“Not for you, Janie,” laughed Nancy. “You’d need a whole procession of wagons. She goes through one store after another before she finds anything to suit her,” she explained to the driver.
On their return trip, they stopped at Chester for lunch at the Lovett House. It is one hundred and fifty years old, and has been in the hands of the family of the present owners for one hundred and two years. There are steps up into this room, and down into that one. The old wall paper is patterned in hunting scenes; and the whole house is filled with delightful, old-fashioned furniture. The side porch is built right around the trunk of an immense tree.
“Now for Captain Kidd’s island,” said Martha after lunch. “We can go; can’t we?” she appealed to the driver, as the girls laughed at her.
“I could get someone to take them out,” he replied, looking at Miss Ashton for assent.
“If you have time to indulge her whim,” she replied, “I have no objections to make.”
Before very long the girls and Miss Ashton were in a small launch manned by an old fisherman, and headed for Oak Island. It was a forlorn-looking spot when they reached it, much of it covered by trees and brush, and the rest of it holes of various shapes and depths.
“Apparently you’re not the first one who has entertained hopes of becoming wealthy, Mart,” said Nancy, peering into one immense excavation.
“I wouldn’t care so much about getting rich,” she replied, “if I could find even one coin to take home. Imagine, having even one souvenir from Captain Kidd’s treasure.”
“Of course, Mart,” said Jeanette practically, “it is not a certainty that he even buried any of it here.”
“Anyway, if at first you don’t succeed,” began Nancy, “you know the rest of it.”