ring themselves that it
was paper which had been crossruled, as suggested by John, they tried to
decipher the straggling letters and form them into some coherent form.

The paper had the following appearance when they received it:

[Illustration: _Fig. 1. The Mysterious Message._]

The words, or parts of words "dire," in the first line, and "30 gues" in
the second line, together with the letters "Walt" are the only
absolutely clear things to be noticed.

"The writing is right across the V-shaped marks, and the arrow is plain
enough. It may be though, that the arrow has nothing to do with the
V-shaped mark." And George held the paper away from his eyes to get the
proper effect at a distance.

"I wonder how close the mountain is to the sea?" ventured Harry.

"I don't see what difference that would make," replied George. "That
_30_ must mean some measurement. It is either feet, or miles, or yards,
or,--"

"Why can't you see that 'gues' is a part of the word 'leagues.'"

Harry jumped up as though shot. "Well, that was stupid of us, sure
enough."

"With that key before us, we can make some headway. I believe the
V-shape is the lower end of the mountain, probably a headland, and the
arrow points to a place 30 leagues to the,--see here, in the last line
is a W. and there is a blur before it and after it. That may be SWE,
EWS, SWW, SWS, and,--"

"Don't go so fast," shrieked Harry. "What do you suppose the capital I
stands for at the beginning of the third line?"

"I--I--, why,--_Island_, of course," said George, with an air of
superiority. "But it cannot be west."

"Well, the arrow points southeast."

"How do you know?" asked George, dubiously.

"Why, that word at the extreme top must be 'north,' and if so then the
arrow is pointing south, and the 'W' belongs to something in that
direction."

"There, in the second line is a word that looks like 'land.' Can it be a
part of the word 'Island'?"

"It doesn't seem so, as there is too much space before the letters. It
seems to me though, that it reads 'land 30 leagues' but what does 'se'
mean?"

The boys were up late that night, and they went to bed with the missive
still unsolved. Before retiring Harry said: "Let us wait until daylight.
The sun may help us out."

When they awoke the first thing that occurred to George was the original
Walter letter, so that the writing could be compared. It was found, and
George came in with an exultant bound.

"I am sure n