“Looking for clues?” questioned Rand.

“Not so much for clues as news,” responded Jack.  “Perhaps I can pick up some of both.  You never can tell when they’ll pop up.  Don’t you want to go along?”

“And see how you do it,” laughed Rand.  “I don’t mind if I do.  Written up yesterday’s story yet?”

“About your heroic rescue of a lovely maiden from the angry waves.  Of course; did it last night.  Want to see it?  I was going to put a head on it:  ‘Heroic Rescue by a Creston Boy.’”

“You don’t mean it, Jack Blake!”

“Wait until you see it on the first page, double leaded, with a scarehead.”

“Really and truly?”

“Really and truly.”

“Please don’t, Jack.”

“Why, don’t you want it?” asked Jack in mock surprise.  “I thought you would be delighted to see your name in print.”

“You know I don’t want to be made ridiculous!”

“All right,” responded Jack, “I’ll kill it if you say so, but it would have made a sensation.”

“I don’t doubt that,” laughed Rand, “but I’d rather not be the victim.  I wonder,” he went on musingly, “if we will ever see them again.”

“Who?”

“The Whildens.”

“Hardly likely,” replied Jack.  “If we do they will probably have forgotten us.”

“Still I’d like to know how she came out.”

“Oh, she came out all right,” replied Jack lightly.  “A little cold water won’t hurt her.  You know, the doctor said she was out of danger.

“It’s a curious thing how they got in,” he went on after a little pause, his thought turning on the robbery, which was uppermost in his mind just then.

“I don’t see anything curious about it,” returned Rand.

“You don’t!” cried Jack.  “Maybe you can explain how they did it then.”

“I don’t know as it needs any explaining,” retorted Rand.  “They got in a trough of the waves, and—­”

“Trough of the waves!” cried Jack.

“What are you talking about?”

“Why, about the Whildens, of course.  What are you talking about?”

“Oh, pshaw!  I was talking about the burglars.”

“Oh, I see,” said Rand.  “How did they get in?”

“That is what we would all like to know,” replied Jack.  “There isn’t anything to show how they got in or how they went out, unless they went out through the door and locked it after them.”

“That is possible, isn’t it?” asked Rand.

“I suppose it is possible,” admitted Jack, “but I don’t see how they managed it.”

“Not if they had a key?”

“It must have been that way,” agreed Jack, “but where did they get this key?  That don’t lessen the puzzle.  It was a Yale lock, and keys to them are not to be had easily, and they must have had one for the front door, too.”

“Well, if they could get the one they could get the other,” said Rand.

“I suppose so,” agreed Jack.  “It probably wouldn’t be much harder to get two than one.”