Mr. Neale accepted the explanation; it seemed a natural action that Nicky had indulged in, thus explained. Ma’am Sib was greatly upset and began to beg them not to pay any attention to her “spell.” Its effects were all removed, she declared. They agreed and as it was clear that young Sam was eager to have them cause no trouble for his grandmother, the boys and their older friend forgave the old voodoo woman and hurried away.
Mr. Neale returned to his conference with some colored men who were excavating near the plantation house where the white people had their headquarters. Tom, Cliff and Nicky could hardly wait to get off by themselves. As soon as they succeeded, Nicky turned to his companions.
“I saw you signal to me to say nothing,” Nicky told Cliff. “It was all I could do to hold in.”
“I know it,” Cliff replied. “You ‘go off the handle’ easy, anyhow. I guessed what made you get so excited, and I didn’t want you to talk until we had had a meeting of our Order.”
“Nicky’s ‘message’ from Captain Kidd has something to do with it,” Tom guessed.
“Something?” Nicky said. “Everything! Why, that half of the cipher would fit in with a half that my uncle has!”
“Honestly?” cried Tom. “Hooray! We’re off again for adventure!”
“Not yet,” Cliff counseled. “There are some things to decide. First of all, half the cipher is in New York—or with Nicky’s uncle.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Nicky laughed. “I got him to let me take a tracing of it. I held the paper against a lamp shade and traced over it. Here’s the ‘other half of the cipher!’ See what you make of it.”
He dragged a leather billfold from his coat pocket and extracted a neatly folded paper. The others stared at it.