The Secret at the Seashore

by Laura Lee Hope

  “We’ll show you the fairy castle we built yesterday,” Freddie volunteered. “We played in the sand all afternoon while the others were looking for that bad man.”

  “And we made a bee-yoo-ti-ful castle!” Flossie cried. “Wait till you see it!”

  Cindy ran up to the girls’ room and soon came down looking very pretty in a bright yellow suit.

  The older children were already on the beach when the small twins and their guest arrived. Freddie looked all around.

  “Why, wh-where is our castle?” he asked, bewildered.

  “It must be here!” Flossie insisted, walking up the sand a little way.

  “Have you lost something, honey?” Nan asked.

  “Yes, our sand castle!”

  Dorothy pointed to a slight hump in the sand. “Maybe that’s it,” she said. “I’m afraid the tide has washed most of it away!”

  “Oh, our pretty castle!” Flossie looked as if she were about to cry.

  Cindy came to the rescue. “Let’s make another one,” she proposed.

  “Sure,” Freddie agreed. “We can build a bigger one this time!”

  The three set to work. When Dinah called them to lunch they had almost finished the castle. This time they had built it far up on the beach so it could not be washed away.

  “I don’t think the tide will ever come up this far,” Freddie said hopefully.

  The children dressed quickly and soon met in the cool dining room. They chattered busily as they ate chicken salad and potato chips. Then Dinah brought in a big coconut cake.

  Cindy’s eyes sparkled. “This is the nicest time I’ve had for ages!” she announced happily.

  “How would you like to ride in a burro cart this afternoon?” Dorothy inquired.

  “Oh, yes!” Flossie cried. “You’ll love Doodle and Dandy!”

  Cindy was interested to hear about the little burros and eager to take a ride in the basket cart. Freddie decided that he would rather go back to the beach and finish the sand castle.

  Bert and Harry said they had other plans. So only Nan and Dorothy and the two little girls started off in the burro cart.

  “This is fun!” Cindy exclaimed as the two little animals trotted along the hard sand.

  Just then another cart, pulled by a pony, turned onto the beach ahead.

  “There’s Nancy Bowden,” Dorothy said. “Hi!” she called.

  The other girl, who was about Dorothy’s age but smaller, waved. She reined in her pony and waited until Doodle and Dandy caught up. Dorothy introduced her to Nan, Flossie, and Cindy.

  “Can your pony run as fast as Dorothy’s burros?” Flossie asked.

  Nancy’s eyes twinkled. “Want to race and find out?” she inquired.

  “We have a bigger load than you have!” Dorothy protested.

  “But you have two animals,” said Nancy. “That makes up for the extra weight.”

  Dorothy looked at Nan. “Shall we?” she asked.

  “Sure!” Nan agreed. “It’ll be fun!” “Okay,” Dorothy said to Nancy. “How far shall we make it?”

  Nancy shaded her eyes and peered down the beach. “See that dead tree at the edge of the sand?” she asked. “We’ll make that the finish line. The first one who passes it wins the race!”

  “Right!” Dorothy said. She straightened in her seat and took a firm grip on the reins. “When Nan yells, ‘ready, get set, go,’ we’ll start!”

  Nan waited until Cindy had taken her position, then gave the signal. “Giddap!” Dorothy and Nancy shouted. The burros and pony began to trot down the sand.

  “Oh, she’s beating us!” Flossie cried as the pony cart quickly pulled ahead.

  “Come on, Doodle I Come on, Dandy!” Dorothy called, slapping the reins on the burros’ backs.

  “We’re gaining!” Cindy called as she clung to the side of the basket cart.

  The burros suddenly realized they were in a race. They ran faster and faster, their long ears flattened against their heads. The pony also dashed along, his little hoofs kicking up the sand.

  They were really racing now. The two carts careened wildly up the beach, while the children hung on as tightly as they could

  “Whoa!” Dorothy cried.

  “Whoa!” screamed Nancy.

  Dorothy’s cart was on the inside. When it passed the dead tree which marked the finish line one wheel struck the wood. Flossie lost her grip and flew over the side!

  Nan grabbed the reins and helped Dorothy bring the excited burros to a stop. Nancy had managed to halt her pony. The children all jumped out and ran back to where Flossie sat on the sand.

  “Are you hurt, honey?” Nan asked anxiously, bending down beside her little sister.

  “N-no.” Flossie smiled up at Nan. “But I sat down awful hard!”

  “Well, you won the race anyhow,” Nancy said with a grin. “I guess two burros are better than one pony!”

  She and Dorothy turned their carts around and drove back slowly. Flossie began to tell Cindy about their picnic at Rocky Point, two days earlier.

  “Nan found a bottle with a note from a lost man. The initials were P. J.,” Flossie said.

  Nan turned and gave her sister a warning glance.

  “Oh!” Flossie gasped. “I forgot—I wasn’t s‘posed to tell!”

  “P. J.!” Cindy cried excitedly. “Those are my daddy’s initials! They stand for Peter John. Maybe the note was from him!” The little girl begged to hear more about the Bobbseys’ discovery.

  Nan finally explained that the paper had been from International Airplane Construction and that she had phoned them. “They’re going to investigate,” she said.

  “Oh, Cindy!” Flossie cried. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the note was from your daddy?”

  By this time they had reached the Minturns’ house. The girls all waved good-by to Nancy as Dorothy turned the cart into the roadway.

  Mrs. Bobbsey and Mrs. Minturn were on the porch as the children came from the barn. “We have good news for you,” Aunt Emily called out.

  “Has Albert Garry been caught?” Nan asked.

  Aunt Emily shook her head, “Not that. A man from IAC called and wanted to talk to you. He said to tell you they have checked into the location given in that note you found. They feel it’s quite possible the note was written by Captain Weller ! They are sending out a search plane immediately.”

  Cindy’s face lighted up. “My daddy is alive!” she cried.

  Mrs. Bobbsey and Nan and Flossie looked at one another. They hoped the little girl was not wrong. But the note had been written two months ago. Was the pilot still all right?

  Cindy looked up at Mrs. Bobbsey, her face still aglow. “I know Daddy Pete is safe!” she said.

  CHAPTER IX

  THE RESCUE COW

  NAN ran over to hug Cindy. “I’m sure your father is safe, too!” she said.

  Cindy turned to Aunt Emily. “I’ve had a lovely time,” she said, “but please may I go home now? I want to tell Mother about Daddy Pete.”

  While all this excitement was going on at Ocean Cliff, Bert and Harry were having an adventure of their own. On the beach that morning Bert had said in a low voice to Harry, “See those woods on the other side of the highway?”

  Harry had looked toward the distant trees and nodded. “Yes. Why?”

  “Well, I think that thief Garry might be hiding in there. How about our taking a walk in the woods this afternoon and looking around?”

  “Okay,” Harry agreed enthusiastically. “Dorothy says Indians roamed in there a long time ago. Maybe we can find some arrowheads.” Harry had a collection of Indian relics which he had dug up when the fields on his father’s farm had been plowed.

  After the girls had gone out in the donkey cart and Freddie had returned to the beach, Bert and Harry set off for the woods.

  “It’s swell and cool in here,” Harry commented as the two boys made their way among the trees.

  “Yes, and it sure would be a good place to hide,” Bert repli
ed. “Let’s keep our eyes open for any sign that Garry might have camped here.”

  The boys walked along slowly, peering right and left. The road was out of sight now, and the noise of traffic had faded away.

  Suddenly Bert’s foot hit something. He bent down and picked up a small stone. “Hey, look at this!” he called to Harry. “Do you think it’s an arrowhead?”

  Harry took the stone and examined it. It was heart-shaped with sharp edges and point. “I’m sure it is!” he said. “Let’s see if we can find some more!”

  Bert and Harry got down on their knees to search among the brown pine needles for more arrowheads. “Here’s another!” Harry cried out in a few minutes. He held up an odd-shaped stone with many dents in it.

  “It doesn’t look like the first one we found,” Bert remarked.

  “I know,” Harry replied, “but I found one like this on the farm, and Dad said it was Indian!”

  The boys were so interested in looking for more Indian relics that they forgot they had come into the woods to search for the thief. Finally, when they had collected a pocketful of arrowheads, Bert looked up.

  “Say, it’s getting dark in here! We’d better find our way out now while we can still see!” he said. “We came in this way, didn’t we?”

  Bert turned to his right and began to walk briskly.

  Harry followed for a few minutes, then stopped. “I think we’re going in the wrong direction, Bert. This doesn’t look right.”

  Bert looked up among the tall trees. “We should be able to tell by the sun, but it must have become cloudy. I can’t see it!”

  The boys walked on for a few minutes, then stopped again. “I guess we really are lost!” Bert admitted.

  “What do we do now?” Harry asked uncertainly.

  “I suppose we can build a signal fire,” Bert suggested. “Maybe someone will see it.”

  “Ssh!” Harry held up his hand. “I hear someone coming! Maybe it’s Garry!”

  They listened. There came the sound of crackling branches. Something was moving in their direction through the underbrush. But the steps did not sound as if they were being made by a human being!

  “D-do you think there are any bears in here?” Bert asked, his voice a little shaky.

  The boys waited, their hearts pounding. Then, suddenly, a large animal broke through the bushes in front of them.

  “A cow!” Harry cried with glee. “A nice old bossy!”

  Bert laughed. “She sure had me scared!”

  “If we follow her, she’ll lead us out of the woods,” Harry said. “Go on, Bossy!” he urged, giving the cow a light slap on the flank.

  The animal flicked her tail and slowly pushed her way through the underbrush. Bert and Harry followed. In a few minutes the cow had made her way to the edge of the woods.

  “We weren’t very far in, but we were going the wrong way,” Bert observed.

  When the boys and the cow emerged from the woods a woman ran toward them from a farmhouse nearby. “Oh, you’ve found Daisy!” she said thankfully. “My husband has just gone to look for her.”

  Bert grinned. “We didn’t exactly find Daisy,” he explained. “She found us!” He told how he and Harry had been lost in the woods.

  “I always said Daisy was smart!” the woman said. “You boys come in the house, and I’ll give you some milk and cookies. You must be hungry!”

  After the boys had finished two glasses of the creamy milk apiece and each eaten a half dozen crisp cookies, they thanked the farmer’s wife. She told them how to reach Ocean Cliff, and they left.

  That evening the children had a great deal to talk about. First, Flossie had to tell the boys about the exciting race on the sand and how she had fallen out of the cart. Then Nan and Dorothy told about the call from the airplane company.

  “Cindy is sure her father will be found,” Nan concluded happily.

  The boys described their expedition into the woods. “We had a very dangerous time!” Harry said. “We were almost eaten by a bear—only it turned out to be a cow!”

  The others laughed heartily at the idea of Bert and Harry being scared by a cow. Later when Bert was standing on the porch looking out over the water, Dorothy crept up behind him and gave a low moooo! Nan did the same thing to Harry a few minutes later.

  “All right!” Bert said. “You girls think you’re funny, but we’ll get even with you!”

  The next morning Bert and Harry put on their swim trunks and hurried down to the beach.

  “We may as well go, too,” Dorothy said, and the three girls went upstairs to their room to change. Then as they started to get into their bathing suits Flossie cried, “I can’t get my foot into the leg of my suit!”

  “My suit is sewed up all around!” Nan exclaimed.

  “So is mine.” Dorothy giggled. “And I’ll bet I know who did it, too! Bert or Harry!”

  Nan was busy with scissors cutting open Flossie’s and her suits. “Someone must have helped them! Bert can’t sew!” she declared.

  “Would Dinah, do you think?” Dorothy suggested.

  Flossie pulled on her suit and ran down to the kitchen. “Dinah,” she said, “did you help the boys sew up our suits?”

  A big smile spread over the cook’s face. “Now, honey,” she said, “why would I do a thing like that?” She turned away chuckling.

  Nan, who had followed Flossie into the room, smiled. “You act guilty to me, Dinah,” she said teasingly. “We’ll think up something to get even with the boys, and you’ll have to help us!”

  Dinah shook with laughter. “You can count on me, honey,” she promised.

  When the girls reached the beach a little later, Harry commented, “It took you a long time to get ready, didn’t it?”

  “Oh, no,” Nan replied with an innocent air. “We were just talking to Dinah!” None of the girls mentioned the sewn-up suits, and the boys looked baffled.

  After lunch Hal came over to the Minturns. “Sorry I couldn’t get here this morning,” he told the children, “but my mother had some errands for me to do. How about the Water Carnival tomorrow? Have you planned anything?”

  “Let’s be Indians,” Harry suggested. “It would be easy. We could find some nifty costumes to wear.”

  “And we can use my new canoe!” Hal joined in.

  “I know what else we can use if Aunt Emily doesn’t mind!” Bert exclaimed. He ran into the kitchen and in a few minutes returned with a feather duster.

  “Aunt Emily says she doesn’t need it and we can tear it up if we want,” Bert reported. The boys decided to make headbands with feathers.

  “If you fellows are Indians, why don’t we be pioneers in the West?” Dorothy said. “We can fix up our outboard motorboat to look like a covered wagon. And we have a trunk full of old-fashioned clothes in the attic!”

  Hal and Harry hurried over to the shopping center to get their hair bands and some grease paint for their faces. Bert said he would go to the lake with Dorothy and Nan to help them trim the Firefly. They took some loops of wire from the barn and made a frame for the wagon roof.

  “What can we use for the cover?” Nan asked.

  “How about some old white beach towels?” Dorothy said.

  She hurried off to get the towels, and they were draped over the wire. The children stood back to admire their work.

  “It looks great!” Bert said. “But I’ll bet it’s the only covered wagon that ever had a motor!”

  Back at the house Nan and Dorothy found long, full skirts and shawls for themselves and a little white dress and sunbonnet for Flossie.

  “You sure look like old-time western movies,” Bert commented.

  By this time Harry and Hal had returned with their purchases. “Come on,” Dorothy directed. “Let’s get into our costumes and have a dress rehearsal!”

  A few minutes later, all the children gathered on the front porch. “How do we look, Mother?” Flossie asked, holding out her skirt and whirling around.

  “Wonderful!
” Mrs. Bobbsey said. “If you’ll come out in back, where the light is better, I’ll take your pictures.”

  As they posed for the snapshots Mrs. Bobbsey said, “Goodness, that line full of clothes will be in the picture. Nan, run in and ask Dinah to take them down, please. They’re dry.”

  As Nan went off, Freddie suddenly said, “Everyone is in the carnival except Snoop! Can’t he do something?”

  The other children laughed. What could a cat do in a water carnival?

  But Freddie was serious. “I know,” he said. “Snoop can be a black panther that the Indians have just shot! I’ll sling him over my shoulder the way they do in the movies I”

  Flossie giggled at the thought of Snoop being a panther as her twin ran off to find his pet. Snoop was asleep in the shade of the barn and did not want to be carried away.

  While he was being arranged on Indian Bert’s shoulder, Dinah came out to the yard with her clothes basket. She took the dry clothes from the line and stood aside to watch the picture-taking.

  “You all look mighty nice,” she commented.

  “Thank you,” said Nan. “We’re ready, Mother I” she called, as Bert held Snoop steady on his shoulder.

  When Mrs. Bobbsey had the camera focused Bert took his hand away. At that moment Snoop gave a great leap and landed thump on top of the laundry in Dinah’s basket!

  CHAPTER X

  THE PANTHER’S BATH

  “OH, MY!” Dinah yelled. She dropped the basket, spilling the clothes onto the grass.

  Snoop crawled from the basket, a red sock draped over his black head! He gave a hurried look around, then streaked for the barn.

  The children doubled over with laughter. Even Mrs. Bobbsey had difficulty keeping her face straight as she said to Dinah, “I’m sorry Snoop did that. We’ll help you pick up the laundry.”

  By this time Dinah had recovered from her surprise and began to chuckle. “That Snoop!” she said. “He’s sure got more tricks than any cat I ever saw!”

  Nan and Dorothy collected the scattered laundry. “I guess nothing got dirty, Dinah,” Nan said comfortingly as they filled the basket.

  Still chuckling, Dinah carried it into the house. Freddie, meanwhile, had run after the cat.