n by different persons?" Marion
inquired curiously.

"I don't think it makes any difference whether they were or not,"
Helen answered more decisively than she had spoken before. "It is in
that skull-and-cross-bones letter that you are most interested. I
think you can disregard the other entirely. I would say this,
however, that if both were written by one person, you have less to
fear than if the shorter one was written by your cousin or one of his
friends."

"Why?"

"Because if one person wrote both of them, he is probably suffering
from softening of the brain. But if the person who wrote the longer
one did not write the shorter one, there is more likelihood that he
means business and will attempt to carry out his threat."

"I never realized that you were such a Sherlock Holmes," Marion
exclaimed enthusiastically, while the suggestion came to her that
perhaps a genius for this sort of thing accounted for her friend's
peculiarities. "You ought to be a detective for a department store to
catch shoplifters."

"Thanks, Marion, for the compliment, but I am not inclined that way.
I'd rather do something in this case to keep our vacation plans from
ending in trouble."

"I was looking for someone who could advise me," Marion said; "and I
am now convinced that you are just the person I was looking for. What
do you think I ought to do, Helen?"

"All the girls ought to know about this letter," Helen replied. "But
you can't go to them and blurt out anything so sensational. We must
break the news gently, as they say in melodrama. I wish we hadn't
come."

"So do I," Marion replied, but with just a suggestion of
disappointment in her voice.

"Not that I am afraid of getting hurt," Helen added hastily, realizing
the suspicion of cowardice that might rest against her. "Still, if my
advice had been asked, I would have argued against this very dangerous
vacation scheme of yours."

"Why?" inquired Marion in a tone of disappointment.

"Because of the very situation complained of in that
skull-and-cross-bones letter. I hope I don't hurt your feelings,
Marion, but it is very natural for some of these rough miners to
suspect that your plan was cooked up by your father to pull the wool
over their eyes, and to regard you as a tool employed by him to put
the scheme into operation."

"Some of the girls' parents raised the objection that there might be
danger in a mining district during a strike, but none of them
suggested anyth