"You'll burn your old stuff, won't you?" asked Louise. "This bag's a sight, too—why not stuff your old clothing into it, and ask the porter to take it away!"
Linda and Dot let out a wild cry of protest at the same moment, and the other girl frowned.
"Why not?" she inquired.
"Sh!" whispered Linda. "That bag has thousands of dollars in it. Belonging to the Jacksonville bank."
"Oh! You really have that money? And kept it all this time?"
"Yes. But don't say a word about it out loud. We'll take it with us into the dining-room, and wear our new hats, so nobody will think it queer."
They found Ted in the lobby of the hotel as they got out of the elevator, and they went into the dining-room to order the meal that Linda and Dot had been longing for on the island. It tasted good to them, but not so good, they had to admit, as the sausages and stale bread and hot tea which Captain Smallweed provided, when they were almost starved.
It was during the meal that they pieced the story together. Linda began by telling of the finding of the money in the bags and the discovery of the last member of the gang on the island.
"But why he ran away without shooting us is a mystery to us," put in Dot.
"He thought that you had armed policemen with you," explained Louise. "We learned that later from Susie. She was captured a couple of days ago—in Panama."