The night was a beautiful one, and walking was really delightful. Below them the beach stretched, white and smooth, as far as the cove itself. At each end of the cove the bluff on which they were walking curved and turned toward the sea, stretching out to form two points of land that enclosed the cove.
“They say this would be a perfect harbor if there was a bigger channel dredged in,” said Dolly. “Of course it’s very small, but I guess it was used in the old days. There are all sorts of stories about buried treasure being hidden around here.”
“Do you believe those stories, Dolly?”
“Not I! If there was any treasure around here it would have been found ever so long ago. They’re just stories. I guess those pirates spent most of the money they stole, and I guess they didn’t get half as much as people like to pretend, anyhow.”
“It would be fun to find something like that, though, Dolly.”
“Well, Bessie King, you’re the last person I would ever have expected even to think of anything so silly! You’d better get any nonsense of that sort out of your head right away. There’s nothing in those old stories.”
“I suppose not,” said Bessie, and sighed. “But in a place like this it doesn’t seem half so hard to believe that it’s possible, somehow. It looks like just the sort of place for romance and adventure. But—oh, well, I guess I’m just moonstruck. Dolly, look at that!”
Her eyes had wandered suddenly toward the yacht, and now, from their higher elevation, they were able to see a small boat drawing away from her, on the seaward side, and so out of sight of the girls on the beach.
“That’s funny,” said Dolly, puzzled. “I should think that if they were going to send a boat ashore she’d come straight in.”
“Let’s watch and see what happens, Dolly.”