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.[Pg 56] "That's just the trouble. I can't imagine what it means. I've studied and studied over it all winter, and it doesn't seem to mean a single thing."

[Pg 56]

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[Pg 57] 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?"

[Pg 57]

"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 doesn'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 

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