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[Illustration: SHE WAS UNCONSCIOUS WHEN THEY LIFTED HER OUT. Ruth
Fielding at Lighthouse Point. Page 78]




RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT

OR

NITA, THE GIRL CASTAWAY

BY

ALICE B. EMERSON

Author of Ruth Fielding of The Red Mill,
Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall etc.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK

CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

PUBLISHERS




Books for Girls

By ALICE B. EMERSON

RUTH FIELDING SERIES

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.

  RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
        Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.

  RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
        Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.

  RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
        Or, Lost in the Backwoods.

  RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
        Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway.

  RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
        Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.

Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York.

Copyright, 1913, by

Cupples & Leon Company

Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse Point

Printed in U.S.A.




CONTENTS

  Chapter                                                     Page
        I AN INITIATION                                          1
       II THE FOX AT WORK                                        9
      III ON LAKE OSAGO                                         16
       IV TROUBLE AT THE RED MILL                               24
        V THE TINTACKER MINE                                    32
       VI UNCLE JABEZ AT HIS WORST                              42
      VII THE SIGNAL GUN                                        49
     VIII THE LIFEBOAT IS LAUNCHED                              57
       IX THE GIRL IN THE RIGGING                               64
        X THE DOUBLE CHARGE                                     72
       XI THE STORY OF THE CASTAWAY                             80
      XII BUSY IZZY IN A NEW ASPECT                             90
     XIII CRAB PROVES TO BE OF THE HARDSHELL VARIETY            97
      XIV THE TRAGIC INCIDENT IN A FISHING EXCURSION           103
       XV TOM CAMERON TO THE RESCUE                            114
      XVI RUTH'S SECRET                                        120
     XVII WHAT WAS IN THE NEWSPAPER                            128
    XVIII ANOTHER NIGHT ADVENTURE                              137
      XIX THE GOBLINS' GAMBOL                                  145
       XX "WHAR'S MY JANE ANN?"                                153
      XXI CRAB MAKES HIS DEMAND                                162
     XXII THIMBLE ISLAND                                       171
    XXIII MAROONED                                             179
     XXIV PLUCKY MOTHER PURLING                                187
      XXV WHAT JANE ANN WANTED                                 196




RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT




CHAPTER I

AN INITIATION


A brown dusk filled the long room, for although the windows were shrouded
thickly and no lamp burned, some small ray of light percolated from
without and made dimly visible the outlines of the company there gathered.

The low, quavering notes of an organ sighed through the place. There
was the rustle and movement of a crowd. To the neophyte, who had been
brought into the hall with eyes bandaged, it all seemed very mysterious
and awe-inspiring.

Now she was set in a raised place and felt that before her was the
company of masked and shrouded figures, in scarlet dominoes like those
worn by the two guards who had brought her from the anteroom. The
bandage was whisked from her eyes; but she could see nothing of her
surroundings, nor of the company before which she stood.

"Candidate!" spoke a hollow, mysterious voice somewhere in the gloom,
yet sounding so close to her ear that she started. "Candidate! you stand
before the membership body of the S. B.'s. You are as yet unknown to
them and they unknown to you. If you enter the secret association of
the S. B.'s you must throw off and despise forever all ties of a like
character. Do you agree?"

The candidate obeyed, in so far as she prodded her sharply in the ribs
and a shrill voice whispered: "Say you do--gump!"

The candidate obeyed, in so far as she proclaimed that she did, at least.

"It is an oath," went on the sepulchral voice. "Remember!"

In chorus the assembly immediately repeated, "Remember!" in solemn
tones.

"Candidate!" repeated the leading voice, "you have been taught the
leading object of our existence as a society. What is it?"

Without hesitation now, the candidate replied: "Helpfulness."

"It is right. And now, what do our initials stand for?"

"Sweetbriar," replied the shaking voice of the candidate.

"True. That is what our initials stand for to the world at large--to
those who are not initiated into the mysteries of the S. B.'s. But
those letters may stand for many things and it is my privilege to explain
to you now that they likewise are to remind us all of two virtues that
each Sweetbriar is expected to practice--to be sincere and to befriend.
Remember! Sincerity--Befriend. Remember!"

Again the chorus of mysterious voices chanted: "Remember!"

"And now let the light shine upon the face of the candidate, that the
Shrouded Sisterhood may know her where'er they meet her. Once! Twice!
Thrice! Light!"

At the cry the ray of a spot-light flashed out of the gloom at the far
end of the long room and played glaringly upon the face and figure of
the candidate. She herself was more blinded by the glare than she had
been by the bandage. There was a rustle and movement in the room, and
the leading voice went on:

"Sisters! the novice is now revealed to us all. She has now entered into
the outer circle of the Sweetbriars. Let her know us