The dessert was eaten in record time, and then, after a whispered conference, it was decided that Mrs. Landry should first interview the caller alone and, if necessary, call in the girls.

"Though, if she wants us to help her catch poor Melissa, what shall we do?" whispered Terry.

"We won't tell her a thing," decided Sim. "Why should we make more trouble for the poor child?"

"Even if she took Dimitri's pin?" suggested Arden.

"We don't know that she took it-we don't even know, for sure, that it is his pin," said Terry while her mother went out on the porch. "We couldn't prove it in court."

"I suppose not," agreed Arden. "Though I, myself, believe it is his. Now, be careful," she warned. "Don't let on that we know anything about Melissa, or have just seen her, unless we have to."

The others agreed to this. They could hear the murmuring talk between Mrs. Landry and the caller. Presently Terry's mother came into the dining room, where the girls were still sitting, to say:

"It isn't anything to worry about. Good news, rather than bad."

"About Dimitri?" asked Arden eagerly.

"No. It's all Melissa. You had better hear this woman's story. She doesn't want to arrest the poor child, so you can talk freely to her. And she isn't a policewoman. She is from a private detective agency, though."

"It's almost as bad," said Terry. "Why is a detective agency interested in Melissa?"

"You had better hear the whole story," suggested Mrs. Landry. "Come, and I will introduce you."

The three girls trailed after her out to the porch. The woman was as Ida had described her. She looked determined and efficient but not unkind, nor like one who would, as Arden remarked later, "hound a poor girl to death."

"This is my daughter," said Mrs. Landry, presenting Terry, "and her two college chums who are spending the summer with her. Miss Blake and Miss Westover."

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Emma Tash, and I'm from the Torrance Private Detective Agency in New York. I was sent down here by my chief to find out something about a girl named Melissa Clayton. As we always do in these cases, we make some inquiries of friends and neighbors before going directly to the parties themselves.

"I stopped in the village, and I found out that you people are friendly with this girl. Do you mind telling me something about her?"

"With the understanding," put in Mrs. Landry, "that there is no harm intended to Melissa."

"Oh, now," Emma Tash was quick to say, "I told you that at the start."

"Perhaps you wouldn't mind repeating it for the benefit of my daughter and her friends," suggested Terry's mother.

"Not at all. I'll put my cards on the table, so to speak, and you can judge how much you want to tell me. This Melissa Clayton, according to the case as it comes to me, has an elderly aunt, her mother's sister, who is quite wealthy. This aunt, a widow named Mrs. Lulu Benlon, has for a long time wanted to befriend this girl, but Melissa's father refuses to let anything be done for her."

"Just like him!" murmured Arden.

"I heard something like that in the village," went on Emma Tash. "But we'll come to him later. Anyhow, the firm I am with has been hired to see if something can't be done now. It seems that several times, in years past, Mrs. Benlon tried to do something for Melissa but was prevented.

After being turned down more than once, she gave up. Now Mrs. Benlon is ailing. She's afraid she is going to die soon, but before that she wants to make another effort to help Melissa."

"Couldn't she leave her money in a will?" asked Sim.

"Yes, that was talked of, but Mrs. Benlon is queer," said Emma Tash. "She wants to be sure Melissa will get the benefit of her help, and if she left her money there is no telling that Melissa would ever get it. Mrs.

Benlon, it seems, wants the satisfaction of knowing, herself, that what she does will really benefit the girl."

"She's probably wise there," said Mrs. Landry.

"Yes, I guess so," the detective investigator admitted. "So that's why I'm here. Mrs. Benlon has offered to take Melissa out of what, from all accounts, is a poor sort of a home and give her a good one-even send her to school to be educated. But Mrs. Benlon doesn't want George Clayton to have anything of her bounty. It seems that he wasn't kind to his wife, who was Mrs. Benlon's younger sister.

"As I get the story, it was a sort of runaway match; marry in haste and repent all the rest of your life. Anyhow, Melissa's mother died soon after the girl's birth, and she had been brought up in a hand-to-mouth sort of way ever since, according to Mrs. Benlon. But if it can be brought about there is a happier time ahead for Melissa. Now that you know what I want, will you help me?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Arden, and her chums nodded in agreement.

"What do you want us to do?" asked Terry.

"Tell me all you can about this girl and her father and, if you can, suggest how I can best get in communication with them," said Emma Tash.

"That last part isn't going to be easy," said Terry. "George Clayton is a queer man; ugly too, I'm afraid."

"That bears out what I have heard," said the investigator. "But there must be some way. Perhaps you can help me. But first tell me all you can-that is, all you want me to know."

This last clause was a saving one for the girls. They felt, under it, that they need not mention the pin nor any possible connection Melissa might have with the houseboat. Dimitri Uzlov need not be brought in, nor the fact that he was not to be found. The girls could still keep to themselves, as far as Emma Tash was concerned, the secret of the man missing at Marshlands.

With this in mind, Terry, Arden, and Sim, by turns, a.s.sisted with a word from Mrs. Landry now and then, told about Melissa Clayton and her father.

"They live in a sort of shack on the edge of the bay, not far from the marsh," said Terry. "You can get to it by a long winding road out of the village, but the best way is to go by boat."

"Then I'll go that way," said the woman detective determinedly.

"I don't believe you'll get very close to the Clayton shack if you approach openly by boat," said Terry. "George Clayton is a suspicious man, and if he's home he'll probably order you off his premises."

"He may not be home," said Emma Tash. "If he isn't, so much the better. I can talk to Melissa alone. She ought to be old enough to make up her mind to leave her poverty for a better home with her aunt."

"That's just it," said Arden. "I think Melissa is rather simple-minded, to state it gently. Do you think you would be justified in inducing that sort of a person to do something her father would oppose?"

"Oh, no, I wouldn't do that for anything," was the quick answer. "If I find her that kind of a girl I will report back to my office and we'll get legal advice. But Mrs. Benlon thinks she owes a duty to her niece, and she wants to carry it out as soon as she can."

"Here's an idea," said Sim suddenly. "What about going crabbing?"

"Going crabbing!" exclaimed Arden, not seeing the relevancy of the remark. "What in the world for?"

"We have to take the water trail to the Clayton shack," went on Sim.

"Now, if we pretend to be crabbing we can gradually work our way toward it without exciting suspicion. Melissa may be outside or even out in a boat herself, crabbing or fishing. Her father may be out lifting his lobster pots. In that case Miss Tash can see the girl and talk with her.

Melissa won't be afraid if she sees us."

"Say, that's a good idea!" declared Terry.

"But you know," said Arden, "we have to wait here for--"

She did not finish, though her chums knew whom she meant.

"Oh, I don't want to take you away," Emma Tash hastened to a.s.sure the girls. "I could go by myself."

"I think it would be better if some of the girls went with you,"

suggested Mrs. Landry. "Melissa would feel much more confidence."