Part 20 (1/2)
”Money isn't everything,” said Nellie.
”What _is_?” demanded Bobby.
”Our peace of mind,” declared the doctor's daughter, ”is more important. I shall be afraid to stay here if there are strange men on the island.”
”We'll settle that,” Laura declared, with vigor, ”and at once.”
”How?” demanded Dorothy, wonderingly.
”Search the island,” said practical Mother Wit. ”Certainly not by sitting down and sucking our thumbs.”
”Oh, Laura!” wailed Lil. ”I wouldn't dare!”
”Wouldn't dare what?” was Laura's rejoinder.
”Hunt for those men on this island. Why! we don't _want_ to find them.”
”And I'd like to know why not? I don't care if they _did_ leave money for the food they took----”
”But there must be something bad about them----”
”How do we know that, Lil?” asked Laura. ”There is, rather, something _good_ about them, or they would not have left the money for the stolen food.”
”Dear Laura is right--as she almost always is,” said Mrs. Morse, fondly. ”A real thief at heart would not have left that ten dollar bill.”
”An' I'm tellin' you that chap was the nicest one that lived at Missis Brayton's boardin' house,” put in Liz, reflectively.
”What chap?” cried Jess.
”The ha'nt,” said Liz, simply.
”Oh, dear me, Lizzie!” said Laura, in some disgust. ”Don't keep that up.”
”Well, then! If it wasn't his ha'nt, it was _himself_. Guess I know him,” declared the girl-of-all-work.
”Tell _me_ about it, please?” said Jess' mother, ”You girls run and get your baths and we'll get breakfast.”
”I--I don't want to leave the tent if there are thieves about,”
complained Lil, to whom the water looked just as cold on this morning as it had the day before. ”I--I've got some jewelry in my bag.”
”Very foolish,” said Bobby, bluntly. ”We told you not to bring anything to camp that you cared about.”
”Gently! gently!” said Laura, the peacemaker, ”Come on, Lil. Don't be afraid of either the kleptomaniantic thief, as Bobby calls him, or the cold water--neither will hurt you, I guess.”
They had their plunge and that--or something else--stirred Mother Wit's ”thinking machine.” She said, as they trooped up to dress:
”We'll wig-wag the boys and bring them over. They will help us search the island. Besides, we shall need one of the powerboats to go for more food. It seems funny that a man who was willing to pay for what he took--and pay so well--did not go down to Elberon Crossing and buy at the store just what he took from us.”
”He's an outlaw--a murderer, maybe, fleeing for his life,” suggested Lil, tremblingly.