CHAPTER XIX
THE SHIPWRECK
“Look after Trouble!” Mrs. Martin cried to the two girls the momentJanet told this startling news to her mother. “I’ll get the boys outof the lake!”
Down the path she ran, and so quickly had she gotten up that sheknocked Trouble down. He sat down on the porch, rather hard, and hewas just going to cry, not knowing what it was all about, when Janettook him up in her arms.
“Don’t cry, Trouble! Don’t cry!” she said.
“Trouble fell down!” said the little fellow, in a voice that soundedtearful. “Momsie make Trouble fall!”
“But she didn’t mean to,” said Lola, thinking to help Janet take careof Baby William. “Momsie has gone to help get Ted and Tom out of thelake.”
“Trouble want to go in ’ake!” exclaimed Janet’s brother.
“Oh, no, Trouble! Two in a lake at once is enough!” said Janet. “Iwonder if they’re out yet,” she added.
“Uncle Ben and Mr. Martin will have them out by this time,” repliedLola. “We forgot to tell your mother that they were after them.”
And when the mother of the Curlytops reached the end of the path fromthe bungalow, where she could look down to the lake and the dock herhusband owned, she saw that Uncle Ben and Mr. Martin were lifting fromthe water two small, dripping boys.
“Oh, they’ve got them out!” gasped Mrs. Martin, and she did not run sofast now, for she was quite out of breath. “Oh, I thought Ted and Tomhad fallen in when no one was near to help them!”
As she reached the pier she saw Ted and Tom placed on the end ofit—Tom by Uncle Ben and Ted by his father. Water gushed out from theshoes of the small boys, and even seemed to splatter from their manypockets, and both of them were gasping and trying to wipe the dropsfrom their eyes. Skyrocket was prancing about and barking as loudly ashe could bark. At the same time he was wagging his tail, and that wasa good sign, for it showed he knew Ted and Tom were all right.
“What happened?” gasped Mrs. Martin, as she hurried down to the dock.“Are you hurt?”
“Not a bit!” answered Uncle Ben, with a laugh. “Only wet. And they’llsoon dry in this wind.”
The wind was, indeed, blowing hard, and it was bringing a storm withit. The lake was getting rough.
“What happened, Teddy?” asked his mother.
“Oh, it was just a little accident,” explained Mr. Martin, as he andUncle Ben got out of a boat from which they had reached over andpulled Ted and Tom out of the water. “The boys were helping us makeeverything snug from the storm that is coming, when Ted slipped offthe pier and went into the lake.”
“And Tom tried to grab me, and he fell in, too!” added Ted. “Then wewere both in, and we couldn’t swim very well with our clothes on.” Tedand Tom could both swim a little, not so very well though even withtheir clothes off.
“I could ’a’ caught you if I’d ’a’ seen you falling in,” declared Tom.“But you went in so quick!”
“Yes, it didn’t take him long!” laughed Mr. Martin. “He seemed to jumpin as quickly as a frog jumps in off a log when he hears a boy with adog coming.”
“And then what happened?” asked Mrs. Martin, as she wiped some of thewater off Tom’s face with her handkerchief.
“Oh, well, Uncle Ben and I were right here. We jumped into a boat,”said Mr. Martin, “and reached over and lifted the boys out. They weretrying to swim, but couldn’t very well. Did you swallow much water?”he asked them.
“A little,” admitted Ted.
“And I ate some, too,” said Tom. “It’s better than the ocean water,’cause it isn’t salty.”
“Go up to the house now and get on dry clothes,” advised Mr. Martin.“Uncle Ben and I will finish making fast the boats.”
“Yes, come with me,” said Ted’s mother.
Ted and Tom went up the hill with Mrs. Martin, just as Janet and Lola,leading Trouble by the band, were coming down to the dock.
“Oh, are they all right?” asked the two little girls.
“All right! We had a swim with our clothes on!” boasted Tom.
So the little accident was soon over, and no one was much the worse.
“Well, now it can blow as much as it likes,” said Daddy Martin aftersupper that night, when they were all sitting on the bungalow porch.“All our boats are snug, the candy house on the pier is shut up, andwe are ready for rain or snow.”
“Oh, not snow, Daddy!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin. “We aren’t ready forsnow. This bungalow would be too cold for the Curlytops to be snowedin.”
“Oh, do you ’member how we got snowed in once?” asked Janet of herbrother.
“Sure I do,” he answered. “Say, we did have lots of fun then!”
And those of you who have read about what took place when theCurlytops were snowed in will recall what happened to Ted, Janet andthe others.
“I think the storm is coming along fast,” said Uncle Ben, as helistened to the sighing of the wind in the trees around the bungalow.“It’s going to rain, but I don’t believe it will snow, though it mayhail, and hail stones are worse than snow.”
“Can we throw hail stones, Uncle Ben?” asked Ted, while he built up alittle house of dominoes for Trouble on the floor of the porch.
“Well, if they don’t melt too soon you might throw hail stones,”answered the sailor.
So they sat on the porch and talked until it was time to go to bed.Meanwhile the wind blew harder and harder.
Then, in the middle of the night it began to rain. But the Curlytopsand Trouble, and Tom and Lola did not know this, for they were asleep.Skyrocket, the dog, who slept in a little box on the porch, wasawakened by the storm, and whined. He was lonesome, so Mrs. Martin lethim into the bungalow for the rest of the night.
In the morning, when the Curlytops and their friends awakened andlooked from the window, they saw how bad the storm was. It was rainingvery hard, and the wind blew in great gusts that shook the trees, andbent the smaller ones half way to the earth.
“Oh, look at the lake!” cried Ted, as he pressed his nose flat againstthe window. “See the big waves!”
“I wouldn’t want to be out on it now,” added Janet.
“Pooh! I’d go out on it now, if I had a big boat; wouldn’t you, Ted?”asked Tom.
“Sure I—well, maybe I would if daddy went with me,” was the answer.
“We’ll not try it,” said his father. “You had better stay aroundhere.”
“Can’t we go out at all?” asked Ted. “I have rubber boots and a rubbercoat.”
“Oh, you may go down on the pier after breakfast, if some one goeswith you,” said Mrs. Martin.
“Oh, can’t I go too?” cried Janet.
“Yes, I think so. You all have rubber cloaks or coats and rubberboots,” said Mr. Martin.
It did not seem to rain quite so hard after breakfast, though the windwas still very strong. So, when the four children were well wrappedup, Uncle Ben and Daddy Martin took them down to the dock to look atSilver Lake in a storm. Trouble wanted to go, also, but his mothermade him stay in with her.
At first Trouble cried, but Nora made him a little paddy-cake, withsugar on it, when she was baking a pie, and this pleased Troublealmost as much as if he had gone out.
“Look at the big waves on the lake!” cried Ted, as he and the otherswalked out on the pier.
And indeed Silver Lake was very rough. The wind made quite highwaves—not as high as on the ocean, of course, but quite too high for asmall rowboat.
“Well, all our boats are safe,” said Daddy Martin to Uncle Ben, asthey stood on the pier near the children.
“Yes, I think so,” answered the sailor. “Hello!” he suddenly cried, ashe looked off across the white-capped waves. “There’s a boat thatisn’t all right, though.”
He pointed to a motor boat in the middle of the lake. It was beingtossed to and fro, and as Ted and the others looked they saw somethingwhite waved from the boat.
“They’re in trouble!” sai
d Daddy Martin. “I guess their motor hasstopped and they can’t move. Maybe their boat is leaking.”
“Is it a shipwreck?” asked Ted, who had heard stories from Uncle Benabout great ships that were wrecked in big storms on the ocean.
“Well, yes, you might call it that,” said Uncle Ben. “Oh, look!” criedthe sailor. “They’re going to turn over!”
As he spoke a big wave seemed to sweep over the motor boat that wasout on the middle of the lake. Ted, Janet and the others, watching,saw the craft swing about. Again they saw something white waved, and amoment later the boat seemed to turn right over on its side and somemen were spilled out into the water.
“They’re shipwrecked now, all right!” cried Tom.
“Yes, indeed they are,” said Mr. Martin.
“We’ll have to go to their help,” cried Uncle Ben, above the roar ofthe wind and the patter of the rain. “We’ll have to go to the rescue!”
CHAPTER XX
THE QUEER BOX AGAIN
Ted and Janet, as well as Lola and Tom, heard what Uncle Ben and Mr.Martin said. And the same thought came to the Curlytops and theirfriends.
“Oh, take us with you!” begged Teddy.
“We couldn’t think of it, my boy,” answered his father. “There may behard work in getting those men out of the water, and besides, in thisstorm I couldn’t dream of taking you little children out on the lake;could we, Uncle Ben?”
“No, indeed!” was the answer, and the sailor ran across the dock toloosen a large rowboat, in which he and Mr. Martin intended to go tothe rescue.
“But we want to see you save the shipwreck!” exclaimed Ted. “PleaseDaddy, mayn’t we go?”
“Of course not!” answered his father. “But if you’ll promise not tofall off the pier you may stay here and watch us. You can see all thathappens from here.”
Ted knew it would be of no use to ask again, so he made the best ofit.
“Look!” suddenly said Tom. “The men are rowing away in a little boat.”
He pointed to the motor boat, which was now right side up again, butwas very low in the water, as if the waves, washing over it, had halffilled it. And as he pointed the others saw what he meant.
The two men in the wrecked motor boat, who had been waving a whitehandkerchief as a signal, must have been towing a rowboat behind theirlaunch. And when they were tossed into the lake by the storm, theyswam around and got in the smaller craft. In this they were now rowingaway from the wreck as hard as they could row.
“Well, I guess we don’t have to go out to save them,” said Uncle Ben,who was loosening a rope that held the largest of Mr. Martin’srowboats to the dock. “They are rescuing themselves.”
“It does look so,” replied Mr. Martin. “I wonder if they’ll comehere.”
While Uncle Ben and Mr. Martin stood on the pier, hardly knowing whatto do, Ted saw something else.
“Look!” he cried, pointing over the windy waves. “There’s anothermotor boat chasing the first one.”
“Yes, there is a big craft coming from near the Point,” said UncleBen. “And it looks as if they were going to the wreck.”
Daddy Martin took a telescope from the boathouse at the dock, andthrough this glass, which made things that were far off seem close by,he looked across the lake.
“The second boat is Mr. Blake’s,” said the father of the Curlytops.“He’s the storekeeper at the point. And Mr. Addison, the deputysheriff, is in with him. They helped get Skyrocket back, you know.”
“Maybe they’re going to arrest the Gypsies that had Skyrocket,” saidTed, leaning over to pat his dog, that had come out in the storm withthe children.
“No, they wouldn’t be out on the lake if they were after the Gypsies,”said Uncle Ben.
“Maybe the men in the wreck were Gypsies,” suggested Ted. “Look!They’re rowing away fast!”
This was true enough. The two men who had been spilled out of themotor boat, which now seemed to be sinking, were rowing away as fastas they could.
“And Mr. Blake’s boat is chasin’ ’em!” exclaimed Tom.
“No, Mr. Blake’s boat is going up to the wreck,” said Daddy Martin, ashe looked through the telescope. “I think we’d better go out there,too,” he added to Uncle Ben.
“All right. Just as you say,” was the answer, and the sailor began toget out the oars.
“We’ll go in the big motor boat,” decided Daddy Martin. “At first whenI thought we’d have to pick up the men, I thought the rowboat would bebest. But now I think it will be better to go in the motor boat. Wecan get there more quickly, and if there is anybody left on thesinking boat we can take them off.”
“Oh, can’t we go if you go in the motor boat?” begged Ted.
Daddy Martin looked at Uncle Ben, and then, after a moment, the fatherof the Curlytops answered:
“Well, I think if we go in the big motor boat it will be all right.The wind isn’t blowing quite so hard now. Tumble in and come along. Itwill be all right.”
“And can we take Skyrocket, too?” asked Janet.
“Oh, yes, bring your dog,” said Uncle Ben.
Soon the Curlytops, with Tom and Lola, not forgetting Skyrocket, wereaboard the _Gull_, as Daddy Martin’s motor boat was named, and outover the lake they went.
The men rowing from the wreck were now some distance away from theirsinking boat. The other motor boat, belonging to Mr. Blake, thestorekeeper, was coming nearer and soon two men in it began wavingtheir hands to Daddy Martin and Uncle Ben.
When they were near enough to talk, Daddy Martin called and asked:
“What’s the matter?”
“A lot is the matter!” answered Mr. Blake, whom the children wellremembered as having helped, with Mr. Addison, in getting Skyrocketaway from the Gypsies. “A whole lot is the matter, Mr. Martin. Therehas been a robbery at the Point, and we are chasing after therobbers.”
“Robbers!” cried Uncle Ben, while the Curlytops and Tom and Lolalistened to hear all that was said. “Robbers! What did they take, andwhere are they now?”
“They took a lot of money and stamps from the post-office,” went onMr. Blake. “They broke into it last night, in the storm, and blew openthe safe. The wind and the rain made so much noise that no one heardthem.
“This morning, when the postmaster came down to open his office, hesaw what had happened. Then we heard about two strange men down at oneof the docks in a motor boat, and we thought they might be theburglars; so Mr. Addison and I came after them. We’ve been chasingthis boat for some time now, and a little while ago something happenedto it. Maybe the motor blew up. It’s sinking, isn’t it?”
“That’s what it is!” chimed in Mr. Addison. “Now we can catch the twomen who were in it and find out whether or not they took the stampsand money from the post-office.”
“I’m glad we’re here,” whispered Ted.
“The men aren’t in the sinking boat,” said Uncle Ben. “We saw themjump out or fall out, after they waved a white rag for help. Therethey go, now!” and he pointed to the rowboat, in which were the twomen pulling hard toward shore.
“Oh, ho! So that’s how they are getting away, are they?” cried Mr.Blake. “We saw they had a rowboat tied on behind their motor craft.Then there came a dash of rain and we couldn’t see anything more untilwe saw the sinking boat. So we hurried toward it, and then we sawyou.”
“Shall we try to catch those two men?” asked Mr. Addison. “We caneasily do it in our motor boat.”
“Let’s first look and see if they left behind any of the money andstamps,” said Mr. Blake. “If we get back what they took out of thesafe I don’t care so much about getting the men themselves. We canarrest them later, maybe. Let’s look in the motor boat.”
So the _Gull_, in which were the Curlytops with their father and UncleBen, and the other motor boat, in which rode Mr. Blake and Mr.Addison, steered toward the sinking craft. And no sooner had Tedlooked over the side of the boat which was half sunk, than he cried:
“I see a satchel!”
“And I see a box!” added Janet.
“Maybe that’s the post-office stuff!” cried Mr. Blake.
Going close to the boat, half full of water, from which the two menhad jumped, or been tipped out, Mr. Blake lifted out the satchel. Itwas opened, and inside were stamps and some money.
“This is the stuff the burglars took from the post-office!” cried Mr.Addison.
“Good!” exclaimed his friend. “They didn’t have time to take it withthem in the rowboat.”
“Maybe they were afraid to get the stamps wet,” suggested Teddy.“Stamps get sticky in the water.”
“So they do,” replied Uncle Ben. “Well, anyhow, the robbers leftbehind them the stuff they took. Now do you want to chase after them?”he asked Mr. Blake.
“It’s too late!” said Mr. Addison, pointing across the lake. “They aregoing to land on the shore now, a mile away. We’ll have to get themlater, if we can.”
“Then let’s try now!” shouted Mr. Blake. “Might as well! Here, I’lltake the satchel of money and stamps in my boat,” he said to DaddyMartin. “We’ll keep on after the burglars, and if you think it won’tsink all the way down, you might tow this motor boat over to yourdock,” and he nodded to the craft in which the burglars had beenriding before the accident happened.
“All right,” answered the father of the Curly tops. “I’ll tow thismotor boat back to my dock. But there’s a queer box in it. Do you wantto take that with you? Maybe that has some money and stamps in it.”
“No, it seems to be empty,” said Mr. Blake, leaning over and liftingup the queer box, which was made of wood. “I guess this wasn’t takenfrom the post-office,” he said. “The burglars may have stolen itsomewhere else. We’ll leave that in their boat. Maybe they stole theboat, too. Tow it to shore, Mr. Martin—that and the box and we’ll keepon after the burglars.”
So while Mr. Blake and Mr. Addison, in their motor boat, puffed ontoward the place where the two men had landed in their rowboat, DaddyMartin and Uncle Ben fastened a rope from the half sunken craft totheir _Gull_. Then they began slowly towing it back across SilverLake. But not before Daddy Martin had lifted out the queer, woodenbox.
So much had happened, and there was so much to talk about, that no onepaid much attention to this box. It was not until the Curlytops andthe others had landed at the Sunnyside dock that any one thought ofthe box. The motor boat from which the burglars had jumped was madefast to the pier, in shallow water, so that if it sunk completely itcould easily be got up again. But it seemed to want to sink only halfway.
“My, you’ve had a lot of adventures!” exclaimed Mother Martin, whenshe heard all that had happened. “I wonder if they got the robbers?”
“No, they got away,” answered Uncle Ben, who had gone out to atelephone to inquire. “The robbers got away, but we got back the moneyand stamps they took.”
“And the queer box, too,” added Ted.
“What queer box is that?” asked Mrs. Martin.
“Why, one we found in the wrecked motor boat,” her husband answered.“Here it is. I haven’t had time to look at it.”
As he spoke he handed the box to his wife. It was square, and made ofsome light and finely polished wood.
“Why!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin, as she looked at the queer box, “do youknow what I think this is?”
“What?” asked her husband.
“I think it’s the same queer box that was stolen from Mrs. Ransom,”was the answer. “I remember what she told me about it. I never saw it,that I remember, though I may have. But I’m sure this is the same oneshe told about as being taken from her store the time it was robbed.”
“It does look like it,” agreed Mr. Martin, as he took the box againfor a second examination. “Yes, I believe it is,” he added. “Then thesame burglars that broke into Mrs. Ransom’s store must have robbed thepost-office.”
“We had better send word to Mrs. Ransom that we have a box like theone taken from her,” went on Mrs. Martin. “We could send it to her, orask her to come here and look at it. Maybe the deputy sheriff, Mr.Addison, would rather we kept the box here until he sees if he cancatch the robbers.”
“Maybe,” agreed Mr. Martin. “We could ask Mrs. Ransom to come andvisit us for a few days, and show her the box then.”
“We’ll do that!” decided his wife.
So it happened that, about two days later, Mrs. Ransom came to SilverLake to spend a few days at Sunnyside. The post-office burglars werenot caught, but all the money and stamps they had taken were found inthe boat which they left after it seemed to be sinking. But it did notsink, and later on it was mended and made almost as good as new. Ithad been stolen from a boatman near the Point, and he was glad to getit back.
In one of the lockers of the boat were found some of the knives stolenfrom Mr. Henderson’s store in Cresco. The burglars had gone about,breaking into many places, it was believed. The Curlytops rememberedabout the man who had hoisted the sail for Ted, the time he was blownout into the lake, and it was thought perhaps he might have been oneof the bad men, but this was never found out for certain.
Mr. Henderson was glad to get back his stolen knives.
“And I imagine you’re glad to get the queer box that your brother, thesailor, gave you, back, aren’t you, Mrs. Ransom?” asked Mrs. Martin,when the storekeeper had come to Silver Lake.
“Yes, indeed, I am glad to get it back,” said Mrs. Ransom. “And I’d bemore glad if I could find my brother who gave it to me—my brother whohas been gone so many years. But I don’t suppose I ever shall. Didthey find any of my other things that the burglars took when theyrobbed my store?”
“No, the queer box was the only thing they left behind in the boat,besides the knives, the post-office money and the stamps,” replied Mr.Martin.
“Well, well! I guess I’m lucky to get my brother’s box back—it has hispicture in it, and some trinkets,” went on Mrs. Ransom. “And I hearyou Curlytops got back your dog from the Gypsies,” she added.
“Yes, we got Skyrocket back,” answered Ted. “And we’re sorry wecouldn’t get the burglars that robbed your store.”
“Oh, well, we can’t have everything we want,” said Mrs. Ransom. “I’mglad it was no worse.”
Mrs. Ransom turned over and over in her hands the queer box which shefeared she would never see again. She was very glad to get it back.
“I declare I’ve forgotten how to open it!” she said with a laugh, asshe looked at it on all sides. “There’s a secret drawer in it, and Iwas just trying to find it. I was wondering whether the burglars tookout my brother’s picture and the trinkets I kept so many years. Iwonder if the box is empty.”
“Let me see,” said Uncle Ben, reaching out his hand for the box. Heshook it as he held it close to his ear.
“There’s something inside,” he said.
“But you can’t get it out unless you know how to open the secret topand drawer,” said Mrs. Ransom. “My brother showed me how a good manyyears ago, but, I declare! I seem to have forgotten.”
And then a funny thing happened. All at once, as Uncle Ben held thequeer box, there was a click, and it opened. A small drawer shot out,and in it was a picture of a man, and also some little curiosities,pink shells, red sea beans and bits of coral.
“There you are, Mrs. Ransom!” said Uncle Ben. “I’ve opened the queerbox for you.”
“Why, why, how did you do it?” cried the storekeeper. “I thoughtnobody but my brother and I and the Japanese man that made the boxknew how to open it. How did you know?” and she looked in a strangeway at Uncle Ben. “How did you know?” she asked again.
“Why, I—I don’t exactly know,” was his answer in a strange voice. “Itseemed to come to me all at once. I just pressed on a secret spring,under this queer, carved flower, and the box opened. As soon as I hadit in my hands I remembered that I had heard of this box once before.”
“Are you—no, it isn’t possible that you can be my lost brother!”
saidMrs. Ransom. “You don’t look a bit as he used to look, though Isuppose he has changed after all these years. But how did you know thesecret of his box?”
“What was your brother’s name?” asked Uncle Ben.
“John Dowd,” was the woman’s answer. “Dowd was my name before Imarried. Yes, John Dowd was my brother. But I’m afraid I’ll never seehim again. I’m glad to get back the box he gave me, but I suppose hehas been dead many years.”
“No, he hasn’t, either!” suddenly cried Uncle Ben, springing to hisfeet. “It all comes back to me now! It all comes back! I know how Iremembered the secret of the box, too.”
“But you aren’t my brother!” cried Mrs. Ransom.
“No. But I have seen your brother, and not less than a few months ago,in New York when I was sick there. He was sick in the same hospital;but he got better before I did, and he left to go on a ship. Butbefore that he got to talking of different things, and he told meabout a queer box he once owned. It was this same box, I’m sure, andhe told me how to open it by pressing below the carved flower. He madea little picture of the box. It looked just like this.
“That’s how I happened to remember, and how I knew how to open yourbox,” he went on. “As soon as I had it in my hands it seemed to me asif I had seen it before. But it was because your brother told me aboutit, and told me just how to open it.”
The Curlytops were listening to all this, and so were Tom and Lola andall the others.
“Oh, can you tell me where my brother is now?” eagerly asked Mrs.Ransom.
“Well, I can tell you where I saw him last—in the New York Hospital,”answered Uncle Ben. “It was there he told me about the queer box hesaid he had given to his sister. But he said he had not heard from herfor a good many years, and he thought she was dead.”
“And I thought he was dead!” cried the storekeeper. “And instead we’reboth alive—at least, I hope John is,” she murmured softly.
“Well, he was getting well and strong when he left the hospital,” saidUncle Ben. “Perhaps if you write there, they can tell you on what shiphe sailed. I’m sure it’s the same John Dowd who was your brother, forsurely there wouldn’t be two of the same name who had given theirsisters queer boxes with secret drawers.”
“Did he look anything like that?” asked Mrs. Ransom, as she held outthe photograph which had been in the secret drawer of the queer box.
“He didn’t look like that when I saw him in the hospital,” answeredUncle Ben. “But of course that picture was taken a good many yearsago.”
“Yes, it was,” said Mrs. Ransom. “It’s been a good while since Johngave me the queer box and sailed away. I supposed he was shipwreckedbetween that time and the present.”
“Yes, he was shipwrecked, he told me,” replied Uncle Ben. “He said hewished he could find his sister, but as he did not tell me your name,of course I did not know you were she.”
“Well, maybe it will turn out all right after all,” said Daddy Martin.“We must write to the hospital and find out.”
And this was done. About a week later the answer came back, giving thename of the ship on which John Dowd had sailed. And, later, when Mrs.Ransom sent a letter to the place where the ship had voyaged to, backan answer came from her brother.
“Oh, I’ve found him! I’ve found him!” Mrs. Ransom wrote to Mrs. Martinwhen the joyful news came in the letter, for, of course, she had goneback to Cresco by that time. “I’ve found my brother! He is in England,but he will soon be coming back here. Oh, how glad I am.”
“And if the burglars hadn’t taken the queer box, and if Uncle Benhadn’t known how to open it, maybe she never would have seen herbrother,” said Teddy.
“That’s right—maybe I wouldn’t,” agreed Mrs. Ransom when Teddyrepeated that to her later. “But now I have found him, I’m almost gladthe burglars robbed me. They can keep the other things they took aslong as I have my brother back.”
In less than a month John Dowd came sailing back. He was glad to seehis sister again, of that you may be sure, and he was very glad tomeet, once again, Uncle Ben, and to see the queer box.
“And now everything is found!” said Janet when the long-missing sailorand his sister had come out to Silver Lake to spend a day or two. “Weeven got our dog back!”
“But we didn’t find the robbers,” said Uncle Ben. “They got away.”
“Tom and I are going to hunt ’em after we get back home,” declaredTed. “Aren’t we, Tom?”
“Sure!” was the answer. “And maybe we’ll find another place theyrobbed, and get back the stuff they took.”
“You’d better go and find Uncle Ben and ask him to take you allfishing!” laughed Mother Martin.
“Take me, too!” begged Trouble. “Me want fiss!”
“Yes, take Trouble with you, but don’t lose him,” said his mother.
“Come on!” cried Ted. “We’ll go fishing with Uncle Ben!”
They went out in the motor boat, the Curlytops, Tom, Lola and Trouble.On the porch of the bungalow sat Mr. and Mrs. Martin, and Mrs. Ransomand her brother, John Dowd.
“How strange everything came about,” said Mrs. Martin. “There was therobbery of your store, Mrs. Ransom, the finding of Uncle Ben on ourlawn, Skyrocket being taken by the Gypsies, and the finding of yourbrother’s queer box in the wrecked boat.”
“Yes, and then I found my brother!” said Mrs. Ransom softly, as shelooked at him. “That was best of all!”
The Curlytops stayed at Silver Lake quite a while longer, until it wastime to go back to school, and they had many good times on the waterwith Uncle Ben.
And now, as this story is finished, we will say good-bye for a time,though I hope you will meet the Curlytops again, and hear more oftheir adventures.
THE END
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Le Roy, N. Y.
Bridgeburg, Ont.
Reprinted by John Martin’s Book, permission of the Child’s Magazine
THE LINGER-NOT SERIES
By AGNES MILLER
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors
Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
This new series of girls’ books is in a new style of story writing.The interest is in knowing the girls and seeing them solve theproblems that develop their character. Incidentally, a great deal ofhistorical information is imparted.
1. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE MYSTERY HOUSE. or The Story of NineAdventurous Girls
How the Linger-Not girls met and formed their club seems commonplace,but this writer makes it fascinating, and how they made their clubserve a great purpose continues the interest to the end, andintroduces a new type of girlhood.
2. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE VALLEY FEUD, or The Great West PointChain
The Linger-Not girls had no thought of becoming mixed up with feuds ormysteries, but their habit of being useful soon entangled them in somesurprising adventures that turned out happily for all, and made thevalley better because of their visit.
3. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THEIR GOLDEN QUEST, or The Log of the OceanMonarch
For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery
leading back intothe times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until thereader sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of theirfriends to come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms a finestory.
4. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE WHISPERING CHARMS, or The Secret from OldAlaska
Whether engrossed in thrilling adventures in the Far North or occupiedwith quiet home duties, the Linger-Not girls could work unitedly tosolve a colorful mystery in a way that interpreted American freedom toa sad young stranger, and brought happiness to her and to themselves.
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CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers, New York
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