guardian, and I left the Hoovers. So that old Farmer Weeks–you know about him, don’t you?–is our guardian in that state, and he’s got an order from the judge near Hedgeville putting us in his care until we are twenty-one.”

“But that order’s no good in this state?”

“No, because here Miss Mercer is our guardian. But if they can get us into that other state, no matter how, they can hold us.”

“Oh, I see! And, of course, Miss Eleanor understood right away. When we told the men who had helped us with the fire that you were missing, they said they were afraid you must have been caught in the fire, but Miss Eleanor said she was sure you were on the yacht. And they just laughed.”

“I heard that big man, Jeff, talking to her when she went aboard the yacht.”

“Yes. They wouldn’t let her look for you, and he threatened to put her off if she didn’t come ashore. You heard that, didn’t you?”

“Oh, yes! Zara and I could hear everything she said when she was in the cabin on the yacht. But we couldn’t let her know where we were.”

“Well, just as soon as she could get to a telephone, Miss Eleanor called up Bay City, and asked them to send policemen or some sort of officers who could search the yacht. But we were terribly afraid that they would sail away before those men could get here, and then, you see, we couldn’t have done a thing. There wouldn’t have been any way of catching them.”

“And they’d have done it, too, if it hadn’t been for you, Dolly! I don’t see how you ever thought of it, and how you were brave enough to do what you did when you did think of it.”

“Oh, pshaw, Bessie–it was easy! I knew enough about yachts to understand that if their screw was twisted up with rope it wouldn’t turn, and that would keep them there for a little while, anyhow. And they never seemed to think of that possibility at all. So I swam out there, and, of course, I could dive and stay down for a few seconds at a time. It was easier, because I had something to hold on to.”

“It was mighty clever, and mighty plucky of you, too, Dolly.”

“There was only one thing I regretted, Bessie. I wish I’d been able to hear what they said when they found out they couldn’t get away!”

“I wish you’d been there, too, Dolly,” said Bessie, laughing. “They were perfectly furious, and everyone on board blamed everyone else. It took them quite a while to find out what was the matter, and then even after they found out, it meant a long delay before they could clear the screw and get moving.”

“I never was so glad of anything in my life, Bessie, as when we saw the men from Bay City coming while that yacht was still here! We kept watching it all the time, of course, and we saw them send the sailor over to dive down and find out what was wrong. Then we could see him going down and coming up, time after time, and it seemed as if he would get it done in time.”

“It must have been exciting, Dolly.”

“I guess it was just as exciting for you, wasn’t it? But it would have been dreadful if, after having held them so long, it hadn’t been quite long enough.”

“Well, it was long enough, Dolly, thanks to you! I hate to think of where I would be now if you hadn’t managed it so cleverly.”

“What will they do to those men on the yacht, do you suppose?”

“I don’t know. Miss Eleanor wants to prove that it was Mr. Holmes who got them to do it, I think. But that won’t be decided until her cousin, Mr. Jamieson, the lawyer, comes. He’ll know what we’d better do, and I’m sure Miss Eleanor will leave it to him to decide.”

“I tell you one thing, Bessie. This sort of persecution of you and Zara has got to be stopped. I really do believe they’ve gone too far this time. Of course, if they had got you away, they’d have been all right, because in that other state where you two came from what they did was all right. But they got caught at it. I certainly do hope that Mr. Jamieson will be able to find some way to stop them.”

“I’m glad we’re going to stay here, aren’t you, Dolly? Do you know, I really feel that we’ll be safer here now than if we went somewhere else? They’ve tried their best to get at us here, and they couldn’t manage it. Perhaps now they’ll think that we’ll be on our guard too much, and leave us alone.”

“I hope so, Bessie. But look here, there were two girls on guard last night, and what good did it do us?”

“You don’t think they were asleep, do you, Dolly?”

“No, I’m sure they weren’t. But they just didn’t have a chance to do anything. What happened was this. Margery and Mary were sitting back to back, so that one could watch the yacht and the other the path that leads up to the spring on top of the bluff, where those two men we had seen were sitting.”

“That was a good idea, Dolly.”

“First rate, but those people were too clever. They didn’t row ashore in a boat–not here, at least. And no one came down the path, until later, anyhow. The first thing that made Margery think there was anything wrong was when she smelt smoke and then, a second later, the big living tent was all ablaze.”

“It might have been an accident, Dolly, I suppose–”

“Oh, yes, it might have been, but it wasn’t! They were here too soon, and it fitted in too well with their plans. Miss Eleanor thinks she knows how they started the fire.”

“But how could they have done that, if there were none of them here on the beach, Dolly?”

“She says that if they were on the bluff, above the tents, they could very easily have thrown down bombs that would smoulder, and soon set the canvas on fire. And there was a high wind last night, and it wouldn’t have taken long, once a spark had touched the canvas, for everything to blaze up. They couldn’t have picked a much better night.”

“I don’t suppose that can be proved, though, Dolly.”

“I’m afraid not. That’s what Miss Eleanor says, too. She says you can often be so sure of a thing yourself that it seems that it must have happened, without being able to prove it to someone else. That’s where they are so clever, and that’s what makes them so dangerous. They can hide their tracks splendidly.”

“I don’t see why men who can do such things couldn’t keep straight, and really make more money honestly than they can by being crooked.”

“It does seem strange, doesn’t it, Bessie? Oh, look, there’s the Sally S. with our breakfast–and there’s another boat coming in. I wonder if Mr. Jamieson can be here already?”

In a moment his voice proved that it was possible, and a few minutes later, while the girls were helping Captain Salters to unload the stores he had brought with him, Eleanor was greeting her attorney from Bay City.

CHAPTER II
A NEW ALLY

“I guess you haven’t met Billy Trenwith properly yet, Eleanor,” said Charlie Jamieson, smiling.

“Maybe not,” said Eleanor, returning the smile, “but I regard him as a friend already, Charlie. He was splendid this morning. If he hadn’t understood so quickly, and acted at once, the way he did, I don’t know what would have happened.”

“I’m afraid I didn’t really understand at all, Miss Mercer,” said Trenwith, a good looking young fellow, with light brown hair and grey blue eyes, that, although mild and pleasant enough now, had