Part 19 (1/2)

”Very likely,” affirmed Jack. ”I would not be surprised if we had to come around in the morning with nippers to get the kinks out. I see one forming, right now, in Lottie's cheek.”

”We will be stiff, I am sure,” added Bess, ”although our muscles ought to be in good form.”

”When you have finished,” Freda whispered to Belle, ”we want to give Denny something.”

”Of course,” Belle replied. ”How selfish we are, sitting here 'gabbing,' and neither you nor your mother has had supper yet. I'll serve coffee at once.”

”Don't hurry,” Freda said. ”We have time enough.”

Everyone, however, seemed to guess at once that they should make room for the next ”table,” and the coffee was swallowed, hastily.

”What is it?” Lottie ventured to ask Freda. ”We are just dying of curiosity. What has happened?”

”Oh, I can't tell you now,” Freda answered, evasively. ”I guess everyone knew we were s.h.i.+pwrecked this afternoon.”

Cora appeared at the door. ”May we come to eat now?” she asked. ”I have only succeeded in making Denny stay with the understanding that we won't keep him long. He is anxious to get back to his cabin.”

”I am that,” said Denny, following Cora into the dining room. ”Can't tell what'll happen now.”

”Then something _did_ happen,” Bess said aside, to Marita. ”I can't imagine what.”

”Now you must eat a good meal,” Mrs. Lewis insisted to Denny. ”I remember well how you always loved macaroni and cheese.”

”And I remember well how you fixed it up,” answered Denny, gallantly.

”This is a bit like the old days; isn't it? When I used to eat you out of house and home, when Len would fetch me into your house to tempt me appet.i.te,” and he chuckled at the recollection. ”Freddie, you were only a tot then, but you could climb on my knee right smart. I guess you were always a romp.” This last was plainly intended as a compliment, for Denny smiled at Freda as she handed him his steaming coffee.

If the young folks thought that by special attention to Denny and his wants at the table they might get an inkling of the mystery that had so excited the old man they were disappointed, for he never betrayed a word of it, and only an occasional absent look in his sober gray eyes betokened anything unusual.

He scarcely took time to swallow the tempting food, however, when he jumped up and declared he could not stay another minute, although Cora, Freda, and Mrs. Lewis urged him to remain.

”I must run--I really must,” he insisted, ”and mind what I tell you,”

to Freda and Cora, ”look out for yourselves!”

CHAPTER XIV

AN ANGRY DRUGGIST

”We didn't want to make a fuss over it before the boys,” Cora explained to a number of the girls, who, next morning, were seated about the bungalow side porch, trying to get in a few st.i.tches of embroidery. ”They would be sure to go straight at those land fellows, and we think--Denny and all of us--that the best way to do is to watch them carefully for a while.”

”But what happened?” demanded Lottie, impatiently.

”We don't know exactly what, but it appears that while Denny was out, fis.h.i.+ng us in, someone entered his shack and ransacked it.”

”Burglars! What for? In that hut!” exclaimed Belle.

”We don't know that, either,” continued Cora. ”We can only surmise.

They must have been after something that was neither money nor table silver.” She laughed a little at the idea of anyone trying to rob the humble cabin of a fisherman. ”The little terrier is never tied up and never troubles anybody, but it seems he did object to the intrusion, for he has a cut on one leg, made, possibly, by a heavy shoe, and when Denny found him he was tied tight to a hook in the woodshed. Denny will never forgive whoever tied Brian.”