plained his visit to the lighthouse, and showed her the
two letters that Crab had written.

"Well, ain't that the beatenest?" she cried. "Jack Crab is just as
mean as they make 'em, I always did allow. But this is the capsheaf
of all his didoes. And you say he run off with the little girl the other
night in Mr. Stone's catboat? I dunno where he could have taken her.
And that day he'd been traipsing off fishing with you folks on the
motor launch; hadn't he? He's been leavin' me to do his work too
much. This settles it. Me and Jack Crab parts company at the end of
this month!"

"But what is Mr. Hicks to do about his niece, Mother Purling?" cried
Ruth. "Will he pay the five hundred dollars to you----?"

"I just guess he won't!" cried the old lady, vigorously. "I ain't
goin' to be collector for Crab in none of his risky dealin's--no,
ma'am!"

"Then he says he won't give Nita up," exclaimed Tom.

"Can't help it. I'm a government employe. I can't afford to be mixed
up in no such didoes."

"Now, I say, Missus!" exclaimed the cattleman, "this is shore too
bad! Ye might know somethin' about whar I kin find this yere reptile by
the name of Crab--though I reckon a crab is a inseck, not a reptile,"
and the ranchman grinned ruefully.

The young folks could scarcely control their laughter at this, and the
idea that a crustacean might be an insect was never forgotten by the
Cameron twins and Ruth Fielding.

"I dunno where he is," said Mother Purling, shortly. "I can't keep
track of the shiftless critter. Ha'f the time when he oughter be here
he's out fishing in the dory, yonder--or over to Thimble Island."

"Which is Thimble Island?" asked Tom, quickly.

"Just yon," said the lighthouse keeper, pointing to a cone-shaped
rock--perhaps an imaginative person would call it thimble-shaped--lying
not far off shore. The lumber schooner had gone on the reef not far
from it.

"Ain't no likelihood of his being over thar now, Missus?" asked Mr.
Hicks, quickly.

"An' ye could purty nigh throw a stone to it!" scoffed the old woman.
"Not likely. B'sides, I dunno as there's a landin' on the island
'ceptin' at low tide. I reckon if he's hidin', Jack Crab is farther
away than the Thimble. But I don't know nothin' about him. And I can't
accept no money for him--that's all there is to that."

And really, that did seem to be all there was to it. Even such a go-ahead
sort of a person as Mr. Hicks seemed balked by the lighthouse keeper's
a