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Take my word for it, the girls are aboard her. Pete and his woman Mag haven't gone off together for nothin'. The girls are on the Spud, and bad luck to her for a sneaky craft!" "There's no time to lose!" he went on. "We've got to take after 'em, and locate her before nightfall. We need a fast boat " "The Pocohontas is in good trim!" interrupted Allen. "The very thing!" cried Tin-Back. "Hurray!
Toward evening Betty found a chance to speak to Old Tin-Back, who came with a mess of crabs. She asked him who lived in the little, lone hut. "Well, no one as you would care to know, Miss Betty. He's a man that hasn't a good name." "A man? But I thought a woman " "Oh, yes, Mag, his wife, is there, too. She's worse than Pete in some respects." "Are they smugglers?" Betty wanted to know.
There had been a hurried filling of the gasoline and oil tanks after the suggestion offered by Tin-Back, that the disappearance of the mysterious schooner was coincident with the disappearance of the girls. "If she only will run," ventured Roy, who was in charge of the motor. "She's got to run!" declared Allen, fiercely. Not all of the party went in the motor boat. Mrs.
"Yes, it's certainly that, all right!" added the more practical Mollie. "And if it should contain treasure!" went on Grace, rather at a loss because her chocolates were all gone. "Old Tin-Back should have found this," commented Mollie. "Or the boys," spoke Betty. "I wish they were here." "The idea!" exploded Mollie. "As if we didn't know what to do as well as though the boys were here to tell us.
Behold our friends then, a little later, well fortified within with clam chowder and other dainties prepared by 'Mandy, the wife of Old Tin-Back, strolling along the ocean beach. Mrs. Nelson was superintending the efforts of the maid to bring some order out of chaos at the cottage. "It is perfectly lovely!" murmured Mollie, as she and her chums walked along the strand. "Charming."
That she was at least the one which had been anchored out in the bay was evident, for Tin-Back recognized her at once. Also it was evident that no visitors were desired, for, as the Pocohontas came up alongside the almost motionless sailing craft, an ugly face looked over the low rail, and a gruff voice cried: "That'll do, now. Keep off or you'll get into trouble! What do you want, anyhow?"
"No, the natives haven't much to do," affirmed Betty, "except to talk about the summer cottagers. But we'll keep quiet about the diamonds, at least down here." "If the natives only knew what we know!" exclaimed Grace. "Think of having dug up buried treasure from the sand!" "Poor Old Tin-Back would be heartbroken if he ever heard of it," said Amy, gently.
"That's what Tin-Back didn't know. He thought it was very strange," Betty went on. "But come on, I know Grace must be famished! Aren't you, my dear?" The baskets were opened, and the contents spread out on a cloth on the sand. Grace reached for the bottle of olives. "For an appetizer," she explained. "You need it, after munching candy all the way here," commented Mollie.
And I might find a dead whale with a lump of ambergris in him, as big as a barrel," spoke Tin-Back, "but I never have." "What's ambergris?" asked Amy, who rather enjoyed his talk. "I don't rightly know, miss, but it's something like a lump of suet in a dead whale, and it's worth its weight in gold. It makes perfume!" "The idea," murmured Amy, with a little shudder.
She smiled at Tin-Back and entered the house. "Where were you?" demanded Betty. "I want you to see which room you like best. There are several to choose from." "I was talking with the lobsterman," explained Amy. "He is called Tin-Back because he never sells that sort of crab, and he hopes he can find a lump of ambergris in a dead whale some day."
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