CHAPTER IX
THE BOX IN THE SAND
"Goodness!" cried Grace, shrinking back against Betty. "They arefighting!"
"It does look so," responded the Little Captain. "One man seems to betrying to jump overboard!"
It did so appear to the outdoor girls. The motor boat containing thehalf-dozen rough-looking men was rapidly leaving the shore of the cove,but one man in it seemed anxious to return to the beach. His companionshad forcibly to restrain him, as he seemed willing to leap into thewater, and swim back.
Confused shouts and cries came from the men in the boat, as though theywere of several opinions. Finally, however, the majority seemed to gaintheir point, and the man who had appeared so excited quieted down.
But, as the boat gathered headway, this man, sitting in the stern, nevertook his eyes from the four girls. He watched them until the craft wasso far out that his features could not be distinguished.
"Wasn't that odd?" demanded Amy, being the first to speak after thelittle episode.
"It certainly was," agreed Betty.
"They seemed afraid--yes, actually afraid of us," put in Grace.
"And there wasn't the least need of it," laughed Mollie. "I wouldn'thave harmed one of those men--oh, for anything!"
"I guess not!" Amy declared. "I was all ready to run if they headedtheir boat back this way."
"What in the world do you suppose was the matter?" asked Grace, as theystood looking after the vanishing boat. The boys were no longer insight, being hidden from view behind a projecting point of land.
"Perhaps this is private grounds we are on," suggested Mollie, "and theydidn't like to see us trespassing."
"It couldn't have been that," Grace remarked. "Everyone walks along thebeach, and I believe no one is allowed to claim any land below highwater mark, so it couldn't have been that."
"Maybe there are quicksands here!" exclaimed Amy, looking nervouslyabout. "There are such things, you know. The Goodwin Sands, in England,are awful. If you once are caught in a quicksand you never get out."
"Nothing like that around here," asserted Betty. "If there was, you candepend on it, Daddy never would have hired a cottage."
"Besides," added Grace, "if there had been danger the men would not havebeen in two minds about coming back to warn us. They would surely nothave let us run into danger."
"No, it couldn't have been that," decided Betty. "But the men werecertainly divided in opinion about coming back here, and they must haveleft just before we came in sight. Well, it will never be solved, Isuppose, but I don't know that it need worry us. Though if the boys werehere I think they would make quite a mystery of it."
"Will would make quite a fuss about it, if he were here, I guess,"laughed Grace. "He'd be sure the men were pirates, or something likethat, show his new badge and want to question them."
"Then I'm glad he isn't here!" exclaimed Amy, with such warmth thatGrace exclaimed:
"Oh, Amy! I never knew you cared--so much."
"I don't! That is--yes, of course I care! That is--oh, I wish you'd letme alone!" burst out the blushing Amy, whereas Grace teased her all themore, until Betty put an end to it saying:
"Well, let's get along. The men don't seem to be coming back, and mammamay be worried, knowing that we went out when a storm was brewing. OldTin-Back is sure to tell her that we went off defying the elements."
"Isn't he a queer old character?" remarked Mollie.
"Yes, but I like him," Betty answered. "He says he has never yet givenup hope of finding some treasure washed ashore from a wreck. He's alwayslooking as he walks along the beach."
"And that in spite of the fact that, with all his years of looking, hehas found only a pipe," laughed Mollie. "He is very persevering, is OldTin-Back."
"Most fishermen are," spoke Betty.
"I suppose things _are_ occasionally washed up by the sea," Amyobserved. "Let's look as we walk along the beach."
Hardly knowing why they did so, the eyes of the outdoor girls roamed thebeach, which, as the tide had just gone out, was strewn with odds andends. Nothing of moment, though, it seemed--bits of broken boxes andbarrels, bottles and tin cans, probably the refuse from coastingvessels.
"Oh, I'm tired!" suddenly exclaimed Grace. "Let's see if we can't find aplace to sit down."
"Tired! No wonder, wearing such high-heeled shoes!" objected Betty. "Youare violating one of the ethics of the outdoor girls' organization!" shewent on. "You can't expect to walk in those."
"I'm not going to try again," confessed Grace. "Oh, I simply must sitdown."
"The sand is so wet," objected Mollie.
They managed to find a broken spar, cast up by the waves, and by puttingon it some boards, which they turned over to find the dry side, theyevolved a comfortable seat.
"Oh, isn't this just lovely!" exclaimed Betty, as she gazed out over thebay, now glistening beneath the sun, which had come out from behind thestorm clouds.
"It is perfect," agreed Amy.
Mollie was idly digging in the sand behind the spar. She used a shell,and had scooped out quite a hole. Suddenly the shell scraped onsomething with a shrill sound.
"Oh, don't!" begged Grace. "You set my teeth on edge! What is it,Mollie?"
Mollie did not answer at once. She was digging in the sand more quicklynow. Again the shell scraped on some metal.
"Oh, Mollie!" objected Grace again, putting her hands over her ears."What is it?"
"I--I think I've found something," replied Mollie in a low voice. "Look,girls, it's some sort of box."
They leaned over her. Her shell had scraped away the wet sand from thetop of a square piece of metal. Mollie tapped it.
"It--it sounds hollow!" she whispered.
"Probably a tin can," said Betty.
"No," spoke Mollie, resolutely.
"Here, let me help you!" exclaimed Amy.
She looked about for something with which to dig. Near where Mollie haduncovered the piece of metal a queerly shaped stick stuck upright in thesand. Amy pulled it out, with no small effort, and at once begandigging.
"Oh, it's some sort of a box--an iron box!" cried Mollie, with eager,shining eyes. "We have really found something."
Mollie and Amy dug until they had wholly uncovered the object. Then,with a quick motion, Mollie put her hands under the lower edges, andwith a sudden effort brought up out of the hole in the sand a curiousiron box.
"It--it really is--something!" she said.
Instinctively Betty looked out over the bay in the direction taken bythe strange, quarreling men in the motor boat.