Although the weather had been threatening all day, Mildred Kent went over to Lettie Parker’s house after supper, as she had promised. There had been no school for several days, but the girls were just as busy as Dan and Billy Speedwell. They were hard at work finishing certain Christmas presents.
To tell the truth, Lettie’s present was for Billy Speedwell, and was a handsome silk scarf—thick and warm—that the bronze-haired girl had been at work on for several days. Now her nimble fingers flew as she sat and gossiped with the doctor’s daughter. Meanwhile the latter was completing the initials “D. S.” she was embroidering in the corners of six very handsome handkerchiefs.
“And there’s another thing, Milly,” Lettie was saying, “that I want to see Billy about. There’s something going on up at Island Number One, and they say Dan and Billy know about it.”
“What do you mean?” asked Mildred, calmly.
“Something queer. You know what the boys said about that fellow they call ‘Dummy’?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Well, Sheriff Kimball told my father that the Speedwells are at the island a good deal, and that the dumb boy is a member of a gang of outlaws. Now, what do you think of that?”
“What nonsense!” exclaimed Mildred, her eyes very big and round.
“It’s not nonsense at all. I’m telling you the truth,” said the bronze-haired young lady, sharply.
“Of course. I don’t mean that you are not telling the truth. But this sheriff must be crazy to believe that Dan and Billy would know any outlaws. What kind of outlaws?”