Billie, sitting up suddenly,
while her cheeks began to glow pink. "And the more I think about it, the
funnier it seems to me."

"What?" asked Vi.

"Oh, everything," answered Billie, getting more excited as she spoke.
"Hugo Billings in the first place. And then finding Miss Arbuckle's album
in the woods. And the children. Girls, I'm just sure they are
mysteries--and real ones, too."

CHAPTER XIV

THE LIGHT ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND

Laura looked faintly excited for a minute, then she leaned back wearily
in her seat again.

"I'm just as sure as you are, Billie, that there's something funny about
it," she said. "But if we really had wanted to solve the mystery, we
should have stayed at Three Towers. The first thing they do in detective
stories is to shadow the people they suspect. And how can we do that, I'd
like to know, when we're running straight away from them?"

This was very good reasoning. Even Billie and Connie had to admit that,
and they began to look worried.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have asked you girls to visit me. Then you might
have stayed at Three Towers for the summer and solved the mystery. Now
I've spoiled all the fun----"

"Connie! don't be such an absolute goose," cried Billie, putting a hand
over Connie's mouth. "Do you suppose we'd have missed this for anything?"

"Anyway," added Vi hopefully, "we may find some more mysteries on
Lighthouse Island."

"Humph," grumbled Laura, who was feeling tired and cross, "you talk as if
mysteries were just hanging around loose begging to be found."

"Well, I think maybe we'll manage to enjoy ourselves, even without
mysteries," said Billie gayly. Nevertheless, she could not help thinking
to herself: "Oh, dear, I do wish there was some way I could find out
about Miss Arbuckle and those lovely children and poor lonely, sad Hugo
Billings. I should like to help if I only knew how!"

"Billie, wake up! Wake up--it's time to get off!"

She must have been very sound asleep because it was several seconds
before she fought her way through a sea of unconsciousness and opened
heavy eyes upon a scene of confusion.

"What's the matter?" she asked sleepily, but some one, she thought it was
Laura, shook her impatiently, and some one else--she was wide awake
enough now to be sure this was Vi--put a hat on her head and pushed it so
far over her eyes that she temporarily went blind again.

"For goodness sake, can'