“It’s the truth. My Uncle Rawley—”
“Never mind elaborating,” McDermott interrupted, handing him the watch. “Take it. You’ll have an opportunity to prove all of your yarns, before we get through with you.”
With only a careless look directed at the miser, who stood at the side of the car, the lawyer started the motor and drove off. Mr. Jay shook his head in a baffled sort of way and turned to leave. Doris, thinking she saw an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the old man, ventured to speak.
“Your dog doesn’t seem to like strangers.”
“What’s that?” Mr. Jay glanced up quickly, a ftrifle startled. “Oh, his bark’s worse than his bite. I’ve trained him to run tramps off the place, but he won’t hurt a soul. Rip hasn’t a vicious hair on his back!”
The miser’s voice was low pitched and surprisingly cultured, not at all in keeping with his appearance. He did not look directly at the girls as he spoke, and started to move away. Doris was unwilling to see him go, for she wished to know him better.
“Perhaps you can tell us where we might rent a boat,” she said, using that as a pretext for continuing the conversation.
“What sort of boat do you want?”
“Oh, anything that doesn’t leak. We’ll want it for fishing.”
“I have a boat I can let you have tomorrow, if you like.”
“That’s very kind, I’m sure,” Doris returned gratefully. “Of course, we’ll pay you for it.”
“You may have it for nothing, if you’ll promise to take good care of it.”
“Oh, thank you!” both girls said together, and Doris added, “We’ll be careful in using it.”
Kitty ventured a question. “Is there good fishing here, Mr. Jay?”
“Yes—yes indeed. Very good.”
“I suppose,” Doris said, “that one could fish at any time of year in this place.”
“I go out myself in all the seasons,” the elderly man answered her. “Sometimes there are bad storms—especially in the winter.”
“Oh,” Kitty murmured, hunching her shoulders up as if she were cold, “I shouldn’t like to go out on that water in wintertime.”
Mr. Jay allowed a smile to play across his face, and turned to leave the girls.
“Perhaps,” Doris offered, “you would come with us on our fishing trip. We should like you to.”
“Oh, no. Thank you. No. I could not.”
The old man walked slowly away, but paused after he had taken a few steps.
“I’ll show you where the boat is hidden, when you’re ready for it.” He gazed hard at Doris, searching every line of her face. “You look like someone I once knew,” he muttered, so indistinctly that the girls scarcely caught the words.
Doris did not know what to reply, and while she was groping for words, she heard the rumble of Marshmallow’s car. It wheezed to a standstill near the cabin and Dave helped Mrs. Mallow to alight.
“We bought enough groceries to feed an army!” Marshmallow shouted boisterously. He was always in a good humor when a meal was in prospect.
Mrs. Mallow came over to where the girls were standing, and Doris turned to introduce Mr. Jay. To her surprise she saw that he had retreated at sight of the party. She caught a fleeting glimpse through the trees, as the old man walked rapidly toward his cabin.
“I guess I frightened him,” Mrs. Mallow laughed. “We’ve been hearing a lot about Mr. Jky at the stores.”
“What did you learn?” Doris questioned eagerly.
“Oh, nothing of consequence. The tradespeople haven’t much time for him, because he seldom buys anything at the stores. They say he’s very miserly.”
“Miserly! Well, perhaps, but he didn’t show it just now, did he, Kitty?”
“I should say not. He offered to let us use his boat tomorrow and he refused to accept money.”
“Hurrah!” shouted Marshmallow.
“That doesn’t sound miserly,” Mrs. Mallow admitted. “He may be a nice old man, but his appearance is positively disreputable. I wonder if he’s entirely safe?”
Doris and Kitty laughed outright.
“I thought the same until I talked with him,” Doris confessed. “In spite of his clothing you can tell he is a gentleman.”
“He must have been handsome when he was young,” Kitty added. “If only he would spruce up a bit.”
Mrs. Mallow and the girls returned to the cabin, while Marshmallow and Dave brought in the groceries. As they sorted the packages and placed them on the kitchen shelves, Doris and Kitty related what had befallen Ollie Weiser.
“It doesn’t surprise me greatly,” Mrs. Mallow declared. “I can’t bear the sight of him.”
“Say, who is this fellow I hear so much about?” Dave demanded somewhat jealously, although he grinned as he asked the question. “How old is he?”
“Oh, a little older than you, I’d judge,” Doris told him, a mischievous gleam in her eyes.
“Good looking?”
“Fair.”
“Hmm, I’ll have to look into this. Can’t have anyone cutting in on me.”
“Sure, better look him up,” Marshmallow advised. “A fellow that can charm a snake can probably fascinate the fair sex, too.”
“What a backhanded compliment!” Kitty protested.
Everyone lent a hand to help Mrs. Mallow with the luncheon, and soon the kitchen was filled with savory odors. Kitty kept close watch of Marshmallow, for when the others turned their backs, he was inclined to “sample” the various dishes, until she feared there would be nothing left on the table but empty dishes.
After luncheon the boys unpacked their bags, Mrs. Mallow and the girls helping them to get settled in the cabin next door. The afternoon was spent rather indolently, for everyone was tired. Several times Doris glanced curiously in the direction of Mr. Jay’s cabin, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“He doesn’t like people,” she told herself.
That night, long after Kitty had fallen asleep, Doris lay awake thinking of many things. For some reason she felt strangely excited, and yet she knew that the sensation had not been occasioned by the many events of the day.
“Tomorrow I intend to talk with Mr. Jay again,” she assured herself just before she dropped off to sleep. “There’s something about him—can’t define it—that intrigues my interest. What could he have meant by saying I looked like someone he once knew?,”
CHAPTER XV
A Fishing Trip
Doris and her friends were abroad early the next morning. After a refreshing dip in the waters of Cloudy Cove, they all did justice to the breakfast Mrs. Mallow had prepared, and talked over the plans for the day.
“I can’t see the bank president until Monday, so in the meantime I may as well play around,” Doris declared. “I vote we go fishing. Next week I may be so involved in financial affairs I’ll not have the chance.”
Marshmallow and Dave enthusiastically agreed to the suggestion, and Kitty promised that she would go for the boat ride, since she could never bring herself to bait a hook.
“You said Mr. Jay would let us have his boat?” Dave inquired.
“Yes,