back garden and nothing happened for a long, long time. -Genevieve had just about decided to go back and inquire of Doris what -else to do, when suddenly the afternoon stillness was broken by the -“chug-chug” of a motor car and the honking of its horn. And before -Genevieve could jump to her feet, a big automobile had come plowing down -the sandy road and stopped right in front of the gate. - -“Here’s the place!” called out the chauffeur, and jumping down, walked -around to open the door at the side for its occupants to get out. A -pleasant-looking man descended and gave his hand to the lady beside him. -And, to Genevieve’s great astonishment, the lady proved to be none other -than the mother of “Dowis.” - -“Well, where’s every one?” inquired the gentleman. “I don’t see a soul -but this wee tot sitting on the steps.” - -“Why, there’s Genevieve!” cried Mrs. Craig, who had seen the baby many -times before. “How are you, dear? Where are the others? Inside?” - -“No,” answered Genevieve. “In de garden. Dowis she said come. Find some -one.” - -“Oh, they’re in the garden, are they? Well, we’ll go around there and -give them a surprise, Henry. Doris will simply be bowled over to see her -‘daddy’ here so unexpectedly! And I’m very anxious to meet this Miss -Camilla she has talked so much about. Come and show us the way, -Genevieve.” - -The baby obediently took her hand and led her around to the back of the -house, the gentleman following. - -“But I don’t see any one here!” he exclaimed when they had reached the -back. “Aren’t you mistaken, honey?” This to Genevieve. - -“No, they in big hole,” she announced gravely. The remark aroused -considerable surprise and amused curiosity. - -“Well, lead us to the ‘big hole,’” commanded Mrs. Craig laughingly. “Big -hole, indeed! I’ve been wondering what in the world Doris was up to -lately, but I never dreamed she was excavating!” - -Genevieve still gravely led the way through the forest of bean-poles to -the edge of the newly sunk depression. - -“What’s all this?” suddenly demanded Mr. Craig. “It looks as if there -had been a landslide here. Where are the others, little girl? They’ve -probably forsaken this and gone elsewhere.” - -But Genevieve was not to be moved from her original statement. “They in -dere!” she insisted, pointing downward. “Dowis called. She say ‘Go find -some one.’” The baby’s persistence was not to be questioned. - -Mr. Craig looked grave and his wife grew pale and frightened. “Oh, -Henry, what do you suppose can be the matter?” she quavered. “I do -believe Genevieve is telling the truth.” - -“There’s something mighty queer about it,” he answered hastily. “I can’t -understand how in the world it has come about, but if that child is -right, there’s been a landslide or a cave-in of some sort here and Doris -and the rest are caught in it. Good heavens! If that’s so, we can’t act -too quickly!” and he ran round to the front of the house shouting to the -chauffeur, who had remained in the car: - -“There’s been an accident. Drive like mad to the nearest house and get -men and ropes and spades,--anything to help dig out some people from a -cave-in!” The car had shot down the road almost before he had ceased -speaking, and he hurried back to the garden. - -The next hour was a period of indescribable suspense and terror to all -concerned,--all, at least, save Genevieve, who sat placidly on Mrs. -Craig’s lap (Mr. Craig had brought out a chair from Miss Camilla’s -kitchen) and, thumb in mouth, watched the men furiously hurling the soil -in great shovelfuls from the curious “hole.” She could not understand -why Mrs. Craig should sob softly, at intervals, under her breath, nor -why the strange gentleman should pace back and forth so restlessly and -give such sharp, hurried orders. And when he jumped into the hole, with -a startled exclamation, and seized the end of a heavy plank, she -wondered at the unnecessary excitement. - -It took the united efforts of every man present to move that plank, and -when they had forced it aside, Mr. Craig stooped down with a smothered -cry. - -And the next thing Genevieve knew, they had lifted out some one and laid -her on the ground, inert, lifeless and so covered with dirt and sand as -to be scarcely recognizable. But from the light, golden hair, Genevieve -knew it to be Doris. Before she knew where she was, Genevieve found -herself cascaded from Mrs. Craig’s lap, and that lady bending -distractedly over the prostrate form. - -Again the men emerged from the pit, carrying between them another form -which they laid beside Doris. And, with a howl of anguish, Genevieve -recognized the red-bronze pig-tail of her sister, Sally. - -By the time Miss Camilla had been extricated from the débris as lifeless -and inert as the other two, the chauffeur had returned at mad speed from -the village, bringing with him a doctor and many strange appliances for -resuscitation. A pulmotor was put into immediate action, and another -period of heartbreaking suspense ensued. - -It was Doris who first moaned her way back to life and at the -physician’s orders was carried back into the house for further -ministrations. Sally was the next to show signs of recovery, but over -poor Miss Camilla they had to work hard and long, for, in addition to -having been almost smothered, her foot had been caught by the falling -plank and badly injured. But she came back to consciousness at last, -and her first words on opening her eyes were: - -“Do you think we can get that Spode dinner-set out all right?” A remark -which greatly bewildered Mr. Craig, who happened to be the only one to -hear it! - - * * * * * - -“But how on earth did you and Mother happen to be there, Father, just in -the nick of time?” marveled Doris from the depths of several pillows -with which she was propped up in bed. - -She had been detailing to her parents, at great length, the whole story -of Sally and the cave and the tunnel and Miss Camilla and the hazardous -treasure-hunt that had ended her adventure. And now it was her turn to -be enlightened. - -“Well,” returned her father, smiling whimsically, “it was a good deal -like what they call ‘the long arm of coincidence’ in story-books, and -yet it was very simple, after all! I’d been disappointed so many times -in my plans to get down here to see you and your mother, and at last -the chance came, the other day, when I could make at least a flying -trip, but I hadn’t even time to let you know I was coming. I arrived at -the hotel about lunch-time and gave your mother the surprise of her life -by walking in on her unexpectedly. But I was quite disgusted not to find -you anywhere about. Your mother told me how you had gone off for the day -with your bosom pal, Sally, to visit a mysterious Miss Camilla, and I -suggested that we take the car and go to hunt you up. As she was -agreeable to the excursion we started forth, inquiring our way as we -went. It was a merciful providence that got us there not a moment too -soon, and if it hadn’t been for that little cherubic Genevieve we would -have been many minutes too late. If it hadn’t been that two or three old -planks had been bent over you and protected you from the worst of the -earth and débris on top, and also gave you a slight space for air, I -don’t believe any of you would have been alive now to tell the tale! So -the next time you go treasure-hunting, young lady, kindly allow your -useless and insignificant dad to accompany you!” And he gave her ear a -playful tweak. - -“Daddy, it was awful,--simply awful when that old plank gave way and the -earth came sliding down on us!” she confided to him, snuggling down in -the arm he had placed around her. “At first we didn’t think it would -amount to much. But more and more earth came pouring down and then -another plank loosened and Miss Camilla lost her footing and fell, and -we couldn’t make our way out past it, either direction, and still the -dirt poured in all around us, and Sally and I tried to struggle up -through the top, but we couldn’t make any progress. And at last that -third plank bent over and shut us in so we couldn’t budge, and Sally and -Miss Camilla didn’t answer when I spoke to them, and I knew they’d -fainted, and I felt as if I was going to faint too. But I called and -called Genevieve and at last she answered me. And after that I didn’t -remember anything more!” She shuddered and hid her face in her father’s -sleeve. It had been a very horrible experience. - -“Don’t think of it any more, honey. It turned out all right, in the end. -Do you know that Sally is around as well as ever, now, and came up to -the hotel to inquire for you this morning? She’s as strong as a little -ox, that child!” - -“But where is Miss Camilla?” suddenly inquired Doris. “She hurt her -foot, didn’t she?” - -“She certainly did, but she insisted on remaining in her own home, and -Sally begged her mother to be allowed to stay also with the -un-detachable Genevieve, of course, and take care of her and wait on -her. So there they are, and there you will proceed in the automobile, -this afternoon, if you feel well enough to make the visit.” - -“But what about the treasure?” demanded Doris, her eyes beginning to -sparkle. - -“If you refer to the trunks and chests full of articles that Miss -Camilla insisted that we continue to excavate from that interesting hole -in her garden, you do well to speak of it as ‘treasure’!” answered her -father laughingly. “For beside some valuable old family silver and -quite rare articles of antique jewelry, she had there a collection of -china and porcelain that would send a specialist on that subject into an -absolute spasm of joy. I really would not care to predict what it would -be worth to any one interested in the subject. - -“And you can tell your friend, Sally, of the adventurous spirit, that -she’s got ‘Treasure Island’ licked a mile (to use a very inelegant -expression) and right here on her own native territory, too. I take off -my hat to you both. You’ve done better than a couple of boys who have -been playing at and hunting for pirates all their youthful days. -Henceforth, when I yearn for blood-curdling adventures and hair-breadth -escapes, I’ll come to you two to lead the way!” - -But, under all his banter, Doris knew that her father was serious in the -deep interest he entertained in her strange adventure and all that it -had led to. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE SUMMER’S END - - -They sat together in the canoe, each facing the other, Doris in the bow -and Sally in the stern. A full, mid-September moon painted its rippling -path on the water and picked out in silver every detail of shore and -river. The air was full of the heavy scent of the pines, and the only -sound was the ceaseless lap-lap of the lazy ripples at the water’s edge. -Doris had laid aside her paddle. Chin in hands, she was drinking in the -radiance of the lovely scene. - -“I simply cannot realize I am going home tomorrow and must leave all -this!” she sighed at last. - -Sally dipped her paddle disconsolately and answered with almost a groan: - -“If it bothers _you_, how do you suppose it makes _me_ feel?” - -[Illustration: They sat together in the canoe] - -“We have grown close to each other, haven’t we?” mused Doris. “Do you -know, I never dreamed I could make so dear a friend in so short a time. -I have plenty of acquaintances and good comrades, but usually it takes -me years to make a real _friend_. How did you manage to make me care so -much for you, Sally?” - -“‘Just because you’re you’!” laughed Sally, quoting a popular song. “But -do you realize, Doris Craig, what a different girl I’ve become since I -knew and cared for _you_?” - -She was indeed a different girl, as Doris had to admit. To begin with, -she _looked_ different. The clothes she wore were neat, dainty and -appropriate, indicating taste and care both in choosing and wearing -them. Her parents were comparatively well-to-do people in the village -and could afford to dress her well and give her all that was necessary, -within reason. It had been mainly lack of proper care, and the absence -of any incentive to seem her best, that was to blame for the original -careless Sally. And not only her looks, but her manners and English -were now as irreproachable as they had once been provincial and faulty. - -“Why, even my thoughts are different!” she suddenly exclaimed, following -aloud the line of thought they had both been unconsciously pursuing. -“You’ve given me more that’s worth while to think about, Doris, in these -three months, than I ever had before in all my life.” - -“I’m sure it wasn’t _I_ that did it,” modestly disclaimed Doris, “but -the books I happened to bring along and that you wanted to read. If you -hadn’t _wanted_ different things yourself, Sally, I don’t believe you -would have changed any, so the credit is all yours.” - -“Do you remember the day you first quoted ‘The Ancient Mariner’ to me?” -laughed Doris. “I was so astonished I nearly tumbled out of the boat. It -was the lines, ‘We were the first that ever burst into that silent sea,’ -wasn’t it?” - -“Yes, they are my favorite lines in it,” replied Sally. “And with all -the poems I’ve read and learned since, I love that best, after all.” - -“My favorite is that part, ‘The moving moon went up the sky and nowhere -did abide,’” said Doris, “and I guess I love the thing as much as you -do.” - -“And Miss Camilla,” added Sally, “says her favorite in it is, - - “‘The selfsame moment I could pray, - And from my neck so free, - The Albatross fell off and sank - Like lead into the sea.’ - -She says that’s just the way she felt when we girls made that discovery -about her brother’s letter. Her ‘Albatross’ had been the supposed weight -of disgrace she had been carrying about all these fifty years.” - -“Oh, Miss Camilla!” sighed Doris ecstatically. “What a darling she is! -And what a wonderful, simply wonderful adventure we’ve had, Sally. -Sometimes, when I think of it, it seems too incredible to believe. It’s -like something you’d read of in a book and say it was probably -exaggerated. Did I tell you that my grandfather has decided to purchase -her whole collection of porcelains, and the antique jewelry, too?” - -“No,” answered Sally, “but Miss Camilla told me. And _I_ know how she -hates to part with them. Even _I_ will feel a little sorry when they’re -gone. I’ve washed them and dusted them so often and Miss Camilla has -told me so much about them. I’ve even learned how to know them by the -strange little marks on the back of them. And I can tell English Spode -from Old Worcester, and French Faience from Vincennes Sèvres,--and a lot -beside. And what’s more, I’ve really come to admire and appreciate them. -I never supposed I would. - -“Miss Camilla will miss them a lot, for she’s been so happy with them -since they were restored to her. But she says they’re as useless in her -life now as a museum of mummies, and she needs the money for other -things.” - -“I suppose she will restore the main part of her house and live in it -and be very happy and comfortable,” remarked Doris. - -“That’s just where you are entirely mistaken,” answered Sally, with -unexpected animation. “Don’t you know what she is going to do with it?” - -“Why, no!” said Doris in surprise. “I hadn’t heard.” - -“Well, she only told me today,” replied Sally, “but it nearly bowled me -over. She’s going to put the whole thing into Liberty Bonds, and go on -living precisely as she has before. She says she has gotten along that -way for nearly fifty years and she guesses she can go on to the end. She -says that if her father and brother could sacrifice their safety and -their money and their very lives, gladly, as they did when their country -was in need, she guesses she oughtn’t to do very much less. If she were -younger, she’d go to France right now, and give her life in some -capacity, to help out in this horrible struggle. But as she can’t do -that, she is willing and delighted to make every other sacrifice within -her power. And she’s taken out the bonds in my name and Genevieve’s, -because she says she’ll never live to see them mature, and we’re the -only chick or child she cares enough about to leave them to. She wanted -to leave some to you, too, but your father told her, no. He has already -taken out several in your name.” - -Doris was quite overcome by this flood of unexpected information and by -the wonderful attitude and generosity of Miss Camilla. - -“I never dreamed of such a thing!” she murmured. “She insisted on giving -me the little Sèvres vase, when I bade her good-bye today. I hardly -liked to take it, but she said I must, and that it could form the -nucleus of a collection of my own, some day when I was older and times -were less strenuous. I hardly realized what she meant then, but I do -now, after what you’ve told me.” - -“But that isn’t all,” said Sally. “I’ve managed to persuade my father -that I’m not learning enough at the village school and probably never -will. He was going to take me out of it this year anyway, and when -summer came again, have me wait on the ice-cream parlor and candy -counter in the pavilion. I just hated the thought. Now I’ve made him -promise to send Genevieve and me every day to Miss Camilla to study -with her, and he’s going to pay for it just the same as if I were going -to a private school. I’m so happy over it, and so is Miss Camilla, only -we had hard work persuading her that she must accept any money for it. -And even Genevieve is delighted. She has promised to stop sucking her -thumb if she can go to Miss Camilla and ‘learn to yead ’bout picters,’ -as she says.” - -“It’s all turned out as wonderfully as a fairy-tale,” mused Doris as -they floated on. “I couldn’t wish a single thing any different. And I -think what Miss Camilla has done is--well, it just makes a lump come in -my throat even to speak of it. I feel like a selfish wretch beside her. -I’m just going to save every penny I have this winter and give it to the -Red Cross and work like mad at the knitting and bandage-making. But even -that is no _real_ sacrifice. I wish I could do something like she has -done. _That’s_ the kind of thing that counts!” - -“We can only do the thing that lies within our power,” said Sally, -grasping the true philosophy of the situation, “and if we do all of -that, we’re giving the best we can.” - -They drifted on a little further in silence, and then Doris glanced at -her wrist-watch by the light of the moon. “We’ve got to go in,” she -mourned. “It’s after nine o’clock, and Mother warned me not to stay out -later than that. Besides I’ve got to finish packing.” - -They dragged the canoe up onto the shore, and turned it over in the -grass. Then they wandered, for a moment, down to the edge of the water. - -“Remember, it isn’t so awfully bad as it seems,” Doris tried to hearten -Sally by reminding her. “Father and I are coming down again to stay over -Columbus Day, and you and Genevieve are coming to New York to spend the -Christmas holidays with us. We’ll be seeing each other right along, at -intervals.” - -Sally looked off up the river to where the pointed pines on Slipper -Point could be dimly discerned above the wagon bridge. Suddenly her -thoughts took a curious twist. - -“How funny,--how awfully funny it seems now,” she laughed, “to think we -once were planning to dig for pirate treasure--up there!” she nodded -toward Slipper Point. - -“Well, we may not have found any pirate loot,” Doris replied, “but -you’ll have to admit we discovered treasure of a very different -nature--and a good deal more valuable. And, when you come to think of -it, we did discover buried treasure, at least Miss Camilla did, and we -were nearly buried alive trying to unearth it, and what more of a -thrilling adventure could you ask for than that?” But she ended -seriously: - -“Slipper Point will always mean to me the spot where I spent some of the -happiest moments of my life!” - -“And I say--the same!” echoed Sally. - -THE END - - - - - - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Slipper Point Mystery, by Augusta Huiell Seaman - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY *** - -***** This file should be named 50961-0.txt or 50961-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/9/6/50961/ - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan, -Chuck Greif 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. 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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/license - - -Title: The Slipper Point Mystery - -Author: Augusta Huiell Seaman - -Illustrator: C. M. Relyea - -Release Date: January 18, 2016 [EBook #50961] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan, -Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team -at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="290" height="450" alt="bookcover" title="" /> -</div> - -<p class="cb">THE SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY</p> - -<p><a name="front" id="front"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/slipperpic1_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/slipperpic1_sml.jpg" width="286" height="450" alt="“Why, it’s a room!” she gasped" title="" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">“Why, it’s a room!” she gasped</span> -</div> - -<h1> -THE<br /> -SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY</h1> - -<p class="c">BY<br /> -AUGUSTA HUIELL SEAMAN<br /> -<small>Author of “Three Sides of Paradise Green,” “The<br /> -Girl Next Door,” “The Sapphire Signet,” etc.</small><br /> -<br /> -ILLUSTRATED BY<br /> -C. M. RELYEA<br /> -<br /> -<img src="images/colophon.png" -width="75" -height="76" -alt="[colophon image not available]" -/><br /> -NEW YORK<br /> -THE CENTURY CO.<br /> -1921<br /> -<br /> -<small>Copyright, 1919, by<br /> -<span class="smcap">The Century Co.</span><br /> -——<br /> -<i>Published, September, 1919</i></small></p> - -<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td> </td> -<td><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">The Encounter</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_003">3</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">The Acquaintance Ripens</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_018">18</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Sally Capitulates</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_032">32</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">On Slipper Point</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_043">43</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Mystery</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_055">55</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Working at the Riddle</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_065">65</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">The First Clue</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_077">77</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Roundtree’s</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_087">87</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Doris Has a New Theory</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_102">102</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Behind the Cedar Plank</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_116">116</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Some Bits of Roundtree History</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_131">131</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Light Dawns on Miss Camilla</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_141">141</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">Word from the Past</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_164">164</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">The Real Buried Treasure</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_178">178</a></td></tr> - -<tr valign="top"><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">The Summer’s End</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_198">198</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td valign="top">“Why, it’s a room!” she gasped</td><td><a href="#front"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>FACING</small><br /> -<small>PAGE</small></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top">She led the others up the cellar steps</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_128">128</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top">“Why, there’s nothing there but numbers”</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_160">160</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top">They sat together in the canoe</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_198">198</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a> </p> - -<p><a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a> </p> - -<p><a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a> </p> - -<h1>THE SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY</h1> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I<br /><br /> -<small>THE ENCOUNTER</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">S</span><small>HE</small> sat on the prow of a beached rowboat, digging her bare toes in the -sand.</p> - -<p>There were many other rowboats drawn up on the sandy edge of the -river,—as many as twenty or thirty, not to speak of the green and red -canoes lying on the shore, bottoms up, like so many strange insects. A -large number of sailboats were also anchored near the shore or drawn up -to the long dock that stretched out into the river.</p> - -<p>For this was Carter’s Landing, the only place on lovely little Manituck -River where pleasure-boats could be hired. Beside the long dock there -was, up a wide flight of steps<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a> a large pavilion where one could sit and -watch the lights and shadows on the river and its many little -activities. There were long benches and tables to accommodate -picnic-parties and, in an inner room, a counter where candies, ice cream -and soda-water were dispensed. And lastly, one part of the big pavilion -was used as a dancing-floor where, afternoons and evenings, to the music -of a violin and piano, merry couples whirled and circled.</p> - -<p>Down on the sand was a signboard which said:</p> - -<p class="c"> -“<span class="smcap">Children Must Not Play in the Boats.</span>”<br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind">Nevertheless, she sat on the prow of one, this girl of fourteen, digging -her bare toes aimlessly in the sand, and by her side on the prow-seat -sat a tiny child of about three, industriously sucking the thumb of her -right hand, while she pulled at a lock of her thick straight hair with -her left. So she sat, saying nothing, but staring contentedly out over -the water. The older girl wore a blue skirt and a soiled white -middy-blouse. She had dark brown<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a> eyes and thick auburn hair, hanging -down in a ropelike braid. Her face was somewhat freckled, and apart from -her eyes and hair she was not particularly pretty.</p> - -<p>The afternoon was hot, though it was only the early part of June, and -there was no one else about except one or two helpers of the Landing. -The girl stared moodily out over the blue river, and dug her bare toes -deeper into the sand.</p> - -<p>“Stop sucking your thumb, Genevieve!” she commanded suddenly, and the -baby hastily removed the offending member from her mouth. But a moment -later, when the older girl’s attention was attracted elsewhere, she -quietly slipped it back again.</p> - -<p>Presently, from around the bend of the river, there slid into sight a -red canoe, paddled vigorously by one person sitting in the stern. The -girl in the prow of the rowboat sat up and stared intently at the -approaching canoe.</p> - -<p>“There it is,” she announced to her younger sister. “The first canoe -Dad’s hired this season. Wonder who has it?” The baby made<a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a> no reply and -placidly continued to suck her thumb, her older sister being too -absorbed to notice the forbidden occupation.</p> - -<p>The canoe approached nearer, revealing its sole occupant to be a girl of -fourteen or fifteen, clad in a dazzlingly white and distinctly tailored -linen Russian blouse suit, with a pink satin tie, her curly golden hair -surmounted by an immense bow of the same hue. She beached her canoe -skilfully not six feet away from the rowboat of the occupied prow. And -as she stepped out, further details of her costume could be observed in -fine white silk stockings and dainty patent leather pumps. Scarcely -stopping to drag her canoe up further than a few inches on the sand, she -hurried past the two in the rowboat and up the broad steps to the -pavilion.</p> - -<p>“You’d better drag up your canoe further,” called out the barefooted -girl. “It’ll float away if you leave it like that.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’m coming right back!” replied the other. “I’m only stopping a -moment to get some candy.” She disappeared into the pavilion<a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a> and was -out again in two minutes, bearing a large box of candy, of the most -expensive make boasted by Carter’s Landing. Down the steps she tripped, -and crossed the strip of sand toward her canoe. But in front of the -occupied rowboat she stopped, drawn perhaps by the need of companionship -on this beautiful but solitary afternoon.</p> - -<p>“Have some?” she asked, proffering the open box of candy. The barefooted -girl’s eyes sparkled.</p> - -<p>“Why, yes, thanks!” she answered, and gingerly helped herself to one -small piece.</p> - -<p>“Oh, take some more! There’s plenty!” declared her companion, emptying -fully a quarter of the box into her new friend’s lap. “And give some to -the baby.” The younger child smiled broadly, removed her thumb from her -mouth and began to munch ecstatically on a large piece of chocolate -proffered by her sister.</p> - -<p>“You’re awfully kind,” remarked the older girl between two bites, “but -what’ll your mother say?”<a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a></p> - -<p>“Why, she won’t care. She gave me the money and told me to go get it and -amuse myself. It’s awfully dull up at the hotel. It’s so early in the -season that there’s almost nobody else there,—only two old ladies and a -few men that come down at night,—besides Mother and myself. I hate -going to the country so early, before things start, only Mother has been -sick and needed the change right away. So here we are—and I’m as dull -as dishwater and <i>so</i> lonesome! What’s your name?”</p> - -<p>The other girl had been drinking in all this information with such -greedy interest that she scarcely heard or heeded the question which -ended it. Without further questioning she realized that this new -acquaintance was a guest at “The Bluffs,” the one exclusive and -fashionable hotel on the river. She at once became guiltily conscious of -her own bare brown toes, still wriggling in the warm sand. She blamed -herself fiercely for not taking the trouble to put on her shoes and -stockings that afternoon. Up till this moment it had scarcely seemed -worth while.<a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a></p> - -<p>“Tell me, what’s your name?” the girl in white and pink reiterated.</p> - -<p>“Sarah,” she answered, “but most every one calls me Sally. What’s -yours?”</p> - -<p>“Doris Craig,” was the reply and the girl of the bare toes unconsciously -noted that “Doris” was an entirely fitting name for so dainty a -creature. And somehow she dreaded to answer the question as to her own.</p> - -<p>“My name’s horrid,” she added, “and I always did hate it. But baby’s is -pretty,—Genevieve. Mother named her that, ’cause Father had insisted -that mine must be ‘Sarah,’ after his mother. She said she was going to -have one pretty name in the family, anyway. Genevieve, take your thumb -out of your mouth!”</p> - -<p>“Why do you tell her to do that?” demanded Doris, curiously.</p> - -<p>“ ’Cause Mother says it’ll make her mouth a bad shape if she keeps it up, -and she told me it was up to me to stop it. You see I have Genevieve -with me most of the time. Mother’s so busy.” But by this time, Doris’s -roving<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> eye had caught the sign forbidding children to play in the -boats.</p> - -<p>“Do you see that?” she asked. “Aren’t you afraid to be sitting around in -that boat?”</p> - -<p>“Huh!” exclaimed Sally scornfully. “That doesn’t mean Genevieve and me.”</p> - -<p>“Why not?” cried Doris perplexedly.</p> - -<p>“ ’Cause we belong here. Captain Carter’s our father. All these boats -belong to him. Besides, it’s so early in the season that it doesn’t -matter anyway. Even we don’t do it much in July and August.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Doris, a light beginning to break on her understanding. -“Then that—er—lady up at the candy counter is your mother?” She -referred to the breathlessly busy, pleasant, though anxious-faced woman -who had sold her the candy.</p> - -<p>“Yes. She’s awfully busy all the time, ’cause she has to wait on the -soda and candy and ice cream, and see that the freezer’s working all -right, and a lot of other things. In July and August we have to have -girls from the village to help. We don’t see much of her<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a> in the -summer,—Genevieve and I. We just have to take care of ourselves. And -that’s Dad, down on the dock.” She pointed to a tall, lanky, slouchily -dressed man who was directing the lowering of a sail in one of the -catboats.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I know Captain Carter,” averred Doris. “I hired this canoe of -him.”</p> - -<p>“Did you go and hire a canoe—all by yourself?” inquired Sally, eyeing -her very youthful new acquaintance with some wonder. “How did your -mother come to let you?”</p> - -<p>“Well, you see Mother’s been awfully sick and she isn’t at all well yet. -Has to stay in bed a good deal of the day and just sits around on the -veranda the rest of the time. <i>She</i> couldn’t tend to things like that, -so I’ve got used to doing them myself lately. I dress myself and fix my -hair all by myself, without the least help from her,—which I couldn’t -do three months ago. I did it today. Don’t you think I look all right?”</p> - -<p>Again Sally flushed with the painful consciousness of her own unkempt -appearance,<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> especially her bare feet. “Oh, yes! You look fine,” she -acknowledged sheepishly. And then added, as a concession to her own -attire:</p> - -<p>“I hate to get all dressed up these hot days, ’specially when there’s no -one around. Mother often makes me during ‘the season,’ ’cause she says -it looks bad for the Landing to see us children around so sloppy.”</p> - -<p>“My mother says,” remarked Doris, “that one always feels better to be -nicely and cleanly dressed, especially in the afternoons, if you can -manage it. You feel so much more self-respecting. I often hate to bother -to dress, too, but I always do it to please her.”</p> - -<p>Sally promptly registered the mental vow that she would hereafter array -herself and Genevieve in clean attire every single afternoon, or perish -in the attempt. But clothes was not a subject that ever interested Doris -Craig for any length of time, so she soon switched to another.</p> - -<p>“Can’t you and the baby come out with me in my canoe for a while?” she -suggested. “I’m so lonesome. And perhaps you know<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a> how to paddle. You -could sit in the bow, and Genevieve in the middle.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I know how to paddle,” admitted Sally. To tell the truth she knew -how to run every species of boat her father owned, not even omitting the -steam launches. “But we can’t take Genevieve in a canoe. She won’t sit -still enough and Mother has forbidden it. Let’s go out in my rowboat -instead. Dad lets me use old 45 for myself any time I want, except in -the very rush season. It’s kind of heavy and leaks a little, but I can -row it all right.” She indicated a boat far down at the end of the line.</p> - -<p>“But I can’t row!” exclaimed Doris. “I never learned because we’ve -always had a canoe up at Lake Placid in the Adirondacks where we’ve -usually gone.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, that doesn’t matter,” laughed Sally. “I can row the whole three. -You sit in the stem with Genevieve, and I’ll take you around the river -to some places I warrant you’ve never seen.”</p> - -<p>Filled with the spirit of the new adventure,<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a> the two hurried along, -bearing a somewhat reluctant Genevieve between them, and clambered into -the boat numbered “45” at the end of the line. Doris seated herself in -the stern with Genevieve and the box of candy. And the baby was soon -shyly cuddling up to her and dipping her chubby little fist into the box -at frequent intervals. Sally established herself in the bow rowing seat, -pushed off with a skilful twist of her oars, and was soon swinging out -into the tide with the short, powerful strokes of the native-born to -Manituck.</p> - -<p>It was a perfect June afternoon. The few other boats on the river were -mainly those of the native fishermen treading for clams in the shallows, -and one or two dipping sailboats. Overhead the fish-hawks sailed and -plunged occasionally with a silver flash into the river. The warm scent -of the pines was almost overpoweringly sweet, and a robin sang -insistently on the farther shore. Even the thoughtless children were -unconsciously swayed by the quiet beauty of the day and place.</p> - -<p>“Do you know,” commented Doris, “I like<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> it here. Really I like it a lot -better than any other place we’ve ever been. And I’ve only been here two -days. Do you live here all the year round?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but it isn’t half so nice in winter,” said Sally; “though the -skating’s good when it’s cold enough. But I get awfully tired of all -this all the time. I’d love to live in New York a while. There’s the -island,” she indicated. “You can see that from most anywhere on the -river. It’s pretty, but there isn’t anything much interesting about it. -I think I’ve explored every inch of this river ’cause I’ve so little -else to do in the summer. Genevieve and I know more about it than the -oldest inhabitant here, I reckon.”</p> - -<p>There was something about the way she made this last remark that aroused -Doris’s curiosity.</p> - -<p>“Why do you say that?” she demanded. “Of course it’s all lovely around -here, and up above that bridge it seems rather wild. I went up there -yesterday in the canoe. But what is there to ‘know’ about this river or -its shores?<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a> There can’t be anything very mysterious about a little New -Jersey river like this.”</p> - -<p>“You wouldn’t think so to look at it,” said Sally, darkly. “Especially -this lower part with just the Landing and the hotel and the summer -bungalows along the shore. But above the bridge there in the wild part, -things are different. Genevieve and I have poked about a bit, haven’t -we, Genevieve?” The baby nodded gravely, though it is doubtful if she -understood much of her older sister’s remark.</p> - -<p>“Oh, <i>do</i> tell me what you’ve found?” cried Doris excitedly. “It all -sounds so mysterious. I’m just crazy to hear. Can’t you just give me a -little hint about it, Sally?”</p> - -<p>But the acquaintance was too new, and the mystery was evidently too -precious for the other to impart just yet. She shook her head -emphatically and replied:</p> - -<p>“No, honestly I somehow don’t want to. It’s Genevieve’s secret and mine. -And we’ve promised each other we’d never tell any one about it. Haven’t -we, Genevieve?”<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a> The baby gravely nodded again, and Sally headed her -boat for the wagon-bridge that crossed the upper part of the river.<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II<br /><br /> -<small>THE ACQUAINTANCE RIPENS</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">D</span><small>ORIS</small> said no more on the subject. She was too well-bred to persist in -such a demand when it did not seem to be welcome. But though she -promptly changed the subject and talked about other things, inwardly she -had become transformed into a seething cauldron of curiosity.</p> - -<p>Sally headed the boat for the draw in the bridge, and in another few -moments they had passed from the quiet, well-kept, bungalow-strewn -shores of the lower river, to the wild, tawny, uninhabited beauty of the -upper. The change was very marked, and the wagon bridge seemed to be the -dividing line.</p> - -<p>“How different the river is up here,” remarked Doris. “Not a house or a -bungalow, or even a fisherman’s shack in sight.”</p> - -<p>“It is,” agreed Sally. And then, in an unusual<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> burst of confidence, she -added, “Do you know what I always think of when I pass through that -bridge into this part of the river? It’s from the ‘Ancient Mariner’:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“ ‘We were the first that ever burst<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Into that silent sea.’ ”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Doris stared at her companion in amazement. How came this barefooted -child of thirteen or fourteen, in a little, out-of-the-way New Jersey -coast village to be quoting poetry? Where had she learned it? Doris’s -own father and mother were untiring readers of poetry and other -literature, and they were bringing their daughter up in their footsteps. -But surely, this village girl had never learned such things from <i>her</i> -parents. Sally must have sensed the unspoken question.</p> - -<p>“That’s a long poem in a big book we have,” she explained. “It has -lovely pictures in it made by a man named Doré.” (She pronounced it -“Door.”) “The book was one of my mother’s wedding presents. It always -lies on our parlor table. I don’t believe any one<a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a> else in our house has -ever read it but Genevieve and me. I love it, and Genevieve likes to -look at the pictures. Did you ever hear of that poem?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes!” cried Doris. “My father has often read me to sleep with it, -and we all love it. I’m so glad it is a favorite of yours. Do you like -poetry?”</p> - -<p>“That’s about the only poem I know,” acknowledged Sally, “ ’cept the ones -in the school readers—and they don’t amount to much. That book’s about -the only one we have ’cept a Bible and a couple of novels. But I’ve -learned the poem all by heart.” She rowed on a way in silence, while -Doris marvelled at the bookless condition of this lonely child and -wondered how she could stand it. Not to have books and papers and -magazines unnumbered was a state unheard of to the city child. She had -brought half a trunkful with her, to help while away the time at -Manituck. But before she could speak of it, Sally remarked:</p> - -<p>“That’s Huckleberry Heights,—at least<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> I’ve named it that, ’cause -Genevieve and I have picked quarts and quarts of huckleberries there.” -She pointed to a high, sandy bluff, overgrown at the top with scrub-oak, -stunted pines and huckleberry bushes. “And that’s Cranberry Creek,” she -went on, indicating a winding stream that emptied into the river nearby. -“ ‘Way up that creek there’s an old, deserted mill that’s all falling to -pieces. It’s kind of interesting. Want to go sometime?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’m crazy to!” cried Doris. “There’s nothing I enjoy more than -exploring things, and I’ve never had the chance to before. We’ve always -gone to such fashionable places where everything’s just spic and span -and cut and dried, and nothing to do but what every one else does. I’m -deathly sick of that sort of thing. Our doctor recommended Mother to -come to this place because the sea and pine air would be so good for -her. But he said it was wild, and different from the usual summer -places, and I was precious glad of the change, I can tell you.” There -was something so sincere<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a> in Doris’s manner that it won Sally over -another point. After a few moments of silent rowing, she said:</p> - -<p>“We’re coming to a place, in a minute, that Genevieve and I like a lot. -If you want, we can land there and get a dandy drink of water from a -spring near the shore.” Doris was flattered beyond words to be taken -further into the confidence of this strange new acquaintance, and -heartily assented. Around a bend of the river, they approached a point -of land projecting out several hundred feet into the tide, its end -terminating in a long, golden sandbar. Toward the shore, the land gently -ascended in a pretty slope, crowned with velvety pines and cedars. The -conformation of slope and trees gave the outjut of land a curious shape.</p> - -<p>“Do you know what I call this point?” questioned Sally. Doris shook her -head. “Well, you see what a queer shape it is when you look at it from -the side. I’ve named it ‘Slipper Point.’ Doesn’t it look like a -slipper?”</p> - -<p>“It certainly does,” agreed Doris enthusiastically.<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> “Why, you’re a -wonder at naming things, Sally.” Her companion colored with pleasure, -and beached the boat sharply on the sandbar. The three got out, put the -anchor in the sand and clambered up the piny slope. At the top, the view -up and down the river was enchanting, and the three sat down on the pine -needles to regain their breath and rest. At length Sally suggested that -they find the spring, and she led the way down the opposite side of the -slope to a spot near the shore. Here, in a bower of branches, almost -hidden from sight, a sparkling spring trickled down from a small cave of -reddish clay, filled an old, moss-covered box, and rambled on down the -sand into the river. Sally unearthed an old china cup from some hidden -recess of her own, and Doris drank the most delicious water she had ever -tasted.</p> - -<p>But while Sally was drinking and giving Genevieve a share, Doris glanced -at the little gold wrist-watch she wore.</p> - -<p>“Gracious sakes!” she exclaimed. “It’s nearly five o’clock and Mother’ll -begin to<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a> think I’ve tumbled into the river and drowned. She’s always -sure I’m going to do that some time. We must hurry back.”</p> - -<p>“All right,” said Sally. “Jump into the boat and I’ll have you home in a -jiffy.” They raced back to the boat, clambered into their former places, -and were soon shooting down the river under the impetus of the tide and -Sally’s muscular strokes. The candy was by now all consumed. Genevieve -cuddled down close to Doris, her thumb once more in her mouth, and went -peacefully to sleep. The two other girls talked at intervals, but Sally -was too busy pulling to waste much breath in conversation.</p> - -<p>“I’ll land you right at the hotel dock,” she remarked, when at last they -had come within sight of it. “Don’t worry about your canoe. I’ll bring -that up myself, right after supper, and walk back.”</p> - -<p>“Thanks,” said Doris gratefully. “That’ll save me a lot of time.” In -another moment Sally had beached the boat on the shore directly in front -of “The Bluffs,” and Doris,<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a> gently disengaging the still sleeping -Genevieve, hopped ashore. “I’ll see you soon again, Sally,” she said, -“but I’ve got to just scamper now, I’m so worried about Mother.” She -raced away up the steps, breathless with fear lest her long absence had -unduly upset her invalid mother, and Sally again turned her boat out -into the tide.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>After supper that evening, Doris sat out at the end of the hotel pier, -watching the gradual approach of sunset behind the island. Her mind was -still full of the afternoon’s encounter, and she wondered vaguely -whether she should see more of the strange village child, so ignorant -about many things, so careless about her personal appearance, who could -yet quote such a wonderful poem as “The Ancient Mariner” in appropriate -places and seemed to be acquainted with some queer mystery about the -river. Presently she noticed a red canoe slipping into sight around a -bend, and in another moment recognized Sally in the stern.</p> - -<p>There was no Genevieve with her this time.<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a> And to Doris’s wondering -eyes, the change in her appearance was quite amazing. No longer -barefooted, she was clothed in neat tan stockings and buttoned shoes. -Added to that, she boasted a pretty, well-fitting blue serge skirt and -dainty blouse. But the only jarring note was a large pink bow of hideous -hue, a patent imitation of the one Doris wore, balanced on her beautiful -bronze hair. She managed the canoe with practiced ease, and waved her -hand at Doris from afar.</p> - -<p>“Here’s your canoe!” she called, as Doris hurried down the long dock to -meet her on the shore. And as they met, Doris remarked:</p> - -<p>“It’s early yet. How would you like to paddle around a while? I’ll run -in and ask Mother if I may.” Again Sally flushed with pleasure as she -assented, and when Doris had rushed back and seated herself in the bow -of the canoe, they pushed out into the peaceful tide, wine-colored in -the approaching sunset. But the evening was too beautiful for strenuous -paddling. Doris soon shipped her paddle<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a> and, skilfully turning’ in her -seat, faced Sally.</p> - -<p>“Let’s not go far,” she suggested, “let’s just drift—and talk.” Sally -herself was privately only too willing. Dipping her paddle only -occasionally to keep from floating in shore, she nodded another -approving assent. But her country unaccustomedness to conversation held -her tongue-tied for a time.</p> - -<p>“Where’s Genevieve?” demanded Doris.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I put her to bed at half-past six most always,” said Sally. “She’s -usually so sleepy she can’t even finish her supper. But I miss her -evenings. She’s a lot of company for me.”</p> - -<p>“She’s a darling!” agreed Doris. “I just love the way she cuddles up to -me, and she looks so—so appealing when she tucks that little thumb in -her mouth. But, Sally, will you forgive my saying it?—you look awfully -nice tonight.” Sally turned absolutely scarlet in her appreciation of -this compliment. Truth to tell, she had spent quite an hour over her -toilet when Genevieve had been put to bed, and had<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a> even gone flying to -the village to purchase with her little hoard of pocket-money the pink -ribbon for her hair.</p> - -<p>“But I wonder if you’d mind my saying something else,” went on Doris, -eyeing her companion critically. “You’ve got the loveliest colored hair -I ever saw, but I think you ought never to wear any colored ribbon but -black on it. Pink’s all right for very light or very dark people, but -not for any one with your lovely shade. You don’t mind my saying that, -do you? Sometimes other people can tell what looks best on you so much -better than you can yourself.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no. I don’t mind—and thank you for telling me,” stammered Sally, -in an agony of combined delight that this dainty new friend should -approve her appearance and shame that she had made such an error of -judgment in selecting the pink ribbon. Mentally, too, she was -calculating just how long it would take her to save, from the stray -pennies her mother occasionally gave her, enough to purchase the -suggested black one. While she was figuring<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a> it out, Doris had something -else to suggest:</p> - -<p>“Sally, let’s be good friends. Let’s see each other every day. I’m -awfully lonesome when I’m not with Mother,—even more so than you, -because you’ve got Genevieve. I expect to stay here all summer, and they -say there are very few young folks coming to ‘The Bluffs.’ It’s mostly -older people there, because the younger ones like the hotels on the -ocean best. So things won’t be much better for me, even during the -season. Can’t we be good friends and see each other a lot, and have a -jolly time on the river,—you and Genevieve and I?”</p> - -<p>The appeal was one that Sally could scarcely have resisted, even had she -not herself yearned for the same thing. “It—it would be fine!” she -acknowledged, shyly. “I’m—I’m awfully glad—if you want to.”</p> - -<p>They drifted about idly a while longer, discussing a trip for the next -morning, in which Sally proposed to show her new friend the deserted -mill, up Cranberry Creek. And Doris announced that she was going to -learn to row,<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a> so that the whole burden of that task might not fall on -Sally.</p> - -<p>“But now I must go in,” she ended. “It’s growing dark and Mother will -worry. But you be here in the morning at half-past nine with your boat, -if we’d better not take the canoe on account of Genevieve, and we’ll -have a jolly day.”</p> - -<p>Not once during all this time, had there been the least reference to the -mysterious hint of Sally’s during the earlier afternoon. But this was -not at all because Doris had forgotten it. She was, to tell the truth, -even more curious about it than ever. Her vivid imagination had been -busy with it ever since, weaving all sorts of strange and fantastic -fancies about the suggestion. Did the river have a mystery? What could -its nature be, and how had Sally discovered it? Did any one else know? -The deepening shadows on the farther shore added the last touch to her -busy speculations. They suggested possibilities of every hue and kind. -But not for worlds would she have had Sally guess how ardently she -longed for its revelation.<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a> Sally should tell her in good time, or not -at all, if she were so inclined: never because she (Doris) had <i>asked</i> -to be admitted to this precious secret.</p> - -<p>They beached the canoe, still talking busily about the morrow’s plans, -and together hauled it up in the sea-grass and turned it bottom upward. -And then Sally prepared to take her departure. But after she had said -good-bye, she still lingered uncertainly, as if she had something else -on her mind. It was only when she had turned to walk away across the -beach, that she suddenly wheeled and ran up to Doris once more.</p> - -<p>“I—I want to tell you something,” she hesitated. “I—perhaps—sometime -I’ll tell you more, but—the <i>secret</i>—Genevieve’s and mine—is up on -Slipper Point!”</p> - -<p>And before Doris could reply, she was gone, racing away along the -darkening sand.<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III<br /><br /> -<small>SALLY CAPITULATES</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span><small>T</small> was the beginning of a close friendship. For more than a week -thereafter, the girls were constantly together. They met every morning -by appointment at the hotel dock, where Sally always rowed up in “45,” -and Genevieve never failed to be the third member of the party. The -canoe was quite neglected, except occasionally, in the evening, when -Doris and Sally alone paddled about in her for a short time before -sunset, or just after. Sally introduced Doris to every spot on the -river, every shady bay and inlet or creek that was of the slightest -interest. They explored the deserted mill, gathered immense quantities -of water-lilies in Cranberry Creek, penetrated for several miles up the -windings of the larger creek that was the source of the river, camped -and picnicked for the day on the island, and<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a> paddled barefooted all one -afternoon in the rippling water across its golden bar.</p> - -<p>Beside that, they deserted the boat one day and walked to the ocean and -back, through the scented aisles of an interminable pine forest. On the -ocean beach they explored the wreck of a schooner cast up on the sand in -the storm of a past winter, and played hide-and-seek with Genevieve -among the billowy dunes. But in all this time neither had once mentioned -the subject of the secret on Slipper Point. Doris, though consumed with -impatient curiosity, was politely waiting for Sally to make any further -disclosures she might choose, and Sally was waiting for—she knew not -quite what! But had she realized it, she would have known she was -waiting for some final proof that her confidence in her new friend was -not misplaced.</p> - -<p>Not even yet was she absolutely certain that Doris was as utterly -friendly as she seemed. Though she scarcely acknowledged it to herself, -she was dreading and fearing that this new, absorbing friendship could -not last. When the summer had advanced and there<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a> were more companions -of Doris’s own kind in Manituck, it would all come to an end. She would -be forgotten or neglected, or, perhaps even snubbed for more suitable -acquaintances. How could it be otherwise? And how could she disclose her -most precious secret to one who might later forsake her and even impart -it to some one else? No, she would wait.</p> - -<p>In the meantime, while Doris was growing rosy and brown in the healthful -outdoor life she was leading with Sally, Sally herself was imbibing new -ideas and thoughts and interests in long, ecstatic draughts. Chief among -all these were the books—the wonderful books and magazines that Doris -had brought with her in a seemingly endless amount. Sometimes Doris -could scarcely extract a word from Sally during a whole long morning or -afternoon, so deeply absorbed was she in some volume loaned her by her -obliging friend. And Doris also knew that Sally sat up many a night, -devouring by candle-light the book she wanted to return next day—so -that she might promptly replace it by another!<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a></p> - -<p>One thing puzzled Doris,—the curious choice of books that seemed to -appeal to Sally. She read them all with equal avidity and appeared to -enjoy them all at the time, but some she returned to for a second -reading, and one in particular she demanded again and again. Doris’s own -choice lay in the direction of Miss Alcott’s works and “Little Lord -Fauntleroy” and her favorites among Dickens. Sally took these all in -with the rest, but she borrowed a second time the books of a more -adventurous type, and to Doris’s constant wonder, declared Stevenson’s -“Treasure Island” to be her favorite among them all. So frequently did -she borrow this, that Doris finally gave her the book for her own, much -to Sally’s amazement and delight.</p> - -<p>“Why do you like ‘Treasure Island’ best?” Doris asked her point-blank, -one day. Sally’s manner immediately grew a trifle reserved.</p> - -<p>“Because—because,” she stammered, “it is like—like something—oh! I -can’t just tell you right now, Doris. Perhaps I will some day.” And -Doris said no more, but put the<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> curious remark away in her mind to -wonder over.</p> - -<p>“It’s something connected with her secret—that I’m sure!” thought -Doris. “I do wish she felt like telling me, but until she does, I’ll try -not even to think about it.”</p> - -<p>But, all unknown to Doris, the time of her final testing, in Sally’s -eyes, was rapidly approaching. Sally herself, however, had known of it -and thought over it for a week or more. About the middle of June, there -came every year to the “Bluffs” a certain party of young folks, half a -dozen or more in number, with their parents, to stay till the middle of -July, when they usually left for the mountains. They were boys and girls -of about Doris’s age or a trifle older, rollicking, fun-loving, a little -boisterous, perhaps, and on the go from morning till night. They spent -their mornings at the ocean bathing-beach, their afternoons steaming up -and down the river in the fastest motor-boat available, and their -evenings dancing in the hotel parlor when they could find any one to -play for them. Sally had known<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a> them by sight for several years, though -never once, in all that time, had they so much as deigned to notice her -existence.</p> - -<p>“If Doris deserts me for them,” she told herself, “then I’ll be mighty -glad I never told her my secret. Oh, I do wonder what she’ll do when -they come!”</p> - -<p>And then they came. Sally knew of their arrival that evening, when they -rioted down to the Landing to procure the fastest launch her father -rented. And she waited, inwardly on tenterhooks of anxiety, for the -developments of the coming days. But, to her complete surprise, nothing -happened. Doris sought her company as usual, and for a day or two never -even mentioned the presence of the newcomers. At last Sally could bear -it no longer.</p> - -<p>“How do you like the Campbells and Hobarts who are at your hotel now?” -she inquired one morning.</p> - -<p>“Why, they’re all right,” said Doris indifferently, feathering her oars -with the joy of a newly-acquired accomplishment.<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a></p> - -<p>“But you don’t seem to go around with them,” ventured Sally uncertainly.</p> - -<p>“Oh, they tire me to death, they’re so rackety!” yawned Doris. “I like -fun and laughing and joking and shouting as well as the next -person—once in a while. But I can’t stand it for steady diet. It’s a -morning, noon and night performance with them. They’ve invited me to go -with them a number of times, and I will go once in a while, so as not to -seem unsociable, but much of it would bore me to death. By the way, -Sally, Mother told me to ask you to come to dinner with us tonight, if -you care to. She’s very anxious to meet you, for I’ve told her such a -lot about you. Do you think your mother will allow you to come?”</p> - -<p>Sally turned absolutely scarlet with the shock of surprise and joy this -totally unexpected invitation caused her.</p> - -<p>“Why—yes—er—that is, I think so. Oh, I’m sure of it! But, Doris, do -you <i>really</i> want me? I’m—well, I’m only Sally Carter, you know,” she -stammered.</p> - -<p>“Why, of course I want you!” exclaimed<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a> Doris, opening her eyes wide -with surprise. “I shouldn’t have asked you if I hadn’t.” And so it was -settled. Sally was to come up that afternoon, for once without -Genevieve, and have dinner at “The Bluffs” with the Craigs. She spent an -agonized two hours making her toilet for the occasion, assisted by her -anxious mother, who could scarcely fathom the reason for so -unprecedented an invitation. When she was arrayed in the very best -attire she owned (and a very creditable appearance she made, since she -had adopted some of Doris’s well-timed hints), her mother kissed her, -bade her “mind how she used her knife and fork,” and she set out for the -hotel, joyful on one score, but thoroughly uncomfortable on many others.</p> - -<p>But she forgot much of her agitation in the meeting with Mrs. Craig, a -pale, lovely, golden-haired woman of the gentlest and most winning -manner in the world. In five minutes she had put the shy, awkward -village girl completely at her ease, and the three were soon conversing -as unrestrainedly as if the mother<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> of Doris was no more than their own -age. But Sally could easily divine, from her weakness and pallor, how -ill Mrs. Craig had been, and how far from strong she still was.</p> - -<p>Dinner at their own cosy little table was by no means the ordeal Sally -had expected, and when it was over Mrs. Craig retired to her room and -Sally and Doris went out to sit for a while on the broad veranda. It was -here that Doris passed the final test that Sally had set for her. There -approached the sound of trooping footsteps and laughing voices, and in -another moment, the entire Campbell-Hobart clan clattered by.</p> - -<p>“Hello, Doris!” they greeted her. “Coming in to dance tonight?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know,” answered Doris. “Have you met my friend, Sally Carter?” -And she made all the introductions with unconcerned, easy grace. The -Campbell-Hobart faction stared. They knew Sally Carter perfectly well by -sight, and all about who she was. What on earth was she doing here—at -“The Bluffs”? A number of them murmured some<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a> indistinct rejoinder and -one of them, in the background, audibly giggled. Sally heard the giggle -and flushed painfully. But Doris was superbly indifferent to it all.</p> - -<p>“Do you dance, Sally?” she inquired, and Sally stammered that she did -not.</p> - -<p>“Then we’ll go down to the river and paddle about awhile,” went on -Doris. “It’s much nicer than stampeding about that hot parlor.” The -Campbell-Hobart crowd melted away. “Come on, Sally!” said Doris, and, -linking arms with her new friend, she strolled down the steps to the -river, without alluding, by so much as a single syllable, to the -rudeness of that noisy, thoughtless group.</p> - -<p>And in the heart of Sally Carter there sprang into being such an -absolute idolatry of adoration for this glorious new girl friend that -she was ready to lie down and die for her at a moment’s notice. The last -barrier, the last doubt, was swept completely away. And, as they drifted -about in the fading after-glow, Sally remarked, apropos of nothing:</p> - -<p>“If you like, we’ll go up to Slipper Point<a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a> tomorrow, and—I’ll show -you—that secret!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Sally,” breathed Doris in an awestruck whisper, “will -you—<i>really</i>?”<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV<br /><br /> -<small>ON SLIPPER POINT</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span><small>T</small> would be exaggeration to say that Doris slept, all told, one hour -during the ensuing night. She napped at intervals, to be sure, but hour -after hour she tossed about in her bed, in the room next to her mother, -pulling out her watch every twenty minutes or so, and switching on the -electric light to ascertain the time. Never in all her life had a night -seemed so long. Would the morning ever come, and with it the revelation -of the strange secret Sally knew?</p> - -<p>Like many girls of her age, and like many older folks too, if the truth -were known, Doris loved above all things, <i>a mystery</i>. Into her -well-ordered and regulated life there had never entered one or even the -suspicion of one. And since her own life was so devoid of this -fascination, she had gone about for several years,<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a> speculating in her -own imagination about the lives of others, and wondering if mystery ever -entered into <i>their</i> existences. But not until her meeting with little -Sally Carter, had there been even the faintest suggestion of such a -thing. And now, at last—! She pulled out her watch and switched on her -light for the fortieth time. Only quarter to five. But through her -windows she could see the faint dawn breaking over the river, so she -rose softly, dressed, and sat down to watch the coming of day.</p> - -<p>At nine o’clock she was pacing nervously up and down the beach. And when -old “45” at last grated on the sand, she hopped in with a glad cry, -kissed and hugged Genevieve, who was devoting her attention to her -thumb, in the stern seat, as usual, and sank down in the vacant -rowing-seat, remarking to Sally:</p> - -<p>“Hello, dear! I’m awfully glad you’ve come!” This remark may not seem to -express very adequately her inward state of excitement but she had -resolved not to let Sally see how tremendously anxious she was.<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a></p> - -<p>The trip to Slipper Point was a somewhat silent one. Neither of the -girls seemed inclined to conversation and, besides that, there was a -stiff head-wind blowing and the pulling was difficult. When they had -beached the boat, at length, on the golden sandbar of Slipper Point, -Doris only looked toward Sally and said:</p> - -<p>“So you’re going to show me at last, dear?” But Sally hesitated a -moment.</p> - -<p>“Doris,” she began, “this is my secret—and Genevieve’s—and I never -thought I’d tell any one about it. It’s the only secret I ever had worth -anything, but I’m going to tell you,—well, because I—I think so much -of you. Will you solemnly promise—cross your heart—that you’ll never -tell any one?”</p> - -<p>Doris gazed straight into Sally’s somewhat troubled eyes. “I don’t need -to ‘cross my heart,’ Sally. I just give you my word of honor I won’t, -unless sometime you wish it. I’ve not breathed a word of the fact that -you <i>had</i> a secret, even to Mother. And I’ve never kept anything from -her before.” And this<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> simple statement completely satisfied Sally.</p> - -<p>“Come on, then,” she said. “Follow Genevieve and me, and we’ll give you -the surprise of your life.”</p> - -<p>She grasped her small sister’s hand and led the way, and Doris -obediently followed. To her surprise, however, they did not scramble up -the sandy pine-covered slope as usual, but picked their way, instead, -along the tiny strip of beach on the farther side of the point where the -river ate into the shore in a great, sweeping cove. After trudging along -in this way for nearly a quarter of a mile, Sally suddenly struck up -into the woods through a deep little ravine. It was a wild scramble -through the dense underbrush and over the boughs of fallen pine trees. -Sally and Genevieve, more accustomed to the journey, managed to keep -well ahead of Doris, who was scratching her hands freely and doing -ruinous damage to her clothes plunging through the thorny tangle. At -last the two, who were a distance of not more than fifty feet ahead of -her, halted, and Sally called out:<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a></p> - -<p>“Now stand where you are, turn your back to us and count ten—slowly. -Don’t turn round and look till you’ve finished counting.” Doris -obediently turned her back, and slowly and deliberately “counted ten.” -Then she turned about again to face them.</p> - -<p>To her complete amazement, there was not a trace of them to be seen!</p> - -<p>Thinking they had merely slipped down and hidden in the undergrowth to -tease her, she scrambled to the spot where they had stood. But they were -not there. She had, moreover, heard no sound of their progress, no -snapping, cracking or breaking of branches, no swish of trailing through -the vines and high grass. They could not have advanced twenty feet in -any direction, in the short time she had been looking away from them. Of -both these facts she was certain. Yet they had disappeared as completely -as if the earth had opened and swallowed them. Where, in the name of all -mystery, could they be?</p> - -<p>Doris stood and studied the situation for several minutes. But, as they -were plainly nowhere<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a> in her vicinity, she presently concluded she must -have been mistaken about their not having had time to get further away, -and determined to hunt them up.</p> - -<p>So away she pursued her difficult quest, becoming constantly more -involved in the thick undergrowth and more scratched and dishevelled -every moment, till at length she stood at the top of the bluff. From -this point she could see in every direction, but not a vestige of Sally -or Genevieve appeared. More bewildered than ever, Doris clambered back -to the spot where she had last seen them. And, as there was plainly now -no other course, she stood where she was and called aloud:</p> - -<p>“Sally! Sal—ly! I give it up. Where in the world are you?”</p> - -<p>There was a low, chuckling laugh directly behind her, and, whirling -about, she beheld Sally’s laughing face peeping out from an aperture in -the tangled growth that she was positive she had not noticed there -before.</p> - -<p>“Come right in!” cried Sally. “And I<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> won’t keep it a secret any longer. -Did you guess it was anything like this?”</p> - -<p>She pushed a portion of the undergrowth back a little farther and Doris -scrambled in through the opening. No sooner was she within than Sally -closed the opening with a swift motion and they were all suddenly -plunged into inky darkness.</p> - -<p>“Wait a moment,” she commanded, “and I’ll make a light.” Doris heard her -fumbling for something; then the scratch of a match and the flare of a -candle. With an indrawn breath of wonder, Doris looked about her.</p> - -<p>“Why, it’s a room!” she gasped. “A little room all made right in the -hillside. How did it ever come here? How did you ever find it?”</p> - -<p>It was indeed the rude semblance of a room. About nine feet square and -seven high, its walls, floor and ceiling were finished in rough planking -of some kind of timber, now covered in the main with mold and fungus -growths. Across one end was a low wooden structure evidently meant for a -bed, with what had once<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a> been a hard straw mattress on it. There was -likewise a rudely constructed chair and a small table on which were the -rusted remains of a tin platter, knife and spoon. There was also a metal -candle-stick in which was the candle recently lit by Sally. It was a -strange, weird little scene in the dim candle-light, and for a time -Doris could make nothing of its riddle.</p> - -<p>“What <i>is</i> it? What does it all mean, Sally?” she exclaimed, gazing -about her with awestruck eyes.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know much more about it than you do,” Sally averred. “But I’ve -done some guessing!” she ended significantly.</p> - -<p>“But how did you ever come to discover it?” cried Doris, off on another -tack. “I could have searched Slipper Point for years and never have come -across <i>this</i>.”</p> - -<p>“Well, it was just an accident,” Sally admitted. “You see, Genevieve and -I haven’t much to do most of the time but roam around by ourselves, so -we’ve managed to poke into most of the places along the shore, the whole -length of this river, one time and another. It was last<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a> fall when we -discovered this. We’d climbed down here one day, just poking around -looking for beach-plums and things, and right about here I caught my -foot in a vine and went down on my face plumb right into that lot of -vines and things. I threw out my hands to catch myself, and instead of -coming against the sand and dirt as I’d expected, something gave way, -and when I looked there was nothing at all there but a hole.</p> - -<p>“Of course, I poked away at it some more, and found that there was a -layer of planking back of the sand. That seemed mighty odd, so I pushed -the vines away and banged some more at the opening, and it suddenly gave -way because the boards had got rotten, I guess, and—I found <i>this</i>!”</p> - -<p>Doris sighed ecstatically. “What a perfectly glorious adventure! And -what did you do then?”</p> - -<p>“Well,” went on Sally simply, “although I couldn’t make very much out of -what it all was, I decided that we’d keep it for our secret,—Genevieve -and I—and we wouldn’t let<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> another soul know about it. So we pulled the -vines and things over the opening the best we could, and we came up next -day and brought some boards and a hammer and nails—and a candle. Then I -fixed up the rotten boards of this opening,—you see it works like a -door, only the outside is covered with vines and things so you’d never -see it,—and I got an old padlock from Dad’s boathouse and I screwed it -on the outside so’s I could lock it up besides, and covered the padlock -with vines and sand. Nobody’d ever dream there was such a place here, -and I guess nobody ever has, either. That’s my secret!”</p> - -<p>“But, Sally,” exclaimed Doris, “how did it ever come here to begin with? -Who made it? It must have some sort of history.”</p> - -<p>“There you’ve got <i>me</i>!” answered Sally.</p> - -<p>“Some one must have stayed here,” mused Doris, half to herself. “And, -what’s more, they must have <i>hidden</i> here, or why should they have taken -such trouble to keep it from being discovered?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, they’ve hidden here, right enough,”<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a> agreed Sally. “It’s the best -hiding place any one ever had, I should say. But the question is, what -did they hide here for?”</p> - -<p>“And also,” added Doris, “if they were hiding, how could they make such -a room as this, all finished with wooden walls, without being seen doing -it? Where did they get the planks?”</p> - -<p>“Do you know what that timber is?” asked Sally.</p> - -<p>“Why, of course not,” laughed Doris. “How should I?”</p> - -<p>“Well, I do,” said her companion. “I know something about lumber because -Dad builds boats and he’s shown me. I scratched the mold off one -place,—here it is,—and I discovered that this planking is real -seasoned cedar like they build the best boats of. And do you know where -I think it was got? It came from some wrecked vessel down on the beach. -There are plenty of them cast up, off and on, and always have been.”</p> - -<p>“But gracious!” cried Doris, “how was it got here?”<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a></p> - -<p>“Don’t ask me!” declared Sally. “The beach is miles away.”</p> - -<p>They stood for some moments in silence, each striving to piece together -the story of this strange little retreat from the meagre facts they saw -about them. At last Doris spoke.</p> - -<p>“Sally,” she asked, “was this all you ever found here? Was there -absolutely nothing else?” Sally started, as if surprised at the question -and hesitated a moment.</p> - -<p>“No,” she acknowledged finally. “There <i>was</i> something else. I wasn’t -going to tell you right away, but I might as well now. I found this -under the mattress of the bed.”</p> - -<p>She went over to the straw pallet, lifted it, searched a moment and, -turning, placed something in Doris’s hands.<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V<br /><br /> -<small>MYSTERY</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">D</span><small>ORIS</small> received the object from Sally and stood looking at it as it lay -in her hands. It was a small, square, very flat tin receptacle of some -kind, rusted and moldy, and about six inches long and wide. Its -thickness was probably not more than a quarter of an inch.</p> - -<p>“What in the world is it?” she questioned wonderingly.</p> - -<p>“Open it and see!” answered Sally. Doris pried it open with some -difficulty. It contained only a scrap of paper which fitted exactly into -its space. The paper was brown with age and stained beyond belief. But -on its surface could be dimly discerned a strange and inexplicable -design.</p> - -<p>“Of <i>all</i> things!” breathed Doris in an awestruck voice. “This certainly -is a mystery, Sally. What <i>do</i> you make of it?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t make anything of it,” Sally averred.<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> “That’s just the trouble. -I can’t imagine what it means. I’ve studied and studied over it all -winter, and it doesn’t seem to mean a single thing.”</p> - -<p>It was indeed a curious thing, this scrap of stained, worn paper, hidden -for who knew how many years in a tin box far underground. For the riddle -on the paper was this:</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/img064_lg.png"> -<img src="images/img064_sml.png" width="300" height="308" alt="the riddle in boxes appears in the image" /></a> -</div> - -<p>“Well, I give it up!” declared Doris, after she had stared at it -intently for several more silent moments. “It’s the strangest puzzle I -ever saw. But, do you know, Sally, I’d like to take it home and study it -out at my leisure. I always was crazy about puzzles, and I’d just<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a> enjoy -working over this, even if I never made anything out of it. Do you think -it would do any harm to remove it from here?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t suppose it would,” Sally replied, “but somehow I don’t like to -change anything here or take anything away even for a little while. But -you can study it out all you wish, though, for I made a copy of it a -good while ago, so’s I could study it myself. Here it is.” And Sally -pulled from her pocket a duplicate of the strange design, made in her -own handwriting.</p> - -<p>At this point, Genevieve suddenly became restless and, clinging to -Sally’s skirts, demanded to “go and play in the boat.”</p> - -<p>“She doesn’t like to stay in here very long,” explained Sally.</p> - -<p>“Well, I don’t wonder!” declared Doris. “It’s dark and dreary and weird. -It makes me feel kind of curious and creepy myself. But, oh! it’s a -glorious secret, Sally,—the strangest and most wonderful I ever heard -of. Why, it’s a regular <i>adventure</i> to have found such a thing as this. -But let’s go out and sit<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a> in the boat and let Genevieve paddle. Then we -can talk it all over and puzzle this out.”</p> - -<p>Sally returned the tin box and its contents to the hiding-place under -the mattress. Then she blew out the candle, remarking as she did so that -she’d brought a lot of candles and matches and always kept them there. -In the pall of darkness that fell on them, she groped for the entrance, -pushed it open and they all scrambled out into the daylight. After that -she padlocked the opening and buried the key in the sand nearby and -announced herself ready to return to the boat.</p> - -<p>During the remainder of that sunny morning they sat together in the -stern of the boat, golden head and auburn one bent in consultation over -the strange combination of letters and figures, while Genevieve, -barefooted, paddled in silent ecstasy in the shallow water rippling over -the bar.</p> - -<p>“Sally,” exclaimed Doris, at length, suddenly straightening and looking -her companion in the eyes, “I believe you have some idea about all this -that you haven’t told me yet!<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> Several remarks you’ve dropped make me -think so. Now, honestly, haven’t you? What <i>do</i> you believe is the -secret of this cave and this queer jumble of letters and things, -anyway?”</p> - -<p>Sally, thus faced, could no longer deny the truth. “Yes,” she -acknowledged, “there <i>is</i> something I’ve thought of, and the more I -think of it, the surer I am. And something that’s happened since I knew -you, has made me even surer yet.” She paused, and Doris, wild with -impatience, demanded, “Well?”</p> - -<p>“<i>It’s pirates!</i>” announced Sally, slowly and distinctly.</p> - -<p>“<i>What?</i>” cried Doris, jumping to her feet. “Impossible! There’s no such -thing, nowadays.”</p> - -<p>“I didn’t say ‘nowadays,’ ” remarked Sally, calmly. “I think it <i>was</i> -pirates, then, if that suits you better.”</p> - -<p>Doris sank down in her seat again in amazed silence. “A pirate cave!” -she breathed at last. “I do believe you’re right, Sally. What else -<i>could</i> it be? But where’s the treasure, then?<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a> Pirates always had some -around, didn’t they? And that cave would be the best kind of a place to -keep it.”</p> - -<p>“That’s what this tells,” answered Sally, pointing to the scrap of -paper. “I believe it’s buried somewhere, and this is the secret plan -that tells where it is. If we could only puzzle it out, we’d find the -treasure.”</p> - -<p>A great light suddenly dawned on Doris. “<i>Now</i> I know,” she cried, “why -you were so crazy over ‘Treasure Island.’ It was all about pirates, and -there was a secret map in it. You thought it might help you to puzzle -out this. Wasn’t that it?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said Sally, “that was it, of course. I was wondering if you’d -guess it. I’ve got the book under the bow seat of the boat now. Let’s -compare the things.” She lifted the seat, found the book, which fell -open of its own accord, Doris noticed, at the well-known chart of that -well-loved book. They laid their own riddle beside it.</p> - -<p>“But this is entirely different,” declared Doris. “That one of ‘Treasure -Island’ is a<a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a> map or chart, with the hills and trees and everything -written plainly on it. This is nothing but a jumble of letters and -figures in little squares, and doesn’t make the slightest sense, no -matter how you turn or twist it.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t care,” insisted Sally. “I suppose all secret charts aren’t -alike. I believe if we only knew how to work this one, it would -certainly direct us straight to the place where that treasure is -buried.”</p> - -<p>So positive was she, that Doris could not help but be impressed. “But -pirates lived a long time ago,” she objected, “and I don’t believe there -were ever any pirates around this place, anyway. I thought they were -mostly down around Cuba and the southern parts of this country.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t you believe it!” cried Sally. “I’ve heard lots of the old -fishermen about here tell how there used to be pirates right along this -coast, and how they used to come in these little rivers once in a while -and bury their stuff and then go out for more. Why there was one famous -one they call ‘Captain Kidd,’ and they<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> say he buried things all about -here, but mostly on the ocean beach. My father says there used to be an -old man (he’s dead now) right in our village, and he was just sure he -could find some buried treasure, and he was always digging around on the -beach and in the woods near the ocean. Folks thought he was just kind of -crazy. But once he really did find something, way down deep, that looked -like it might have been the bones of a skeleton, and a few queer coins -and things all mixed up with them. And then every one went wild and -began digging for dear life, too, for a while, but they never found -anything more, so gradually they left off and forgot it.”</p> - -<p>Doris was visibly stirred by this curious story. After all, why should -it not be so? Why, perhaps could not <i>they</i> be on the right track of the -buried treasure of pirate legend? The more she thought it over, the more -possible it became. And the fascination of such a possibility held her -spellbound.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” she agreed, “I do believe you’re right, Sally. And now that I -look it over,<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a> these letters and numbers might easily be the key to it -all, if we can only work it out. Oh, I never heard of anything so -wonderful happening to two girls like ourselves before! Thank you, a -million times, Sally, for sharing this perfectly marvelous secret with -me.”</p> - -<p>“I do believe I’m enjoying it a great deal better myself, now that I’ve -told you,” answered Sally. “I didn’t think it could be so before I did. -And if we ever discover what it all means——”</p> - -<p>“Why, precious!” interrupted Doris, turning to Genevieve, who all -unnoticed had come to lean disconsolately against the side of the boat, -her thumb tucked pathetically in her mouth, her eyes half tearful. -“What’s the matter?”</p> - -<p>“I’m hung’y and s’eepy!” moaned Genevieve. With a guilty start, Doris -gazed at her wrist watch. It was nearly one o’clock.</p> - -<p>“Merciful goodness! Mother will be frantic!” she exclaimed. “It’s -lunch-time now, and we’re way up here. And just see the way I look!” She -was indeed a scratched, grimy<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a> and tattered object. “Whatever will I -tell her?” They scrambled to their oars and were out in the river before -Sally answered this question.</p> - -<p>“Can’t you tell her you were exploring up on Slipper Point?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” agreed Doris. “That is the real truth. And she never minds if I -get mussed and dirty, as long as I’ve enjoyed myself in some way that’s -all right. But I hope I haven’t worried her by being so late.”</p> - -<p>They rowed on in mad, breathless haste, passed the wagon-bridge, and -came at last in sight of the hotel. But as they beached the boat, and -Doris scrambled out, she said in parting:</p> - -<p>“I’ve been thinking, all the way down, about that secret map, or -whatever it is, and I have a new idea about it. I’ll tell you tomorrow -morning. This afternoon I’ve promised to go for a drive with Mother.”<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI<br /><br /> -<small>WORKING AT THE RIDDLE</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">B</span><small>UT</small> Doris did not have an opportunity to communicate her idea on the -following morning, nor for several days after that. A violent three or -four days’ northeaster had set in, and for forty-eight hours after their -expedition to Slipper Point, the river was swept by terrific gales and -downpouring sheets of rain. Doris called up Sally by telephone from the -hotel, on the second day, for she knew that Sally would very likely be -at the Landing, where there was a telephone connection.</p> - -<p>“Can’t you get well wrapped up and come up here to see me a while?” she -begged. “I’d go to you, but Mother won’t let me stir out in this awful -downpour.”</p> - -<p>“I could, I s’pose, but, honestly, I’d rather not,” replied Sally, -doubtfully. “I don<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a>’t much like to come up to the hotel. I guess you -know why.” Doris did know.</p> - -<p>“But you can come up to my room, and we’ll be alone there,” she -suggested. “I’ve so much I want to talk to you about. I’ve thought of -something else,—a dandy scheme.” The plan sorely tempted Sally, but a -new thought caused her to refuse once more.</p> - -<p>“I’d have to bring Genevieve,” she reminded Doris, “and she mightn’t -behave, and—well, I really guess I’d better not.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps tomorrow will be nice again,” ended Doris, hopefully, as she -hung up the receiver.</p> - -<p>But the morrow was not at all “nice.” On the contrary, it was, if -anything, worse than ever. After the morning mail had come, however, -Doris excitedly called up Sally again.</p> - -<p>“You simply must come up here, if it’s only for a few minutes!” she told -her. “I’ve something awfully important that I just must talk to you -about and show you.” The “show you” was what convinced Sally.</p> - -<p>“All right,” she replied. “I’ll come up for<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> half an hour. I’ll leave -Genevieve with Mother. But I can’t stay any longer.”</p> - -<p>She came, not very long after, and Doris rushed to meet her from the -back porch, for she had walked up the road. Removing her dripping -umbrella and mackintosh, Doris led her up to her room, whispering -excitedly:</p> - -<p>“I don’t know what you’ll think of what I’ve done, Sally, but one thing -I’m certain of. It can’t do any harm and it may do some good.”</p> - -<p>“What in the world is it?” questioned Sally, wonderingly.</p> - -<p>Doris drew her into her own room and shut the door. The communicating -door to her mother’s room was also shut, so they were quite alone. When -Sally was seated, Doris laid a bulky bundle in her lap.</p> - -<p>“What is it?” queried Sally, wide-eyed, wondering what all this could -have to do with their mystery.</p> - -<p>“I’ll tell you,” said Doris. “If it hadn’t been for this awful storm, -I’d have told you and asked you about it next morning, but I didn’t want -to over the ’phone. So I just<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> took things in my own hands, and here’s -the result.” Sally was more bewildered than ever.</p> - -<p>“What’s the result?”</p> - -<p>“Why, just this,” went on Doris. “That night, after we’d been to Slipper -Point, I lay awake again the longest time, thinking and thinking. And -suddenly a bright idea occurred to me. You know, whenever I’m worried or -troubled or puzzled, I always go to Father and ask his advice. I can go -to Mother too, but she’s so often ill and miserable, and I’ve got into -the habit of not bothering her with things. But Father’s always ready, -and he’s never failed me yet. So I got to wondering how I could get some -help from him in this affair without, of course, his suspecting anything -about the secret part of it. And then, all of a sudden, I thought -of—<i>books</i>! There must be <i>some</i> books that would help us,—books that -would give us some kind of information that might lead to a clue.</p> - -<p>“So next morning, very first thing, I sent a special delivery letter to -Father asking him to send me down <i>at once</i> any books he could<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a> find -about <i>pirates</i> and such things. And, bless his heart, he sent me down a -whole bundle of them that just got here this morning!”</p> - -<p>Sally eyed them in a sort of daze. “But—but won’t your father guess -just what we’re up to?” she ventured, dubiously. “He will ask you what -you want them for, won’t he?”</p> - -<p>“No, indeed,” cried Doris. “That’s just the beauty of Father. He’d never -ask me <i>why</i> I want them in a hundred years. If I choose to explain to -him, all right, and if I don’t he knows that’s all right too, for he -trusts me absolutely, not to do anything wrong. So, when he comes down, -as I expect he will in a week or so, he’ll probably say, ‘Pirates all -right, daughter?’ and that’s all there’ll be to it.” Sally was at last -convinced, though she marvelled inwardly at this quite wonderful species -of father.</p> - -<p>“But now, let’s look at the books,” went on Doris. “I’m perfectly -certain we’ll find something in them that’s going to give us a lift.” -She unwrapped the bundle and produced three volumes. One, a very large -one,<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a> was called “The Book of Buried Treasure.” Another, “Pirates and -Buccaneers of Our Own Coasts,” and, last but not least, “The Life of -Captain Kidd.” Sally’s eyes fairly sparkled, especially at the last, and -they hurriedly consulted together as to who should take which books -first. At length it was decided that Sally take the “Buried Treasure -Book,” as it was very bulky, and Doris would go over the other two. Then -they would exchange. This ought to keep them fully occupied till fair -weather set in again, after which, armed with so much valuable -information, they would again tackle their problem on its own ground—at -Slipper Point.</p> - -<p>It was two days later when they met again. There had not been an -opportunity to exchange the books, but on the first fair morning Sally -and Genevieve rowed up in “45,” and Doris leaped in exclaiming:</p> - -<p>“Let’s go right up to Slipper Point. I believe I’ve got on the track of -something—at last! What have you discovered, Sally?”<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a></p> - -<p>“Nothing at all,—just nothing,” declared Sally rather discouragingly. -“It was an awfully interesting book, though. I just devoured it. But it -didn’t tell a thing that would help us out. And I’ve made up my mind, -since reading it, that we might as well give up any idea of Captain Kidd -having buried anything around here. That book said he never buried a -thing, except one place on Long Island, and that was all raked up long -ago. All the rest about him is just silly nonsense and talk. He never -<i>was</i> much of a pirate, anyway!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I discovered the same thing in the book I had about him,” agreed -Doris. “We’ll have to give up Captain Kidd, but there were some pirates -who did bury somewhere, and one I discovered about did a lot of work -right around these shores.”</p> - -<p>“He <i>did</i>?” cried Sally, almost losing her oars in her excitement. “Who -was he? Tell me—quick!”</p> - -<p>“His name was Richard Worley,” answered<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a> Doris. “He was a pirate about -the year 1718, the same time that Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet were -‘pirating’ too.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I know about them,” commented Sally. “I read of them in that book. -But it didn’t say anything about Worley.”</p> - -<p>“Well, he was only a pirate for six weeks before he was captured,” went -on Doris, “but in that time he managed to do a lot, and it was all along -the coast of New Jersey here. Now why isn’t it quite possible that he -sailed in here with his loot and made that nice little cave and buried -his treasure, intending to come back some time. He was captured finally -down off the coast of the Carolinas, but he might easily have disposed -of his booty here before that.”</p> - -<p>Sally was filled with elated certainty. “It surely must have been he!” -she cried. “For there was some one,—that’s certain, or there wouldn’t -have been so much talk about buried treasure. And he’s the likeliest -person to have made that cave.”</p> - -<p>“There’s just one drawback that I can see,” Doris reminded her. “It was -an awfully long<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a> time ago,—1718, nearly two hundred years. Do you think -it would all have lasted so long? The wood and all, I mean?”</p> - -<p>“That cedar wood lasts forever,” declared Sally. “He probably wrecked -some vessel and then took the wood and built this cave with it. Probably -he built it because he thought it would be a good place to hide in some -time, if they got to chasing him. No one in all the world would ever -find him there.”</p> - -<p>“That’s a good idea!” commented Doris. “I’d been wondering why a pirate -should take such trouble to fix up a place like that. They usually just -dug a hole and put in the treasure and then killed one of their own -number and buried his body on top of it. I hope to goodness that Mr. -Richard Worley didn’t do that pleasant little trick! When we find the -treasure, we don’t want any skeletons mixed up with it.”</p> - -<p>They both laughed heartily over the conceit, and rowed with increased -vigor as Slipper Point came in sight.</p> - -<p>“You said you had an idea about that queer<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a> paper we found, too,” Sally -reminded her. “What was it?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I don’t know whether it amounts to much, and I’ll try to explain it -later. The first thing to do is to try to discover, if we can, some idea -of a date, or something connected with this cave, so that we can see if -we are on the right track. I’ve been thinking that if that wood was from -an old, wrecked vessel, we might perhaps find something on it somewhere -that would give us a clue.”</p> - -<p>“That’s so,” said Sally. “I hadn’t thought of that before.”</p> - -<p>With this in mind, they entered the cave, lit the candle, seated -Genevieve on the chair with a bag of candy in her lap for solace, and -proceeded to their task.</p> - -<p>“The only way to find anything is just to scrape off all we can of this -mold,” announced Sally. “You take one side, and I’ll take the other and -we’ll use these sticks. It won’t be an easy job.”</p> - -<p>It was not. For over an hour they both dug away, scraping off what they -could of the moss<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a> and fungus that covered the cedar planks. Doris made -so little progress that she finally procured the ancient knife from the -table and worked more easily with that implement. Not a vestige nor a -trace of any writing was visible anywhere.</p> - -<p>When the arms of both girls had begun to ache cruelly, and Genevieve had -grown restless and was demanding to “go out,” Sally suggested that they -give it up for the day. But just at that moment, working in a far -corner, Doris had stumbled upon a clue. The rusty knife had struck a -curious knobby break in the wood, which, on further scraping, developed -the shape of a raised letter “T.” At her exultant cry, Sally rushed over -and frantically assisted in the quest. Scraping and digging for another -fifteen minutes revealed at last a name, raised on the thick planking, -which had evidently been the stern name-plate of the vessel. When it all -stood revealed, the writing ran:</p> - -<p class="c"> -<i>The Anne Arundel</i><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 8%;"><i>England</i></span> -<i><span style="margin-left: 3%;">1843.</span></i><br /> -</p> - -<p><a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a></p> - -<p>The two stood gazing at it a moment in puzzled silence. Then Doris threw -down her knife.</p> - -<p>“It’s all off with the pirate theory, Sally!” she exclaimed.</p> - -<p>“Why so?” demanded her companion, mystified for the moment.</p> - -<p>“Just because,” answered Doris, “if Richard Worley lived in 1718, he -couldn’t possibly have built a cave with the remains of a vessel dated -1843, and neither could any other pirate, for there weren’t any more -pirates as late as 1843. Don’t you see?”</p> - -<p>Sally did see and her countenance fell.</p> - -<p>“Then what in the world <i>is</i> the mystery?” she cried.</p> - -<p>“That we’ve got to find the answer to in some other way,” replied Doris, -“for we’re as much in the dark as ever!”<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII<br /><br /> -<small>THE FIRST CLUE</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span><small>T</small> was a discouraged pair that rowed home from Slipper Point that -morning. Sally was depressed beyond words by their recent discovery, for -she had counted many long months on her “pirate theory” and the ultimate -unearthing of buried treasure. Doris, however, was not so much depressed -as she was baffled by this curious turn of the morning’s investigation. -Thinking hard, she suddenly shipped her oars and turned about to face -Sally with an exultant little exclamation.</p> - -<p>“Do you realize that we’ve made a very valuable find this morning, after -all, Sally?” she cried.</p> - -<p>“Why, no, I don’t. Everything’s just spoiled!” retorted Sally dubiously. -“If it isn’t pirates, it isn’t anything that’s <i>worth</i> anything, is -it?”<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a></p> - -<p>“I don’t know yet how much it’s worth,” retorted Doris, “but I do know -that we’ve unearthed enough to start us on a new hunt.”</p> - -<p>“Well, what is it?” demanded Sally, still incredulous.</p> - -<p>“Can’t you guess? The <i>name</i> of this vessel that the lumber came -from,—and the <i>date</i>. Whatever happened that cave couldn’t have been -made before 1843, anyhow, and that isn’t so terribly long ago. There -might even be persons alive here today who could remember as far back as -that date, if not further. And if this <i>Anne Arundel</i> was wrecked -somewhere about here, perhaps there’s some one who will remember that, -and—”</p> - -<p>But here Sally interrupted her with an excited cry. “My grandfather!—He -surely would know. He was born in 1830, ’cause he’s eighty-seven now, -and he ought to remember if there was a wreck on this beach when he was -thirteen years old or older. He remembers lots about wrecks. I’ll ask -him.”</p> - -<p>Doris recalled the hearty old sea-captain, Sally’s grandfather, whom she -had often seen<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a> sitting on Sally’s own front porch, or down at the -Landing. That he could remember many tales of wrecks and storms she did -not doubt, and her spirits rose with Sally’s.</p> - -<p>“But you must go about it carefully,” she warned. “Don’t let him know, -at first that you know much about the <i>Anne Arundel</i>, or he’ll begin to -suspect something and ask questions. I don’t see quite how you <i>are</i> -going to find out about it without asking him anyway.”</p> - -<p>“You leave that to me!” declared Sally. “Grandfather’s great on spinning -yarns when he gets going. And he grows so interested about it generally -that he doesn’t realize afterward whether he’s told you a thing or -you’ve asked him about it, ’cause he has so much to tell and gets so -excited about it. Oh, I’ll find out about the <i>Anne Arundel</i>, all -right—if there’s anything <i>to</i> find out!”</p> - -<p>They parted that morning filled anew with the spirit of adventure and -mystery, stopping no longer to consider the dashed hopes of the earlier -day.<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a></p> - -<p>“I probably shan’t get a chance to talk to Grandfather alone before -evening,” said Sally in parting, “though I’m going to be around most of -the afternoon where he is. But I’ll surely talk to him tonight when he’s -smoking on our porch and Mother and Dad are away at the Landing. Then -I’ll find out what he knows, and let you know tomorrow morning.”</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>It was a breathless and excited Sally that rowed up to the hotel at an -early hour next day.</p> - -<p>“Did he say anything?” demanded Doris breathlessly, flying down to the -sand to meet her.</p> - -<p>“Come out in the boat,” answered Sally, “and I’ll tell you all about it. -He certainly <i>did</i> say something!”</p> - -<p>Doris clambered into the boat, and they headed as usual for Slipper -Point.</p> - -<p>“Well?” queried Doris, impatiently, when they were in midstream.</p> - -<p>“Grandfather was good and ready to talk<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a> wrecks with me last night,” -began Sally, “for there was no one else about to talk to. You know, the -pavilion opened for dancing the first time this season, and every one -made a bee-line for that. Grandfather never goes down to the Landing at -night, so he was left stranded for some one to talk to and was right -glad to have me. I began by asking him to tell me something about when -he was a young man and how things were around here and how he came to go -to sea. It always pleases him to pieces to be asked to tell about those -times, so he sailed in and I didn’t do a thing but sit and listen, -though I’ve heard most of all that before.</p> - -<p>“But after a while he got to talking about how he’d been shipwrecked and -along about there I saw how it would be easy to switch him off to the -shipwrecks that happened around here. When I did that he had plenty to -tell me and it was rather interesting too. By and by I said, just -quietly, as if I wasn’t awfully interested:</p> - -<p>“ ‘Grandfather, I’ve heard tell of a ship<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a> called the <i>Anne Arundel</i> that -was wrecked about here once. Do you know anything of her?’ And he said -he just guessed he <i>did</i>. She came ashore one winter night, along about -1850, in the worst storm they’d ever had on this coast. He was a young -man of twenty then and he helped to rescue some of the sailors and -passengers. She was a five-masted schooner, an English ship, and she -just drove right up on the shore and went to pieces. They didn’t get -many of her crew off alive, as most of them had been swept overboard in -the heavy seas.</p> - -<p>“But, listen to this. He said that the queer part of it all was that, -though her hulk and wreckage lay on the beach for a couple of months or -so, and nobody gave it any attention, suddenly, in one week, it all -disappeared as clean as if another hurricane had hit it and carried it -off. But this wasn’t the case, because there had been fine weather for a -long stretch. Everybody wondered and wondered what had become of the -<i>Anne Arundel</i> but nobody<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a> ever found out. It seemed particularly -strange because no one, not even beach-combers, would be likely to carry -off a whole wreck, bodily, like that.”</p> - -<p>“And he never had a suspicion,” cried Doris, “that some one had taken it -to build that little cave up the river? How perfectly wonderful, Sally!”</p> - -<p>“No, but there’s something about it that puzzles me a lot,” replied -Sally. “They took it to fix up that cave, sure enough. But, do you -realize, Doris, that it only took a small part of a big vessel like -that, to build the cave. What became of all the rest of it? Why was it -all taken, when so little of it was needed? What was it used for?”</p> - -<p>This was as much a puzzle to Doris as to Sally. “I’m sure I can’t -imagine,” she replied. “But one thing’s certain. We’ve got to find out -who took it and why, if it takes all summer. By the way! I’ve got a new -idea about why that cave was built. I believe it was for some one who -wanted to hide away,—<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a>a prisoner escaped from jail, for instance, or -some one who was afraid of being put in prison because he’d done -something wrong, or it was thought that he had. How about that?”</p> - -<p>“Then what about the queer piece of writing we found?” demanded Sally. -Doris had to admit she could not see where that entered into things.</p> - -<p>“Well,” declared Sally, at length, “I’ve got a brand new idea about it -too. It came from something else Grandfather was telling me last night. -If it wasn’t pirates it was—<i>smugglers</i>!”</p> - -<p>“Mercy!” cried Doris. “What makes you think so?”</p> - -<p>“Because Grandfather was telling me of a lot of smugglers who worked a -little farther down the coast. They used to run in to one of the rivers -with a small schooner they cruised in, and hide lots of stuff that -they’d have to pay duty on if they brought it in the proper way. They -hid it in an old deserted house near the shore and after a while would -sell what they had and bring in some more. By<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> and by the government -officers got after them and caught them all.</p> - -<p>“It just set me to thinking that this might be another hiding place that -was never discovered, and this bit of paper the secret plan to show -where or how they hid the stuff. Perhaps they were all captured at some -time, and never got back here to find the rest of their things. I tell -you, we may find some treasure yet, though it probably won’t be like -what the pirates would have hidden.”</p> - -<p>Doris was decidedly fired by the new idea. “It sounds quite possible to -me,” she acknowledged, “and what we want to do now is to try and work -out the meaning of that queer bit of paper.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, and by the way, you said quite a while ago that you had an idea -about that,” Sally reminded her. “What was it?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I don’t know as it amounts to much,” said Doris. “So many things -have happened since, that I’ve half forgotten about it. But if we’re -going up to Slipper Point, I can show you better when we get there. Do -you know,<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a> Sally, I believe I’m just as much interested if that’s a -smuggler’s cave as if it had been a pirate’s. It’s actually thrilling!”</p> - -<p>And without further words, they bent their energies toward reaching -their destination.<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /><br /> -<small>ROUNDTREE’S</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">A</span><small>T</small> Slipper Point, they established Genevieve, as usual, on the old chair -in the cave, to examine by candle-light the new picture-book that Doris -had brought for her. This was calculated to keep her quiet for a long -while, as she was inordinately fond of “picters,” as she called them.</p> - -<p>“Now,” cried Sally, “what about that paper?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I don’t know that it amounts to very much,” explained Doris. “It -just occurred to me, in looking it over, that possibly the fact of its -being square and the little cave also being square might have something -to do with things. Suppose the floor of the cave were divided into -squares just as this paper is. Now do you notice one thing? Read the -letters in their order up from the extreme left hand corner<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a> diagonally. -It reads r-i-g-h-t-s and the last square is blank. Now why couldn’t that -mean ‘right’ and the ‘s’ stand for square,—the ‘right square’ being -that blank one in the extreme corner?”</p> - -<p>“Goody!” cried Sally. “That’s awfully clever of you. I never thought of -such a thing as reading it that way, in all the time I had it. And do -you think that perhaps the treasure is buried under there?”</p> - -<p>“Well, of course, that’s all we <i>can</i> think it means. It might be well -to investigate in that corner.”</p> - -<p>But another thought had occurred to Sally. “If that’s so,” she inquired -dubiously, “what’s the use of all the rest of those letters and numbers. -They must be there for <i>something</i>.”</p> - -<p>“They may be just a ‘blind,’ and mean nothing at all,” answered Doris. -“You see they’d have to fill up the spaces somehow, or else, if I’m -right, they’d have more than one vacant square. And one was all they -wanted. So they filled up the rest with a lot of letters and figures -just to puzzle any one that got hold of<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a> it. But there’s something else -I’ve thought of about it. You notice that the two outside lines of -squares that lead up to the empty squares are just numbers,—not letters -at all. Now I’ve added each line together and find that the sum of each -side is exactly <i>twenty-one</i>. Why wouldn’t it be possible that it means -the sides of this empty square are twenty-one—something—in length. It -can’t possibly mean twenty-one <i>feet</i> because the whole cave is only -about nine feet square. It must mean twenty-one inches.”</p> - -<p>Sally was quite overcome with amazement at this elaborate system of -reasoning it out. “You certainly are a wonder!” she exclaimed. “I never -would have thought of it in the world.”</p> - -<p>“Why, it was simple,” declared Doris, “for just as soon as I’d hit upon -that first idea, the rest all followed like clockwork. But now, if all -this is right, and the treasure lies somewhere under the vacant square, -our business is to find it.”</p> - -<p>Suddenly an awful thought occurred to Sally. “But how are you going to -know <i>which</i><a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a> corner that square is in? It might be any of the four, -mightn’t it?”</p> - -<p>For a moment Doris was stumped. How, indeed, were they going to tell? -Then one solution dawned on her. “Wouldn’t they have been most likely to -consider the square of the floor as it faces you, coming in at the door, -to be the way that corresponds to the plan on the paper? In that case, -the extreme right-hand corner from the door, for the space of twenty-one -inches, is the spot.”</p> - -<p>It certainly seemed the most logical conclusion. They rushed over to the -spot and examined it, robbing Genevieve of her candle in order to have -the most light on the dark corner. It exhibited, however, no signs of -anything the least unusual about it. The rough planks of the flooring -joined quite closely to those of the wall, and there was no evidence of -its having ever been used as a place of concealment. At this -discouraging revelation, their faces fell.</p> - -<p>“Let’s examine the other corners,” suggested Doris. “Perhaps we’re not -right about this being the one.”<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a></p> - -<p>The others, however, revealed no difference in their appearance, and the -girls restored her candle to Genevieve at the table, and stood gazing at -each other in disconcerted silence.</p> - -<p>“But, after all,” suggested Doris shortly, “would you expect to see any -real sign of the boards being movable or having been moved at some time? -That would only give their secret away, when you come to think of it. -No, if there <i>is</i> some way of opening one of those corners, it’s pretty -carefully concealed, and I don’t see anything for it but for us to bring -some tools up here,—a hammer and saw and chisel, perhaps,—and go to -work prying those boards up.” The plan appealed to Sally.</p> - -<p>“I’ll get some of Dad’s,” she declared. “He’s got a lot of tools in the -boathouse, and he’d never miss a few of the older ones. We’ll bring them -up tomorrow and begin. And I think your first idea about the corner was -the best. We’ll start over there.”</p> - -<p>“I’s cold,” Genevieve began to whimper, at this point. “I don’t <i>like</i> -it in here. I want to go out.”<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a></p> - -<p>The two girls laughed. “She isn’t much of a treasure-hunter, is she!” -said Doris. “Bless her heart. We’ll go out right away and sit down under -the pine trees.”</p> - -<p>They emerged into the sunlight, and Sally carefully closed and concealed -the entrance to their secret lair. After the chill of the underground, -the warm sunlight was very welcome and they lay lazily basking in its -heat and inhaling the odor of the pine-needles. Far above their heads -the fish-hawks swooped with their high-pitched piping cry, and two wrens -scolded each other in the branches above their heads. Sally sat -tailor-fashion, her chin cupped in her two hands, thinking in silence, -while Doris, propped against a tree, was explaining the pictures in her -new book to Genevieve. In the intervals, while Genevieve stared -absorbedly at one of them, Doris would look about her curiously and -speculatively. Suddenly she thrust the book aside and sprang to her -feet.</p> - -<p>“Do you realize, Sally,” she exclaimed, “that I’ve never yet explored a -bit of this region <i>above ground</i> with you? I’ve never seen<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a> a thing -except this bit right about the cave. Why not take me all round here for -a way. It might be quite interesting.”</p> - -<p>Sally looked both surprised and scornful. “There’s nothing at all to see -around here that’s a bit interesting,” she declared. “There’s just this -pine grove and the underbrush, and back there,—quite a way back, is an -old country road. It isn’t even worth getting all hot and tired going to -see.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I don’t care, I want to see it!” insisted Doris. “I somehow have -a feeling that it would be worth while. And if you are too tired to come -with me, I’ll go by myself. You and Genevieve can rest here.”</p> - -<p>“No, I want to go wis Dowis!” declared Genevieve, scrambling to her feet -as she scented a new diversion.</p> - -<p>“Well, I’ll go too,” laughed Sally. “I’m not as lazy as all that, but I -warn you, you won’t find anything worth the trouble.”</p> - -<p>They set off together, scrambling through the scrub-oak and bay-bushes, -stopping now and then to pick and devour wild strawberries,<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a> or gather a -great handful of sassafras to chew. All the while Doris gazed about her -curiously, asking every now and then a seemingly irrelevant question of -Sally.</p> - -<p>Presently they emerged from the pine woods and crossed a field covered -only with wild blackberry vines still bearing their white blossoms. At -the farther edge of this field they came upon a sandy road. It wound -away in a hot ribbon till a turn hid it from sight, and the heat of the -morning tempted them no further to explore it.</p> - -<p>“This is the road I told you of,” explained Sally with an -“I-told-you-so” expression. “You see it isn’t anything at all, only an -old back road leading to Manituck. Nobody much comes this way if they -can help it,—it’s so sandy.”</p> - -<p>“But what’s that old house there?” demanded Doris, pointing to an -ancient, tumbledown structure not far away. “And isn’t it the -queerest-looking place, one part so gone to pieces and unkempt, and that -other little wing all nicely fixed up and neat and comfortable!”<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a></p> - -<p>It was indeed an odd combination. The structure was a large -old-fashioned farmhouse, evidently of a period dating well back in the -nineteenth century. The main part had fallen into disuse, as was quite -evident from the closed and shuttered windows, the peeling, blistered -paint, the unkempt air of being not inhabited. But a tiny “L” at one -side bore an aspect as different from the main building as could well be -imagined. It had lately received a coat of fresh white paint. Its -windows were wide open and daintily curtained with some pretty but -inexpensive material. The little patch of flower-garden in front was as -trim and orderly.</p> - -<p>“I don’t understand it,” went on Doris. “What place is it?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, that’s only Roundtree’s,” answered Sally indifferently. “That’s old -Miss Roundtree now, coming from the back. She lives there all alone.”</p> - -<p>As she was speaking, the person in question came into view from around -the back of the house, a basket of vegetables in her hand.<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a> Plainly she -had just been picking them in the vegetable-garden, a portion of which -was visible at the side of the house. She sat down presently on her tiny -front porch, removed her large sun-bonnet and began to sort them over. -From their vantage-point behind some tall bushes at the roadside, the -girls could watch her unobserved.</p> - -<p>“I like her looks,” whispered Doris after a moment. “Who is she and why -does she live in this queer little place?”</p> - -<p>“I told you her name was Roundtree,—Miss Camilla Roundtree,” replied -Sally. “Most folks call her ‘old Miss Camilla’ around here. She’s -awfully poor, though they say her folks were quite rich at one time, and -she’s quite deaf too. That big old place was her father’s, and I s’pose -is hers now, but she can’t afford to keep it up, she has so little -money. So she just lives in that small part, and she knits for a -living,—caps and sweaters and things like that. She does knit -beautifully and gets quite a good many orders, especially in summer, but -even so it hardly brings her in enough to live<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> on. She’s kind of queer -too, folks think. But I don’t see why you’re so interested in her.”</p> - -<p>“I like her looks,” answered Doris. “She has a fine face. Somehow she -seems to me like a lady,—a <i>real</i> lady!”</p> - -<p>“Well, she sort of puts on airs, folks think, and she doesn’t care to -associate with everybody,” admitted Sally. “But she’s awfully good and -kind, too. Goes and nurses people when they’re sick or have any trouble, -and never charges for it, and all that sort of thing. But, same time, -she always seems to want to be by herself. She reads lots, too, and has -no end of old books. They say they were her father’s. Once she lent me -one or two when I went to get her to make a sweater for Genevieve.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, do you know her?” cried Doris. “How interesting!”</p> - -<p>“Why, yes, of course I know her. Everyone does around here. But I don’t -see anything very interesting about it.” To tell the truth, Sally was -quite puzzled by Doris’s absorption<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> in the subject. It was Genevieve -who broke the spell.</p> - -<p>“I’s sirsty!” she moaned. “I want a djink. I want Mis Camilla to gi’ me -a djink!”</p> - -<p>“Come on!” cried Doris to Sally. “If you know her, we can easily go over -and ask her for a drink. I’m crazy to meet her.”</p> - -<p>Still wondering, Sally led the way over to the tiny garden and the three -proceeded up the path toward Miss Roundtree.</p> - -<p>“Why, good morning!” exclaimed that lady, looking up. Her voice was very -soft, and a little toneless, as is often the case with the deaf.</p> - -<p>“Good morning!” answered Sally in a rather loud tone, and a trifle -awkwardly presented Doris. But there was no awkwardness in the manner -with which Miss Camilla acknowledged the new acquaintance. Indeed it was -suggestive of an old-time courtesy, now growing somewhat obsolete. And -Doris had a chance to gaze, at closer range, on the fine, high-bred face -framed in its neatly parted gray hair.<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a></p> - -<p>“Might Genevieve have a drink?” asked Doris at length. “She seems to be -very thirsty.”</p> - -<p>“Why, assuredly!” exclaimed Miss Camilla. “Come inside, all of you, and -rest in the shade.” So they trooped indoors, into Miss Camilla’s tiny -sitting-room, while she herself disappeared into the still tinier -kitchen at the back. While she was gone, Doris gazed about with a new -wonder and admiration in her eyes.</p> - -<p>The room was speckless in its cleanliness, and full of many obviously -home-made contrivances and makeshifts. Yet there were two or three -beautiful pieces of old mahogany furniture, of a satiny finish and -ancient date. And on the mantel stood one marvelous little piece of -pottery that, even to Doris’s untrained eye, gave evidence of being a -rare and costly bit. But Miss Camilla was now coming back, bearing a -tray on which stood three glasses of water and a plate of cookies and -three little dishes of delicious strawberries.</p> - -<p>“You children must be hungry after your<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> long morning’s excursion,” she -said. “Try these strawberries of mine. They have just come from the -garden.”</p> - -<p>Doris thought she had never tasted anything more delightful than that -impromptu little repast. And when it was over, she asked Miss Camilla a -question, for she had been chatting with her all along, in decided -contrast to the rather embarrassed silence of Sally.</p> - -<p>“What is that beautiful little vase you have there, Miss Roundtree, may -I ask? I’ve been admiring it a lot.” A wonderful light shone suddenly in -Miss Camilla’s eyes. Here, it was plain, was her hobby.</p> - -<p>“That’s a Louis XV Sèvres,” she explained, patting it lovingly. “It <i>is</i> -marvelous, isn’t it, and all I have left of a very pretty collection. It -was my passion once, this pottery, and I had the means to indulge it. -But they are all gone now, all but this one. I shall never part with -this.” The light died out of her eyes as she placed the precious piece -back on the mantel.</p> - -<p>“Good-bye. Come again!” she called after<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> them, as they took their -departure. “I always enjoy talking to you children.”</p> - -<p>When they had retraced their way to the boat and pushed off and were -making all speed for the hotel, Sally suddenly turned to Doris and -demanded:</p> - -<p>“Why in the world are you so interested in Miss Camilla? I’ve known her -all my life, and I never talked so much to her in all that time as you -did this morning.”</p> - -<p>“Well, to begin with,” replied Doris, shipping her oars and facing her -friend for a moment, “I think she’s a lovely and interesting person. But -there’s something else besides.” She stopped abruptly, and Sally, filled -with curiosity, demanded impatiently,</p> - -<p>“Well?”</p> - -<p>Doris’s reply almost caused her to lose her oars in her astonishment.</p> - -<p>“<i>I think she knows all about that cave!</i>”<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX<br /><br /> -<small>DORIS HAS A NEW THEORY</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">“W</span><small>ELL</small>, for gracious sake!” was all Sally could reply to this astonishing -remark. And a moment later, “How on earth do you know?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t <i>know</i>. I’m only guessing at it,” replied Doris. “But I have -one or two good reasons for thinking we’ve been on the wrong track right -along. And if I’d known about <i>her</i> before, I’d have thought so long -ago.”</p> - -<p>“But what <i>is</i> it?” cried Sally again, bursting with impatience and -curiosity.</p> - -<p>“Sally,” said Doris soberly, “I’m going to ask you not to make me -explain it all just yet. I would if I had it all clear in my mind, but -the whole idea is just as hazy as can be at present. And you know a -thing is very hard to explain when it’s hazy like that. It sounds silly -if you put it into words. So won’t you just let it be till I get it -better thought out?”<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a></p> - -<p>“Why, yes, of course,” replied Sally with an assumed heartiness that she -was far from feeling. Truth to tell, she was not only badly disappointed -but filled with an almost uncontrollable curiosity to know what Doris -had discovered about her secret that she herself did not know.</p> - -<p>“And I’m going to ask you another thing,” went on Doris. “Do you suppose -any one around here knows much about the history of Miss Camilla and her -family? Would your grandfather be likely to know?”</p> - -<p>“Why, yes, I guess so,” replied Sally. “If anybody knows I’m sure it -would be he, because he’s the oldest person around here.”</p> - -<p>“Then,” said Doris, “I want you to let me talk to your grandfather about -it. We’ll both seem to be talking to him together, but I want to ask him -some questions very specially myself. But I don’t want him to suspect -that we have any special interest in the thing, so you try and make him -talk the way you did that night when he told you all about the wrecks, -and the <i>Anne Arundel</i>. Will you?”<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a></p> - -<p>“Oh, yes,” agreed Sally. “That’s easy. When shall we do it? This -afternoon? I think he’ll be down at the Landing, and we won’t have any -trouble getting him to talk to us. There aren’t many around the Landing -yet, ’cause the season is so early, and I’ll steer him over into a -corner where we can be by ourselves.”</p> - -<p>“That’s fine!” cried Doris. “I knew you could manage it.”</p> - -<p>“But tell me—just one thing,” begged Sally, “What made you first think -that Miss Camilla had anything to do with this? You can tell me just -<i>that</i>, can’t you?”</p> - -<p>“It was the little Sèvres vase on the mantel,” explained Doris, “and the -way she spoke of it, I know a little,—just a tiny bit about old china -and porcelains, because my grandfather is awfully interested in them and -has collected quite a lot. But it was the way she <i>spoke</i> of it that -made me think.”</p> - -<p>Not another word would she say on the subject. And though Sally racked -her brains over the matter for the rest of the day, she<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> could find no -point where Miss Camilla and her remarks had the slightest bearing on -that secret of theirs.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>It was about two o’clock that afternoon, and the pavilion at the Landing -was almost deserted. Later it would be peopled by a throng, young and -old, hiring boats, crabbing from the long dock, drinking soda-water or -merely watching the river life, idly. But, during the two or three hot -hours directly after noon, it was deserted. On this occasion, however, -not for long. Old Captain Carter, corn-cob pipe in mouth, and stumping -loudly on his wooden leg, was approaching down the road from the -village. At this hour he seldom failed to take his seat in a corner of -the pavilion and wait patiently for the afternoon crowd to appear. His -main diversion for the day consisted in his chats with the throngs who -haunted the Landing.</p> - -<p>He had not been settled in his corner three minutes, his wooden leg -propped on another chair, when up the wide stairs from the beach<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> -appeared his two granddaughters, accompanied by another girl. Truth to -tell, they had been waiting below exactly half an hour for this very -event. Doris, who had met him before, went over and exchanged the -greetings of the day, then casually settled herself in an adjacent -chair, fanning herself frantically and exclaiming over the heat. Sally -and Genevieve next strolled up and perched on a bench close by. For -several minutes the two girls exchanged some rather desultory -conversation. Then, what appeared to be a chance remark of Doris’s but -was in reality carefully planned, drew the old sea-captain into their -talk.</p> - -<p>“I wonder why some people around here keep a part of their houses nicely -fixed and live in that part and let the rest get all run down and go to -waste?” she inquired with elaborate indifference. Captain Carter pricked -up his ears.</p> - -<p>“<i>Who</i> do that, I’d like to know?” he snorted. “I hain’t seen many of -’em!”</p> - -<p>“Well, I passed a place this morning and it<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> looked that way,” Doris -went on. “I thought maybe it was customary in these parts.”</p> - -<p>“Where was it?” demanded the Captain, on the defensive for his native -region.</p> - -<p>“Way up the river,” she answered, indicating the direction of Slipper -Point.</p> - -<p>“Oh, <i>that</i>!” he exclaimed in patent relief. “That’s only Miss -Roundtree’s, and I guess you won’t see another like it in a month of -Sundays.”</p> - -<p>“Who is she and why does she do it?” asked Doris with a great (and this -time real) show of interest. And thus, finding what his soul delighted -in, a willing and interested listener, Captain Carter launched into a -history and description of Miss Camilla Roundtree. He had told all that -Sally had already imparted, when Doris broke in with some skilfully -directed questions.</p> - -<p>“How do you suppose she lost all her money?”</p> - -<p>“Blest if I know, or any one else!” he grunted. “And what’s more, I -don’t believe<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> <i>she</i> lost it all, either. I think it was her father and -her brother before her that did the trick. They were great folks around -here,—high and mighty, we called ’em. Nobody among us down at the -village was good enough for ’em. This here Miss Camilla,—her mother -died when she was a baby—she used to spend most of her time in New York -with a wealthy aunt. Some swell, she was!—used to go with her aunt -pretty nigh every year to Europe and we didn’t set eyes on her once in a -blue moon. Her father and brother had a fine farm and were making money, -but she didn’t care for this here life.</p> - -<p>“Well, one time she come back from Europe and things didn’t seem to be -going right down here at her place. I don’t know what it was, but there -were queer things whispered about the two men folks and all the money -seemed to be gone suddenly, too. I was away at the time on a -three-years’ cruise, so I didn’t hear nothin’ about it till long after. -But they say the brother he disappeared and never came back, and the -father died suddenly of apoplexy<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> or something, and Miss Camilla was -left to shift for herself, on a farm mortgaged pretty nigh up to the -hilt.</p> - -<p>“She was a bright woman as ever was made, though, I’ll say that for her, -and she kept her head in the air and took to teaching school. She taught -right good, too, for a number of years and got the mortgages off the -farm. And then, all of a sudden, she began to get deaf-like, and -couldn’t go on teaching. Then she took to selling off a lot of their -land lying round, and got through somehow on that, for a while. But -times got harder and living higher priced, and finally she had to give -up trying to keep the whole thing decent and just scrooged herself into -those little quarters in the ‘L.’ She’s made a good fight, but she never -would come down off her high horse or ask for any help or let any one -into what happened to her folks.”</p> - -<p>“How long ago was all that?” asked Doris.</p> - -<p>“Oh, about forty or fifty years, I should think,” he replied, after a -moment’s thought. “Yes, fifty or more, at the least.”<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a></p> - -<p>“You say they owned a lot of land around their farm?” interrogated -Doris, casually.</p> - -<p>“Surest thing! One time old Caleb Roundtree owned pretty nigh the whole -side of the river up that way, but he’d sold off a lot of it himself -before he died. She owned a good patch for a while, though, several -hundred acres, I guess. But she hain’t got nothin’ but what lies right -around the house, now.”</p> - -<p>“Didn’t you ever hear what happened to the brother?” demanded Doris.</p> - -<p>“Never a thing. He dropped out of life here as neatly and completely as -if he’d suddenly been dropped into the sea. And by the time I’d got back -from my voyage the nine-days’ wonder about it all was over, and I never -could find out any more on the subject. Never was particularly -interested to, either. Miss Camilla hain’t nothin’ to me. She’s always -kept to herself and so most folks have almost forgotten who she is.”</p> - -<p>As the Captain had evidently reached the end of his information on the -subject, Doris<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> rose to take her leave and Sally followed her eagerly.</p> - -<p>“Well, did you find out what you wanted?” she cried, as soon as they -were once more out on the river in old “45.”</p> - -<p>“I found out enough,” answered Doris very seriously, “to make me feel -pretty sure I’m right. Of course, I can only guess at lots of it, but -<i>one</i> thing I’m certain of: that cave had nothing to do with smugglers -or pirates—or anything of that sort!”</p> - -<p>Sally dropped her oars with a smothered cry of utmost disappointment.</p> - -<p>“I can’t believe it!” she cried. “I just can’t. I’ve counted on it <i>so</i> -long—finding treasure or something like that, I mean. I just can’t -believe it isn’t so.”</p> - -<p>“It may be something far more interesting,” Doris replied soothingly. -“But there’s just one trouble about it. If it’s what I think it is, and -concerns Miss Camilla, I’ve begun to feel that we haven’t any business -meddling with it now. We oughtn’t even to go into it.”<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a></p> - -<p>Sally uttered a moan of absolute despair. “I thought it would be that -way,” she muttered, half to herself, “if I shared the secret. I <i>knew</i> -they’d take it away from me!” She shipped her oars and buried her face -in her hands. After a moment she raised her head defiantly. “Why, I -don’t even know why you say so. You haven’t told me yet a single thing -of what it’s all about. Why <i>should</i> I stay away from that place?”</p> - -<p>“Listen, Sally,” said Doris, also shipping her oars and laying an -appealing hand on her arm, “I ought to tell you now, and I will. Perhaps -you won’t feel the same about it as I do. We can talk that over -afterward. But don’t feel so badly about it. Just hear what I have to -say first.</p> - -<p>“I think there has been some trouble in Miss Camilla’s life,—something -she couldn’t tell any one about, and probably connected with that cave. -What your grandfather said about her father and brother makes me all the -more sure of it. I believe one or the other of them did something -wrong,—something connected<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> with money, perhaps, embezzled it or forged -checks or something of that kind. And perhaps whoever it was had to hide -away and be kept so for a long time, and so that cave was made and he -hid there. Don’t you remember, your grandfather said the brother -disappeared suddenly and never came back? It must have been he, then. -And perhaps Miss Camilla had to sell most of her valuable things and -make up what he had done. That would explain her having parted with all -her lovely porcelains and china. And if so much of the land around the -house once belonged to her, probably that part where the cave is did -too.”</p> - -<p>“But what about that bit of paper, then?” demanded Sally, who had been -drinking in this explanation eagerly. “I don’t see what that would have -to do with it.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I don’t either,” confessed Doris. “Perhaps it <i>is</i> the plan of -the place where something is hidden, but I’m somehow beginning to think -it isn’t. I’ll have to think that over later.</p> - -<p>“But now, can’t you see that if what I’ve<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> said is right, it wouldn’t be -the thing for us to do any more prying into poor Miss Camilla’s secret? -It would really be a dreadful thing, especially if she ever suspected -that we knew. She probably doesn’t dream that another soul in the world -knows of it at all.”</p> - -<p>Sally was decidedly impressed with this explanation and argument, but -she had one more plea to put forward.</p> - -<p>“What you say sounds very true, Doris, and I’ve almost got to believe -it, whether I want to or not. But I’m going to ask just one thing. Let’s -give our other idea just a trial, anyway. Let’s go there once more and -see if that scheme about the floor and the place in the corner is any -good. It <i>might</i> be, you know. It sounded awfully good to me. And it -won’t hurt a thing for us to try it out. If we don’t find anything, -we’ll know there’s nothing in it. And if we do find anything that -concerns Miss Camilla, we’ll let it alone and never go near the place -again. What do you say?”</p> - -<p>Doris thought it over gravely. The argument seemed quite sound, and yet -some delicate<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> instinct in her still urged that they should meddle no -further. But, after all, she considered, they were sure of nothing. It -might have no concern with Miss Camilla at all. And, to crown it, the -secret was Sally’s originally, when all was said and done. Who was she, -Doris, to dictate what should or should not be done about it? She -capitulated.</p> - -<p>“All right, Sally,” she agreed. “I believe it can do no harm to try out -our original scheme. We’ll get at it first thing tomorrow morning.”<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X<br /><br /> -<small>BEHIND THE CEDAR PLANK</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span><small>HEY</small> set out on the following morning. Elaborate preparations had been -made for the undertaking and, so that they might have ample time -undisturbed, Doris had begged her mother to allow her to picnic for the -day with Sally, and not come back to the hotel for luncheon. As Mrs. -Craig had come to have quite a high opinion of Sally, her judgment and -knowledge of the river and vicinity, she felt no hesitation in trusting -Doris to be safe with her.</p> - -<p>Sally had provided the sandwiches and Doris was armed with fruit and -candy and books to amuse Genevieve. In the bow of the boat Sally had -stowed away a number of tools borrowed from her father’s boathouse. -Altogether, the two girls felt as excited and mysterious<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> and -adventurous as could well be imagined.</p> - -<p>“I wish we could have left Genevieve at home,” whispered Sally as they -were embarking. “But there’s no one to take care of her for all day, so -of course it was impossible. But I’m afraid she’s going to get awfully -tired and restless while we’re working.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, never you fear!” Doris encouraged her. “I’ve brought a few new -picture-books and we’ll manage to keep her amused somehow.”</p> - -<p>Once established in the cave, having settled Genevieve with a book, the -girls set to work in earnest.</p> - -<p>“I’m glad I thought to bring a dozen more candles,” said Sally. “We were -down to the end of the last one. Now shall we begin on that corner at -the extreme right-hand away from the door? That’s the likeliest place. -I’ll measure a space around it twenty-one inches square.”</p> - -<p>She measured off the space on the floor carefully with a folding ruler, -while Doris stood over her watching with critical eyes. Then,<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> having -drawn the lines with a piece of chalk, Sally proceeded to begin on the -sawing operation with one of her father’s old and somewhat rusty saws.</p> - -<p>It was a heartbreakingly slow operation. Turn and turn about they worked -away, encouraging each other with cheering remarks. The planks of the -old <i>Anne Arundel</i> were very thick and astonishingly tough. At the end -of an hour they had but one side of the square sawed through, and -Genevieve was beginning to grow fractious. Then they planned it that -while one worked, the other should amuse the youngest member of the -party by talking, singing, and showing pictures to her.</p> - -<p>This worked well for a time, and a second side at last was completed. By -the time they reached the third, however, Genevieve flatly refused to -remain in the cave another moment, so it was agreed that one of them -should take her outside while the other remained within and sawed. This -proved by far the best solution yet, as Genevieve very shortly fell -asleep on the warm pine needles. They covered her<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> with a shawl they had -brought, and then both went back to the undertaking, of which they were -now, unconfessedly, very weary.</p> - -<p>It was shortly after the noon hour when the saw made its way through the -fourth side of the square. In a hush of breathless expectation, they -lifted the piece of timber, prepared for—who could tell what wondrous -secret beneath it?</p> - -<p>The space it left was absolutely empty of the slightest suggestion of -anything remarkable. It revealed the sandy soil of the embankment into -which the cave was dug, and nothing else whatever. The disgusted silence -that followed Doris was the first to break.</p> - -<p>“Of course, something may be buried down here, but I doubt it awfully. -I’m sure we would have seen some sign of it, if this had been the right -corner. However, give me that trowel, Sally, and we’ll dig down a way.” -She dug for almost a foot into the damp sand, and finally gave it up.</p> - -<p>“How could any one go on digging down in the space of only twenty-one -inches?” she<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> exclaimed in despair. “If one were to dig at all, the -space ought to be much larger. No, this very plainly isn’t the right -corner. Let’s go outside and eat our lunch, and then, if we have any -courage left, we can come back and begin on another corner. Personally, -I feel as if I should scream, if I had to put my hand to that old saw -again!”</p> - -<p>But a hearty luncheon and a half hour of idling in the sunlight above -ground after it, served to restore their courage and determination. -Sally was positive that the corner diagonally opposite was the one most -likely to yield results, and Doris was inclined to agree with her. -Genevieve, however, flatly refused to re-enter the cave so they were -forced to adopt the scheme of the morning, one remaining always outdoors -with her, as they did not dare let her roam around by herself. Sally -volunteered to take the first shift at the sawing, and after they had -measured off the twenty-one inch square in the opposite corner she set -to work, while Doris stayed outside with Genevieve.</p> - -<p>Seated with a picture-book open on her lap,<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> and with Genevieve cuddled -close by her side, she was suddenly startled by a muffled, excited cry -from within the cave. Obviously, something had happened. Springing up, -she hurried inside, Genevieve trailing after her. She beheld Sally -standing in the middle of the cave, candle in hand, dishevelled and -excited, pointing to the side of the cave near which she had been -working.</p> - -<p>“Look, look!” she cried. “What did I tell you?” Doris looked, expecting -to see something about the floor in the corner to verify their surmises. -The sight that met her eyes was as different as possible from that.</p> - -<p>A part of the wall of the cave, three feet in width and reaching from -top to bottom had opened and swung inward like a door on its hinges.</p> - -<p>“What <i>is</i> it?” she breathed in a tone of real awe.</p> - -<p>“It’s a <i>door</i>, just as it looks,” explained Sally, “and we never even -guessed it was there. I happened to be leaning against that part of the -wall as I sawed, balancing myself against<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> it, and sometimes pushing -pretty hard. All of a sudden it gave way, and swung out like that, and I -almost tumbled in. I was so astonished I hardly knew what had happened!”</p> - -<p>“But what’s behind it?” cried Doris, snatching the candle and hurrying -forward to investigate. They peered together into the blackness back of -the newly revealed door, the candle held high above their heads.</p> - -<p>“Why, it’s a <i>tunnel</i>!” exclaimed Sally. “A great, long tunnel, winding -away. I can’t even see how far it goes. Did you ever?”</p> - -<p>The two girls stood looking at each other and at the opening in a maze -of incredulous speculation. Suddenly Sally uttered a satisfied cry.</p> - -<p>“I know! I know, now! We never could think where all the rest of the -wood from the <i>Anne Arundel</i> went. It’s right here!” It was evidently -true. The tunnel had been lined, top and bottom and often at the sides -with the same planking that had lined the cave and at intervals there -were stout posts supporting the roof of it. Well and solidly had it -been<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> constructed in that long ago period, else it would never have -remained intact so many years.</p> - -<p>“Doris,” said Sally presently, “where do you suppose this leads to?”</p> - -<p>“I haven’t the faintest idea,” replied her friend, “except that it -probably leads to the treasure or the secret, or whatever it is. That -much I’m certain of now.”</p> - -<p>“So am I,” agreed Sally, “but, here’s the important thing. Are we to go -in there and find it?”</p> - -<p>Doris shrank back an instant. “Oh, I don’t know!” she faltered. “I’m not -sure whether I dare to—or whether Mother would allow me to—if she -knew. It—it <i>might</i> be dangerous. Something might give way and bury us -alive.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” announced Sally courageously. “I’ll -take a candle and go in a way by myself and see what it’s like. You stay -here with Genevieve, and I’ll keep calling back to you, so you needn’t -worry about me.” Before Doris could argue the question with her, she had -lighted another<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> candle and stepped bravely into the gloom.</p> - -<p>Doris, at the opening, watched her progress nervously, till a turn in -the tunnel hid her from sight.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Sally, do come back!” she called. “I can’t stand this suspense!”</p> - -<p>“I’m all right!” Sally shouted back. “After that turn it goes on -straight for the longest way. I can’t see the end. But it’s perfectly -safe. The planks are as strong as iron yet. There isn’t a sign of a -cave-in. I’m coming back a moment.” She presently reappeared.</p> - -<p>“Look here!” she demanded, facing her companion. “Are you game to come -with me? We can bring Genevieve along. It’s perfectly safe. If you’re -not, you can stay here with her and I’ll go by myself. I’m determined to -see the end of this.” Her resolution fired Doris. After all, it could -not be so very dangerous, since the tunnel seemed in such good repair. -Forgetting all else in her enthusiasm, she hastily consented.</p> - -<p>“We must take plenty of candles and<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> matches,” declared Sally. “We -wouldn’t want to be left in the dark in there. It’s lucky I brought a -lot today. Now, Genevieve, you behave yourself and come along like a -good girl, and we’ll buy you some lolly-pops when we get back home!” -Genevieve was plainly reluctant to add her presence to the undertaking, -but, neither, on the other hand, did she wish to be left behind, so she -followed disapprovingly.</p> - -<p>Each with a candle lit, they stepped down from the floor of the cave and -gingerly progressed along the narrow way. Doris determinedly turned her -eyes from the slugs and snails and strange insects that could be seen on -the ancient planking, and kept them fastened on Sally’s back as she led -the way. On and on they went, silent, awe-stricken, and wondering. -Genevieve whimpered and clung to Doris’s skirts, but no one paid any -attention to her, so she was forced to follow on, willy-nilly.</p> - -<p>So far did this strange, underground passage proceed that Doris -half-whispered: “Is it<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> never going to end, Sally? Ought we to venture -any further?”</p> - -<p>“I’m going to the end!” announced Sally stubbornly. “You can go back if -you like.” And they all went on again in silence.</p> - -<p>At length it was evident that the end was in sight, for the way was -suddenly blocked by a stone wall, apparently, directly across the -passage. They all drew a long breath and approached to examine it more -closely. It was unmistakably a wall of stones, cemented like the -foundation of a house, and beyond it they could not proceed.</p> - -<p>“What are we going to do now?” demanded Doris.</p> - -<p>“The treasure must be here,” said Sally, “and I’ve found one thing that -opened when you pushed against it. Maybe this is another. Let’s try. -Perhaps it’s behind one of these stones. Look! The plaster seems to be -loose around these in the middle.” She thrust the weight of her strong -young arm against it, directing it at the middle stone of three large -ones, but without avail. They<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a> never moved the fraction of an inch. Then -she began to push all along the sides where the plaster seemed loose. At -last she threw her whole weight against it—and was rewarded!</p> - -<p>The three stones swung round, as on a pivot, revealing a space only -large enough to crawl through with considerable squeezing.</p> - -<p>“Hurrah! hurrah!” she shouted. “What did I tell you, Doris? There’s -something else behind here,—another cave, I guess. I’m going through. -Are you going to follow?” Handing her candle to Doris, she scrambled -through the narrow opening. And Doris, now determined to stick at -nothing, set both candles on the ground, and pushed the struggling and -resisting Genevieve in next. After that, she passed in the candles to -Sally, who held them while she clambered in herself.</p> - -<p>And, once safely within, they stood and stared about them.</p> - -<p>“Why, Sally,” suddenly breathed Doris, “this isn’t a cave. It’s a -<i>cellar</i>! Don’t you see all the household things lying around? Garden -tools, and vegetables and—and all<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> that? Where in the world can we be?” -A great light suddenly dawned on her.</p> - -<p>“Sally Carter, what did I tell you? This cellar is Miss Camilla’s. I -know it. I’m <i>certain</i> of it. There’s no other house anywhere near -Slipper Point. I <i>told</i> you she knew about that cave!”</p> - -<p>Sally listened, open-mouthed. “It can’t be,” she faltered. “I’m sure we -didn’t come in that direction at all.”</p> - -<p>“You can’t tell how you’re going—underground,” retorted Doris. -“Remember, the tunnel made a turn, too. Oh, Sally! Let’s go back at -once, before anything is discovered, and never, never let Miss Camilla -or any one know what we’ve discovered. It’s none of our business.”</p> - -<p>Sally, now convinced, was about to assent, when Genevieve suddenly broke -into a loud howl.</p> - -<p>“I won’t go back! I won’t go back—in that nas’y place!” she announced, -at the top of her lungs.</p> - -<p>“Oh, stop her!” whispered Doris. “Do stop</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/slipperpic2_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/slipperpic2_sml.jpg" width="280" height="450" alt="She led the others up the cellar steps" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">She led the others up the cellar steps</span> -</div> - -<p><a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a></p> - -<p class="nind">her, or Miss Camilla may hear!” Sally stifled her resisting sister by -the simple process of placing her hand forcibly over her mouth,—but it -was too late. A door opened at the top of a flight of steps, and Miss -Camilla’s astounded face appeared in the opening.</p> - -<p>“What is it? Who is it?” she called, obviously frightened to death -herself at this unprecedented intrusion. Huddled in a corner, they all -shrank back for a moment, then Doris stepped boldly forward.</p> - -<p>“It’s only ourselves, Miss Camilla,” she announced. “We have done a very -dreadful thing, and we hadn’t any right to do it. But, if you’ll let us -come upstairs, we’ll explain it all, and beg your pardon, and promise -never to speak of it or even think of it again.” She led the others up -the cellar steps, and into Miss Camilla’s tiny, tidy kitchen. Here, -still standing, she explained the whole situation to that lady, who was -still too overcome with astonishment to utter a word. And she ended her -explanation thus:</p> - -<p>“So you see, we didn’t have the slightest<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> idea we were going to end at -this house. But, all the same, we sort of felt that this cave was a -secret of yours and that we really hadn’t any right to be interfering -with it. But won’t you please forgive us, this time, Miss Camilla? And -we’ll really try to forget that it ever existed.”</p> - -<p>And then Miss Camilla suddenly found words. “My dear children,” she -stuttered, “I—I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t -the faintest idea what this all means. <i>I never knew till this minute -that there was anything like a cave or a tunnel connected with this -house!</i>”</p> - -<p>And in the astounded silence that followed, the three stood gaping, -open-mouthed, at each other.<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI<br /><br /> -<small>SOME BITS OF ROUNDTREE HISTORY</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">“B</span><small>UT</small> come into the sitting-room,” at length commanded Miss Camilla, “and -let us talk this strange thing over. You must be tired and hungry, too, -after this awful adventure of coming through that dreadful tunnel. You -must have some of this hot gingerbread and a glass of lemonade.” And -while she bustled about, on hospitable thoughts intent, they heard her -muttering to herself:</p> - -<p>“A cave—and a tunnel—and connected with <i>this</i> house!—What <i>can</i> it -all mean?”</p> - -<p>They sat in restful silence for a time, munching the delicious hot -gingerbread and sipping cool lemonade. Never did a repast taste more -welcome, coming as it did after the adventures and uncertainties of that -eventful day. And while they ate, Miss Camilla sat wiping her glasses -and putting them on and taking them<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> off again and shaking her head over -the perplexing news that had been so unexpectedly thrust upon her.</p> - -<p>“I simply cannot understand it all,” she began at last. “As I told you, -I’ve never had the slightest idea of such a strange affair, nor can I -imagine how it came there. When did you say that <i>Anne Arundel</i> vessel -was wrecked?”</p> - -<p>“Grandfather said in 1850,” answered Sally.</p> - -<p>“Eighteen hundred and fifty,” mused Miss Camilla. “Well, I couldn’t have -been more than four or five years old, so of course I would scarcely -remember it. Besides, I was not at home here a great deal. I used to -spend most of my time with my aunt who lived in New York. She used to -take me there for long visits, months on a stretch. If this cave and -tunnel were made at that time, it was probably done while I was away, or -else I would have known of it. My father and brother and one or two -colored servants were the only ones in the house, most of the time. I -had a nurse, an old Southern colored ‘mammy’ who always<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> went about with -me. She died about the time the Civil War broke out.”</p> - -<p>There was no light on the matter here. Miss Camilla relapsed again into -puzzled silence, which the girls hesitated to intrude upon by so much as -a single word, lest Miss Camilla should consider that they were prying -into her past history.</p> - -<p>“Wait a moment!” she suddenly exclaimed, sitting up very straight and -wiping her glasses again in great excitement. “I believe I have the -explanation.” She looked about at her audience a minute, hesitantly. “I -shall have to ask you girls please to keep what I am going to tell you -entirely to yourselves. Few if any have ever known of it, and, though it -would do no harm now, I have other reasons for not wishing it discussed -publicly. Since you have discovered what you have, however, I feel it -only right that you should know.”</p> - -<p>“You may rely on us, Miss Camilla,” said Doris, speaking for them both, -“to keep anything you may tell us a strict secret.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you,” replied their hostess. “I feel<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> sure of it. Well, I learned -the fact, very early in my girlhood, that my father and also my brother, -who was several years older than I, were both very strict and -enthusiastic abolitionists. While slavery was still a national -institution in this country, they were firm advocates of the freedom of -the colored people. And, so earnest were they in the cause, that they -became members of the great ‘Underground Railway’ system.”</p> - -<p>“What was that?” interrupted both girls at a breath.</p> - -<p>“Did you never hear of it?” exclaimed Miss Camilla in surprise. “Why, it -was a great secret system of assisting runaway slaves from the Southern -States to escape from their bondage and get to Canada where they could -no longer be considered any one’s property. There were many people in -all the Northern States, who, believing in freedom for the slaves, -joined this secret league, and in their houses runaways would be -sheltered, hidden and quietly passed on to the next house of refuge, or -‘station,’ as they were called, till at length<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a> the fugitives had passed -the boundary of the country. It was, however, a severe legal offense to -be caught assisting these fugitives, and the penalty was heavy fines and -often imprisonment. But that did not daunt those whose hearts were in -the cause. And so very secret was the whole organization that few were -ever detected in it.</p> - -<p>“It was in a rather singular way that I discovered my father to be -concerned in this matter. I happened to be at home here, and came -downstairs one morning, rather earlier than usual, to find our kitchen -filled with a number of strange colored folk, in various stages of rags -and hunger and evident excitement. I was a girl of ten or eleven at the -time. Rushing to my father’s study, I demanded an explanation of the -strange spectacle. He took me aside and explained the situation to me, -acknowledging that he was concerned in the ‘Underground Railway’ and -warning me to maintain the utmost secrecy in the matter or it would -imperil his safety.</p> - -<p>“When I returned to the kitchen, to my astonishment,<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> the whole crowd -had mysteriously disappeared, though I had not been gone fifteen -minutes. And I could not learn from any one a satisfactory explanation -of their lightning disappearance. I should certainly have seen them, had -they gone away above ground. I believe now that the cave and tunnel must -have been the means of secreting them, and I haven’t a doubt that my -father and brother had had it constructed for that very purpose. A -runaway, or even a number of them, could evidently be kept in the cave -several days and then spirited away at night, probably by way of the -river and some vessel out at sea that could take them straight to New -York or even to Canada itself. Yes, it is all as clear as daylight to me -now.”</p> - -<p>“But how do you suppose they were able to build the cave and tunnel and -bring all the wood from the wreck on the beach without being -discovered?” questioned Sally.</p> - -<p>“That probably was not so difficult then as it would seem now,” answered -Miss Camilla. “To begin with, there were not so many people<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> living -about here then, and so there was less danger of being discovered. If my -father and brother could manage to get men enough to help and a number -of teams of oxen or horses such as he had, they could have brought the -wreckage from the beach here, over what must then have been a very -lonely and deserted road, without much danger of discovery. If it -happened that at the time they were sheltering a number of escaped -slaves, it would have been no difficult matter to press them into -assisting on dark nights when they could be so well concealed. Yes, I -think that was undoubtedly the situation.”</p> - -<p>They all sat quietly for a moment, thinking it over. Miss Camilla’s -solution of the cave and tunnel mystery was clear beyond all doubting, -and it seemed as if there was nothing further for them to wonder about. -Suddenly, however, Sally leaned forward eagerly.</p> - -<p>“But did we tell you about the strange piece of paper we found under the -old mattress, Miss Camilla? I’ve really forgotten what we did say.”<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a></p> - -<p>Miss Camilla looked perplexed. “Why, no. I don’t remember your -mentioning it. Everything was so confused, at first, that I’ve forgotten -it if you did. What about a piece of paper?”</p> - -<p>“Here is a copy of what was on it,” said Sally. “We never take the real -piece away from where we first found it, but we made this copy. Perhaps -you can tell what it all means.” She handed the paper to Miss Camilla, -who stared at it for several moments in blank bewilderment. Then she -shook her head.</p> - -<p>“I can’t make anything of it at all,” she acknowledged. “It must have -been something left there by one of the fugitives. I don’t believe it -concerns me at all.” She handed the paper back, but as she did so, a -sudden idea occurred to Doris.</p> - -<p>“Mightn’t it have been some secret directions to the slaves left there -for them by your father or brother?” she suggested. “Maybe it was to -tell them where to go next, or something like that.”</p> - -<p>“I think it very unlikely,” said Miss Camilla.<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> “Most of them could -neither read nor write, and they would hardly have understood an -explanation so complex. No, it must be something else. I wonder—” She -stopped short and stood thinking intently a moment while her visitors -watched her anxiously. A pained and troubled expression had crept into -her usually peaceful face, and she seemed to be reviewing memories that -caused her sorrow.</p> - -<p>“Can you get the original paper for me?” she suddenly exclaimed in great -excitement. “Now—at once? I have just thought of something.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll get it!” cried Sally, and she was out of the house in an instant, -flying swift-footed over the ground that separated them from the -entrance of the cave by the river. While she was gone Miss Camilla sat -silent, inwardly reviewing her painful memories.</p> - -<p>In ten minutes Sally was back, breathless, with the precious, rusty tin -box clasped in her hand. Opening it, she gave the contents to Miss -Camilla, who stared at it for three long minutes in silence.<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a></p> - -<p>When she looked up her eyes were tragic. But she only said very quietly:</p> - -<p>“It is my brother’s writing!”<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII<br /><br /> -<small>LIGHT DAWNS ON MISS CAMILLA</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">“W</span><small>HAT</small> do you make of it all, Sally?”</p> - -<p>The two girls were sitting in the pine grove on the heights of Slipper -Point. They sat each with her back against a tree and with the -enchanting view of the upper river spread out panoramically before them. -Each of them was knitting,—an accomplishment they had both recently -acquired.</p> - -<p>“I can’t make anything of it at all, and I’ve thought of it day and -night ever since,” was Sally’s reply. “It’s three weeks now since the -day we came through that tunnel and discovered where it ended. And -except what Miss Camilla told us that day, she’s never mentioned a thing -about it since.”</p> - -<p>“It’s strange, how she stopped short, just after she’d said the writing -was her brother’s,” mused Doris. “And then asked us in the next breath -not to question her about it any more,<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a> and to forgive her silence in -the matter because it probably concerned something that was painful to -her.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, and kept the paper we found in the cave,” went on Sally. “I -believe she wanted to study it out and see what she could make of it. If -she’s sure it was written by her brother, she will probably be able to -puzzle it out better than we would. One thing, I guess, is certain, -though. It isn’t any secret directions where to find treasure. All our -little hopes about that turned out very differently, didn’t they?”</p> - -<p>“Sally, are you glad or sorry we’ve discovered what we did about that -cave?” demanded Doris suddenly.</p> - -<p>“Oh, glad, of course,” was Sally’s reply. “At first, I was awfully -disgusted to think all my plans and hopes about it and finding buried -treasure and all that had come to nothing. But, do you know what has -made me feel differently about it?” She looked up quickly at Doris.</p> - -<p>“No, what?” asked her companion curiously.<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a></p> - -<p>“It’s Miss Camilla herself,” answered Sally. “I used to think you were -rather silly to be so crazy about her and admire her so much. I’d never -thought anything about her and I’d known her ‘most all my life. But -since she asked us that day to come and see her as often as we liked and -stop at her house whenever we were up this way, and consider her as our -friend, I’ve somehow come to feel differently. I’m glad we took her at -her word and did it. I don’t think I would have, if it hadn’t been for -you. But you’ve insisted on our stopping at her house so frequently, and -we’ve become so well acquainted with her that I really think I—I -almost—love her.”</p> - -<p>It pleased Doris beyond words to hear Sally make this admission. She -wanted Sally to appreciate all that was fine and admirable and lovely in -Miss Camilla, even if she were poor and lonely and deaf. She felt that -the friendship would be good for Sally, and she knew that she herself -was profiting by the increased acquaintance with this friend they had so -strangely made.<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a></p> - -<p>“Wasn’t it nice of her to teach us to knit?” went on Sally. “She said we -all ought to be doing it now to help out our soldiers, since the country -is at war.”</p> - -<p>“She’s taught me lots beside that,” said Doris. “I just love to hear her -talk about old potteries and porcelains and that sort of thing. I do -believe she knows more about them than even grandfather does. She’s -making me crazy to begin a collection myself some day when I’m old -enough. She must have had a fine collection once. I do wonder what -became of it.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I don’t understand much about all that talk,” admitted Sally. “I -never saw any porcelains worth while in all my life, except that little -thing she has on her mantel. And I don’t see anything to get so crazy -about in that. It’s kind of pretty, of course, but why get excited about -it? What puzzles me more is why she never has said what became of all -her other things.”</p> - -<p>“That’s a part of the mystery,” said Doris. “And her brother’s mixed up -in it somehow,<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> and perhaps her father. That much I’m sure of. She talks -freely enough about everything else except those things, so that must be -it. Do you know what I’m almost tempted to think? That her brother <i>did</i> -commit some crime, and her father hid him away in the cave to escape -from justice, but she couldn’t have known about it, that’s plain. -Because she did not know about the cave and tunnel at all till just -lately. Perhaps she wondered what became of him. And maybe they sold all -her lovely porcelains to make up for what he’d done somehow.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” cried Sally in sudden excitement. “And another idea has just come -to me. Maybe that queer paper was a note her brother left for her and -she can’t make out how to read it. Did you ever think of that?”</p> - -<p>“Why, no!” exclaimed Doris, struck with the new idea. “I never thought -of it as anything he might have left for <i>her</i>. Do you remember, she -said once they were awfully fond of each other, more even than most -brothers and sisters? It would be perfectly natural if he <i>did</i><a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> want to -leave her a note, if he had to go away and perhaps never come back. And -of course he wouldn’t want any one else to understand what it said. Oh, -wait!—I have an idea we’ve never thought of before. Why on earth have -we been so <i>stupid</i>!—”</p> - -<p>She sprang up and began to walk about excitedly, while Sally watched -her, consumed with curiosity. At length she could bear the suspense no -longer.</p> - -<p>“Well, for pity’s sake tell me what you’ve thought of!” she demanded. -“I’ll go wild if you keep it to yourself much longer.”</p> - -<p>“Where’s that copy?” was all Doris would reply. “I want to study it a -moment.” Sally drew it from her pocket and handed it to her, and Doris -spent another five minutes regarding it absorbedly.</p> - -<p>“It is. It surely is!” she muttered, half to herself. “But how are we -ever going to think out how to work it?” At last she turned to the -impatient Sally.</p> - -<p>“I’m a fool not to have thought of this before, Sally. I read a book -once,—I can’t think<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> what it was now, but it was some detective -story,—where there was something just a little like this. Not that it -looked like this, but the idea was the same. If it is what I think, it -isn’t the note itself at all. The note, if there is one, must be -somewhere else. This is only a secret <i>code</i>, or arrangement of the -letters, so that one can read the note by it. Probably the real note is -written in such a way that it could never be understood at all without -this. Do you understand?”</p> - -<p>Sally had indeed grasped the idea and was wildly excited by it.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Doris,” she cried admiringly. “You certainly <i>are</i> a wonder to have -thought all this out! It’s ten times as interesting as what we first -thought it was. But how do you work this code? I can’t make anything out -of it at all.”</p> - -<p>“Well, neither can I, I’ll have to admit. But here’s what I <i>think</i>. If -we could see what that note itself looks like, we could perhaps manage -to puzzle out just how this code works.”<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a></p> - -<p>“But how are we going to do that?” demanded Doris. “Only Miss Camilla -has the note, if there <i>is</i> a <i>note</i>; and certainly we couldn’t very -well ask her to let us see it, especially after what she said to us that -day.”</p> - -<p>“No, we couldn’t, I suppose,” said Doris, thoughtfully. “And yet—” she -hesitated. “I somehow feel perfectly certain that Miss Camilla doesn’t -know the meaning of all this yet, hasn’t even guessed what we have, -about this paper. She doesn’t act so. Maybe she doesn’t even know there -<i>is</i> a note,—you can’t tell. If she hasn’t guessed, it would be a mercy -to tell her, wouldn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I suppose so,” admitted Sally dubiously. “But I wouldn’t know how -to go about it. Would you?”</p> - -<p>“I could only try and do my best, and beg her to forgive me if I were -intruding,” said Doris. “Yes, I believe she ought to be told. You can’t -tell how she may be worrying about all this. She acts awfully worried, -seems to me. Not at all like she did when we first knew<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> her. I believe -we ought to tell her right now. Call Genevieve and we’ll go over.”</p> - -<p>Sally called to Genevieve, who was playing in the boat on the beach -below, and that young lady soon came scrambling up the bank. Hand in -hand, all three started to the home of Miss Camilla and when they had -reached it, found her sitting on her tiny porch knitting in apparently -placid content. But, true to Doris’s observation, there were anxious -lines in her face that had not been seen a month ago. She greeted them, -however, with real pleasure, and with her usual hospitality proffered -refreshments, this time in the shape of some early peaches she had -gathered only that morning.</p> - -<p>But Doris who, with Sally’s consent, had constituted herself spokesman, -before accepting the refreshment, began:</p> - -<p>“Miss Camilla, I wonder if you’ll forgive us for speaking of something -to you? It may seem as if we were intruding, but we really don’t intend -to.”</p> - -<p>“Why, speak right on,” exclaimed that lady<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> in surprise. “You are too -well-bred to be intrusive, that I know. If you feel you must speak of -something to me, I know it is because you think it wise or necessary.”</p> - -<p>Much relieved by this assurance, Doris went on, explaining how she had -suddenly had a new idea concerning the mysterious paper and detailing -what she thought it might be. As she proceeded, a new light of -comprehension seemed to creep into the face of Miss Camilla, who had -been listening intently.</p> - -<p>“So we think it must be a code,—a secret code,—Miss Camilla. And if -you happen to have any queer sort of note or communication that you’ve -never been able to make out, why this may explain it,” she added.</p> - -<p>When she had finished, Miss Camilla sat perfectly still—thinking. She -thought so long and so intently that it seemed as if she must have -forgotten completely the presence of the three on the porch with her. -And after what seemed an interminable period, she did a strange thing. -Instead of replying with so much as a word, she got up and went into -the<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> house, leaving them open-mouthed and wondering.</p> - -<p>“Do you suppose she’s angry with us?” whispered Sally. “Do you think we -ought to stay?”</p> - -<p>“No, I don’t think she’s angry,” replied Doris in a low voice. “I think -she’s so—so absorbed that she hardly realizes what she’s doing or that -we are here. We’d better stay.”</p> - -<p>They stayed. But so long was Miss Camilla gone that even Doris began to -doubt the wisdom of remaining any longer.</p> - -<p>But presently she came back. Her recently neat dress was grimy and -dishevelled. There was a streak of dust across her face and a cobweb lay -on her hair. Doris guessed at once that she had been in the old, unused -portion of her house. But in her hand she carried something, and -resuming her seat, she laid it carefully on her knee. It was a little -book about four inches wide and six or seven long, with an old-fashioned -brown cover, and it was coated with what seemed to be the dust of years. -The two girls gazed at it curiously, and when<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> Miss Camilla had got her -breath, she explained:</p> - -<p>“I can never thank you enough for what you have told me today. It throws -light on something that has never been clear to me,—something that I -have even forgotten for long years. If what you surmise is true, then a -mystery that has surrounded my life for more than fifty years will be at -last explained. It is strange that the idea did not occur to me when -first you girls discovered the cave and the tunnel, but even then it -remained unconnected in my mind with—<i>this</i>.” She pointed to the little -book in her lap. Then she went on:</p> - -<p>“But, now, under the circumstances, I feel that I must explain it all to -you, relying still on your discretion and secrecy. For I have come to -know that you are both unusually trustworthy young folks. There has been -a dark shadow over my life,—a darker shadow than you can perhaps -imagine. I told you before of my father’s opinions and leanings during -the years preceding the Civil War. When that terrible conflict broke -out, he insisted that<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> I go away to Europe with my aunt and stay there -as long as it lasted, providing me with ample funds to do so. I think -that he did not believe at first that the struggle would be so long.</p> - -<p>“I went with considerable reluctance, but I was accustomed to obeying -his wishes implicitly. I was gone two years, and in all that time I -received the most loving and affectionate letters constantly, both from -him and also my brother. They assured me that everything was well with -them. My brother had enlisted at once in the Union Army and had fought -through a number of campaigns. My father remained here, but was doing -his utmost, so he said, in a private capacity, to further the interests -of the country. Altogether, their reports were glowing. And though I was -often worried as to the outcome, and apprehensive for my brother’s -safety, I spent the two years abroad very happily.</p> - -<p>“Then, in May of 1863, my first calamity happened. My aunt died very -suddenly and unexpectedly, while we were in Switzerland,<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a> and, as we had -been alone, it was my sad duty to bring her back to New York. After her -funeral, I hurried home here, wondering very much that my father had not -come on to be with me, for I had sent him word immediately upon my -arrival. My brother, I suspected, was away with the army.</p> - -<p>“I was completely astounded and dismayed, on arriving home, at the -condition of affairs I found here. To begin with, there were no servants -about. Where they had gone, or why they had been dismissed, I could not -discover. My father was alone in his study when I arrived, which was -rather late in the evening. He was reserved and rather taciturn in his -greeting to me, and did not act very much pleased to welcome me back. -This grieved me greatly, after my long absence. But I could see that he -was worried and preoccupied and in trouble of some kind. I thought that -perhaps he had had bad news about my brother Roland, but he assured me -that Roland was all right.</p> - -<p>“Then I asked him why the house was in such disorder and where the -servants were, but<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> he only begged me not to make inquiries about that -matter at present, but to go to my room and make myself as comfortable -as I could, and he would explain it all later. I did as he asked me and -went to my room. I had been there about an hour, busying myself with -unpacking my bag, when there was a hurried knock at my door. I went to -open it, and gave a cry of joy, for there stood my brother Roland.</p> - -<p>“Instead of greeting me, however, he seized my hand and cried: ‘Father -is very ill. He has had some sort of a stroke. Hurry downstairs to him -at once. I must leave immediately. I can’t even wait to see how he is. -It is imperative!’</p> - -<p>“ ‘But, Roland,’ I cried, ‘surely you won’t go leaving Father like this!’ -But he only answered, ‘I must. I must! It’s my duty!’ He seized me in -his arms and kissed me, and was gone without another word. But before he -went, I had seen—a dreadful thing! He was enveloped from head to foot -in a long, dark military cape of some kind, reaching almost to his feet. -But as he embraced me under the<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> light of the hall lamp, the cloak was -thrown aside for an instant and I had that terrible glimpse. Under the -concealing cloak my brother was wearing a uniform of <i>Confederate gray</i>.</p> - -<p>“I almost fainted at the sight, but he was gone before I could utter a -word, without probably even knowing that I <i>had</i> seen. This, then, was -the explanation of the mysterious way they had treated me. They had gone -over to the enemy. They were traitors to their country and their faith, -and they did not want me to know. For this they had even sent me away -out of the country!...</p> - -<p>“But I had no time to think about that then. I hurried to my father and -found him on the couch in his study, inert in the grip of a paralytic -stroke that had deprived him of the use of his limbs and also of -coherent speech. I spent the rest of the night trying to make him -easier, but the task was difficult. I had no one to send for a doctor -and could not leave him to go myself, and of course the nearest doctor -was several miles away. There was not even<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> a neighbor who could be -called upon for assistance.</p> - -<p>“All that night, however, my father tried to tell me something. His -speech was almost absolutely incoherent, but several times I caught the -sound of words like ‘notebook’ and ‘explain.’ But I could make nothing -of it. In the early morning another stroke took him, and he passed away -very quietly in my arms.</p> - -<p>“I can scarcely bear, even now, to recall the days that followed. After -the funeral, I retired very much into myself and saw almost no one. I -felt cut off and abandoned by all humanity. I did not know where my -brother was, could not even communicate with him about the death of our -father. Had he been in the Union Army I would have inquired. But the -glimpse I had had that night of his rebel uniform was sufficient to seal -my lips forever. There was no one in the village whom I knew well enough -to discuss any such matters with, nor any remaining relative with whom I -was in sympathy. I could only wait for my brother’s return to solve the -mystery.<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a></p> - -<p>“But my brother never returned. In all these years I have neither seen -him nor heard of him, and I know beyond doubt that he is long since -dead. And I have remained here by myself like a hermit, because I feel -that the shame of it all has hung about me and enveloped me, and I -cannot get away from it. Once, a number of years ago, an old village -gossip here, now long since gone, said to me, ‘There was something queer -about your father and brother, now wasn’t there, Miss Camilla? I’ve -heard tell as how they were “Rebs” on the quiet, during the big war -awhile back. Is that so?’ Of course, the chance remark only served to -confirm the suspicions in my mind, though I denied it firmly to her when -she said it.</p> - -<p>“I also found to my amazement, when I went over the house after all was -over, that many things I had loved and valued had strangely disappeared. -All the family silver, of which we had had a valuable set inherited from -Revolutionary forefathers, was gone. Some antique jewelry that I had -picked up abroad and<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> prized highly was also missing. But chief of all, -my whole collection of precious porcelains and pottery was nowhere to be -found. I searched in every conceivable nook and cranny in vain. And at -last the disagreeable truth was forced on me that my father and brother -had sold or disposed of them, for what ends I could not guess. But it -only added to my bitterness to think they could do such a despicable -thing without so much as consulting me.</p> - -<p>“But now, at last, I come to the notebook. I found it among some papers -in my father’s study desk, a while after his death, and I frankly -confess I could make nothing of it whatever. It seemed to be filled with -figures, added and subtracted, and, as my father had always been rather -fond of dabbling with figures and mathematics, I put it down as being -some quiet calculations of his own that had no bearing on anything -concerning me. I laid it carefully away with his other papers, however, -and there it has been, in an old trunk in the attic of the unused part -all these years. When you spoke of a ‘secret code,’ however, it -suddenly<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> occurred to me that the notebook might be concerned in the -matter. Here it is.”</p> - -<p>She held it out to them and they crowded about her eagerly. But as she -laid it open and they examined its pages, a disappointed look crept into -Sally’s eyes.</p> - -<p>“Why, there’s nothing here but <i>numbers</i>!” she exclaimed, and it was -even so. The first few lines were as follows:</p> - -<div class="poetry"><div class="poem"> -56 + 14 - 63 + 43 + 34 + 54 + 64 + 43 +<br /> -16 - 52 + 66 + 52 + 15 + 23 - 66 + 24 -<br /> -15 + 44 + 43 - 43 + 64 + 43 + 24 + 15 -<br /> -61 + 53 - 36 + 24 + 14 - 51 + 15 + 53 +<br /> -54 + 43 + 52 + 43 + 43 + 15 - 16 + 66 +<br /> -52 + 36 + 52 + 15 + 43 + 23 - -</div></div> - -<p>And all the rest were exactly like them in character.</p> - -<p>But Doris, who had been quietly examining it, with a copy of the code in -her other hand, suddenly uttered a delighted cry:</p> - -<p>“I have it! At least, I <i>think</i> I’m on the right track. Just examine -this code a moment, Miss Camilla. If you notice, leaving out the line of -figures at the top and right of the whole square, the rest is just the -letters of</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/slipperpic3_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/slipperpic3_sml.jpg" width="292" height="450" alt="“Why, there’s nothing there but numbers”" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">“Why, there’s nothing there but numbers”</span> -</div> - -<p><a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a></p> - -<p class="nind">the alphabet and the figures one to nine and another ‘o’ that probably -stands for ‘naught.’ There are six squares across and six squares down, -and those numbers on the outside are just one to six, only all mixed up. -Don’t you see how it could be worked? Suppose one wanted to write the -letter ‘t.’ It could be indicated by the number ‘5’ (meaning the square -it comes under according to the top line of figures) and ‘1’ (the number -according to the side line). Then ‘51’ would stand for letter ‘T,’ -wouldn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“Great!” interrupted Sally, enthusiastically, who had seen the method -even quicker than Miss Camilla. “But suppose it worked the other way, -reading the side line first? Then ‘T’ would be ‘15.’ ”</p> - -<p>“Of course, that’s true,” admitted Doris. “I suppose there must have -been some understanding between those who invented this code about which -line to read first. The only way we can discover it is to puzzle it out -both ways, and see which makes sense. One will and the other won’t.”<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a></p> - -<p>It all seemed as simple as rolling off a log, now that Doris had -discovered the explanation. Even Miss Camilla was impressed with the -value of the discovery.</p> - -<p>“But what is the meaning of these plus and minus signs?” she queried. “I -suppose they stand for something.”</p> - -<p>“I think that’s easy,” answered Doris. “In looking over it, I see there -are a great many more plus than minus signs. Now, I think the plus signs -must be intended to divide the numbers in groups of two, so that each -group stands for a letter. Otherwise they’d be all hopelessly mixed up. -And the minus signs divide the words. And every once in a while, if you -notice, there’s a multiplication sign. I imagine those as the periods at -the end of sentences.”</p> - -<p>They all sat silent a moment after this, marveling at the simplicity of -it. But at length Doris suggested:</p> - -<p>“Suppose we try to puzzle out a little of it and see if we are really on -the right track? Have you a piece of paper and a pencil, Miss<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a> Camilla?” -Miss Camilla went indoors and brought them out, quivering with the -excitement of the new discovery.</p> - -<p>“Now, let’s see,” began Doris. “Suppose we try reading the top line -first. ‘56’ would be ‘1’ and ‘14’ would be ‘2.’ Now ‘12’ may mean a word -or it may not. It hardly seems as if a note would begin with that. Let’s -try it the other way. Side line first. Then ‘56’ is ‘m,’ and ‘14’ is -‘y.’ ‘<i>My</i>’ is a word, anyway, so perhaps we’re on the right track. -Let’s go on.”</p> - -<p>From the next series of letters she spelled the word “beloved” and after -that “sister.” It was plain beyond all doubting that at last they had -stumbled on a wonderful discovery.</p> - -<p>But she got no further than the words, “my beloved sister,” for, no -sooner had Miss Camilla taken in their meaning than she huddled back in -her chair and, very quietly, fainted away.<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII<br /><br /> -<small>WORD FROM THE PAST</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">N</span><small>ONE</small> of the three had ever seen any one unconscious before. Sally stood -back, aghast and helpless. Genevieve expressed herself as she usually -did in emergencies, with a loud and resounding howl. But Doris rushed -into the house, fetched a dipper of cold water and dashed it into Miss -Camilla’s face. Then she began to rub her hands and ordered Sally to fan -her as hard as she could. The simple expedients worked in a short time, -and Miss Camilla came to herself.</p> - -<p>“I—I never did such a foolish thing before!” she gasped, when she -realized what had happened. “But this is all so—so amazing and -startling! It almost seemed like my brother’s own voice, speaking to me -from the past.” Again she sat back in her chair and closed her eyes, but -this time only to regain her poise.<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> And then Doris did a very tactful -thing.</p> - -<p>“Miss Camilla,” she began, “we’ve discovered how to read the notebook, -and I’m sure you won’t have any trouble with it. I think we had better -be getting home now, for it is nearly five o’clock. So we’ll say -good-bye for today, and hope you won’t feel faint any more.”</p> - -<p>Miss Camilla gave her a grateful glance. Greatly as she wished to be -alone with this message left her by a brother whose fate she did not -dare to guess, yet she was too courteous to dismiss these two girls who -had done so much toward helping her solve the problem. And she was more -appreciative of Doris’s thoughtful suggestion of departure than she -could have put into words.</p> - -<p>“Thank you, dear,” she replied, “and come again tomorrow, all of you. -Perhaps I shall have—something to tell you then!”</p> - -<p>And with many a backward glance and much waving of hands, they took -their departure across the fields.</p> - -<p class="cblt">. -. . . . . . .</p> - -<p><a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a></p> - -<p>It was with the wildest impatience that they waited for the following -afternoon to obey Miss Camilla’s behest and “come again.” But promptly -at two o’clock they were trailing through the pine woods and the meadow -that separated it from the Roundtree farmhouse.</p> - -<p>“Do you know,” whispered Sally, “crazy as I am to hear all about it, I -almost dread it, too. I’m so afraid it may have been bad news for her.”</p> - -<p>“I feel just the same,” confided Doris, “and yet I’m bursting with -impatience, too. Well, let’s go on and hear the worst. If it’s very bad, -she probably won’t want to say much about it.”</p> - -<p>But their first sight of Miss Camilla convinced them that the news was -not, at least, “very bad.” She sat on the porch as usual, knitting -serenely, but there was a new light in her face, a sweet, satisfied -tranquillity that had never been there before.</p> - -<p>“I’m glad you’ve come!” she greeted them. “I have much to tell you.”<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a></p> - -<p>“Was it—was it all right?” faltered Doris.</p> - -<p>“It was more than ‘all right,’ ” she replied. “It was wonderful. But I am -going to read the whole thing to you. I spent nearly all last night -deciphering the letter,—for a letter it was,—and I think it is only -right you should hear it, after what you have done for me.” She went -inside the house and brought out several large sheets of paper on which -she had transcribed the meaning of the mysterious message.</p> - -<p>“Listen,” she said. “It is as wonderful as a fairy-tale. And how I have -misjudged him!”</p> - -<p>“ ‘My beloved sister,’ ” she read, “ ‘in the event of any disaster -befalling us, I want you to know the danger and the difficulties of what -we have undertaken. It is only right that you should, and I know of no -other way to communicate it to you, than by the roundabout means of this -military cipher which I am using. You are away in Europe now, and safe, -and Father intentionally keeps you there because of the very dangerous -enterprise in which we<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> are involved. Lest any untoward thing should -befall before your return, we leave this as an explanation.</p> - -<p>“ ‘Contrary to any appearances, or anything you may hear said in the -future, I am a loyal and devoted soldier of the Union. But I am serving -it in the most dangerous capacity imaginable,—as a scout or spy in the -Confederate Army, wearing its uniform, serving in its ranks, but in -reality spying on every move and action and communicating all its -secrets that I am capable of obtaining to the Government and our own -commanders. I stand in hourly danger of being discovered—and for that -there is but one end. You know what it is. Of course, I am not serving -under my own name, so that if you never hear word of my fate, you may -know it is the only one possible for those who are serving as I serve.</p> - -<p>“ ‘Father is also carrying on the work, but in a slightly different -capacity. There are a set of Confederate workers up here secretly -engaged in raising funds and planning new campaigns for the South. -Father has identified<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> himself with them, and they hold many meetings at -our house to discuss plans and information. Apparently he is hand in -glove with them, but in reality is all the while disclosing their plans -to the Government. They could doubtless kill him without scruple, if -they suspected it, and get away to the safety of their own lines -unscathed, before anything was discovered. So you see, he also stands -hourly on the brink of death.</p> - -<p>“ ‘For two years we have carried on this work unharmed, but I suppose it -cannot go on forever. Some day my disguise will be penetrated, and all -will be over with me. Some day Father will meet with some violent end -when he is alone and unprotected, and no one will be found to answer for -the deed. But it will all be for the glory of the Union we delight to -serve. Now do you understand the situation?</p> - -<p>“ ‘I do not get home here often, and never except for the purpose of -conveying some message that will best be sent to headquarters through -this channel. My field of service is with the armies south of the -Potomac. But<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> while I am here now, Father and I have consulted as to the -best way of communicating this news to you and have decided on this -means. We cannot tell how soon our end may come. Father tells me there -are rumors about here that we are serving the Confederate side. Should -you return unexpectedly and find us gone, and perhaps hear those rumors, -you would certainly be justified in putting the worst construction on -our actions.</p> - -<p>“ ‘So we have decided to write and leave you this message. It will be -left carelessly among Father’s papers, and without the cipher will, of -course, be unreadable by any one. But we have not yet decided in what -place to conceal the cipher where there is no danger of its being -discovered. That is a military secret and, if it were disclosed, would -be fatal and far-reaching in its consequences.’ ”</p> - -<p>Miss Camilla stopped there, and her spellbound listeners drew a long -breath.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it wonderful!” breathed Doris. “And they were loyal and devoted -to the Union<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a> all the time. How happy you must be, Miss Camilla.”</p> - -<p>“I am happy,—beyond words!” she replied. “But that is not quite all of -it. So far, it was evidently written at one sitting, calmly and -coherently. There is a little more, but it is hasty and confused, and -somewhat puzzling. It must have been added at another time, and I -suspect now, probably just at the time of my return. There is a blank -half-page, and then it goes on:</p> - -<p>“ ‘In a great hurry. Most vital and urgent business has brought me back -to see Father. Just learned you were here. There is grave, terrible -danger. The rebels are invading. I am with them, of course. Not far -away. Must return tonight, at once, to lines, if I ever get there alive. -Have a task before me that will undoubtedly see the end of me. In this -rig and in this place am open to danger from friend and foe alike. But -there is no time to change. Hope for best. Forgive haste but there is -not a moment to lose. Father seems ill<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> and unlike himself. He saw two -or three Confederate spies at the house today. Always suspect something -is wrong after such a meeting. Don’t be surprised at state of the house. -Unavoidable but all right. Father will explain where I have hidden this -cipher code. Always your loving brother,</p> - -<p class="r"> -“ ‘Roland.’<br /> -</p> - -<p>“And there is one more strange line,” ended Miss Camilla. “It is this:</p> - -<p>“ ‘In case you should forget, or Father doesn’t tell you, right hand side -from house, behind 27.’ ”</p> - -<p>“That is all!” She folded up the paper and sat looking away over the -meadow, as did the others, in the awed silence that followed naturally -the receipt of this message of one whose fate could be only too well -guessed.</p> - -<p>“And he never came back?” half-whispered Doris, at last.</p> - -<p>“No, he never came back,” answered Miss Camilla softly. “I haven’t a -doubt but that<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> he met the fate he so surely predicted. I have been -thinking back and reading back over the events of that period, and I can -pretty well reconstruct what must have happened. It was in the month of -June of 1863, when Lee suddenly invaded Pennsylvania. From that time -until his defeat at Gettysburg, there was the greatest panic all through -this region, and every one was certain that it spelt ruin for the entire -North, especially Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I suppose my brother was -with his army and had made his way over home here to get or communicate -news. How he came or went, I cannot imagine, and never shall know. But I -can easily see how his fate would be certain were he seen by any of the -Federal authorities in a Confederate uniform. Probably no explanation -would save him, with many of them. For that was the risk run by every -scout, to be the prey of friend and foe alike, unless he could get hold -of the highest authority in time. He doubtless lies in an unknown grave, -either in this state or in Pennsylvania.”<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a></p> - -<p>“But—your father?” hesitated Sally. “Do you—do you think anything -queer—happened to him?”</p> - -<p>“That I shall never know either,” answered Miss Camilla. “His symptoms -looked to me like apoplexy, at the time. Now that I think it over, they -might possibly have been caused by some slow and subtle poison having a -gradually paralyzing effect. You see, my brother says he had seen some -of the Confederate spies that day. Perhaps they had begun to suspect -him, and had taken this means to get him out of the way. I cannot tell. -As I could not get a doctor at the time, the village doctor, who had -known us all our lives, took my word for it next day that it was -apoplexy. But, whatever it may have been, I know that they both died in -the service of the country they loved, and that is enough for me. It has -removed the burden of many years of grief and shame from my shoulders. I -can once more lift up my head among my fellow-countrymen!”</p> - -<p>And Miss Camilla did actually radiate happiness with her whole -attractive personality.<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a></p> - -<p>“But I cannot make any meaning out of that queer last line,” mused Sally -after a time. “Will you read it to us again, Miss Camilla, please?”</p> - -<p>And Miss Camilla repeated the odd message,—“ ‘In case you should forget, -or Father does not tell you, right hand side from house, behind -twenty-seven.’ ”</p> - -<p>“Now what in the world can that all mean?” she demanded. “At first I -thought perhaps it might mean where they had hidden the code, but that -couldn’t be because we found that under the old mattress in the cave. -Your brother probably went out that way that night and left it there on -the way.”</p> - -<p>“Wait a minute,” suddenly interrupted Doris. “Do you remember just -before the end he says, ‘do not be surprised at the state of the house. -Unavoidable but all right.’ Now what could he mean by <i>that</i>? Do you -know what I think? I believe he was apologizing because things seemed so -upset and—and many of the valuable things were missing, as Miss Camilla -said. If there was such excitement<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> about, and fear of Lee’s invasion, -why isn’t it possible that they <i>hid</i> those valuable things somewhere, -so they would be safe, whatever happened, and this was to tell her, -without speaking too plainly, that it was all right? The brother thought -his father would explain, but in case he didn’t, or it was forgotten, he -gave the clue where to find them.”</p> - -<p>Miss Camilla sat forward in renewed excitement, her eye-glasses brushed -awry. “Why, of course! Of course! I’ve never thought of it. Not once -since I read this letter. The other was so much more important. But -naturally that is what they must have done,—hidden them to keep them -safe. They never, never would have disposed of them in any other way or -for any other reason. But where in the world can that place be? ‘Right -hand side from the house behind 27’ means nothing at all—to me!”</p> - -<p>“Well, it does to <i>me</i>!” suddenly exclaimed Sally, the natural-born -treasure-hunter of them all. “Where else <i>could</i> they hide anything so -safely as in that cave or tunnel? Nobody<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> would ever suspect in the -world. And I somehow don’t think it meant the cave. I believe it means -somewhere in the tunnel, on the right hand side as you enter from the -cellar.”</p> - -<p>“But what about 27?” demanded Miss Camilla. “That doesn’t seem to mean -anything, does it?”</p> - -<p>“No, of course it doesn’t mean anything to you, because you haven’t been -through the tunnel, and wouldn’t know. But every once in a while, along -the sides, are planks from that old vessel, put there to keep the sides -more firm, I guess. There must be seventy-five or a hundred on each -side. Now I believe it means that if we look behind the twenty-seventh -one from the cellar entrance, on the right hand side, we’ll find -the—the things hidden there.”</p> - -<p>Then Miss Camilla rose, the light of younger days shining adventurously -in her eyes.</p> - -<p>“If that’s the case, we’ll go and dig them out tomorrow!” she announced -gaily.<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV<br /><br /> -<small>THE REAL BURIED TREASURE</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span><small>T</small> had been a very dull day indeed for Genevieve. Had she been able to -communicate her feelings adequately, she would have said she was -heartily sick and tired of the program she had been obliged to follow. -As she sat solitary on the porch of Miss Camilla’s tiny abode, thumb in -mouth and tugging at the lock of hair with her other hand, she thought -it all over resentfully.</p> - -<p>Why should she be commanded to sit here all by herself, in a spot that -offered no attractions whatever, told, nay, <i>commanded</i> not to move from -the location, when she was bored beyond expression by the entire -proceeding? True, they had left her eatables in generous quantities, but -she had already disposed of these, and as for the picture-books of many<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> -attractive descriptions, given her to while away the weary hours, they -were an old story now, and the afternoon was growing late. She longed to -go down to the shore and play in the rowboat, and dabble her bare toes -in the water, and indulge in the eternally fascinating experiment of -catching crabs with a piece of meat tied to a string and her father’s -old crab-net. What was the use of living when one was doomed to drag out -a wonderful afternoon on a tiny, hopelessly uninteresting porch out in -the backwoods? Existence was nothing but a burden.</p> - -<p>True, the morning had not been without its pleasant moments. They had -rowed up the river to their usual landing-place, a trip she always -enjoyed, though it had been somewhat marred by the fear that she might -be again compelled to burrow into the earth like a mole, forsaking the -glory of sunshine and sparkling water for the dismal dampness of that -unspeakable hole in the ground. But, to her immense relief, this -sacrifice was not required of her. Instead, they had made at once -through the<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a> woods and across the fields to Miss Camilla’s, albeit -burdened with many strange and, to her mind, useless tools and other -impedimenta.</p> - -<p>Miss Camilla’s house offered attractions not a few, chiefly in the way -of unlimited cookies and other eatables. But her enjoyment of the -cookies was tempered by the fact that the whole party suddenly took it -into their heads to proceed to the cellar and, what was even worse, to -attempt again the loathsome undertaking of scrambling through the narrow -place in the wall and the journey beyond. She herself accompanied them -as far as the cellar, but further than that she refused to budge. So -they left her in the cellar with a candle and a seat conveniently near a -barrel of apples.</p> - -<p>It amazed her, moreover, that a person of Miss Camilla’s years and sense -should engage in this foolish escapade. She had learned to expect -nothing better of Sally and “Dowis,” but that Miss Camilla herself -should descend enthusiastically to so senseless a performance, caused -her somewhat of a shock. She had not expected it of Miss Camilla.<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a></p> - -<p>It transpired, however, that they did not proceed far into the tunnel. -She could hear them talking and exclaiming excitedly, and discussing -whether “this was really twenty-seven,” and “hadn’t we better count -again,” and “shall we saw it out,” and other equally pointless remarks -of a similar nature. Wearying of listening to such idle chatter, and -replete with cookies and russet apples, she had finally put her head -down on the edge of the barrel and had fallen fast asleep.</p> - -<p>When she had awakened, it was to find them all back in the cellar, and -Miss Camilla making the pleasant announcement that “they would have -luncheon now and get to work in earnest afterward.” A soul-satisfying -interval followed, the only really bright spot in the day for Genevieve. -But gloom had settled down upon her once more when they had risen from -the table. Solemnly they had taken her on their laps (at least Miss -Camilla had!) and ominously Sally had warned her:</p> - -<p>“Now, Genevieve, we’ve got something awfully important to do this -afternoon. You<a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a> don’t like to go down in that dark place, so we’ve -decided not to take you with us. You’d rather stay up here in the -sunshine, wouldn’t you?” And she had nodded vigorously an unqualified -assent to that proposition. “Well, then,” Sally had continued, “you stay -right on this porch or in the sitting-room, and don’t you dare venture a -foot away from it. Will you promise?” Again Genevieve had nodded. -“Nothing will hurt you if you mind what we say, and by and by we’ll come -back and show you something awfully nice.” Genevieve had seriously -doubted the possibility of this latter statement, but she was helpless -in their hands.</p> - -<p>“And here’s plenty of cookies and a glass of jam,” Miss Camilla had -supplemented, “and we’ll come back to you soon, you blessed baby!” Then -they had all hugged and kissed her and departed.</p> - -<p>Well, they had not kept their word. She had heard the little clock in -the room within, strike and strike and strike, sometimes just one -bell-like tone, sometimes two and three and four. She could not yet -“tell the time” but<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a> she knew enough about a clock to realize that this -indicated the passing of the moments. And still there had been no sign -of return on the part of the exploring three.</p> - -<p>Genevieve whimpered a little and wiped her eyes, sad to say, on her -sleeve. Then she thrust her hand, for the fortieth time into the -cooky-jar. But it was empty. And then, in sheer boredom and despair, she -put her head down on the arm of her chair, tucked her thumb into her -mouth and closed her eyes to shut out the tiresome scene before her. In -this position she had remained what seemed a long, long time, and the -clock had sounded another bell-like stroke, when she was suddenly -aroused by a sound quite different.</p> - -<p>At first she did not give it much thought, but it came again louder this -time, and she sat up with a jerk. Was some one calling her? It was a -strange, muffled sound, and it seemed as if it were like a voice trying -to pronounce her name.</p> - -<p>“Genev—! Genev—!” That was all she could distinguish. Did they want -her, possibly<a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> to go down into the horrible cellar and hole? She went to -the door giving on the cellar steps and listened. But, though she stood -there fully five minutes, she heard not so much as a breath. No, it -could not be that. She would go out doors again.</p> - -<p>But, no sooner had she stepped onto the porch than she heard it again, -fainter this time, but undeniable. Where <i>could</i> it come from? They had -commanded her not to venture a step from the porch but surely, if they -were calling her she ought to try and find them. So she stepped down -from the veranda and ran around to the back of the house. This time she -was rewarded. The sound came clearer and more forcefully:</p> - -<p>“Genevieve!—Genev—ieve!” But where, still, could it come from? There -was not a soul in sight. The garden (for it was Miss Camilla’s vegetable -garden) was absolutely deserted of human occupation. But Genevieve -wisely decided to follow the sound, so she began to pick her way -gingerly between the rows of beans, climbing on quite a forest of<a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a> tall -poles. It was when she had passed these that she came upon something -that caused her a veritable shock.</p> - -<p>The ground in Miss Camilla’s cucumber patch, for the space of ten or -twelve feet square, had sunk down into a strange hole, as if in a sudden -earthquake. What did it all mean? And, as Genevieve hesitated on its -brink, she was startled almost out of her little shoes to hear her name -called faintly and in a muffled voice from its depths.</p> - -<p>“Genev—ieve!” It was the voice of Doris, though she could see not the -slightest vestige of her.</p> - -<p>“Here I am!” answered Genevieve quaveringly. “What do you want, Dowis?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, thank God!” came the reply. “Go get—some one. Quick. We’re—buried -alive! It—caved in. Hurry—baby!”</p> - -<p>“Who s’all I get?” demanded Genevieve. And well she might ask, for as -far as any one knew, there was not a soul within a mile of them.</p> - -<p>“Oh—I don’t—know!” came the answering<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> voice. “Go find—some one. Any -one. We’ll die—here—if you—don’t!” Genevieve was not sure she knew -just what that last remark meant, but it evidently indicated something -serious.</p> - -<p>“All right!” she responded. “I will twy!” And she trotted off to the -front of the house.</p> - -<p>Here, however, she stopped to consider. Where <i>was</i> she to go to find -any one? She could not go back home,—she did not know the way. She -could not go back to the river,—the way was full of pitfalls in the -shape of thorny vines that scratched her face and tripped her feet, and -besides, Sally had particularly warned her not to venture in that -direction—ever. After all, the most likely place to find any one was -surely along the road, for she had, very rarely when sitting on Miss -Camilla’s porch, observed a wagon driven past. She would walk along the -road and see if she could find anybody.</p> - -<p>Had Genevieve been older and with a little more understanding, she would -have comprehended the desperate plight that had befallen<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a> her sister and -Doris and Miss Camilla. And she would have lent wings to her feet and -scurried to the nearest dwelling as fast as those feet would carry her. -But she was scarcely more than a baby. The situation, though peculiar, -did not strike her as so much a matter for haste as for patient waiting -till the person required should happen along. As she didn’t see any one -approaching in either direction, she decided to return to the house and -keep a strict eye on the road.</p> - -<p>And so she returned, seated herself on the porch steps, tucked her thumb -in her mouth—and waited. There was no further calling from the curious -hole in the back garden and nothing happened for a long, long time. -Genevieve had just about decided to go back and inquire of Doris what -else to do, when suddenly the afternoon stillness was broken by the -“chug-chug” of a motor car and the honking of its horn. And before -Genevieve could jump to her feet, a big automobile had come plowing down -the sandy road and stopped right in front of the gate.<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a></p> - -<p>“Here’s the place!” called out the chauffeur, and jumping down, walked -around to open the door at the side for its occupants to get out. A -pleasant-looking man descended and gave his hand to the lady beside him. -And, to Genevieve’s great astonishment, the lady proved to be none other -than the mother of “Dowis.”</p> - -<p>“Well, where’s every one?” inquired the gentleman. “I don’t see a soul -but this wee tot sitting on the steps.”</p> - -<p>“Why, there’s Genevieve!” cried Mrs. Craig, who had seen the baby many -times before. “How are you, dear? Where are the others? Inside?”</p> - -<p>“No,” answered Genevieve. “In de garden. Dowis she said come. Find some -one.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, they’re in the garden, are they? Well, we’ll go around there and -give them a surprise, Henry. Doris will simply be bowled over to see her -‘daddy’ here so unexpectedly! And I’m very anxious to meet this Miss -Camilla she has talked so much about. Come and show us the way, -Genevieve.”<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a></p> - -<p>The baby obediently took her hand and led her around to the back of the -house, the gentleman following.</p> - -<p>“But I don’t see any one here!” he exclaimed when they had reached the -back. “Aren’t you mistaken, honey?” This to Genevieve.</p> - -<p>“No, they in big hole,” she announced gravely. The remark aroused -considerable surprise and amused curiosity.</p> - -<p>“Well, lead us to the ‘big hole,’ ” commanded Mrs. Craig laughingly. “Big -hole, indeed! I’ve been wondering what in the world Doris was up to -lately, but I never dreamed she was excavating!”</p> - -<p>Genevieve still gravely led the way through the forest of bean-poles to -the edge of the newly sunk depression.</p> - -<p>“What’s all this?” suddenly demanded Mr. Craig. “It looks as if there -had been a landslide here. Where are the others, little girl? They’ve -probably forsaken this and gone elsewhere.”</p> - -<p>But Genevieve was not to be moved from her original statement. “They in -dere!” she<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a> insisted, pointing downward. “Dowis called. She say ‘Go find -some one.’ ” The baby’s persistence was not to be questioned.</p> - -<p>Mr. Craig looked grave and his wife grew pale and frightened. “Oh, -Henry, what do you suppose can be the matter?” she quavered. “I do -believe Genevieve is telling the truth.”</p> - -<p>“There’s something mighty queer about it,” he answered hastily. “I can’t -understand how in the world it has come about, but if that child is -right, there’s been a landslide or a cave-in of some sort here and Doris -and the rest are caught in it. Good heavens! If that’s so, we can’t act -too quickly!” and he ran round to the front of the house shouting to the -chauffeur, who had remained in the car:</p> - -<p>“There’s been an accident. Drive like mad to the nearest house and get -men and ropes and spades,—anything to help dig out some people from a -cave-in!” The car had shot down the road almost before he had ceased -speaking, and he hurried back to the garden.</p> - -<p>The next hour was a period of indescribable<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> suspense and terror to all -concerned,—all, at least, save Genevieve, who sat placidly on Mrs. -Craig’s lap (Mr. Craig had brought out a chair from Miss Camilla’s -kitchen) and, thumb in mouth, watched the men furiously hurling the soil -in great shovelfuls from the curious “hole.” She could not understand -why Mrs. Craig should sob softly, at intervals, under her breath, nor -why the strange gentleman should pace back and forth so restlessly and -give such sharp, hurried orders. And when he jumped into the hole, with -a startled exclamation, and seized the end of a heavy plank, she -wondered at the unnecessary excitement.</p> - -<p>It took the united efforts of every man present to move that plank, and -when they had forced it aside, Mr. Craig stooped down with a smothered -cry.</p> - -<p>And the next thing Genevieve knew, they had lifted out some one and laid -her on the ground, inert, lifeless and so covered with dirt and sand as -to be scarcely recognizable. But from the light, golden hair, Genevieve -knew it to be Doris. Before she knew where she was,<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> Genevieve found -herself cascaded from Mrs. Craig’s lap, and that lady bending -distractedly over the prostrate form.</p> - -<p>Again the men emerged from the pit, carrying between them another form -which they laid beside Doris. And, with a howl of anguish, Genevieve -recognized the red-bronze pig-tail of her sister, Sally.</p> - -<p>By the time Miss Camilla had been extricated from the débris as lifeless -and inert as the other two, the chauffeur had returned at mad speed from -the village, bringing with him a doctor and many strange appliances for -resuscitation. A pulmotor was put into immediate action, and another -period of heartbreaking suspense ensued.</p> - -<p>It was Doris who first moaned her way back to life and at the -physician’s orders was carried back into the house for further -ministrations. Sally was the next to show signs of recovery, but over -poor Miss Camilla they had to work hard and long, for, in addition to -having been almost smothered, her foot had been caught by the falling -plank and badly injured. But<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> she came back to consciousness at last, -and her first words on opening her eyes were:</p> - -<p>“Do you think we can get that Spode dinner-set out all right?” A remark -which greatly bewildered Mr. Craig, who happened to be the only one to -hear it!</p> - -<p class="cblt">. -. . . . . . .</p> - -<p>“But how on earth did you and Mother happen to be there, Father, just in -the nick of time?” marveled Doris from the depths of several pillows -with which she was propped up in bed.</p> - -<p>She had been detailing to her parents, at great length, the whole story -of Sally and the cave and the tunnel and Miss Camilla and the hazardous -treasure-hunt that had ended her adventure. And now it was her turn to -be enlightened.</p> - -<p>“Well,” returned her father, smiling whimsically, “it was a good deal -like what they call ‘the long arm of coincidence’ in story-books, and -yet it was very simple, after all! I’d been disappointed so many times -in my plans to get down here to see you and your mother, and at<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> last -the chance came, the other day, when I could make at least a flying -trip, but I hadn’t even time to let you know I was coming. I arrived at -the hotel about lunch-time and gave your mother the surprise of her life -by walking in on her unexpectedly. But I was quite disgusted not to find -you anywhere about. Your mother told me how you had gone off for the day -with your bosom pal, Sally, to visit a mysterious Miss Camilla, and I -suggested that we take the car and go to hunt you up. As she was -agreeable to the excursion we started forth, inquiring our way as we -went. It was a merciful providence that got us there not a moment too -soon, and if it hadn’t been for that little cherubic Genevieve we would -have been many minutes too late. If it hadn’t been that two or three old -planks had been bent over you and protected you from the worst of the -earth and débris on top, and also gave you a slight space for air, I -don’t believe any of you would have been alive now to tell the tale! So -the next time you go treasure-hunting, young lady, kindly allow your -useless and insignificant dad<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> to accompany you!” And he gave her ear a -playful tweak.</p> - -<p>“Daddy, it was awful,—simply awful when that old plank gave way and the -earth came sliding down on us!” she confided to him, snuggling down in -the arm he had placed around her. “At first we didn’t think it would -amount to much. But more and more earth came pouring down and then -another plank loosened and Miss Camilla lost her footing and fell, and -we couldn’t make our way out past it, either direction, and still the -dirt poured in all around us, and Sally and I tried to struggle up -through the top, but we couldn’t make any progress. And at last that -third plank bent over and shut us in so we couldn’t budge, and Sally and -Miss Camilla didn’t answer when I spoke to them, and I knew they’d -fainted, and I felt as if I was going to faint too. But I called and -called Genevieve and at last she answered me. And after that I didn’t -remember anything more!” She shuddered and hid her face in her father’s -sleeve. It had been a very horrible experience.<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a></p> - -<p>“Don’t think of it any more, honey. It turned out all right, in the end. -Do you know that Sally is around as well as ever, now, and came up to -the hotel to inquire for you this morning? She’s as strong as a little -ox, that child!”</p> - -<p>“But where is Miss Camilla?” suddenly inquired Doris. “She hurt her -foot, didn’t she?”</p> - -<p>“She certainly did, but she insisted on remaining in her own home, and -Sally begged her mother to be allowed to stay also with the -un-detachable Genevieve, of course, and take care of her and wait on -her. So there they are, and there you will proceed in the automobile, -this afternoon, if you feel well enough to make the visit.”</p> - -<p>“But what about the treasure?” demanded Doris, her eyes beginning to -sparkle.</p> - -<p>“If you refer to the trunks and chests full of articles that Miss -Camilla insisted that we continue to excavate from that interesting hole -in her garden, you do well to speak of it as ‘treasure’!” answered her -father laughingly.<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> “For beside some valuable old family silver and -quite rare articles of antique jewelry, she had there a collection of -china and porcelain that would send a specialist on that subject into an -absolute spasm of joy. I really would not care to predict what it would -be worth to any one interested in the subject.</p> - -<p>“And you can tell your friend, Sally, of the adventurous spirit, that -she’s got ‘Treasure Island’ licked a mile (to use a very inelegant -expression) and right here on her own native territory, too. I take off -my hat to you both. You’ve done better than a couple of boys who have -been playing at and hunting for pirates all their youthful days. -Henceforth, when I yearn for blood-curdling adventures and hair-breadth -escapes, I’ll come to you two to lead the way!”</p> - -<p>But, under all his banter, Doris knew that her father was serious in the -deep interest he entertained in her strange adventure and all that it -had led to.<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV<br /><br /> -<small>THE SUMMER’S END</small></h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span><small>HEY</small> sat together in the canoe, each facing the other, Doris in the bow -and Sally in the stern. A full, mid-September moon painted its rippling -path on the water and picked out in silver every detail of shore and -river. The air was full of the heavy scent of the pines, and the only -sound was the ceaseless lap-lap of the lazy ripples at the water’s edge. -Doris had laid aside her paddle. Chin in hands, she was drinking in the -radiance of the lovely scene.</p> - -<p>“I simply cannot realize I am going home tomorrow and must leave all -this!” she sighed at last.</p> - -<p>Sally dipped her paddle disconsolately and answered with almost a groan:</p> - -<p>“If it bothers <i>you</i>, how do you suppose it makes <i>me</i> feel?”</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/slipperpic4_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/slipperpic4_sml.jpg" width="291" height="450" alt="They sat together in the canoe" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">They sat together in the canoe</span> -</div> - -<p><a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a></p> - -<p>“We have grown close to each other, haven’t we?” mused Doris. “Do you -know, I never dreamed I could make so dear a friend in so short a time. -I have plenty of acquaintances and good comrades, but usually it takes -me years to make a real <i>friend</i>. How did you manage to make me care so -much for you, Sally?”</p> - -<p>“ ‘Just because you’re you’!” laughed Sally, quoting a popular song. “But -do you realize, Doris Craig, what a different girl I’ve become since I -knew and cared for <i>you</i>?”</p> - -<p>She was indeed a different girl, as Doris had to admit. To begin with, -she <i>looked</i> different. The clothes she wore were neat, dainty and -appropriate, indicating taste and care both in choosing and wearing -them. Her parents were comparatively well-to-do people in the village -and could afford to dress her well and give her all that was necessary, -within reason. It had been mainly lack of proper care, and the absence -of any incentive to seem her best, that was to blame for the original -careless Sally. And not only her looks, but her manners<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a> and English -were now as irreproachable as they had once been provincial and faulty.</p> - -<p>“Why, even my thoughts are different!” she suddenly exclaimed, following -aloud the line of thought they had both been unconsciously pursuing. -“You’ve given me more that’s worth while to think about, Doris, in these -three months, than I ever had before in all my life.”</p> - -<p>“I’m sure it wasn’t <i>I</i> that did it,” modestly disclaimed Doris, “but -the books I happened to bring along and that you wanted to read. If you -hadn’t <i>wanted</i> different things yourself, Sally, I don’t believe you -would have changed any, so the credit is all yours.”</p> - -<p>“Do you remember the day you first quoted ‘The Ancient Mariner’ to me?” -laughed Doris. “I was so astonished I nearly tumbled out of the boat. It -was the lines, ‘We were the first that ever burst into that silent sea,’ -wasn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, they are my favorite lines in it,” replied Sally. “And with all -the poems I’ve read and learned since, I love that best, after all.”</p> - -<p>“My favorite is that part, ‘The moving moon<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a> went up the sky and nowhere -did abide,’ ” said Doris, “and I guess I love the thing as much as you -do.”</p> - -<p>“And Miss Camilla,” added Sally, “says her favorite in it is,</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“ ‘The selfsame moment I could pray,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">And from my neck so free,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The Albatross fell off and sank<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Like lead into the sea.’<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">She says that’s just the way she felt when we girls made that discovery -about her brother’s letter. Her ‘Albatross’ had been the supposed weight -of disgrace she had been carrying about all these fifty years.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Miss Camilla!” sighed Doris ecstatically. “What a darling she is! -And what a wonderful, simply wonderful adventure we’ve had, Sally. -Sometimes, when I think of it, it seems too incredible to believe. It’s -like something you’d read of in a book and say it was probably -exaggerated. Did I tell you that my grandfather has decided to purchase -her whole collection of porcelains, and the antique jewelry, too?”<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a></p> - -<p>“No,” answered Sally, “but Miss Camilla told me. And <i>I</i> know how she -hates to part with them. Even <i>I</i> will feel a little sorry when they’re -gone. I’ve washed them and dusted them so often and Miss Camilla has -told me so much about them. I’ve even learned how to know them by the -strange little marks on the back of them. And I can tell English Spode -from Old Worcester, and French Faience from Vincennes Sèvres,—and a lot -beside. And what’s more, I’ve really come to admire and appreciate them. -I never supposed I would.</p> - -<p>“Miss Camilla will miss them a lot, for she’s been so happy with them -since they were restored to her. But she says they’re as useless in her -life now as a museum of mummies, and she needs the money for other -things.”</p> - -<p>“I suppose she will restore the main part of her house and live in it -and be very happy and comfortable,” remarked Doris.</p> - -<p>“That’s just where you are entirely mistaken,” answered Sally, with -unexpected animation.<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> “Don’t you know what she is going to do with it?”</p> - -<p>“Why, no!” said Doris in surprise. “I hadn’t heard.”</p> - -<p>“Well, she only told me today,” replied Sally, “but it nearly bowled me -over. She’s going to put the whole thing into Liberty Bonds, and go on -living precisely as she has before. She says she has gotten along that -way for nearly fifty years and she guesses she can go on to the end. She -says that if her father and brother could sacrifice their safety and -their money and their very lives, gladly, as they did when their country -was in need, she guesses she oughtn’t to do very much less. If she were -younger, she’d go to France right now, and give her life in some -capacity, to help out in this horrible struggle. But as she can’t do -that, she is willing and delighted to make every other sacrifice within -her power. And she’s taken out the bonds in my name and Genevieve’s, -because she says she’ll never live to see them mature, and we’re the -only chick or child<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a> she cares enough about to leave them to. She wanted -to leave some to you, too, but your father told her, no. He has already -taken out several in your name.”</p> - -<p>Doris was quite overcome by this flood of unexpected information and by -the wonderful attitude and generosity of Miss Camilla.</p> - -<p>“I never dreamed of such a thing!” she murmured. “She insisted on giving -me the little Sèvres vase, when I bade her good-bye today. I hardly -liked to take it, but she said I must, and that it could form the -nucleus of a collection of my own, some day when I was older and times -were less strenuous. I hardly realized what she meant then, but I do -now, after what you’ve told me.”</p> - -<p>“But that isn’t all,” said Sally. “I’ve managed to persuade my father -that I’m not learning enough at the village school and probably never -will. He was going to take me out of it this year anyway, and when -summer came again, have me wait on the ice-cream parlor and candy -counter in the pavilion. I just hated the thought. Now I’ve made him -promise<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> to send Genevieve and me every day to Miss Camilla to study -with her, and he’s going to pay for it just the same as if I were going -to a private school. I’m so happy over it, and so is Miss Camilla, only -we had hard work persuading her that she must accept any money for it. -And even Genevieve is delighted. She has promised to stop sucking her -thumb if she can go to Miss Camilla and ‘learn to yead ’bout picters,’ -as she says.”</p> - -<p>“It’s all turned out as wonderfully as a fairy-tale,” mused Doris as -they floated on. “I couldn’t wish a single thing any different. And I -think what Miss Camilla has done is—well, it just makes a lump come in -my throat even to speak of it. I feel like a selfish wretch beside her. -I’m just going to save every penny I have this winter and give it to the -Red Cross and work like mad at the knitting and bandage-making. But even -that is no <i>real</i> sacrifice. I wish I could do something like she has -done. <i>That’s</i> the kind of thing that counts!”</p> - -<p>“We can only do the thing that lies within<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> our power,” said Sally, -grasping the true philosophy of the situation, “and if we do all of -that, we’re giving the best we can.”</p> - -<p>They drifted on a little further in silence, and then Doris glanced at -her wrist-watch by the light of the moon. “We’ve got to go in,” she -mourned. “It’s after nine o’clock, and Mother warned me not to stay out -later than that. Besides I’ve got to finish packing.”</p> - -<p>They dragged the canoe up onto the shore, and turned it over in the -grass. Then they wandered, for a moment, down to the edge of the water.</p> - -<p>“Remember, it isn’t so awfully bad as it seems,” Doris tried to hearten -Sally by reminding her. “Father and I are coming down again to stay over -Columbus Day, and you and Genevieve are coming to New York to spend the -Christmas holidays with us. We’ll be seeing each other right along, at -intervals.”</p> - -<p>Sally looked off up the river to where the pointed pines on Slipper -Point could be dimly discerned above the wagon bridge. Suddenly her -thoughts took a curious twist.<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a></p> - -<p>“How funny,—how awfully funny it seems now,” she laughed, “to think we -once were planning to dig for pirate treasure—up there!” she nodded -toward Slipper Point.</p> - -<p>“Well, we may not have found any pirate loot,” Doris replied, “but -you’ll have to admit we discovered treasure of a very different -nature—and a good deal more valuable. And, when you come to think of -it, we did discover buried treasure, at least Miss Camilla did, and we -were nearly buried alive trying to unearth it, and what more of a -thrilling adventure could you ask for than that?” But she ended -seriously:</p> - -<p>“Slipper Point will always mean to me the spot where I spent some of the -happiest moments of my life!”</p> - -<p>“And I say—the same!” echoed Sally.</p> - -<p class="c">THE END</p> - -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Slipper Point Mystery, by Augusta Huiell Seaman - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY *** - -***** This file should be named 50961-h.htm or 50961-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/9/6/50961/ - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan, -Chuck Greif 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. 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