Janet D. Wheeler

“ Connie Danver’s Uncle Tom attended the lighthouse, and, living there all the year around, had become as much of a fixture as the island itself. Connie loved this uncle of hers, and had told the girls enough about him to rouse their curiosity and make them very eager to meet him.
The girls walked on in silence for a little way and then, as they came to a path that led into the woods, Laura stopped suddenly and said in a dramatic voice:
“Do you realize where we are, my friends? Do you, by any chance, remember a tall, thin, wild-eyed man?” ”

“ All but one of them succeeded in drifting off into 124 the land of nod in no time at all, but that one of them—who was Billie—lay for a long time with eyes wide open staring into the dark.
Then gradually the soft lapping of waves upon the beach soothed her into a sort of doze where tall thin men and shabby picture albums and queer little huts were all confused and jumbled together. Only one thing stood out clearly, and that was the great searchlight, twinkling, winking, glowing, sending its friendly message far out upon the sea. ”

“ They were standing just outside the store where their last purchases had been made when Billie, looking down the street, gave a cry of delight.
“Look who’s coming!” she exclaimed.
“It’s the boys!” cried Vi. “Mercy, girls, we might just as well have spent the rest of our money, the boys will treat us to the ice cream.”
“Goodness, Vi! do you want to spend your money whether you get anything you really need or wish for or not?” inquired Billie, with a little gasp.
“What in the world is money for if not to spend?” asked Vi, making big and innocent eyes at Billie. ”

“ But we can see them again some time if we want to.”
“And just think,” added Laura happily, “the boys are coming back next week. And that means Teddy, too,” she added slyly.
“Yes, I’m glad he—they are coming,” stammered Billie, and the others laughed at her confusion. Then suddenly she wiped away the last trace of her tears and her eyes began to shine, making her look like the Billie the girls knew and loved best. “We will have some good times when the boys come, girls. Why,” as if making a surprising discovery, “our fun has just begun!” ”

“ By the time they had reached Miss Arbuckle and the finding of her album in the woods they were feeling delightfully thrilly and farther away from sleep than ever.
“It really must be a mystery,” Connie was saying, snuggling deeper into the covers and staring at Billie’s pretty face and tousled hair weirdly illumined by the pale moonlight that sifted through the window, when there came a tap on the door. And right upon the tap came Mrs. Bradley, wearing a loose robe that made her look mysteriously lovely in the dim light. She sat down on the edge of the bed and regarded the girls smilingly. ”

“ We never need to buy any,” she added, proudly. “Uncle Tom keeps us supplied with all we want. Look!” she cried suddenly, pointing to a small island which loomed directly ahead of them, looking in the grey mist of evening like only 108 a darker shadow against the shifting background. “That’s our island—see? And there’s the light,” she added, as a sudden beacon flashed out at them, sending a ruddy light out over the dark water.
“Oh, isn’t it beautiful!” cried Billie rapturously. ”

“ I can’t believe yet that it isn’t a dream.”
“You want to be careful,” said Teddy, staring straight before him, “if you go in bathing at all. There are awfully strong currents around there, you know.”
“Oh, of course I know all about that,” returned Billie, with the air of one who could not possibly be taught anything. “Connie says her Uncle Tom knows of a darling little inlet where the water’s so calm it’s almost like a swimming pool. Of course we’ll do most of our swimming there. Oh, Teddy, you ought to see my new bathing suit!” ”

“ For the elderly woman—who most certainly was an old maid—had been terribly embarrassed over the bird’s outbreak and began explaining to the girls how she happened to have it in her possession, what troubles she had already had with it, how glad she would be when she delivered the bird to her brother, who was its rightful owner, and so on until the girls became desperate enough to throw things at her.
“Isn’t there some way we can stop her!” whispered Vi in Connie’s ear, while Billie and Laura were listening to the woman’s chatter with forced smiles and polite “yeses and nos.” ”

“ Did your mother do this too, Paul?” asked Laura, her eyes traveling admiringly from the pretty wicker lounging chairs to the gayly striped awning and brilliant deck rail that shown like gold in the dazzling sun. “Why, Paul, I never knew a motor boat could be so pretty and comfy.”
“Say, but you ought to see her go!” put in Chet eagerly. “She’s as fast a little boat as she is pretty. Oh, she’s great!” ”

“ The girls stared at her a minute as if she had roused them out of sleep.
“For goodness sake, what made you think of that now?” asked Laura a little peevishly. “I’m so tired I don’t want to form clubs or anything else. All I want is to get out somewhere where I can stretch my legs, get some supper, and go to bed. I’m dead.”
“You’re making lots of noise for a dead one,” chuckled Billie, and Laura made a face at her.
“But no one’s answered my question,” broke in Connie plaintively. “I thought you girls loved mysteries and things.” ”

“ Connie treated her as she would an older and much loved sister. One only needed to be with them three minutes to see that mother and daughter adored each other and were the very best chums in the world. And right then and there Billie began adoring too.
“Now I’ll run downstairs and get something on the table for you girls to eat, for I know you must be starving,” said Mrs. Danvers, or rather “Connie’s mother,” as Billie called her from that day on. “Don’t stop to fix up, girls, for there won’t be a soul here to-night but Daddy and me—and we don’t care. ”

“ It became impossible for Paul to steer, and all there was to do was to sit still and wait and hope for the best. Fog horns were sounding all about, some seeming so close that the girls fully expected to see some great shape loom up through the mist, bearing down upon them.
For a long time nobody spoke—they were too busy listening to the weird meanings of the fog horns and wondering how they could have escaped a collision so long. For a while Paul had kept the engine running in the hope that he might be able to keep to his course and eventually get to Lighthouse Island. ”

“ LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
CHAPTER I LOST
Splash! went a big drop just on the exact tip of Laura Jordon’s pretty, rather upturned nose. She put her hand to the drop to be sure she had not been mistaken, then turned in dismay to her companions.
“Girls,” she cried, “it’s raining!”
If she had said the world was coming to an end her companions could not have looked more startled. Then Billie Bradley cocked an eye at what she could see of the sky through the trees and held out one hand experimentally.
“You’re crazy,” she announced, turning an accusing eye upon Laura. “It’s no more raining than you are. ”

“ The girls were just pulling on their waterproof coats when Connie’s mother, white and trembling, appeared in the doorway and stared with amazement at sight of them.
“I heard you talking, girls,” she said, “and knew you were awake. I hoped you would sleep through it.”
“Sleep through that?” asked Connie, as the siren rose to a shriek and then died off into a despairing moan. “Oh, Mother——”
“But what are you going to do, kiddies?” asked Mrs. Danvers, taking a step toward them. “The life-savers will be coming soon—perhaps they are at work now—and they will do all that can be done. ”

“ If all wishes could be fulfilled as quickly as that of Laura’s there would be few unsatisfied people in the world, for before it was out of her mouth Billie uttered a sharp cry of pain, and, lifting a smarting ankle in her hand, began to rub it gently. ”

“ The great hole ripped in her side by the impact with the shoal would fill with water, and in five minutes there would be nothing left but the swirling water to mark the spot where she had been.
And the passengers! At the thought Billie cried out aloud and clenched her fists.
“Oh, oh, it can’t be, it can’t be! Those boats will never reach her in time. Oh, isn’t there something somebody can do?” She turned pleadingly to Uncle Tom, but the look on his face startled her and she followed his set gaze out to sea. ”

“ Chet clamored for Teddy’s news, and excitedly Teddy showed him the letter from Paul Martinson saying that the “old boat” would be ready to sail in a few days.
“Whoop!” cried Chet joyfully, trying to wave a suitcase in the air and nearly dropping it on his toe instead. “Say, girls, you may see us even before you hoped to.”
“Hoped to!” sniffed Laura. “Don’t you hate yourself?”
“Oh, I’m so glad!” cried Billie, her eyes shining. “It will be a lark to have you boys drop in on us some morning when we don’t expect you. Oh, it’s just grand! We’ll be sure to be watching for all of you.” ”

“ Connie clutched at her arm. “Isn’t that a motor boat?”
“That” was a tiny spot that grew bigger as they looked and seemed to be headed in their direction.
“It’s a boat of some sort, I think,” said Vi. “But you can’t tell whether it’s a motor boat or some other kind of a craft.”
“Of course you can,” Laura broke in excitedly. “It’s got to be a motor boat because there aren’t any sails or anything. It is! It is! Oh, girls! could it be——”
“The boys?” finished Billie, shading her eyes with her hand and gazing eagerly out toward the speck that was growing larger every minute. ”

“ But when they reached the dock there was never a craft of any kind to be seen except those far out upon the glistening water of the lake. Of course the beautiful weather was responsible for this, for all the girls who had not lessons to do or errands in town had made a bee line—as Ferd Stowing expressed it—straight down to the lake.
“Oh, well, this will do,” said Teddy, sitting down on the edge of the little dock so that his feet could hang over and reaching up a hand for Billie. “Come along, everybody. We can look at the water, anyway.” ”

“ When the chums had heard that Amanda was to accompany them to Three Towers they were absolutely dismayed, for they expected that she would spoil all the fun. Amanda had done her best to live up to the expectations of the girls, but try as she would, she had not been able to spoil entirely the fun. And this very failure had, of course, made her and her chum, Eliza Dilks, furious. ”

“ And it’s the little boat that gets the worst of it,” he added gloomily.
“Say, can’t you try being cheerful for a change?” cried Teddy indignantly, for he had noticed how white Billie was getting and was trying his best to think of something to say that would make her laugh. “There’s no use of singing a funeral song yet, you know.”
“No, and there’s no use in starting a dance, either,” retorted Paul, wondering how much longer he would be able to keep his course. “We’re in a mighty bad fix, and no harm can be done by everybody knowing it. ”

“ Laura asked, with a patient sigh. “If you don’t mind my saying it, I’m getting hungry.”
“Goodness! after all that ice cream?” cried Billie, adding with a little chuckle: “You’re luckier than I am, Laura. I feel as if I shouldn’t want anything to eat for a thousand years.”
She was just turning reluctantly to follow her chums back along the path when a dark, bulky-looking 48 object lying in a clump of bushes near by caught her eye and she went over to examine it.
“Now what in the world——” Laura was beginning despairingly when suddenly Billie gave a queer little cry.
“Come here quick, girls!” ”

“ Five minutes passed, and the girls who could “never go to sleep,” felt their eyelids grow heavy and a delicious drowsiness steal over them. Once Connie roused herself enough to say sleepily: “We’ll just have to form that Detective Club, Billie, you know.” ”

“ Billie said something like this, but Connie shook her head doubtfully.
“I don’t know how we’re going to have any adventures,” she said. “There isn’t so very much to do besides swimming and rowing in Uncle Tom’s rowboat——”
“Goodness, isn’t that enough?” said Billie, turning on her. “Why, just being at the seashore is an adventure. Just think, I’ve never in my life been inside a really truly lighthouse. It’s going to be just wonderful, Connie.”
“And aren’t the boys coming in their motor boat, too?” added Vi eagerly. “Why, they will probably take us for a sail around the point and everything. ”

“ Billie and Laura and Vi felt very much bewildered, for they had never done any traveling except in the company of some older person; but with a confidence that surprised them, Connie took command of the situation. For Connie had traveled this route several times, and everything about it was familiar to her.
“Give me your trunk checks,” she ordered, adding, as the girls obediently fumbled in their pocketbooks: “We’ll have to hustle if we want to get our trunks straightened out and get on board ourselves before the boat starts. What’s the matter, Vi, you haven’t lost your check, have you?” ”