“We might have known there was more to it than Smith,” whispered Sue.
Polly said nothing, but she was doing a lot of thinking, and finally when she saw Mrs. Vaughan and the Commodore standing at the head of the long room, there was the smuggler himself beside them, clad in white flannels, and his eyes twinkling merrily, as he caught sight of the eight white-clad girls with Dorothy and Bess.
Mrs. Vaughan started to present them kindly, one by one, to the guest of honor, but Dr. Smith laughed and explained.
“I’m afraid, Mrs. Vaughan, that you are too late with your kind offices. These young ladies have been close neighbors of mine, and have been very good to me.”
“But I don’t think I understand, Doctor,” said Mrs. Vaughan; “I thought you only arrived from Pautipaug Beach to-day.”
“I did, I did,” answered the Doctor, happily. “I came from down the shore in the _Natica_ at five-thirty, to be exact, from the hotel at Pautipaug, but I stopped off at my secret hiding-place. You didn’t know I had one, did you, Mrs. Vaughan? Don’t tell the Commodore, for he still believes in me. Nobody knows about it except these young ladies and Captain Carey.”
“Does the Captain know?” exclaimed Polly.
“Yes. It was through him I rented Smugglers’ Island for the summer. I can make the trip back and forth in the _Natica_ and study in peace there. I tried to keep under cover but Miss Polly, here, ferreted me out, and has kept me alive since on orange marmalade.”
“If we had suspected for one minute that you were famous, we wouldn’t have given you a bit,” said Polly severely. “I think you owe the whole club an apology.”
“I am asking it now,” the Doctor returned. “Mrs. Vaughan, you see how they order me around? If I had been a pirate or a smuggler, they would have respected me.”
“Oh, I think they will forgive you, Doctor,” said Mrs. Vaughan, as she smiled around at the happy, girlish faces surrounding the Doctor. “In fact, we shall all have to, for it is a joke on little Eagle Bay. I was reading only last week, in a New York paper, that the eminent naturalist, Dr. Penrhyn Smith, had vanished as usual, and it was thought he had slipped south on a trip through the Amazonian wilderness. And all the while you were right here on Smugglers’ Island.”