The Slipper Point Mystery
by Augusta Huiell Seaman (1879-1950)
Illustrated by C. M. Relyea.
New York: The Century Company, 1921.

THE
SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY

"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

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY COMPANY
1921

Copyright, 1919, by
THE CENTURY CO.
Published, September, 1919

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE
SLIPPER POINT MYSTERY

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."

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 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. "Are n't you afraid to be sitting around in that boat?"

"Huh!" exclaimed Sally scornfully. "That does n'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 does n'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 is n'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 could n'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 could n'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 does n't matter," laughed Sally. "I can row the whole three. You sit in the stern 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 is n'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 is n'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 would n'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, have n'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 secret and mine. And we 've promised each other we 'd never tell any one about it. Have n'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.' Does n'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 should n't have asked you if I had n'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.

"Hell, 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!"

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 have n'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," sent on Sally simply, "although I could n'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 would n'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 does n'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:

"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 does n'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 it all talk 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 have n't told me yet! Several remarks you 've dropped make me think so. Now, honestly, have n'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 did n'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, did n'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. Was n'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 does n't make the slightest sense, no matter how you turn or twist it."

"I don't care," insisted Sally. "I suppose all secret charts are n'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 did n'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 have n'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 might n'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 had n't been for this awful storm, I 'd have told you and asked you about it next morning, but I did n'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 did n'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 did n'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 is n'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 would n'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 did n'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 had n'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 could n't possibly have built a cave with the remains of a vessel dated 1843, and neither could any other pirate, for there were n'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 is n't pirates, it is n'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 could n't have been made before 1843, anyhow, and that is n'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 eight-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 does n'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 usually 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 where 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 did n'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 was n'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 did n'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 was n'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 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 was n'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 uusal, 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 could n'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 would n'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 going to know which corner that square is in? It might be any of the four, might n't it?"

For a moment Doris was stumped. How, indeed, were they going to tell? Then one solution dawned on her. "Would n'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 is n'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 around 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 is n'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 it the road I told you of," explained Sally with an "I-told-you-so" expression. "You see it is n'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 tumble-down structure not far away. "And is n'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 the 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 does n'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, is n'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 are n'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 is 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 did n't set eyes on her once in a blue moon. Her father and brother had a fine farm and were making money, but she did n't care for this here life.

"Well, one time she come back from Europe and things did n'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 did n'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 could n'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 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."

"Did n'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 is n'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 have n't any business meddling with it now. We ought n'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 have n'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 could n'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 is n't. I 'll have to think that over later.

"But now, can't you see that if what I 've said is right, it would n'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 does n'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 exited 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 provided 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 is n'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 reenter 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, disheveled 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 have n'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 need n'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 is n'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 would n'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 is n'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 did n'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 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 had n'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 did n'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 had n'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 have n'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.

She led the others up the cellar stairs

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 adventu