heard of. Why, it's a regular adventure to have found such a thing as this. But let's go out and sit[Pg 58] in the boat and let Genevieve paddle. Then we can talk it all over and puzzle this out." [Pg 58] Sally returned the tin box and its contents to the hiding-place under the mattress. Then she blew out the candle, remarking as she did so that she'd brought a lot of candles and matches and always kept them there. In the pall of darkness that fell on them, she groped for the entrance, pushed it open and they all scrambled out into the daylight. After that she padlocked the opening and buried the key in the sand nearby and announced herself ready to return to the boat. During the remainder of that sunny morning they sat together in the stern of the boat, golden head and auburn one bent in consultation over the strange combination of letters and figures, while Genevieve, barefooted, paddled in silent ecstasy in the shallow water rippling over the bar. "Sally," exclaimed Doris, at length, suddenly straightening and looking her companion in the eyes, "I believe you have some idea about all this that you haven't told me yet![Pg 59] Several remarks you've dropped make me think so. Now, honestly, haven't you? What do you believe is the secret of this cave and this queer jumble of letters and things, anyway?" [Pg 59] Sally, thus faced, could no longer deny the truth. "Yes," she acknowledged, "there is something I've thought of, and the more I think of it, the surer I am. And something that's happened since I knew you, has made me even surer yet." She paused, and Doris, wild with impatience, demanded, "Well?" "It's pirates!" announced Sally, slowly and distinctly. "What?" cried Doris, jumping to her feet. "Impossible! There's no such thing, nowadays." "I didn't say 'nowadays,'" remarked Sally, calmly. "I think it was pirates, then, if that suits you better." Doris sank down in her seat again in amazed silence. "A pirate cave!" she breathed at last. "I do believe you're right, Sally. What else could it be? But where's the treasure, then?[Pg 60] Pirates always had some around, didn't they? And that cave would be the best kind of a place to keep it." [Pg 60] "That's what this tells," answered
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