"Yes."

"Why?"

It was a challenge, and Rosalie looked curiously at Cora.

"Well, my dear, I fancy--no, I will say nothing until I learn more. But don't tell me about her unless you choose."

"Oh, I'm sure I don't mind. Perhaps you would like to speak to father?"

"Possibly--a little later. But was your aunt a delicate woman, with iron gray hair, and rather a nervous manner?"

"Yes, that's Aunt Margaret! But why do you ask?"

"I will tell you later, my dear. Please don't say anything about it until I see your father. Do you suppose he would show us through the light?"

"Of course! I'll ask him; and that will give you the chance you want!"

"Fine!" exclaimed Cora. "I'm afraid you will think this is rather a conspiracy," she went on, "but I have my reasons. It may amount to nothing, but I will not be satisfied until I have proved or disproved something I have suspected since I came here."

CHAPTER XVII

THE LIGHT KEEPER'S STORY

"Hurray! She's going!"

It was Jack who cried this.

"'She starts, she moves, she seems to feel----'"

"As though we'd catch a wiggling eel!"

Thus Ed began the quotation, and thus Walter ended it. The boys had been working in the motor boat, and had only now, after several hours, succeeded in getting it to respond to their labors. The motor started with a sound that "meant business," as Jack expressed it.

"Let's go for a run," suggested Norton.

"Better wait for the girls--it's their boat," returned Walter.

"And we'd better pump some of the water out of her," added Jack. "She leaks like a sieve."

"Pump her out, and by the time the girls are here she'll be ready," spoke Walter.

"It was that carbureter all the while," declared Ed. "I knew it was!"

"I was sure it was in the secondary coil," came from Jack.

"And you couldn't make me believe but what it was one of the spark plugs,"

was Norton's contribution. "But it was the carbureter, all right."

"All wrong, you mean," half grumbled Walter, whose hands were covered with grease and gasoline. "Some one had opened the needle valve too far."

"Well, let's get busy with the pump," Jack said. "It's too nice to be hanging around the float."

The _Pet_ was soon in as good condition as hasty work could make her, and on the arrival of the girls the whole party went out for a spin, though they were a bit crowded. Cora was at the wheel, a position her right to which none disputed.

"I don't know these waters around here," she admitted, "but Rosalie said there was a good depth nearly all over the Cove, even at low tide."

"Rosalie being the mermaid?" asked Norton. "I should like to meet her."

"I have asked her over to the bungalow," went on Cora. "But I warn you that she is a very _sensible_ girl."

"Meaning that I am not?" challenged Norton.

"Not a girl--certainly," observed Jack.

"Not sensible!" exclaimed Norton.

"Don't give them an opening, boy," cautioned Ed. "You don't know these girls as I do."

"Don't flatter yourself," was the contribution from Bess.

"Why don't you talk?" asked Jack of Belle.

"She's too interested in how deep the water is, and wondering if she will float as well as dripping d.i.c.k," mocked Eline.

"I am not!" promptly answered Belle. "And just to show you that I'm not afraid I'm going to try to swim as soon as we go in bathing."

"Which will be to-morrow," said Cora.

They motored about the bay, winding in and out among anch.o.r.ed and moving craft. Cora was as adept at the wheel of the _Pet_ as she was at that of the _Whirlwind_, and many admiring comments were made by other steersmen in the Cove, though Cora knew it not.

"She stood her land journey well," remarked Bess, as she noted how well the engine was running.

"But you should have seen the trouble we had," complained Walter. "We thought she'd never go!"

The day was lovely, and it was a temptation to stay out, but Cora was wise enough not to remain too long on the water. Already the effect of the hot sun was evident on the hands and faces of all, and the girls were secretly wishing for some talc.u.m powder.

They went back to the float, arrangements having been made to dock the _Petrel_ there. Then came a hasty meal and another spin.

They were getting matters down to a system in the bungalows now--at least the girls were. The boys lived haphazard, as they always did, and perhaps always would. Mrs. Chester--Aunt Susan--in the absence of Mrs. Fordam, who had returned home--a.s.sumed charge of Cora and her friends to the extent of seeing that meals were ready on time.

It was their third day at the coast, the time having been well occupied--every hour of it almost--and the girls were out alone in the _Pet_--the boys having gone fishing--when Cora observed a figure in a red bathing suit near the lighthouse float waving to them.

"Rosalie--the mermaid!" exclaimed Bess. "What can she want?"