uld get no
more work, and she had to appeal to her brother. She had refrained from
doing that fearing she might be traced through him, for she still feared
she would be arrested for the crime she had never committed. But, growing
desperate, she made the night appointment with her brother, hiring a boy
to leave the note at the lighthouse, intending to explain matters to
Mr. Haley, get some money, and go away again.

But it all ended happily.

"And so they caught Cross?" remarked Jack.

"Yes," said the lawyer, "one of the private detectives got a clue and
followed it up. They got his crony, too, the other man who came in the
office when you ran out, Nancy. And they both confessed, after pressure
was brought to bear on them. It is not the first crime Cross has been
guilty of. He has a bad record, I am told. I learned of his arrest after I
started here this morning, following your telegram," he said to Cora,
for, on learning of the arrival of Mrs. Raymond, Cora had wired to her
mother's lawyer to come in haste.

"Then my name is cleared?" asked Mrs. Raymond.

"Absolutely," answered Mr. Beacon. "You will not even have to appear in
court."

"I wish _I_ didn't have to," said Nancy, nervously.

"I can arrange to have a private hearing," went on the lawyer. "It will be
no ordeal at all."

Nor did Nancy find it so. A kindly judge in his chambers, several days
later, listened to the story, and named Mr. Beacon as guardian of Nancy
Ford, whose property was, in the main, saved from the clutches of Mr.
Cross. He had embezzled some of it, and that crime, with others, brought
him severe punishment.

As for Mrs. Raymond, she went to live with her brother in the lighthouse.

"And now for some good times!" exclaimed Cora when all the legal matters
had been attended to. "We have had enough of mystery and wonderings. You
can spend the rest of the summer here with us; can't you, Nancy?"

"If you want me, and have room."

"Of course we want you!" cried Jack. "Remember you promised to ride in my
car when we go over to Stony Beach to-morrow."

"I asked her first!" cried Norton.

"But she promised me," cut in Walter.

"Oh, what boys!" protested the blushing Nancy.

"Don't mind them," suggested Cora, putting her arms around her new friend.
"You'll soon get used to them."

"I think I can get used to almost _anything_--after that shipwreck," said
Nancy, with a smile.

"Well, I like _that_!" cried Jack. "Comparing us to a ship