Is the fellow going to pull
teeth? No! He needed an _e_; so he made up a word."

She ran her finger down the first letters of the second column.
"D-y-n-a-m-i-t-e!" she said triumphantly. "Didn't I tell you?"

IV

Well, there it was--staring at us. I felt positively chilled. He looked
so young and agreeable, and, as Aggie said, he had such nice teeth. And
to know him for what he was--it was tragic! But that was not all.

"Add the numbers!" said Tish. "Thirty-one tons, perhaps, of dynamite!
And that's only part," said Tish. "Here's the most damning thing of
all--a note to his accomplice!"

"Damning" is here used in the sense of condemnatory. We are none of us
addicted to profanity.

We read the other paper, which had been in a sealed envelope, but
without superscription. It is before me as I write, and I am copying it
exactly:--

I shall have to see you. I'm going crazy! Don't you realize that this
is a matter of life and death to me? Come to Island Eleven to-night,
won't you? And give me a chance to talk, anyhow. Something has got to
be done and done soon. I'm desperate!

Aggie sneezed three times in sheer excitement; for anyone can see how
absolutely incriminating the letter was. It was not signed, but it was
in the same writing as the list.

Tish, who knows something about everything, said the writing denoted an
unscrupulous and violent nature.

"The _y_ is especially vicious," she said. "I wouldn't trust a man who
made a _y_ like that to carry a sick child to the doctor!"

The thing, of course, was to decide at once what measures to take. The
boat would not come again for two days, and to send a letter by it to
the town marshal or sheriff, or whatever the official is in Canada who
takes charge of spies, would be another loss of time.

"Just one thing," said Tish. "I'll plan this out and find some way to
deal with the wretch; but I wouldn't say anything to Hutchins. She's a
nice little thing, though she is a fool about a motor boat. There's no
case in scaring her."

For some reason or other, however, Hutchins was out of spirits that
night.

"I hope you're not sick, Hutchins?" said Tish.

"No, indeed, Miss Tish."

"You're not eating your fish."

"I'm sick of fish," she said calmly. "I've eaten so much fish that when
I see a hook I have a mad desire to go and hang myself on it."

"Fish," said Tish grimly, "is good for the brain. I do not care to
boast, but never has my mind been