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Outdoor Girls at Ocean View

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<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> <h3>THE CIPHER</h3> "Locked!" exclaimed Betty, laconically, when she had tried the cover of the box. "Oh, dear!" came petulantly from Grace. "Isn't that horrid!" "Well, I suppose the men have a right to lock up their treasure," coolly remarked Betty, again vainly trying to raise the cover. "You will have it that those men hid the box," said Amy, with a smile. "Also that it is treasure." "I'm getting romantic—like Grace," commented the Little Captain. Then, as they found that their efforts to open the box were vain, the girls looked at it more closely. It was a black japanned box of tin, or, rather, light sheet iron, rather heavier than the usual box made for holding legal papers. It was such a receptacle as would be described, in England, as a "dispatch box." And in fact, the box did[82] seem to be of some foreign make. It was not like the light tin affairs used locally to hold deeds, insurance policies and the like. The cover fitted on tightly. This much was seen at a glance, and so well did it fit that it needed a second look to make sure which was the bottom and which the top, for there was no bulge or "shoulder" of the metal to indicate where the lid rested. "It's water-tight, I'm sure," Mollie said, when the box had again been set upright. They decided that the top was that place where the initials "B. B. B." showed, half-obliterated, in white paint. "Then it might have been washed ashore from some wreck," Amy said. "Too heavy to float," was the answer of Mollie, as she again lifted it. "But it could work up in a heavy wind or sea; that is, if it didn't go down too far from shore," Grace remarked. "But can't we get it open some way?" "We might break it," Mollie observed. "Otherwise, I don't see how we can. It is a complicated lock, if I am any judge," and she looked at the front of the box. "Let me take that stake, Amy." "Oh, no! Don't break it open!" expostulated[83] Betty. "We must try and see if we can't slip the lock, after we get it home. Papa has a lot of odd keys." "But I don't see any lock!" exclaimed Grace. "There it is," and Betty pushed to one side a round disk of metal that fitted over the keyhole. Whether this was to keep out sand or water, the girls could not determine. It might even have been designed to hide the keyhole, but former use, or the battering which the box had received, had loosened and disclosed the metal slide, and Betty's quick eyes had discerned the object of it. "It would take a peculiar key to open that," decided Mollie. "Mamma has a historic French jewel case home, and it has a lock something like that." "Oh, suppose this contains—jewels!" cried Grace. "Wouldn't it be just—" "Nonsense!" broke in Betty. "If the box contains anything at all it is probably papers of no value. My own opinion is that there's nothing in it, for it's too light. However, we'll take it home, and see what the boys say." "You seem to have a great deal of faith in their opinion," laughed Mollie. "Ah, my dear!" and she put a finger on Betty's blushing cheek. "Methinks it is the opinion of one certain boy you want."[84] "Silly!" murmured Betty. "Oh, don't mind us. A legal opinion would be most excellent to have," mocked Grace. "Now who is eating the chocolates?" she wanted to know. Betty did not answer. She bent over the black box, with its indefinable air of mystery, and the three queer letters on the top. She was, seemingly, trying to find a way to open it. Finally she straightened up, looked once more across the bay and said: "Well, let's take it to Edgemere." "And let's hurry, too!" urged Amy. "Hurry? Why?" asked Grace. "There's no more danger from the storm." "No, but those men might come back, and, finding their treasure gone—oh, well, let's hurry," she finished. "Don't make me nervous," begged Grace, with a glance over her shoulder. "Come along, Betty. I'm just dying to see what is in it. But I'm not so sure those men in the boat left it, and if they demand it don't you give it up to them." "Oh, I should say not!" cried Mollie, bristling a bit. "We found the box. They'll have to prove ownership." Betty tucked the box under her arm. No one disputed her right to carry it, for the other girls[85] deferred to the Little Captain in matters of this sort. "Won't the boys be surprised when they see it!" commented Amy. "But listen!" cautioned Betty. "We mustn't pretend that we think there is anything in it. If we do, and there isn't, they'd have the laugh on us." "Oh, of course," assented Grace. "We'll just say we found the box on the beach, and couldn't open it. The boys will be anxious enough to do that." And, sure enough, when the girls reached the cottage, the boys being not far behind them, the latter were even more eager than Betty and her chums to have a look inside the mysterious iron case. "Pry the cover off!" cried Will, when he and the others had briefly related their experience in saving their motor boat and sailing back in the other craft, while the girls gave their story bit by bit, from the sighting of the men in the boat, to the finding of the box. Only Betty said nothing about the faces at the window of the fisherman's hut. "Pry the cover off!" cried Will. "An axe is the best thing to use!" "Indeed not!" exclaimed Betty. "Let's see if[86] we can't open it with a key. You have some odd ones; haven't you, Daddy?" "Yes," assented Mr. Nelson, who was down at the shore for the week-end. "Betty, get them. You'll find them in that desk in the living room." Betty's father had looked at the box on all sides, had shaken it, and had examined the lock through a reading glass. "It sure is a find, all right!" declared Roy Anderson. "I wish I had been with you." "Oh, if it's a treasure-trove, we'll all share, as they did in Treasure Island," declared Betty, who was almost a boy in her liking for adventure stories. "Ahem!" exclaimed Allen Washburn, with an elaborate assumption of dignity. "Treasure, you know, is subject to the claim of the commonwealth, if the lawful heirs cannot be located. I must look up the law on that subject." "More likely it's the spoil of pirates, and fair booty for whoever finds it!" declared Will. "I think I'm the proper one to take charge of this, representing as I do the United States Government, which takes precedence over any State commonwealth." "Go on!" laughed Henry Blackford. "You'll be saying next that it's smugglers' booty, and you'll be asking us to pay a duty on it. Let's[87] open the box and see what it is—maybe nothing but seaweed. I've heard of jokes being played before," and he looked at the girls meaningly. "Oh, we didn't hide it and then find it again," Amy assured him, so earnestly that the others laughed. "Well, here goes for a try, anyhow," said Mr. Nelson. With a bunch of assorted keys he tried one after another in the strange lock. Some keys would not even enter the aperture, while others turned uselessly around in it. Betty's father used all he had without success, and then the boys were called on. They were not able to produce the Sesame to the japanned box, and Will's plan of using an axe was finding more favor when Allen produced a small key of peculiar make. "Try this," he said. "It locks the switch on the motor boat, but it may fit. It looks as though it would." And, to the surprise of them all, it did. As though it had been made for that lock, the little switch key slipped in. There was a click, a grinding sound, as the cover slipped on the sand-encrusted hinges, and the lid went back. "Stung!" cried Roy, as nothing was seen but a slip of paper within the black interior.[88] Mr. Nelson lifted it out. "I can't make anything of this," he said. "It's some sort of a note, written in cipher, I should judge. It is signed 'B. B. B.'" "The same letters that are on top of the box," said Allen. "Was there ever a pirate who had those initials?" asked Mollie, and the others laughed. "Well, there might have been," she went on. "I don't think it's so funny." "Of course it isn't, dear," declared Betty. "I guess we're all a bit nervous. Is that all there is, Daddy?" "Everything, my dear. The box is empty save for this bit of paper that doesn't make any sense." "We must translate that at once, sir," said Allen. "If it is in cipher that's all the more evidence that it means something. I might have a try at that secret message, or whatever it is." "Well, you're welcome to have a go at it," assented Mr. Nelson. "It may all be a joke, so don't take it too seriously." "I'll not," agreed Allen. He took the paper from Mr. Nelson's hand. The others looked over his shoulder at it. "Oh, what do you suppose it means?" marveled Grace. "Do hurry and translate it, Allen."[89] <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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