ONE MYSTERY SOLVED
A glorious autumn morning dawned and Dories sat up suddenly. Shaking
Nann, she whispered excitedly: “I hear it again.”
“What? The ghost? Was he ringing the bell?” This sleepily from the girl
who seemed to have no desire to waken, but, at her companion’s urgent:
“No, not the bell! Do sit up, Nann, and listen. Isn’t that the airplane
coming back? Hark!”
Fully awake, the other girl did sit up and listen. Then leaping from the
bed, she ran to the window that overlooked the wide expanse of marsh.
“Yes, yes,” she cried. “There it is! It’s flying low, as though it were
going to land, and it’s heading straight for the old ruin. Get dressed as
quickly as you can.”
“But why?” queried the astonished Dories. “We can’t get any nearer than
we did yesterday; that is, not by land, and the tide is high again, and
so we can’t go out in the punt.”
Nann did not reply, but continued to dress hurriedly, and so her friend
did likewise.
“I don’t know why it is,” the former confided a moment later, “but I feel
in my bones that this is the day of the great revelation.”
“Not according to the yellow messages. They would tell us that in seven
days we would know all.” Dories was brushing her brown hair preparing to
weave it into two long braids.
“But, as I told you before,” Nann remarked, “I don’t believe the papers
refer to the old ruin mystery at all. In fact, I think the ghost that
writes the message on the papers does not even know there is an old ruin
mystery.”
“Well, you’re a better detective than I am,” Dories confessed as she tied
a ribbon bow on the end of each braid. “I haven’t any idea about anything
that is happening.”
The girls stole downstairs and ran out on the beach, hoping to see the
airplane, but the long, shining white beach was deserted and the only
sound was the crashing of the waves over the rocks and along the shore,
for the tide was high.
“I wonder if Dick and Gib heard the plane passing over their town?”
Dories had just said, when Nann, glancing in the direction of the road,
exclaimed gleefully, “They sure did, for here they come at headlong speed
this very minute.” The big, boney, white horse stopped so suddenly when
it reached the sand that both of the boys were unseated. Laughingly they
sprang to the beach and waved their caps to the girls, who hurried to
meet them.
“Good morning, boys!” Nann called as soon as they were near enough for
her voice to be heard above the crashing of the waves. “I judge you also
saw the plane.”
“Yeah! We’uns heerd it comin’ ’long ’fore we saw it, an’ we got ol’
Spindly out’n her stall in a twinklin’, I kin tell you.”
The city lad laughed as though at an amusing memory. “The old mare was
sound asleep when we started, but when she heard that buzzing and
whirring over her head, she thought she was being pursued by a regiment
of demons, seemed like. She lit out of that barn and galloped as she
never had before. Of course the airplane passed us long ago, but that
gallant steed of ours was going so fast that I wasn’t sure that we would
be able to stop her before we got over to the island.”
Gib, it was plain, was impatient to be away, and so promising to report
if they found anything of interest, the lads raced toward the point of
rocks, while the girls went indoors to prepare breakfast. Dories found
her Great-Aunt Jane in a happier frame of mind than usual. She was
sitting up in bed, propped with pillows, when her niece carried in the
tray. And when a few moments later the girl was leaving the room, she
chanced to glance back and was sure that the old woman was chuckling as
though she had thought of something very amusing. Dories confided this
astonishing news item to Nann while they ate their breakfast in the
kitchen. “What do you suppose Aunt Jane was thinking about? It was surely
something which amused her?” Dories was plainly puzzled.
Nann smiled. “Doesn’t it seem to you that your aunt must be thoroughly
rested by this time? I should think that she would like to get out in the
sunshine these wonderful bracing mornings. It would do her a lot more
good than being cooped up indoors.”
Dories agreed, commenting that old people were certainly queer. It was
midmorning when the girls, having completed their few household tasks,
again went to the beach to look for the boys. The tide was going out and
the waves were quieter. Arm in arm they walked along on the hard sand.
Dories was saying, “Aunt Jane told me that she would like to read to
herself this morning. I was so afraid that she would ask me to read to
her. Not but that I do want to be useful sometimes, but this morning I am
so eager to know what the boys are doing. I wish they would come. I
wonder where they went.”
“I think I know,” Nann replied. “I believe they are lying flat on the big
smooth rock on which we sat that day Gibralter told us the story of the
Phantom Yacht. You recall that we had a fine view of the old ruin from
there.”
“But why would they be lying flat?” Dories, who had little imagination,
looked up to inquire.
“So that they could observe whoever might enter the old ruin without
being observed, my child.”
“But, Nann, why would anyone want to get into that dreadful place unless
it was just out of curiosity, which, of course, is our only motive.”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” the older girl had to confess, adding: “That is
a mystery that we have yet to solve.”
Suddenly Nann laughed aloud. “What’s the joke?” This from her astonished
companion. Since Nann continued to laugh, and was pointing merrily at
her, Dories began to bristle. “Well, what’s funny about me? Have I
buttoned my dress wrong?”
The other maid shook her head. “It’s something about your braids,” she
replied.
“Oh, I suppose I put on different colored ribbons. I remember noticing a
yellow one near the red.” She swung both of the braids around as she
spoke, but the ribbon bows were of the same hue. Tossing them back over
her shoulder, she said complacently: “This isn’t the first of April, my
dear. There’s nothing the matter with my braids and so—” But Nann
interrupted, “Isn’t there? Unbeliever, behold!” Leaping forward, she
lifted a braid, held it in front of her friend, and pointed at a bit of
crumpled yellow paper. Dories laughed, too.
“Well,” Nann exclaimed, “that proves to my entire satisfaction that a
supernatural being does _not_ write the notes and hide them just where we
will be sure to find them.”
“But who do you suppose does write them?” Dories asked. “This morning
I’ve been close enough to four people to have them slip that folded paper
in my hair ribbon. Their names are Nann Sibbett, Great-Aunt Jane,
Gibralter Strait and Dick Moore. Dick, of course, is eliminated because
he was nowhere about when the messages first began to appear. It isn’t
_your_ hand-writing,” the speaker was closely scrutinizing the note,
“and, as for Gib, I’m not sure that he can write at all.” Then a light of
conviction appeared in her eyes. “Do you know what I believe?” she turned
toward her friend as one who had made an astonishing discovery. “I
believe Great-Aunt Jane writes these notes and that she gets up out of
bed when we are away from home and hides them.”
Nann laughed. “I agree with you perfectly. I suspected her the other day,
but I didn’t want to tell you until I was more sure. But why do you
suppose she does it—if she does?”
Dories shook her head, then she exclaimed: “Now I know why Aunt Jane was
chuckling to herself when I looked back. She had just slipped the folded
paper into my hair ribbon, I do believe.”
“The next thing for us to find out is when and why she does it?” The
girls had stopped at the foot of the rocks and Nann changed the subject
to say: “I wonder why the boys don’t come. It’s almost noon. We’ll have
to go back and prepare your Aunt Jane’s lunch.” She turned toward the
home cottage as she spoke. Dories gave a last lingering look up toward
the tip-top rock. “Maybe they have been carried off in the airplane,” she
suggested.
“Impossible!” Nann said. “It couldn’t depart without our hearing.”
When they reached the cabin, Dories whispered, “I’ve nine minds to show
Aunt Jane the notes and watch her expression. I am sure I could tell if
she is guilty.”
“Don’t!” Nann warned. “Let her have her innocent fun if she wishes.”
Then, when they were in the kitchen making a fire in the wood stove, Nann
added, “I believe, my dear girl, that there is more to the meaning of
those messages than just innocent fun. I believe your Aunt Jane is going
to disclose to you something far more important than the solving of the
ruin mystery. She may tell you where the fortune is that your father
should have had, or something like that.”
Dories, who had been filling the tea-kettle at the kitchen pump, whirled
about, her face shining. “Nann Sibbett,” she exclaimed in a low voice,
“do you really, truly think that may be what we are to know in seven
days? O, wouldn’t I be glad I came to this terrible place if it were?
Then Mother darling wouldn’t have to sew any more and you and I could go
away to school. Why just all of our dreams would come true.”
“Clip fancy’s wings, dearie,” Nann cautioned as she cut the bread
preparing to make toast. “Usually I am the one imagining things, but now
it is you.”
Dories looked at her aunt with new interest when she went into her room
fifteen minutes later with the tray, but the old woman, who was again
lying down, motioned her to put the tray on a small table near and not
disturb her. As Dories was leaving the room, her aunt called, “I won’t
need you girls this afternoon.”
“Just as though she divined our wish to go somewhere,” Nann commented, a
few moments later, when Dories had told her.
“I’ll tell you what let’s do,” the younger girl suggested, “let’s pack a
lunch of sandwiches and olives and cookies. Then when the boys come we
can have a picnic. It’s noon and they didn’t have a lunch with them, I am
sure.”
“Good, that will be fun,” Nann agreed. “I’ll look now and see if they are
coming. We don’t want them to escape us.”
A moment later she returned from the front porch shaking her head. “Not a
trace of them,” she reported. Hurriedly they prepared a lunch and packed
it in a box. Then, after donning their bright-colored tams and sweater
coats, they went out the back door and were just rounding the front of
the cabin when Nann exclaimed, “Here they come, or rather there they go,
for they do not seem to have the least idea of stopping here.”
Nann was right. The two lads had appeared, scrambling over the point of
rocks, and away they ran along the hard sand of the beach, acknowledging
the existence of the girls merely by a hilarious waving of the arms.
Nann turned toward her friend, her large eyes glowing. “They’ve found a
clue, I’m sure certain! You can tell by the way they are racing that they
are just ever so excited about something.” As she spoke the boys
disappeared over a hummock of sand, going in the direction of the inlet
where Gibralter kept his punt hidden.
Dories clapped her hands. “I know!” she cried elatedly. “They’re going
out in the punt. The tide has turned! Oh, Nann, what do you suppose they
saw?”
“I believe they saw the pilot of the airplane enter the old ruin, so now
they are going to get the punt, and they’re in a great hurry to get back
to the creek before the airplane leaves.”
“Oh! How exciting! Do you suppose they will make it?”
Nann intently watched the blue water beyond the hummock of sand as she
replied, “I believe they will.” Then she added, “Oh, dear, I do hope
they’ll take time to stop and get us. It wouldn’t be fair for them to
have all the thrills, since we girls found the channel in the marsh.”
“Of course they’ll take us,” Dories replied, although in her heart of
hearts she rather hoped they would not, as she was not as eager as Nann
for adventure. “You know Dick said it wouldn’t be fair to go without us.”
Nann nodded. Then, with sudden brightening, “Hurry! Here they come! Let’s
race down to the point o’ rocks and see if they want to hail us.”
Then, as they started, “Do you know, Dori, I feel as though something
most unexpected is about to happen. I mean something very different from
what we think.”
The girls had reached the point of rocks and were standing with shaded
eyes, gazing out at the glistening water.
The flat-bottomed boat slowly neared them. Dick held one oar and Gib the
other. They both had their backs toward the point and evidently they had
not seen the girls.
“Why, I do declare! They aren’t going to stop. They’re going right by
without us.” Nann felt very much neglected, when suddenly Gib turned and
grinned toward them with so much mischief in his expression that Dories
concluded: “They did that just to tease. See, they’re heading in this way
now.”
This was true, and Dick, making a trumpet of his hands, called: “Want to
come, girls? If so, scramble over to the flat rock, quick’s you can!
We’re in a terrifical hurry!”
Dories and Nann needed no second invitation, but climbed over the jagged
rocks and stood on the broad one which was uncovered at low tide and
which served as a landing dock.
Dick, the gallant, leaped out to assist them into the punt, then, seizing
his oar, he commanded his mate, “Make it snappy, old man. We want to
catch the modern air pirate before he gets away with his treasure.”