pprove of that, so how we're ever going to find out, I'm sure I can't
imagine!" declared Phyllis, discouraged.

"Do you know, I think this metal is so strong it would resist even an
ax," Leslie soothed her, "and we'd only damage the box without
accomplishing anything. There must be some other way. Why not show it to
Ted and your father? Perhaps they could do what we can't."

"I will _not_ share this secret with Ted!" declared Phyllis, obstinately.
"He's nearly nineteen and he thinks he's the most important thing in
creation, and he's perfectly insufferable in some ways, now. To have his
advice asked in this thing would set him up worse than ever. I won't do
it!"

Leslie had to smile inwardly at this outburst. To her, Ted had seemed
just a jolly, agreeable, and rather companionable boy, with a very
friendly, likable attitude. But she realized that she had not had
Phyllis's sisterly experience, so she said nothing more. They put the
dragon back in his hiding-place and sadly admitted themselves more
baffled than ever.

On the evening of the third day after this, however, a strange thing
happened.

To the surprise of Leslie, Miss Marcia had been induced to walk along the
beach, after supper, and stop in at Fisherman's Luck to hear a
concert--an impromptu one--given by Phyllis and her father and brother.
Leslie had learned that the Kelvin family amused itself in this fashion
every night when the fishing was not particularly good.

"I'd love to hear them play, shouldn't you, Aunt Marcia? Phyllis is a
wonder, just by herself, and they must make a delightful trio!" She said
this without any hope that her aunt would express much interest; but to
her astonishment, Miss Marcia replied:

"Well, suppose we walk down there after tea. I'm feeling so much better
that I don't believe it would hurt me, and I'm just hungry to hear some
music myself!"

Leslie joyfully imparted the news to Phyllis, and they planned an
elaborate program. It was an evening that they long remembered, so
absorbed were they in the music that they all loved. And it was not till
the end of an ensemble rendering of a Bach concerto, that some one
remarked, "Why, it's raining!"

No one had noticed it until then. Miss Marcia was quite aghast, for she
seldom ventured out in the rain and she had brought no adequate wraps.
But Leslie settled that question speedily. "I'll take Rags and run up the
beach to our bungalow and bring them to you, if Phyllis will lend