“That looks still more like an angel’s robe than the other did,” grinned Dick. But Anne did not tell him what it was.
As soon as they were off in the canoe Dick began to ask Anne more questions about her adventure on the mountain, which had made a great impression on his imagination. He had already bothered her so much that she grew impatient whenever he returned to the subject. Which direction was the cave? What did the place look like when she came down the mountain? Had she noticed which way the sun was? Weren’t there any landmarks? Did the man look like a pirate? If pirates were in the wind Dick wanted to be the one to find them. Anne was vague, but she stuck to one point.
“It was a long way from here; it took at least half an hour to come. And we came from the south—no, not from the north, Reddy!”
“You must have walked miles off the trail to get down to the south of the mountain,” Dick persisted. “I can’t understand it!” But Anne reminded him that he had met her returning from the south of the camp, which he couldn’t deny.
“I don’t see through it!” muttered Dick, completely mystified. He had scoured every foot of shore from Round Robin to the Harbor, and for miles beyond. But no cave could he find. When he asked discreet questions of the natives like Lonny Maguire, the ablest fisherman of them all, or of Hopkins the lighthouse keeper, who had always lived here, they shook their heads and said they didn’t know of any cave on the main-land at the foot of the mountain.
“They would be likely to know if there was such a cave, now wouldn’t they?” argued Dick. He began to believe that Anne had been dreaming.
But Anne only said positively, “I know what I saw, Reddy. Let’s not talk any more about it.”
“Right-o!” said Reddy. But he did not mean to quit looking just yet.
By this time they had reached the Captain’s cove, and Dick set Anne ashore, promising to call for her again in about an hour.
Anne started up the path with her white package under her arm, and met Nelly coming down.