Part 19 (1/2)
”And was there somebody here, really?” asked Ted eagerly.
”Yes,” answered his grandfather. ”See. Here are bits of bread scattered about, and papers in which some one brought his lunch here.”
”Maybe it was the tramps,” whispered Janet.
”Maybe,” agreed Mr. Martin. ”I must have another look over the island.”
There was not much else in the cave that they could see with the one lantern. Grandpa Martin wanted to look about more, and back in the far corners, but he did not like to take the children along, and Jan held tightly to his hand as if she feared she would lose him.
”I'll come here alone some other time, and see what I can find,” thought Grandpa Martin to himself, as they came out.
”I don't like it in there,” said Jan, once they were again out in the suns.h.i.+ne. ”I don't like caves.”
”I do,” declared Ted. ”When Hal Chester comes to visit me, as he said he would, he and I will look all through this cave.”
”Is Hal coming?” asked Jan, remembering the boy, once lame but now cured, who had played with them and told them about Princess Blue Eyes.
”Yes, mother asked him to come and spend a week, and he said he would.
We'll have some fun in the cave.”
”What do you suppose the big hole can be?” asked Mrs. Martin, when Grandpa Martin and the children reached camp after their visit to the strange place.
”I don't know,” he answered. ”It doesn't seem to have been dug with picks and shovels. It's just a natural cave I guess, and some fishermen may have eaten their lunch there one day when it rained. But there is no one in it now.”
Ted and Jan talked much about the cave the rest of that day. They went for a ride in the wagon drawn by Nicknack, taking Trouble with them. On their way back Jan said:
”Oh, I wish I had a swing.”
”It would be fun,” agreed Ted. ”Maybe I can make one.”
”You'll have to get a rope,” said his sister. ”Grandpa is going to row over in the boat to-morrow. Ask him to bring us one.”
”No, he don't need to bring us a rope,” went on her brother.
”Why not?”
”'Cause I can get a rope in the woods.”
”A rope in the woods? Oh, Teddy Martin, you can not! Ropes don't grow on trees.”
”The kind I mean does,” answered Ted with a laugh. ”Wait and I'll show you.”
When Nicknack had been put in the new stable which Grandpa Martin had built for him, Teddy, followed by Jan and Trouble, walked a little way into the woods. Ted carried with him a piece of old carpet.
”What's that for?” his sister asked.
”For a swing board,” he answered.
”But where's the swing rope?”