Part 25 (1/2)
”Yes.”
”Why?”
It was a challenge, and Rosalie looked curiously at Cora.
”Well, my dear, I fancy--no, I will say nothing until I learn more. But don't tell me about her unless you choose.”
”Oh, I'm sure I don't mind. Perhaps you would like to speak to father?”
”Possibly--a little later. But was your aunt a delicate woman, with iron gray hair, and rather a nervous manner?”
”Yes, that's Aunt Margaret! But why do you ask?”
”I will tell you later, my dear. Please don't say anything about it until I see your father. Do you suppose he would show us through the light?”
”Of course! I'll ask him; and that will give you the chance you want!”
”Fine!” exclaimed Cora. ”I'm afraid you will think this is rather a conspiracy,” she went on, ”but I have my reasons. It may amount to nothing, but I will not be satisfied until I have proved or disproved something I have suspected since I came here.”
CHAPTER XVII
THE LIGHT KEEPER'S STORY
”Hurray! She's going!”
It was Jack who cried this.
”'She starts, she moves, she seems to feel----'”
”As though we'd catch a wiggling eel!”
Thus Ed began the quotation, and thus Walter ended it. The boys had been working in the motor boat, and had only now, after several hours, succeeded in getting it to respond to their labors. The motor started with a sound that ”meant business,” as Jack expressed it.
”Let's go for a run,” suggested Norton.
”Better wait for the girls--it's their boat,” returned Walter.
”And we'd better pump some of the water out of her,” added Jack. ”She leaks like a sieve.”
”Pump her out, and by the time the girls are here she'll be ready,” spoke Walter.
”It was that carbureter all the while,” declared Ed. ”I knew it was!”
”I was sure it was in the secondary coil,” came from Jack.
”And you couldn't make me believe but what it was one of the spark plugs,”
was Norton's contribution. ”But it was the carbureter, all right.”