"It is lucky Henrietta went away before papa came," observed Amy, after
they had discussed the strange matter at some length. "She certainly
would have been mad to learn that Belle and Sally were likely to visit
what she calls her island, without any invitation from her."
"What do you suppose it all means?" asked Jessie.
"She must have heard some mixed-up account of an island that belonged to
her family," Nell said, "and got it twisted. I can't see it any other
way. But I must go home now, girls. The Reverend and the children need
looking after by this time. Good-bye."
Mr. Drew did not explain until evening about his previous knowledge of
the island in question. Then he came over to smoke his after-dinner
cigar on the Norwood's porch, and he and Jessie's father discussed the
matter within the hearing of their two very much interested daughters.
When their fathers did not object, Jessie and Amy often "listened in" on
business conversations, and this one was certainly important to the
minds of the two chums.
"Did Blair telephone you to-day again about that matter?" Mr. Norwood
asked his neighbor.
"No. It was Mr. Stratford himself. Takes an interest in Blair's affairs,
you know."
"It really concerns that Bertha Blair who was of so much value to me in
the Ellison will case. You remember?" observed Mr. Norwood.
"And it concerns this little freckle-faced child the girls have had
around here so much. Actually, if the thing pans out the way it looks,
Norwood, that child has got something coming to her."
"She has a good deal coming to her if she can prove she is the daughter
of Padriac Haney," said Jessie's father, with vigor.
"You are inclined to take the matter up?"
"I am. I'll do all I can. Blair has no money to risk----"
"He won't need any," said Mr. Drew, quite as decisively. "If you can
spend your time on it, so can I. It won't break us, Norwood, to help the
child."
"Not at all," agreed Mr. Norwood, generously.
"But is it really true, Daddy, that Hackle Island belongs to little
Henrietta and Bertha?" asked Jessie.
"A good part of it, apparently. All of the middle of the island," he
returned. "The Government owns Sable Point where the old lighthouse
stands and where the radio station is now established. That has been a
government reservation for years. At the other end is the Hackle Island
Hotel, always popular with a certain class of moneyed people."
"I have been there," said Mr. Drew, nodding. "But there is a bunch of
bungalows in between----"
"By the way," interposed Mr. Norwood, "my wife said something about
taking one of those for a month or two. I have the tentative offer of
one."
"O-oh!" gasped Amy, clasping her hands.
Her father laughed outright. "See," he said to the other lawyer. "You
are going to have a guest, if you go there. I can see that."
"The bungalow is big enough for the girls and their friends," admitted
Jessie's father.
"That beats the farm!" cried Amy to Jessie.
"It will be nice. And we can take Henrietta and Bertha along."
"They are going in any case, I hear from Blair," said Mr. Norwood
briskly. "His wife will take them. There is an old farmhouse that
belongs to the Haney estate. You see, a part of the bungalow colony and
the Club golf course are included in the old Haney place. The real
estate men who exploited the island a few years ago did not trouble
themselves to get clear title to the land. They made their bit and got
out. Now there are two parties laying claim to the middle of the
island."
"Oh, dear!" cried Jessie. "Then it isn't sure that little Henrietta will
get her island? Too bad!"
"Personally I am pretty sure that she will," said Mr. Norwood, with
conviction. "But it will cause a court fight. There is another claimant,
as I say."
"You are right," agreed Mr. Drew. "And he is a fighter. Ringold never
gives up a thing until he has to."
"Goodness!" breathed Amy. "Not Belle's father?"
"It is the New Melford Ringold," said Mr. Drew. "His claim is based upon
an old note that the original Padriac Haney gave some money-lender.
Ringold bought the paper along with a lot of other fishy documents. You
know, he has always been a note shaver."
"I know something about that," said Mr. Norwood, grimly. "Don't worry
too much about it. Ringold may have a lot of money, but he won't spend
too much to try to make good a bad claim. He doesn't throw a sprat to
catch a herring; he would only risk a sprat for whale bait," and he
laughed.
However, the two girls had heard quite enough to yield food for chatter
for some time to come. Jessie had kept close watch of the time by her
wrist-watch. She now beckoned her chum, and they ran indoors and up the
stairs to Jessie's sitting-room.
"It is almost time for the concert from Stratfordtown," Jessie said.
"And Bertha telephoned me yesterday that she hoped to sing to-night."
"Lucky girl!" said Amy, sighing. "It's nice to have an uncle who bosses
a broadcasting station. But, never mind, Jess, we had fun the time we
were on the program. Say! the boys will be home to-morrow."
"No! Do you mean it?"
"Papa got a wireless. The _Marigold_ now has a real radio telegraph
sending and receiving set. Darry says it is great. But, of course, you
and I can't get anything from them because we do not know Morse."
"Let's learn!" exclaimed Jessie, excitedly.
"Sometimes when you get your set tuned wrong you hear some of the code.
But the telegraph wave-length is much, much longer than the phone
lengths. Guess you'd have a job listening in for anything Darry and Burd
Ailing would send from that old yacht."
"We can learn the Morse alphabet, just the same, can't we?" demanded her
chum.
"Now, there you go again!" complained Amy. "Always suggesting something
that is work. I don't want to have to learn a single thing until we go
back to school in the fall. Believe me!"
Her emphasis only made Jessie laugh. She adjusted the crystal detector,
or cat's whisker, as the girls called it, and then began to tune the
coil until, with the tabs at her ears, she could hear a voice rising out
of the void, nearer and nearer, until it seemed speaking directly in her
ear:
"With which announcement we begin our evening's entertainment from the
Stratfordtown Station. The first number on the program being----"
"Do you hear that? It is Mr. Blair himself," whispered Amy eagerly. "And
he says----"
Jessie held up her hand for silence as the superintendent of the
broadcasting station at Stratfordtown went on to announce, "Miss Bertha
Blair, who will sing 'Will o' the Wisp,' Mr. Angler being at the piano.
I thank you."
The piano prelude came to the ears of the Roselawn girls almost
instantly. Jessie and Amy smiled at each other. They were proud to think
that they had something to do with Bertha's becoming a favorite on the
Stratfordtown programs, and likewise that their interest in the girl
first served to call the superintendent's attention to her. In "The
Roselawn Girls on the Program" is told of Bertha's first meeting with
her uncle who had never before seen her.
They listened to the hour's program and then tuned the receiver to get
what was being broadcasted from a city station--a talk on economics that
interested to a degree even the two high-school girls. For frivolous as
Amy usually appeared to be, she was a good scholar and, like Jessie,
stood well in her classes.
There was not much but a desire for fun in Amy's mind the next morning,
however, when she ran across the boulevard to the Norwood place. It was
right after breakfast, and she wore her middy blouse and short skirt,
with canvas ties on her feet. She trilled for Jessie under the
radio-room windows:
"You-oo! You-oo! 'Mary Ann! My Mary Ann! I'll meet you on the corner!'
Come-on-out!"
Jessie appeared from the breakfast room, and Momsy, as Jessie always
called her mother, looked out, too.
"What have you girls on your minds for this morning?" she asked.
"Our new canoe, Mrs. Norwood. You know, we gave the old one to those
Dogtown youngsters, and our new one has never been christened yet."
"Shall I bring a hat?" asked Jessie, hesitatingly.
"What for? To bail out the canoe? Bill says it is perfectly sound and
safe," laughed Amy.
"You are getting wee freckles on your nose, Jessie," said Mrs. Norwood.
"Why worry?" demanded Amy. "You can never get as many as Hen wears--and
her nose isn't as big as yours."
"It is by good luck, not good management, that you do not freckle, Amy
Drew," declared her chum. "I'll take the shade hat."
"Why not a sunbonnet?" scoffed Amy.
But Jessie laughed and ran out with her hat. It floated behind her, held
by the two strings, as she raced her chum down to the boat landing. The
Norwood boathouse sheltered several different craft, among others a
motor-boat that Amy's brother, Darrington Drew, owned. But Darry and his
chum, Burd Alling, had lost their interest in the _Water Thrush_ since
they had been allowed to put into commission, and navigate themselves,
the steam-yacht _Marigold_, which was a legacy to Darry from an uncle
now deceased.
The girls got the new canoe out without assistance from the gardener or
his helper. They were thoroughly capable out-of-door girls. They had
erected the antenna for Jessie's radio set without any help. Both were
good boatmen--"if a girl can be a man," to quote Amy--and they could
handle the _Water Thrush_ as well as the canoe.
They launched and paddled out from the shore in perfect form. The sun
was scorching, but there was a tempering breeze. It was therefore cooler
out toward the middle of the lake than inshore. The glare of the sun on
the water troubled even the thoughtless Amy.
"Oh, aren't you the wise little owl, Jess Norwood!" she cried. "To think
of wearing a sun-hat! And here am I with nothing to shelter me from the
torrid rays. I am going to burn and peel and look horrid--I know I shall!
I'll not be fit to go to Hackle Island--if we go."
"Oh, we're going, all right!"
"You're mighty certain, from the way you talk. Has it been really
settled? 'There's many a slip' and all that, you know."
"Father asked Momsy about it at breakfast before he went to town, and
she said she had quite made up her mind," Jessie said. "He will make the
arrangements with the owner of the house."
"Oh, goody! A bungalow?" cried Amy.
"Yes."
"How big, dear? Can the boys come?"
"Of course. There are fourteen rooms. It is a big place. We will shut up
the house here and send down most of the serving people ahead. We shall
have at least one good month of salt air."
"Hooray!" cried Amy, swinging her paddle recklessly. "And I've got just
the most scrumptious idea, Jess. I'll tell you----"
But something unexpected happened just then that quite drove out of Amy
Drew's mind the idea she had to impart to her chum. She brought the
paddle she had waved down with an awful smack on the water. The spray
spattered all about. Jessie flung herself back to escape some of the
inwash, and by so doing her gaze struck upon something on the surface of
the lake, far ahead.
"Oh! Oh!" she shrieked. "What is that, Amy? Somebody is drowning!"