certainly the
sturdy keeper looked able to take care of himself.

"But he may not be alone," suggested Walter.

"However, we could go with you," he added hopefully.

"The note says to come alone, my lad, and alone I'll go. I'd do more than
that to get news of poor Margaret. I'm not afraid."

"You boys might be within call," suggested Cora. "You need not be seen."

"Well, I'd consent to that," agreed Mr. Haley. "And it might be a good
thing. And yet, somehow, I'm not worried."

"This is certainly a trap!" declared Norton. "They want you to go there,
a lonely spot--after dark. Probably they'll take you off in a boat! Ha!
I have it! Wreckers!" and he struck a dramatic posture.

"Wreckers?" questioned Jack.

"Yes, don't you see. They want to get Mr. Haley in their control. Then
they'll carry him off, some of them will put out the light and lure
vessels ashore by means of a false beacon. Then they'll get the booty!"

"Say, what sort of a dime novel have you been reading lately?" asked Ed,
with a laugh. "Wreckers!"

"Sure!" maintained Norton, earnestly.

"No, lad," said Mr. Haley, quietly, "it isn't wreckers, for the light
would be well defended by my helper, even if they got me. Besides it's
dead low water at nine to-night, and they couldn't get a boat within a
mile of the Shark's Tooth without staving a hole in her. The only approach
is from the beach. I'm not afraid."

"Besides," added Cora, "this note was written by a woman. That's plain."

"A trick!" declared Norton, who seemed to insist on the melodramatic
theory.

"Is this like your sister's writing?" asked Belle.

"I really couldn't be sure. Margaret was never much of a writer, and I
can hardly see to read print, let alone writing, even with my glasses.
So I couldn't say as to that. However, I'll be there."

"And so will we," added Jack, "out if sight, of course."

"This is getting more and more complicated," declared Bess. "Oh, I do hope
it won't turn out to be that horrid Mr. Cross, or any of his men."

"Hush!" said Cora, in a low voice. "Don't make Nancy nervous. She is
alarmed enough now."

It seemed as if night would never come, and the boys and girls hardly had
the heart for amusements to make the time pass more quickly. They remained
near the bungalows, going in bathing when the tide was right. Belle was
learning to swim with considerable confidence.

"You are getting quite brave," Cora told her when she had gone out to the
float and ba