She produced two papers from inside her waist.  I must confess that, at first glance, I saw nothing remarkable.

“The first one looks,” said Tish, “like a grocery order.  It’s meant to look like that.  It’s relieved my mind of one thing—­McDonald’s got no wireless or he wouldn’t be sending cipher messages by an Indian.”

It was written on a page torn out of a pocket notebook and the page was ruled with an inch margin at the left.  This was the document:—­

       1 Dozen eggs.
      20 Yards fishing-line.
  1 pkg.  Needles—­anything to sew a button on.
  1 doz.  A B C bass hooks.
  3 lbs.  Meat—­anything so it isn’t fish.
  1 bot.  Ink for fountain pen.
       3 Tins sardines.
       1 Extractor.

Well, I could not make anything of it; but, of course, I have not Tish’s mind.  Aggie was almost as bad.

“What’s an extractor?” she asked.

“Exactly!” said Tish.  “What is an extractor?  Is the fellow going to pull teeth?  No!  He needed an e; so he made up a word.”

She ran her finger down the first letters of the second column.  “D-y-n-a-m-i-t-e!” she said triumphantly.  “Didn’t I tell you?”

IV

Well, there it was—­staring at us.  I felt positively chilled.  He looked so young and agreeable, and, as Aggie said, he had such nice teeth.  And to know him for what he was—­it was tragic!  But that was not all.

“Add the numbers!” said Tish.  “Thirty-one tons, perhaps, of dynamite!  And that’s only part,” said Tish.  “Here’s the most damning thing of all—­a note to his accomplice!”

“Damning” is here used in the sense of condemnatory.  We are none of us addicted to profanity.

We read the other paper, which had been in a sealed envelope, but without superscription.  It is before me as I write, and I am copying it exactly:—­

I shall have to see you.  I’m going crazy!  Don’t you realize that this is a matter of life and death to me?  Come to Island Eleven to-night, won’t you?  And give me a chance to talk, anyhow.  Something has got to be done and done soon.  I’m desperate!

Aggie sneezed three times in sheer excitement; for anyone can see how absolutely incriminating the letter was.  It was not signed, but it was in the same writing as the list.

Tish, who knows something about everything, said the writing denoted an unscrupulous and violent nature.

“The y is especially vicious,” she said.  “I wouldn’t trust a man who made a y like that to carry a sick child to the doctor!”

The thing, of course, was to decide at once what measures to take.  The boat would not come again for two days, and to send a letter by it to the town marshal or sheriff, or whatever the official is in Canada who takes charge of spies, would be another loss of time.

“Just one thing,” said Tish.  “I’ll plan this out and find some way to deal with the wretch; but I wouldn’t say anything to Hutchins.  She’s a nice little thing, though she is a fool about a motor boat.  There’s no case in scaring her.”