“It is too serious, Peggy. I don’t think that you know just how serious it is. That fake English lord in the cave only proves what I have been suspecting.”
“What have you been suspecting, Jack?”
“I’d rather not say, Peggy. Suppose we wait a little. I am thinking that about the twenty-eighth we may find some others of the same sort, only pretending to carry out the house party idea with your mother, and then some that are very likely real titled exiles.”
“But why would they do that? Why should this man hide away? Is he afraid of somebody? And why should Dad let him hide there? Just what is it that Dad is doing?”
“I am very much afraid, Peggy, that your step-father is helping these people into the country against the law, and probably for a good price. I hope that it is the Count who is doing it,—that is, I have been hoping that, with Uncle’s just letting him use the place and entertaining as his guests only some people brought here in his yacht that really have a right to be here. But I think now that the yacht is a blind and that everybody will come in on the ‘schooner.’”
“Oh!” Peggy began to understand more clearly. “Shall I tell Mother, Jack?”
“No. I’ve got to find out what to do.”
But as it happened, neither Jack nor Peggy nor any of the Secrests decided what was to be done; and it was better so.
The little cruise was delightful. Troubles seemed far away after they gave themselves to the lure of the water and sky and the motion of the boat. Even Peggy, who had at first been startled and distressed at Jack’s clear statements, seemed to forget and joked as usual with the girls. Leslie was thoughtful, wondering what their duty was. It was not pleasant to have such a problem presented to them.
Evan Tudor, who could run a launch quite well himself, was entirely content to be a passenger, visiting with the pretty artist and forgetting his quest in these parts, except to fix in mind the location of Steeple Rocks and Pirates’ Cove. He intended to go out in a row boat to investigate that region.