THE BOX IN THE SAND
"Goodness!" cried Grace, shrinking back against Betty. "They are
fighting!"
"It does look so," responded the Little Captain. "One man seems to be
trying to jump overboard!"
It did so appear to the outdoor girls. The motor boat containing the
half-dozen rough-looking men was rapidly leaving the shore of the cove,
but one man in it seemed anxious to return to the beach. His companions
had forcibly to restrain him, as he seemed willing to leap into the
water, and swim back.
Confused shouts and cries came from the men in the boat, as though they
were of several opinions. Finally, however, the majority seemed to gain
their point, and the man who had appeared so excited quieted down.
But, as the boat gathered headway, this man, sitting in the stern, never
took his eyes from the four girls. He watched them until the craft was
so far out that his features could not be distinguished.
"Wasn't that odd?" demanded Amy, being the first to speak after the
little episode.
"It certainly was," agreed Betty.
"They seemed afraid--yes, actually afraid of us," put in Grace.
"And there wasn't the least need of it," laughed Mollie. "I wouldn't
have harmed one of those men--oh, for anything!"
"I guess not!" Amy declared. "I was all ready to run if they headed
their boat back this way."
"What in the world do you suppose was the matter?" asked Grace, as they
stood looking after the vanishing boat. The boys were no longer in
sight, being hidden from view behind a projecting point of land.
"Perhaps this is private grounds we are on," suggested Mollie, "and they
didn't like to see us trespassing."
"It couldn't have been that," Grace remarked. "Everyone walks along the
beach, and I believe no one is allowed to claim any land below high
water mark, so it couldn't have been that."
"Maybe there are quicksands here!" exclaimed Amy, looking nervously
about. "There are such things, you know. The Goodwin Sands, in England,
are awful. If you once are caught in a quicksand you never get out."
"Nothing like that around here," asserted Betty. "If there was, you can
depend on it, Daddy never would have hired a cottage."
"Besides," added Grace, "if there had been danger the men would not have
been in two minds about coming back to warn us. They would surely not
have let us run into danger."
"No, it couldn't have been that," decided Betty. "But the men were
certainly divided in opinion about coming back here, and they must have
left just before we came in sight. Well, it will never be solved, I
suppose, but I don't know that it need worry us. Though if the boys were
here I think they would make quite a mystery of it."
"Will would make quite a fuss about it, if he were here, I guess,"
laughed Grace. "He'd be sure the men were pirates, or something like
that, show his new badge and want to question them."
"Then I'm glad he isn't here!" exclaimed Amy, with such warmth that
Grace exclaimed:
"Oh, Amy! I never knew you cared--so much."
"I don't! That is--yes, of course I care! That is--oh, I wish you'd let
me alone!" burst out the blushing Amy, whereas Grace teased her all the
more, until Betty put an end to it saying:
"Well, let's get along. The men don't seem to be coming back, and mamma
may be worried, knowing that we went out when a storm was brewing. Old
Tin-Back is sure to tell her that we went off defying the elements."
"Isn't he a queer old character?" remarked Mollie.
"Yes, but I like him," Betty answered. "He says he has never yet given
up hope of finding some treasure washed ashore from a wreck. He's always
looking as he walks along the beach."
"And that in spite of the fact that, with all his years of looking, he
has found only a pipe," laughed Mollie. "He is very persevering, is Old
Tin-Back."
"Most fishermen are," spoke Betty.
"I suppose things _are_ occasionally washed up by the sea," Amy
observed. "Let's look as we walk along the beach."
Hardly knowing why they did so, the eyes of the outdoor girls roamed the
beach, which, as the tide had just gone out, was strewn with odds and
ends. Nothing of moment, though, it seemed--bits of broken boxes and
barrels, bottles and tin cans, probably the refuse from coasting
vessels.
"Oh, I'm tired!" suddenly exclaimed Grace. "Let's see if we can't find a
place to sit down."
"Tired! No wonder, wearing such high-heeled shoes!" objected Betty. "You
are violating one of the ethics of the outdoor girls' organization!" she
went on. "You can't expect to walk in those."
"I'm not going to try again," confessed Grace. "Oh, I simply must sit
down."
"The sand is so wet," objected Mollie.
They managed to find a broken spar, cast up by the waves, and by putting
on it some boards, which they turned over to find the dry side, they
evolved a comfortable seat.
"Oh, isn't this just lovely!" exclaimed Betty, as she gazed out over the
bay, now glistening beneath the sun, which had come out from behind the
storm clouds.
"It is perfect," agreed Amy.
Mollie was idly digging in the sand behind the spar. She used a shell,
and had scooped out quite a hole. Suddenly the shell scraped on
something with a shrill sound.
"Oh, don't!" begged Grace. "You set my teeth on edge! What is it,
Mollie?"
Mollie did not answer at once. She was digging in the sand more quickly
now. Again the shell scraped on some metal.
"Oh, Mollie!" objected Grace again, putting her hands over her ears.
"What is it?"
"I--I think I've found something," replied Mollie in a low voice. "Look,
girls, it's some sort of box."
They leaned over her. Her shell had scraped away the wet sand from the
top of a square piece of metal. Mollie tapped it.
"It--it sounds hollow!" she whispered.
"Probably a tin can," said Betty.
"No," spoke Mollie, resolutely.
"Here, let me help you!" exclaimed Amy.
She looked about for something with which to dig. Near where Mollie had
uncovered the piece of metal a queerly shaped stick stuck upright in the
sand. Amy pulled it out, with no small effort, and at once began
digging.
"Oh, it's some sort of a box--an iron box!" cried Mollie, with eager,
shining eyes. "We have really found something."
Mollie and Amy dug until they had wholly uncovered the object. Then,
with a quick motion, Mollie put her hands under the lower edges, and
with a sudden effort brought up out of the hole in the sand a curious
iron box.
"It--it really is--something!" she said.
Instinctively Betty looked out over the bay in the direction taken by
the strange, quarreling men in the motor boat.