"Brownie, do you know what it was?" persisted Jan. "Have you ever heard it before?"
"A noise, my dear, there once was, that some said——" the old woman checked herself. "Never, Miss Jan, have I heard such a sound as you name. Mice now, dearie, they make queer sounds," she added earnestly.
"But mice don't bang or ting," Jan remarked to Peter as they made their way again towards the camp. Somehow the three didn't feel satisfied about the matter. Robin certainly said little enough, but he "probably thought the more," as the others remarked. "We'd come down to your room and listen if it wasn't so rippingly fine," remarked Peter, "but the wind's veered right round and jolly weather's going to set in, though one doesn't know how long it will last with the suddenness of it. So it'd be downright silly to sleep indoors again, wouldn't it, unless you're really funkish, of course," he added considerately, "if you are——!"
"Of course I'm not," said Jan bravely. After all, the fright of the night before had quite vanished with the morning light. She began to think that perhaps she had imagined the whole thing. "You see, after Brownie being so mysterious," she said, "and—well, everything,—I think perhaps I was just a bit silly."
"Righto! I expect it was that," said Peter in brotherly tones as all three made their way down to the pioneer hut.
The sound of Mrs. Vaughan's horn called them, however, before they could set to any kind of work. Every morning during the ten days' camp she had come to speak to them, and every day the bulletin had been a satisfactory one. Dick's scarlatina case seemed certainly to have been a very slight one, and nursing had not been arduous. To-day, as they rowed across, Mrs. Vaughan was looking extra cheerful and pleased.
"Yes, Dick's still progressing," she said; "he's really tired of being in bed, and he'll be up as soon as the rash has disappeared. Peeling will come next, I suppose. I've a piece of news for you to-day, however, which I had better give at once. Can you guess?"
"Anything about Dad?" asked Peter.
"No, it's Donald. He's out of quarantine now; it's ten days since he saw Dick, you see, and he's evidently not going to catch scarlet fever. So I thought of a plan which will, I hope, give pleasure to you all. I wrote to your aunt and told her what you three were doing, and suggested that Donald should join you on the Island. He's coming down to-morrow; I heard to-day. What do you think of that?"
"Mother, it's perfectly ripping. What a splendiferous idea! And—we never thought of it!" There was no doubt about the satisfaction of the three.