CHAPTER IX
ON CREST ISLAND
"What do you mean?" cried the girl, impressed by Tom's strange manner.
"Why, didn't you hear? This jeweler had been going about collecting work for repairing, and left a lot of it in a box in his boat. Then he was called away suddenly, and remained away over night. A flood came up, swept his boat away, wrecked it on Crest Island, and we four fellows found it there. But the jewelry case was empty. Didn't you hear that—and about the Boxer Hall cups?"
"I believe I did," answered Ruth, slowly. "But I did not know then, that my brooch was in that box. Oh, Tom, do you suppose it could be on Crest Island?"
"I don't know, Ruth. The box was empty when we found it, and we think someone located it before we did, and rifled it."
"Oh, Tom, my dear pin! If grandmother hears I've lost it she'll never forgive me—and then her pearls, too; not that I care so much about them,
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