“Oh, how picturesque this place it,” Virginia exclaimed. “If I were sure that some day we would be rescued, I would be glad that we had had an opportunity to visit this island.”
“Me, too,” Betsy chimed in ungrammatically as she delighted in doing. Then, as she sank down on the soft mossy ground to rest, she remarked: “Girls, we started out with the avowed purpose of hunting for the fortune hidden by Eleanor’s grandfather, Captain Burgess, but, as an adventure, I do believe even such a search is backed off of the map.”
Eleanor laughed as she leaned against a tree. “It is indeed, especially since, as I have told you, my grandfather probably wrote that note just to cause anxiety for those who were left. I am not at all sure that he ever had a fortune to hide. Of course he owned the fine old place on the County Road, and mother and her sister Dorinda had every comfort provided for them, but they were never given any money to spend.”
“If there was a fortune, it would rightfully belong to your mother and to her sister Dorinda.” Babs lying flat on the ground with her hands clasped under her head, remarked.
“Yes, of course. I had a boy cousin whom I would so like to see. Mother is trying hard to locate him. He and I would have a share in the money, I suppose, if there were any.”
“Whizzle.” Betsy leaped to her feet. “Here it is mid-morning and we haven’t had a bite to eat since yesterday noon.”
“I’m thirstier than I am hungry,” Barbara remarked, as they began the descent.
Virginia turned her head to listen and to her unexpressed delight that strange rustling sound which had suggested that they were being followed was no longer to be heard.
“After all, it was my imagination,” she had just decided, when there was a joyful shout from Babs, seconded by one from Betsy. They had scrambled down into a little dell, which looked especially green and inviting, and there they had found a spring of clear, cold water.
The older girls were overjoyed at this discovery, for well they knew that one could live longer without food than without water. One by one they knelt among the ferns to quench their thirst. Virg made a mental note of the location of the spring that they might return to it later, if they so desired.