The Secret MarkAn Adventure Story for Girls
"That's the man who passed us when we were on our way to the mystery cottage."

"Are you sure?"

"Can't be mistaken. Same coat, same hat, same everything."

"Why then--"

Florence checked herself. A moment later she said in a quiet tone of voice: "Lucile, don't you think it's about time we waded ashore? Came clear and got out of this affair; turned facts over to the authorities and allowed them to take their course?"

Lucile was silent for a moment. Then suddenly she shivered all over and whispered tensely: "No--no, not quite yet."

"We may get in over our necks."

"I can swim. Can't you?"

"I'll try," Florence laughed, and there for the time the matter ended.

Lucile worked in the library two hours the next day. One fact could not escape her attention. Harry Brock had been losing a lot of sleep. She saw him rubbing his eyes from time to time and once he actually nodded over his records. "Been studying late?" she asked in friendly sympathy.

He shot her a quick, penetrating glance, then, seeming to catch himself, said, "Oh, yes, quite a bit."

That afternoon, finding study difficult and being in need of a theme for a special article to be written for English 5b, she decided to use her card of admittance to the bindery and glean the material for the theme from that institution.

She could scarcely have chosen a more fitting subject, for there are few places more interesting than a famous book bindery. Unfortunately, something occurred while she was there that quite drove all the thoughts of her theme out of her head and added to her already over-burdened shoulders an increased weight of responsibility.

A famous bindery is a place of many wonders. The stitching machines, the little and great presses, the glowing fires that heat irons for the stamping, all these and many more lend an air of industry, mystery and fine endeavor to the place. Not in the general bindery, where thousands of books are bound each day, did Lucile find her chief interest, however. It was when she had been shown into a small side room, into which the natural sunlight shone through a broad window, that she realized that she had reached 
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