o this, folks! What d'ye
make of it?

"'Now I got you right. Whoever you be, you are wanting to get
hold of the girl. I know where she is. You won't never know
unless I get that five hundred dols. The paper talked about.
You leave it at the lighthouse. Mis Purling will take care of
it and I reckon on getting it from her when I want it. When
she has got the five hundred dols. I will let you know how to
find the girl. So, no more at present, from
"'J. Crab.'

"Listen here to it, will ye? Why, if once I get my paws on this here
Crab----"

"You want to get the girl most; don't you?" interrupted Mercy, sharply.

"Of course!"

"Then you'd better see if paying the money to him--just as he
says--won't bring her to you. You offered the reward, you know."

"But maybe he doesn't really know anything about Nita!" cried Heavy.

"And maybe he knows just where she is," said Ruth.

"Wal! he seems like a mighty sharp feller," admitted the cattleman,
seriously. "I want my Jane Ann back. I don't begredge no five hundred
dollars. I'm a-goin' over to that lighthouse and see what this Missus
Purling--you say she's the keeper?--knows about it. That's what I'm
going to do!" finished Hicks with emphasis.

CHAPTER XXII

THIMBLE ISLAND

Miss Kate said of course he could use the buckboard and ponies, and
it was the ranchman's own choice that the young folks went, too. There
was another wagon, and they could all crowd aboard one or the other
vehicle--even Mercy Curtis went.

"I don't believe that Crab man will show up at the light," Ruth said
to Tom and Helen. "He's plainly made up his mind that he won't meet
Nita's friends personally. And to think of his getting five hundred
dollars so easy!" and she sighed.

For the reward Mr. Hicks had offered for news of his niece, which would
lead to her apprehension and return to his guardianship, would have
entirely removed from Ruth Fielding's mind her anxiety about Briarwood.
Let the Tintacker Mine, in which Uncle Jabez had invested, remain a deep
and abiding mystery, if Ruth could earn that five hundred dollars.

But if Jack Crab had placed Nita in good hands and was merely awaiting
an opportunity to exchange her for the reward which the runaway's uncle
had offered, then Ruth need not hope for any portion of the money. And
certainly, Crab would make nothing by hiding the girl away and refusing
to