I THE STORY OF THE CASTAWAY 80
XII BUSY IZZY IN A NEW ASPECT 90
XIII CRAB PROVES TO BE OF THE HARDSHELL VARIETY 97
XIV THE TRAGIC INCIDENT IN A FISHING EXCURSION 103
XV TOM CAMERON TO THE RESCUE 114
XVI RUTH'S SECRET 120
XVII WHAT WAS IN THE NEWSPAPER 128
XVIII ANOTHER NIGHT ADVENTURE 137
XIX THE GOBLINS' GAMBOL 145
XX "WHAR'S MY JANE ANN?" 153
XXI CRAB MAKES HIS DEMAND 162
XXII THIMBLE ISLAND 171
XXIII MAROONED 179
XXIV PLUCKY MOTHER PURLING 187
XXV WHAT JANE ANN WANTED 196

RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT

CHAPTER I

AN INITIATION

A brown dusk filled the long room, for although the windows were shrouded
thickly and no lamp burned, some small ray of light percolated from
without and made dimly visible the outlines of the company there gathered.

The low, quavering notes of an organ sighed through the place. There
was the rustle and movement of a crowd. To the neophyte, who had been
brought into the hall with eyes bandaged, it all seemed very mysterious
and awe-inspiring.

Now she was set in a raised place and felt that before her was the
company of masked and shrouded figures, in scarlet dominoes like those
worn by the two guards who had brought her from the anteroom. The
bandage was whisked from her eyes; but she could see nothing of her
surroundings, nor of the company before which she stood.

"Candidate!" spoke a hollow, mysterious voice somewhere in the gloom,
yet sounding so close to her ear that she started. "Candidate! you stand
before the membership body of the S. B.'s. You are as yet unknown to
them and they unknown to you. If you enter the secret association of
the S. B.'s you must throw off and despise forever all ties of a like
character. Do you agree?"

The candidate obeyed, in so far as she prodded her sharply in the ribs
and a shrill voice whispered: "Say you do--gump!"

The candidate obeyed, in so far as she proclaimed that she did, at least.

"It is an oath," went on