"Oh, Roy, don't say such things. Nobody but the horridest of the horrid would----"
"Unluckily," struck in the boy, "there are a lot of the horridest of the horrid in this world, and some of them are in Sandy Bay."
He laughed and then went on more seriously:
"It's a pretty nasty feeling, I can tell you, to know that you are unjustly suspected by several folks of--of--er--knowing more about an affair of that kind than you tell."
"Ah, that's just it. Of course we have our suspicion, based really on nothing, that Fanning Harding knows something about them. But if he did why would he place that wallet on the porch of Jess's home?"
"And beyond me, too. I'm quite sure that nobody was about the place when the accident happened, and I could not have been unconscious more than a few seconds. Now who could have stolen the wallet in that time?"
"It will all come out in time. I'm sure of it, Roy, dear," said Peggy, earnestly. "Perhaps it will turn out to be not such a mystery after all."
"I don't know," was Roy's rejoinder. "Mr. Bancroft has had some of the cleverest detectives in the country on the case, and a description of the jewels, some of which were heirlooms, has been wired everywhere broadcast. But up to date none of them have turned up at any pawnshops or other likely places."
For some moments more they talked in this strain, when Peggy suddenly gave a cry and pointed below. They were passing over a tiny lake surrounded by steeply sloping banks, wooded with beautiful trees. It was an isolated spot, no human habitation being near at hand apparently.
"Oh, isn't that pretty?" cried Peggy delightedly. "It looks as if it might have come out of a picture book."
"And the sight of that water reminds me that I'm terribly thirsty," said Roy. "I bet there are some springs by that lake, or if there are not maybe the water is good to drink from the lake itself."
"Let's go down and see," said Peggy, with a bright smile, and setting over a lever and twisting a couple of valves she began to depress the aeroplane.
"There's a good landing place off there to the right of the end of the lake," cried Roy, indicating a bare spot where some land seemed to have been cleared at one time.
"All right, my brilliant brother," laughed Peggy merrily. "I saw it at least five minutes ago. Hold tight, I'm going to drop fast."