'Where's that?' inquired Harry.
'I may tell them, mayn't I?' asked Marjorie of the others.
'Of course you may,' replied Allan; 'we must take them there some day soon.'
Marjorie slipped down from her perch.
'Do you see the little island over there?' she said, pointing southwards; 'a little black dot on the water, with some bright green in the middle of it? Well, that's our own island which we have all to ourselves, and we've made a place in it that we call our secret hiding-place or Pirates' Den. We must show it to you some day.'
The boys stood up and gazed out to sea, their eyes widening and brightening.
'I say, this is jolly,' they murmured, rather than said to any one in particular.
'Hamish,' said Allan, who had been looking at some object on the southern side of the island; 'is that your father's gig, that has just stopped before Mrs. Macdonnell's cottage?'
Hamish looked in the direction indicated.
'Yes, I believe it is,' he said. 'It must be true then, what we heard Duncan say, that Mrs. Macdonnell is very ill.'