Dan, "and we thought we would like to have a chat with him. Where does he expect to get his pearls from?"
"Oh, he never tells that. But once, when he was sick, he cried out, 'The fire! the fire! Poor Joe can't get the pearls! They will be burnt up!' So I guess his pearls are all in his mind."
"Perhaps they are," answered Oliver, and his face became very sober, while Dan's looks also fell.
Cora Soule might have asked some awkward questions, but at that moment some shouting outside was heard, and running to a window she announced that her father had returned with his friends.
"Why, there are Mr. Carson and Mr. Palmer!" ejaculated Dan. "I never expected to meet them here."
"I guess none of us did," I returned. "I'm mighty glad to learn they are here, too."
"Any particular reason, Mark?"
"Yes. If there is trouble ahead for us on account of that fire, I feel certain they will help us out of our difficulty."
"That's so!"
Cora Soule had gone out to meet her father and the other gentlemen. Presently the whole party came in, after exchanging their wet garments for dry ones.
