by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER XVII SECRETS TOLD
For a full ten minutes the three girls appeared to act a perfect scene ina moving picture. Ruth rowed furiously. Betty sat with eyes fixed on thereceding shoreline. Pearl stared at Ruth and Betty with unbelieving eyes.
At the end of that time Ruth dropped her oars to mop her brow. They werenow well out in the bay. Fishing boats and motor launch dotted the bay.It was day, bright and fair. No one was pursuing them. To all appearancesthey were as safe here as at home.
"Where did you get them?" Pearl was still staring at their silk dresses.
"Why--er--" Ruth began, with mock gravity, "that's a marvelous place downthere in the old fort. You go in dressed in cotton blouse and knickersand you come out all togged up in silk."
"Ruth," said Betty, "we'll be arrested!"
"Let 'em try it!" said Ruth. "If we'd taken the whole pile they wouldn'tdare. They're trespassers, smugglers, thieves, perhaps. It's safe enough.But girls," her tone grew suddenly sober, "it's time some one inauthority took a hand. This has been a perfectly glorious adventure,thrilling, mysterious and all that, but it's gone quite far enough. Whoshall we tell?"
"My little man at Witches Cove," said Pearl. "He is a Secret Service man.Besides, he's quite wonderful."
"All right, then. Witches Cove it is," said Ruth, gripping her oars oncemore. "We'll hug the right shore. That way, anyone that's watching can'ttell for sure where we're going."
In spite of this precaution some one knew whither they were headed, andno good came of it.
The little man of Witches Cove had an uncanny way of anticipating thearrival of visitors to his rugged shores. They found him seated on agreat boulder with his feet dangling perilously near the water.
"Well, now!" he exclaimed. "Here we are all dressed up for a party. Twosisters and Cinderella. I suppose I am to fit out our little sister witha silver slipper."
His round, good humored face grew suddenly sober as Ruth told theirreason for coming. He interrupted her but once. Then he cautioned her tolower her voice.
"You have truly made a marvelous discovery," he said when she hadfinished. "I've been looking for some such thing. It comes a littlesooner than I expected. Three of my men will be on the afternoon boatfrom Boston. As soon as they are here we will formulate plans for action.In the meantime I shall have an eye on the old fort. They cannot remove aschooner load of silks from under my nose, I assure you.
"As for you," his gaze swept the circle of three eager faces, "this, Itake it, is going to be a splendid day for fishing. And when you fish,"his smile broadened, "you keep very still. In other words, mum it is. Youmust not breathe a word to another soul."
"We won't," they said in unison.
So the day was well begun. But it was not ended, not by a good deal.
The three girls did not go fishing, at least not at once. They did acceptthe little man's counsel in regard to the earlier happenings of themorning. Not one word regarding them passed their lips.
They did wish to go fishing, later in the day, but in the meantime therewas work to be done. Summer folks must have their clam chowder. To Ruthand Pearl fell the lot of digging the clams. All forenoon, under theboiling sun, ankle deep in mud and sand, they dug and clawed away withtheir clam forks until three great baskets were heaped high withblue-black clams. Then they hurried home to dinner.
By mid-afternoon they were ready for a well-deserved lark.
Betty joined them at the pier. Ruth had drawn the _Flyaway_ alongside,had put on board their lines, bait and lunch, and was preparing to castoff the line when her eyes fell upon a woebegone and drooping littlefigure on the dock.
"It--it--Well, I never!" she exclaimed. "It's the little girl I savedfrom the surf up at Monhegan."
"Hey, there!" she called. "I thought you'd gone back to Monhegan."
"No." The girl's head shook slowly.
"Mother got afraid when we sailed away down here in that boat you fixedup. She thought Monhegan was too wild and dangerous. But it isn't!" Herspirit flared up like a torch. "It's just glorious. It's dreadfully dulldown here. We--" she looked at the boy at her side, and Ruth saw that itwas her brother, "we're going to do something terrible pretty soon!"
"Oh, please don't," said Ruth. "I say! We're going fishing. Want to goalong?"
The girl looked up at the boy. "Go ahead." He pushed her toward the_Flyaway_.
Ruth recognized this as a generous act. She wanted to ask him to come,too, but it had been agreed that this was to be a girls' party.
It was Don who saved the day for her. He was on the _Foolemagin_, busymending a lobster trap.
"Going round the island in a little while to lift some traps," he said,looking at the boy. "Care to go along?"
"Be glad to." The boy turned and helped his sister aboard the _Flyaway_.Ruth cast off the line. The sail went up. She swung about. Then they wentskimming down the bay.
Pearl and the little city girl went forward to lie upon the prow andwatch the water gliding by. Ruth and Betty remained at the wheel.
"Betty," said Ruth, quite suddenly, "is life a joke?"
"Is life a joke?" Betty gave her a quick look as she suspected her ofplaying a trick upon her. "No," she said slowly when she realized thather friend was in earnest, "life is not a joke. Life is beautiful,wonderful. How could anything that is all this be a joke? Why? What madeyou ask?"
As the boat glided smoothly over the water, Ruth told her why; told herof the city boy's laugh and of his remark about life. She told, too, ofthe figured taffeta dress, the alligator shoes and the gay hat.
When she had finished, little Betty, who was so young, yet who had seenso much of life, of its joys and sorrows, its struggles, pains andtriumphs, sat with half-closed eyes, thinking.
"Do you know what life is?" she said at last. "Life is a struggle, aglorious, terrible battle. You begin it when you begin life. You end itwhen you breathe your last breath. To hope, to dream, to struggle on,"her slight figure grew suddenly tense, "to fall and rise again. To see astar, a gleam of hope, to battle toward it, to be beaten back, defeated,to turn again to hope and dream and win, only to see a fairer light, alovelier vision farther on the way, then to hope and dream again. That--"she ended, throwing her arms wide, "that is life, a beautiful, gloriousthing! No! No! It can't be a joke! It can't be!"
"But Ruth," she said presently, "what have your new dress and shoes andhat to do with life being a joke?"
"Well," the flicker of a smile played about the big girl's face, "Ithought if life were a joke, then one might as well have what she wants.I've always wanted those things, so I--I got them."
"They spell happiness to you?"
"I--I suppose so."
"Then you had a right to them. Everyone has a right to happiness. Did youever think of that? Every man, woman and little child has a right tohappiness bought at a fair price. And the price of a new dress, shoes anda hat is not too much. There now!" Betty ended, "I've done a lot ofpreaching. Here's Witches Cove. Give me a nice fat clam and a big hook. Ifeel lucky to-day." With a laugh she began unwinding her line.