light from a crack at the side of one of
the heavily shuttered windows!

CHAPTER II

FOUND ON THE BEACH

The next morning dawned windy and wet. A heavy northeast gale had whipped
the sea into gray, mountainous waves. A fine drizzle beat in one's face
through the slightest opening of door or window. Leslie loved the soft,
salt tang of the air, and in spite of her aunt's rather horrified
protests, prepared for a long excursion out of doors.

"Don't worry about me, Auntie dear!" she laughed gaily. "One can't
possibly catch cold in this mild, beautiful air; and if I get wet, I can
always get dry again before any damage is done. Besides, we need some
more wood for the fires very, very badly and they say you can simply find
heaps of it on the beach after a storm like this. I want some nice fat
logs for our open fire, and I see at least a half dozen right down in
front of this house. And last but not least, Rags needs some exercise!"

She found a wealth of driftwood at the water's edge that surpassed her
wildest dreams. Again and again she filled her basket and hauled it up to
the bungalow, and three times she carried up a large, water-soaked log
balanced on her shoulder. But when the supply at last appeared ample, she
returned to the beach on another quest. Rather to her surprise, she found
that the stormy ocean had cast up many things beside driftwood--articles
that in size and variety suggested that there must have been a wreck in
the night.

Yet she knew that there had been no wreck, else the coast-guard station,
less than a mile away, would have been very busy, and she herself must
surely have heard some of the disturbance. No, there had been no wreck,
yet all about her lay the wave-sodden flotsam and jetsam of many past
disasters. A broken mast stump was imbedded upright in the sand at one
spot. In another, a ladder-like pair of stairs, suggesting a ship's
companionway, lay half out of the water. Sundry casks and barrels dotted
the beach, some empty, some still untouched. Rusty tins of canned goods,
oil, and paint, often intact, intermingled with the debris. Bottles,
either empty or full of every conceivable liquid, added to the list; and
sprinkled through and around all the rest were broken dishes,
shoe-brushes, combs, and other household and personal articles in
surprising quantities.

Leslie roamed about among this varied collection, the salt sp