“Well, neither can I, I’ll have to admit. But here’s what I think. If we could see what that note itself looks like, we could perhaps manage to puzzle out just how this code works.”
“But how are we going to do that?” demanded Doris. “Only Miss Camilla has the note, if there is a note; and certainly we couldn’t very well ask her to let us see it, especially after what she said to us that day.”
“No, we couldn’t, I suppose,” said Doris, thoughtfully. “And yet—” she hesitated. “I somehow feel perfectly certain that Miss Camilla doesn’t know the meaning of all this yet, hasn’t even guessed what we have, about this paper. She doesn’t act so. Maybe she doesn’t even know there is a note,—you can’t tell. If she hasn’t guessed, it would be a mercy to tell her, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” admitted Sally dubiously. “But I wouldn’t know how to go about it. Would you?”
“I could only try and do my best, and beg her to forgive me if I were intruding,” said Doris. “Yes, I believe she ought to be told. You can’t tell how she may be worrying about all this. She acts awfully worried, seems to me. Not at all like she did when we first knew her. I believe we ought to tell her right now. Call Genevieve and we’ll go over.”
Sally called to Genevieve, who was playing in the boat on the beach below, and that young lady soon came scrambling up the bank. Hand in hand, all three started to the home of Miss Camilla and when they had reached it, found her sitting on her tiny porch knitting in apparently placid content. But, true to Doris’s observation, there were anxious lines in her face that had not been seen a month ago. She greeted them, however, with real pleasure, and with her usual hospitality proffered refreshments, this time in the shape of some early peaches she had gathered only that morning.
But Doris who, with Sally’s consent, had constituted herself spokesman, before accepting the refreshment, began:
“Miss Camilla, I wonder if you’ll forgive us for speaking of something to you? It may seem as if we were intruding, but we really don’t intend to.”
“Why, speak right on,” exclaimed that lady in surprise. “You are too well-bred to be intrusive, that I know. If you feel you must speak of something to me, I know it is because you think it wise or necessary.”
Much relieved by this assurance, Doris went on, explaining how she had suddenly had a new idea concerning the mysterious paper and detailing what she thought it might be. As she proceeded, a new light of comprehension seemed to creep into the face of Miss Camilla, who had been listening intently.