came in sight. "You said you had an idea about that queer[Pg 74] paper we found, too," Sally reminded her. "What was it?" [Pg 74] "Oh, I don't know whether it amounts to much, and I'll try to explain it later. The first thing to do is to try to discover, if we can, some idea of a date, or something connected with this cave, so that we can see if we are on the right track. I've been thinking that if that wood was from an old, wrecked vessel, we might perhaps find something on it somewhere that would give us a clue." "That's so," said Sally. "I hadn't thought of that before." With this in mind, they entered the cave, lit the candle, seated Genevieve on the chair with a bag of candy in her lap for solace, and proceeded to their task. "The only way to find anything is just to scrape off all we can of this mold," announced Sally. "You take one side, and I'll take the other and we'll use these sticks. It won't be an easy job." It was not. For over an hour they both dug away, scraping off what they could of the moss[Pg 75] and fungus that covered the cedar planks. Doris made so little progress that she finally procured the ancient knife from the table and worked more easily with that implement. Not a vestige nor a trace of any writing was visible anywhere. [Pg 75] When the arms of both girls had begun to ache cruelly, and Genevieve had grown restless and was demanding to "go out," Sally suggested that they give it up for the day. But just at that moment, working in a far corner, Doris had stumbled upon a clue. The rusty knife had struck a curious knobby break in the wood, which, on further scraping, developed the shape of a raised letter "T." At her exultant cry, Sally rushed over and frantically assisted in the quest. Scraping and digging for another fifteen minutes revealed at last a name, raised on the thick planking, which had evidently been the stern name-plate of the vessel. When it all stood revealed, the writing ran: The Anne Arundel England 1843. [Pg 76] [Pg 76]
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