tainly do hope that Mr.
Jamieson will be able to find some way to stop them."

"I'm glad we're going to stay here, aren't you, Dolly? Do you know, I
really feel that we'll be safer here now than if we went somewhere else?
They've tried their best to get at us here, and they couldn't manage it.
Perhaps now they'll think that we'll be on our guard too much, and leave
us alone."

"I hope so, Bessie. But look here, there were two girls on guard last
night, and what good did it do us?"

"You don't think they were asleep, do you, Dolly?"

"No, I'm sure they weren't. But they just didn't have a chance to do
anything. What happened was this. Margery and Mary were sitting back to
back, so that one could watch the yacht and the other the path that
leads up to the spring on top of the bluff, where those two men we had
seen were sitting."

"That was a good idea, Dolly."

"First rate, but those people were too clever. They didn't row ashore in
a boat--not here, at least. And no one came down the path, until later,
anyhow. The first thing that made Margery think there was anything wrong
was when she smelt smoke and then, a second later, the big living tent
was all ablaze."

"It might have been an accident, Dolly, I suppose--"

"Oh, yes, it might have been, but it wasn't! They were here too soon,
and it fitted in too well with their plans. Miss Eleanor thinks she
knows how they started the fire."

"But how could they have done that, if there were none of them here on
the beach, Dolly?"

"She says that if they were on the bluff, above the tents, they could
very easily have thrown down bombs that would smoulder, and soon set the
canvas on fire. And there was a high wind last night, and it wouldn't
have taken long, once a spark had touched the canvas, for everything to
blaze up. They couldn't have picked a much better night."

"I don't suppose that can be proved, though, Dolly."

"I'm afraid not. That's what Miss Eleanor says, too. She says you can
often be so sure of a thing yourself that it seems that it must have
happened, without being able to prove it to someone else. That's where
they are so clever, and that's what makes them so dangerous. They can
hide their tracks splendidly."

"I don't see why men who can do such things couldn't keep straight, and
really make more money honestly than they can by being crooked."

"It does seem strange, doesn't it, Bessie? Oh, look, there's the
_Sally S._ with our breakfast--and