“Oh, it’s he!” cried Priscilla.

CONTENTS

I A Mysterious Paper 5

II Desiré’s Inspirations 11

III Two Callers 17

IV Out to Sea 28

V A Midnight Walk 39

VI The Pie Social 50

VII A Fright 60

VIII A Fight 66

IX In Camp 72

X A Night Prowler 82

XI The Blue-covered Book 87

XII A Search for René 102

XIII Indians and Strawberries 107

XIV Two Mishaps 119

XV The Old Godet House 129

XVI A New Friend 140

XVII An Old Enemy 147

XVIII A Collision 152

XIX Poor Dolly! 157

XX Good Samaritans 168

XXI A Surprise 181

XXII Caught by Storm 192

XXIII Shelter 195

XXIV Back to Yarmouth 205

XXV Lobster Pots 215

XXVI Hands Off! 222

XXVII Jack’s Jobs 225

XXVIII A Find 235

XXIX W-17⁵⁵—15x12—6754 245

FINDING THE LOST TREASURE

CHAPTER I
A MYSTERIOUS PAPER

“W-17⁵⁵-15x12-6754,” read Desiré slowly. “What does it mean?”

“What does what mean, Dissy?” asked her younger sister, who was rolling a ball across the floor to little René.

“Just some figures on an old paper I found, dear. I must tell Jack about them. Do you know where he is?”

“Out there somewhere, I guess,” replied the child, with a vague gesture indicating the front yard.

Desiré flung back her short dark curls and crossed the room to a window where sturdy geraniums raised their scarlet clusters to the very top of the panes. It was the custom in that part of Nova Scotia to make a regular screen of blossoming plants in all front windows, sometimes even in those of the cellar. Peering between two thick stems, she could see her older brother sitting on the doorstep, gazing out across St. Mary’s Bay which lay like a blue, blue flag along the shore.

Crossing the narrow hall and opening the outside door, Desiré dropped down beside the boy and thrust a time-yellowed slip of paper into his hands.

“Did you ever see this?”

“Yes,” he replied slowly. “A few days before he died, nôtre père went over the contents