“Do I wish you to?” Saxe cried. “We need all the help we can get. Of course I wish you to. The only thing is that I wonder you’re willing. It doesn’t seem right that you should rob yourself by giving assistance to your natural enemies.” He smiled whimsically, as he thus paraphrased Roy’s accusation against the girl.
“Nonsense!” was her energetic retort. “I’m not quite so poor as to worry over the money part of it. It seems to me that you ought to win—I think my cousin meant you to. Besides, I’d like to see you do it, just to disappoint Mr. Masters. But let me tell you, I’m still afraid of him. He’s a desperate man, who’ll stop at nothing, even murder, as you know. And he’s mad to get that money. So, I want to help you, and to beat him. But, of course, my idea may amount to nothing, really—after all.”
“Tell me,” Saxe said, simply. He was beamingly happy, and the fact showed plainly enough in his eyes and smile. The girl flushed a little under his glance.
“There’s an island up there,” she said presently; and her voice was strangely soft for a statement so prosaic. “It lies in the entrance to the cove, before you come to the other islands. They are smaller, too. You noticed it, perhaps?” She glanced up at Saxe inquiringly, then her eyes drooped again, as he nodded assent.
“That,” she continued briskly, “was one of the places to which my cousin took me. What I learned that day may be just the thing you need to know now: There’s a cave on that island.”
Saxe regarded the girl in dismay. This information was not what he had anticipated. He did not know just what he had expected, but certainly it had been nothing like this.
“A cave!” he exclaimed, weakly. “But the gold’s at the bottom of the lake, you know.”
Margaret moved her head in assent.
“Yes, I know,” she agreed. She was not in the least disconcerted by the obvious disappointment on the part of her listener. On the contrary, a mischievous dimple pitted the rose of her cheek. “Just the same, the cave might have something to do with your affair.”
“I don’t understand,” Saxe objected.