Part 23 (1/2)

”An oyster sh.e.l.l,” suggested Margery.

”No, not that. I found where a boat had been drawn up on the thh.o.r.e and then thhoved out again. It had been drawn up on the thand. Then there were trackth about the place, trackth of heavy bootth, and a mark in the thand where thomething heavy had been put down. It looked like a box. I gueth it wath. The men had taken the box between them and carried it up and down the thh.o.r.e ath far ath I could thee. You know, the tide wathhed the marks out near down to the thea.”

”What did they do with the box, dearie?” interrupted Harriet.

”That I have not yet dethided. I thhall find out about that later.

Well, after a time, it theemth, they took the box up the thandy beach and into the woodth, but by that time it wath tho dark that I couldn't thee any more footprintth and couldn't tell what they did with the box.”

”Marvelous,” muttered Buster. ”Excruciatingly marvelous!”

”Is this a fairy story?” demanded Mrs. Livingston.

”Ask Harriet,” suggested Crazy Jane. ”I think she knows more about it than Tommy does. Don't you, Harriet?”

”What makes you think that, Jane?” questioned Harriet mischievously.

”Ask me, darlin'.”

”I have, dear.”

Jane stepped over and whispered in Harriet's ear, the others regarding the proceeding with puzzled expressions on their faces. Harriet's face broke out into a ripple of smiles.

”I am caught red-handed,” she said. ”It seems that I am not the only light sleeper in the Meadow-Brook camp. Jane chanced to observe something that I did last night. She has known it all along. She hinted at it this morning, and I suspected that she knew more than she had told us.”

”But, my dear, we are all in the dark,” reminded the Chief Guardian.

”Won't you be good enough to explain this mystery? Surely you can do so in a way that will make it clear to us. Two men, a box and a boat and goodness knows what else, here on this lonely part of the coast.”

”I was suddenly awakened last night,” began Harriet without preliminary remarks. ”A boat sailed into the bay close to sh.o.r.e and came to anchor. Then a small boat put off. Two men were in it. They came ash.o.r.e with a heavy box, started down the bar, then back to the beach after I had met and stopped them. Tommy has told you the truth about their further movements.”

”Wait a moment. You stopped them, you say?” questioned Mrs.

Livingston.

”Yes. I didn't want them to get near the cabin and disturb our party.

According to their story they had made a mistake. They had some supplies for a friend of theirs who was on a fis.h.i.+ng trip somewhere up the coast.”

”You believed that to be the case, then?”

”No, Mrs. Livingston, I did not, because, instead of going up the beach after I had turned them back, they went the other way, eventually turning in among the trees, where they remained for some time. I did not see them again until they fell over me later--”

”What!” The guardian was more amazed than before.

”Oh, I forgot to tell you that I followed them to see what they were going to do. I didn't find out, but they found me, though they were not aware of it.” Harriet explained how she had lain down on the ground and how one of the two men had stumbled over her feet without discovering her presence. Exclamations of amazement greeted this part of the story.

”What became of them after that?” asked Miss Elting.

”They shoved off their rowboat, rowed out to the sailboat, which quickly weighed anchor and put out to sea. That is all I know about it. You see, Tommy was right.”

Mrs. Livingston turned to Tommy.