“That lantern to you
   Will cost—­ just two!”

“I’ll take it,” said Betty, promptly.

“Dollars—­ not cents,” said the storekeeper, quickly.  “I couldn’t make a dollar rhyme in there, somehow or other,” he added.

“You might say,” spoke Will, “’’Twill cost you two dollar, but don’t make a holler.’”

“That isn’t my style.  My poetry is always correct,” said Mr. Lagg, somewhat stiffly.

The lantern was wrapped up and the young people got ready to go down to the boat.

“Say, Mr. Lagg,” asked Will, lingering a bit behind the others, “just how much is there in this ghost story, anyhow?”

“Just what I told you,” was the answer.  “There is something queer on that island.”

“Then the girls will find out what it is!” declared Will, with conviction.  “If they could find the man who lost the five hundred dollar bill, they’re equal to laying the ghost of Elm Island.  I’m not going to worry about them.”

“Let’s go down a little way farther and have a look at the haunted island,” proposed Grace, when they were again on board the Gem.

“Have we time?” asked Betty.

“Lots,” declared Will.

The motor boat was headed for the place.  The island was of good size, well wooded, and the shore was lined with bushes.  There were a few bungalows on it, but the season was not very good this year, and none of them had been rented.  The girls half-planned to hire one to use as headquarters in case they camped on the island.

“It doesn’t look very—­ ghostly,” said Betty, as she surveyed it from the cockpit of her craft.

“No, it looks lovely,” said Grace.

“Is the ghost going to keep us away?” asked Mollie.

“Never!” cried the Little Captain, vigorously.

“Hurray!” shouted Will, waving the boat’s flag that he took from the after-socket.

They made a turn of the island, and started back up the river for
Deepdale, reaching Mollie’s dock without incident.

Busy days followed, for they were getting ready for the cruise.  Uncle Amos went out with Betty and the girls several times to offer advice, and he declared that they were fast becoming good sailors.

“Of course not good enough for deep water,” he made haste to qualify, “but all right for a river and a lake.”

The girls were learning to tell time seaman fashion.  Betty fairly lived aboard her new boat, her mother complained, but the Little Captain was not selfish—­ she invited many of her friends and acquaintances to take short trips with her.  Among the girls she asked were Alice Jallow and Kittie Rossmore, the two who had acted rather meanly toward our friends just prior to the walking trip.  But Alice was sincerely sorry for the anonymous letter she had written, giving a hint of the mystery surrounding Amy Stonington, and the girls had forgiven her.

Betty’s Aunt Kate arrived.  She was a middle-aged lady, but as fond of the great out-doors as the girls themselves.  She was to chaperone them for a time.