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The girls came out upon the point where the lighthousestood. (See Page 175)]
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BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
OR
THE MYSTERY OF THE WRECK
BY
JANET D. WHEELER
AUTHOR OF "BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE," "BILLY BRADLEY AT THREE TOWERS HALL," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY PUBLISHERS
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BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES BY JANET D. WHEELER
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance Or The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners
Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall Or Leading a Needed Rebellion
Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island Or The Mystery of the Wreck
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY Publishers -- New York
Copyright, 1920, CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island PRINTED IN U. S. A.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE I Lost 1 II The Hut in the Woods 9 III Ferns and Mystery 17 IV At the School Again 25 V Much Ado About Nothing 33 VI Found--One Album 41 VII Strange Actions 49 VIII An Invitation 57 IX Amanda Again 63 X Two of a Kind 71 XI At Home 79 XII Preparing for the Trip 86 XIII Pleasure Draws Near 95 XIV The Light on Lighthouse Island 102 XV Connie's Mother 110 XVI Clam Chowder and Salt Air 118 XVII Fun and Nonsense 125 XVIII Uncle Tom 133 XIX Paul's Motor Boat 141 XX Out of the Fog 150 XXI The Boys are Interested 158 XXII The Fury of the Storm 166 XXIII Fighting for Life 174 XXIV Three Small Survivors 182 XXV The Mystery Solved 191
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BILLIE BRADLEY ON 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 notbeen 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 nothave looked more startled. Then Billie Bradley cocked an eye at what shecould see of the sky through the trees and held out one handexperimentally.
"You're crazy," she announced, turning an accusing eye upon Laura. "It'sno more raining than you are. And, anyway, haven't we troubles enoughwithout your going and making up a new one?"
"M-making up!" Laura stuttered in her indignation. "If you don't believeme, just look at my nose."
"I don't see what your nose has to do with it," Billie began scornfully,but the third of the trio, Violet Farrington, by name, interrupted.
"Laura's right," she cried. "I just felt a great big drop myself. Now,what ever are we going to do?" Vi dropped down in a pathetic little heapon a convenient rock, looking up at her chums wistfully.
Violet Farrington was always a little wistful when in trouble, like asmall girl who can never understand why she is being punished. But justnow this wistfulness irritated Billie Bradley, who was very much given toquick action herself, and she turned upon Vi rather snappily.
"Well, you needn't just sit there like a ninny," she cried. "Get up andhelp us think what we can do to get out of this mess."
"Mess is right," said Laura Jordon gloomily.
And it must be admitted that the girls were in rather a trying situation.Their botany teacher at Three Towers Hall, where they were students, hadsent them into the woods to gather some rare ferns which they were to usein the botany class the next day.
That was all very well; for if there was anything the girls loved it wasa trip into the woods. They had started off in hilarious spirits; andthen--the impossible thing had happened.
They had gathered the ferns, turned to go back to Three Towers, andfound, to their absolute dismay, that they did not know which way to go.There was no getting over the fact. They were absolutely and completelylost!
For almost an hour now they had been wandering around and around, gettingdeeper into the woods every minute, until they had finally begun to feelreally frightened. Suppose they couldn't find Three Towers before dusk?Suppose they should be forced to stay in the woods all night? These and ahundred other thoughts had chased themselves through their heads, butthey had said nothing of their fears to each other. The girls werethoroughly "game."
But now had come this new complication. It had begun to rain. Hopelesslylost in the woods and a storm coming on! It was a situation to try thepatience of a saint. And the girls were not saints. They were just happy,fun-loving, lovable specimens of young American girlhood who could uponoccasion show rather alarming flashes of temper.
"I'm not a ninny," Vi protested hotly; but Billie was already started ona different train of thought. She caught Vi's wrist in hers and her eyeswere big and round as she looked from her to Laura.
"Suppose," she said in a whisper, "we should meet the Codfish!"
Vi shivered nervously, but it was Laura's turn to be cross.
"Don't be silly," she said. "Don't you know that the Codfish is safe injail, and has been there for a long time? Now who's making up somethingto worry about, I'd like to know."
"But thieves do break out of jail," Billie insisted. "And the Codfish isjust the kind who would do it."
"Goodness, Billie, what an idea!" said Vi breathlessly. "I never eventhought about his escaping. And I suppose," she added, beginning to feeldeliciously goose-fleshy, "that we'd be the very first ones he'd go for.Revenge, you know--that's what they are always after in the stories."
"I hate to interrupt you," Laura broke in as sarcastically as she could."But if you two want to stand there all day talking about the Codfish andrevenge, you can, but I'm going to find some way out of this place.Goodness, I felt another drop. And there's another!"
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"Well, you needn't count them," Billie remarked briskly, bringing anhysterical giggle from Vi. "Come on, there must be a path of some kindaround here."
"I suppose there is, but if we can't find it, it won't do us much good,"said Laura, looking about her helplessly.
"Well, we certainly won't find it by standing still," snapped Billie."Come on. I feel it in my bones that Three Towers is somewhere off inthis direction." And she led the way into the woods, the girls followingdispiritedly.
And while the three chums are searching for the path, the opportunitywill be taken to recount to new readers some of the adventures and queerexperiences the girls had had up to the present time.
In the first book of this series, entitled, "Billie Bradley and HerInheritance," Billie had been left an old homestead at Cherry Corners inthe upper part of New York State. The strange legacy had come to Billiefrom an eccentric aunt, Beatrice Powerson, for whom Billie had beennamed. For Billie's real name was not Billie at all, but Beatrice.
It will be remembered that the girls had decided to spend their vacationthere, and that the boys, Billie's brother Chetwood, Laura's brotherTeddy, and another boy, Ferd Stowing, had joined them there and thatqueer and exciting adventures had followed.
The most wonderful thing of all had been the finding of the shabby oldtrunk in the attic whose contents of rare old coins and postage stampshad brought Billie in nearly five thousand dollars in cash. The money hadenabled Billie to replace a statue which she had accidentally broken alittle while before and had also given her the chance to go to ThreeTowers Hall, a good boarding school, and Chet the opportunity to go tothe Boxton Military Academy, which was only a little over a mile fromThree Towers Hall.
The good times the girls had at school--and some bad times, too--havebeen told of in the second book of the series, called, "Billie Bradley atThree Towers Hall."
In North Bend, where the girls had always lived, there lived also twoother girls, Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks. These girls were sneaks andtattletales of the worst order and were thoroughly disliked by all thegirls and boys with whom they had come in contact.
When the chums had heard that Amanda was to accompany them to ThreeTowers they were absolutely dismayed, for they expected that she wouldspoil all the fun. Amanda had done her best to live up to theexpectations of the girls, but try as she would, she had not been able tospoil entirely the fun. And this very failure had, of course, made herand her chum, Eliza Dilks, furious.
Both Three Towers Hall and Boxton Military Academy had been built on thebanks of the beautiful Lake Molata, and the girls and boys had spent manyhappy hours rowing upon the lake in the fall and skating upon it in thewinter.
But the most amazing thing that had happened to them at Three Towers hadbeen the capture of the man the girls called "The Codfish." This rascalhad attempted to steal Billie's precious trunk in the beginning, butBillie and the boys had given chase in an automobile and had succeeded inrecovering the trunk. They had also succeeded in getting a good look atthe man, whose hair was red, eyes little and close together, mouth wideand loose-lipped. It was this last feature that had given the thief hisname with the boys and girls. For the mouth certainly resembled that of acodfish.
Later the "Codfish" had turned up again near Three Towers Hall, hadrobbed one of the teachers of her purse when she was returning from town,and had later succeeded in making off with a great many valuables fromBoxton Military Academy.
The girls never forgot how, with the aid of the boys, they had capturedthe Codfish and turned him over to the police. Though, as Laura said, thethief had been in jail for some time, the chums had never stoppedthinking and wondering about him. But never before had the possibility ofhis escaping been thought of.
But now, as they made their way through the forest that was growingdarker and darker, they could not shake off the thought of him.
They glanced often and uneasily into the shadowy woodland and drew closertogether as if for protection. The rain was beginning to come a littlefaster now, and their clothes felt damp. Even Billie's courage wasbeginning to fail.
Suddenly Laura stopped stock still and looked at them impatiently.
"There's not a bit of use our going on like this," she said. "For all weknow we may be getting farther away from the path every minute."
"And my feet hurt," added Vi pathetically.
Suddenly Billie called to them. She had gone on a little ahead and,peering through the dusk, had seen the outline of something dark, a blacksmudge against the gray of the woods.
"Girls, come here quick!" she cried, and half-fearing, half-hoping, theyknew not what, the others ran to her.