“That we are!” The little, gray-haired man agreed heartily.
“That’s the spirit!” Lieutenant Warren exclaimed. “We’ll win now for sure!”
After Betty and Lena had been introduced, they all took the winding path that led to Grandfather Norton’s “House of Magic,” as Norma had named it, long before she saw it.
CHAPTER XVII
THOSE BAD GREMLINS
This House of Magic she discovered was really a home and a spotter shed combined. Originally it had been a well-built summer home made of pine logs that had broken from a jam and drifted to the rocky shore of Black Knob. Since this cabin had been built on a high point, overlooking the sea, it was necessary to erect only a twenty-foot tower with a winding stairway. This led up from the front porch. Atop this tower was a room eight feet square with windows on every side. Outside was a two foot walk, railed in, which gave the watcher a view of every spot on the island and, on a clear day, many square miles of sea.
“It’s an admirable spot for a lookout,” Lieutenant Warren exclaimed. “But what about your force? Have you enough to do a really good job?”
“No-o,” the little old man hesitated. “The Misses Morrison, Jane and Mildred, retired school teachers of uncertain age, who like myself have come to love the privacy of this rock, do their best to aid me, but Jane, I fear, is becoming hard of hearing.”
“Not so good for night watching,” the Lieutenant smiled.
“Oh! I have a way of—” The old man paused, studied the circle of eyes about him, then ended lamely, “a way, er—of using the help that is at hand.”