the article was promptly returned. That settled it. I went up to my
room, and wrote out the following in a disguised hand:

"Secrit and konfidenshal--the shawl's all right."

I waited till after supper, slipped it under Aunt Pam's door, and going
out the back way I took a cross-cut down to the shore. Now pa won't let
us go out at night to play, and I think that's a mistake, because we
can't get used to the dark if we don't. The whole world looked queer
somehow to me by starlight. The moon hadn't come up yet, and at first I
could hardly see my hand before my face. I never saw such ugly shadows,
and once I had to stop and get breath before I could make up my mind to
pass a clump of old mulberry bushes. Once in a while I heard a crackle
behind me like a footstep, but I didn't look back. I knew my only chance
was to plod ahead, no matter how my heart thumped or my knees shook. I
thought of everything I could to bolster me up--of dear old Aunt Pam and
poor little Maggie. But the sound of the waves on the beach was awful!
They roared like so many wild beasts. It was as black as ink on the
water, and the twinkle of the light-house seemed a hundred miles away.
It was so lonely and wild that my heart was in my throat. And suppose,
thinks I, when I get in the cave, the waves come up and devour me?
Suppose somebody has crawled in there to sleep, some tramp or something,
and he should catch me by the leg? Or the bank should tumble in on top
of me? All my spunk was gone, and I turned to run, when, bunk! I came
into something behind me.

"Ow!" I screamed, and "Oh!" exclaimed somebody, and wasn't I glad to
find it was dear old Aunt Pam. She scared me, though, for she was as
white as any sheet, and grabbing me in her arms, she began to cry over
me.

"Tell me all, Tom," she said. "I got your note, and I followed you. You
bad, wicked, dear little wretch, tell me everything. If the shawl's got
lost, never mind, Tom; I don't care; only tell me, and come back home."

Poor, dear Aunt Pam! she told me afterward she thought I had done
something to the shawl, and ran away in my fright. We were both pretty
well broke up, and I couldn't help crying a little bit myself. But of
course I couldn't go home now without the shawl. I began to feel as
brave as a lion now Aunt Pam was there. The thing was to get her out of
the way while I went into the cave. It looked awful down there in the
hollow, and the wind was getting up, the water swashed aro