“It was years ago I learned about the pearls. I tried to locate them at the time but failed. Then I forgot all about it until I learned that Miss Swenster was coming back here to open up the house. I thought I’d get here first and make one more try. I didn’t have any luck until it occurred to me that the pearls might have been hidden inside the dial. Tonight I came here, chancing detection, and cracked open the pedestal. I found the necklace inside.”
Miss Swenster asked a few more questions before telling her son that he might feel free to go. After he had left, she stood for some minutes at the window, watching his retreating figure. Then she turned back to the girls, and with tears in her eyes thanked them for their aid.
“You have saved my house!” she said. “Finding the pearls means more to me than you’ll ever know.”
It was so late that Cara and Madge dared linger no longer. However, the following day they were back at the mansion to learn from Miss Swenster that she had called off her auction sale. Already she was making plans to restore the estate to its former elegance and she had engaged old Uncle Ross as gardener. She told them too, that she had turned over the necklace to a jeweler for an appraisal.
“I don’t know its value yet,” she declared, “but it will bring more than enough to keep me in my old age. I intend to reward you girls too!”
Madge and Cara demurred and Miss Swenster finally dropped the subject after warning them she would have something more to say when their birthdays arrived. Nevertheless, the girls did have one favor to ask—that they might hold a meeting of Skull and Crossbones at the old mansion.
The very next Saturday Madge and Cara introduced their friends to the delightful estate. They pointed out the broken sundial which Miss Swenster planned to repair, the desk with the secret panel, and told a story which held their friends spellbound.
“You lucky thing,” Jane Allen said enviously to Madge. “How do you manage to run into all these entrancing adventures?”
“They seem to run into me,” she laughed.
“It’s not fair for you to have a corner on all the fun,” Enid Burnett complained good naturedly. “We’ll not forgive you unless you promise to take us in on your next secret.”