"Oh, isn't this gorgeous!" half whispered Margaret. "It fills me with—with thrills!" Corinne went on:
"'Therefore I am keeping this little journal from time to time. Should aught evil befall me in this strange land and among these unfriendly people, at least I will leave some record whereby my own kin may trace my fate, perchance, at some future day. I dare not write this out in good English lest it be discovered by those who hate me. So I have invented this secret code, whereof none save myself knows the key. This book I found in the library unused and I have taken it. I trust it will be counted no act of thievery. I keep it hidden in the false bottom of my trunk. The key of the code I have put in another spot. As soon as my memory has mastered it, I will destroy it. 'Tis safer.'—And that's as far as I got!" ended Corinne.
For a moment they all sat dumb with amazement.
"What do you make of it?" exclaimed Bess. "Who is it,—a man or a woman? When was it written, and where? Why, I'm just wild to find out all about it!"
"I confess," admitted Corinne, "that I don't know what to make of it. I've puzzled and puzzled over it all day—"
"But, good gracious!" interrupted the impatient Margaret, "of course we can't make anything out of it till we've worked out some more! Come ahead! Right now! We're only wasting time talking about it!"
"That's so!" laughed Corinne. "And when we can find out right away, by getting to work! Here, Margaret! You write, while I spell the thing out!" She thrust the paper and pencil into Margaret's hands, while the twins hung over her as she slowly deciphered the sentences:
"'Would—that—I—had—never—left—my—peaceful—Bermuda—'" Corinne dropped the book suddenly.
"Bermuda!—I've been there! Oh, this is fine!"
"Have you been to Bermuda?" exclaimed Margaret and the twins, with awe. "When?"