"Oh, girls! Don't you know what it is?"
"No!" declared the twins.
"Why—the other half of the diary!"
Then indeed did the twins give way to belated exultation in which Alexander joined, for of course he had already discovered this.
"Yes, it certainly is!" reasserted Corinne, examining it more closely. "The book was evidently torn in two, and this half concealed in the beam,—but for what earthly reason I can't imagine! I wonder if Alison put it there herself?"
"D'ye see anything queer about the first page?" inquired Alexander, mysteriously. They bent again to examine it. The first page was the most worn and stained and torn and least decipherable of all, because it had been unprotected. There were the same characters of the cipher, only very dimly discernible. But written diagonally across it, evidently with something black and dull, possibly a piece of charcoal or charred wood, were a few words in English. They were so faint that they might have been taken merely for the traces of dark stains or smudges had not one examined them closely.
"Shall I put you wise to what they say?" suggested Alexander.
"Oh, do!" they all cried.
"Well, here it is: 'I am now assured you are a spy. This proves it. I can make naught of it, but will hide it securely. Later I will denounce you.' Wouldn't that jar you, now!"
"Who do you suppose wrote it?" demanded Corinne.