ELP." Below were some indefinite initials, a J, and an N, and a T.

This call out of the darkness was uncanny. From whom could it have
come? Madge and Phyllis knew that it must have been sent by the man who
was shut up in the house on the farther side of the island.

The girls looked at one another questioningly. "What can we do, Miss
Jenny Ann?" asked Phil anxiously.

"Nothing," Miss Jenny Ann responded in a tone that was final.

"Please allow us to write a note, then, and send it back by this boy?"
pleaded Madge. "Think how dreadful to be shut up somewhere without a
sign from the outside world. I'll just say that we are sorry we can not
come to rescue this person, as we have no way of helping him, and that
we don't know who he is. It wouldn't be any harm to say that we hope
some one else will come to save him, would it, Phil?"

Miss Jenny Ann smiled over Madge's letter, but offered no objection to
it.

The boy seemed quite satisfied. Just as he turned to leave, Phyllis
called him back.

It occurred to her that she might ask the lad some questions about the
mysterious prisoner whom he was trying to befriend, probably at the
risk of his own life.

Phil wrote the word, "MAN?" The boy nodded. Then she put down, "OLD?"
The youth shook his head violently.

"Ask the boy if the man is crazy, Phil."

Phil printed the word, "crazy," but the boy did not understand. The
word was too large to be included in his vocabulary. She tried, "mad,"
and he bowed his head repeatedly. He frowned, walked up and down the
room and stamped his foot.

Even Miss Jenny Ann smiled. "I am afraid we do not know whether the
prisoner is insane or just very angry," she said. "But, whoever he is,
we certainly have no concern with him. I don't wish to be unkind, but,
children, it seems to me that at present we have troubles enough of our
own."

And so the strange messenger was sent back to the unknown prisoner with
nothing save the regrets of the houseboat party.

CHAPTER XVIII

A NEW USE FOR A KITE

A few days afterward Miss Jenny Ann concluded that she must pay a visit
to the men who had been so disagreeable to Phyllis and Madge. She was
an older woman, and one not to be trifled with. The man whom the two
girls imagined to be in authority over the group of people whom they
had seen had promised to come to them as soon as he could help them. He
had not come. Miss Jones wished to know why.

Miss Jenny Ann Jones was growing into