The girls had become very much interested in a mystery surrounding Miss Arbuckle, one of the very nice new teachers who had come to Three Towers to replace the disagreeable “Dill Pickles.” They had also met a queer looking man one day when they were lost in the woods, and they had wondered about him a great deal. It seems Miss Arbuckle had been very greatly disturbed over the loss of an album, and when Billie, accidentally stumbling upon the book, had returned it to the teacher, the latter had wept with joy. Turning over the pages of the album until she came to the pictures of three beautiful children she had cried out: “Oh my precious children. I couldn’t lose your pictures after losing you.” Of course this exclamation, together with Miss Arbuckle’s strange conduct, considerably puzzled the girls, and they wondered about it all during the vacation at Lighthouse Island. Then one day a terrible storm came up and a ship was wrecked on one of the treacherous shoals which surrounded the island. The girls, helping in the work of rescue, discovered three children lashed to a rude raft, and after releasing the little victims, the girls had carried them to the Lighthouse to be cared for. Later, Billie saw a marked resemblance in the three children to the pictures of the children she had seen in Miss Arbuckle’s album, and what strange discovery this led to is told in the third volume of this series entitled “Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island.” And now the girls were all back at Three Towers again in search of further education, likewise, they hoped, much fun and adventure. “Don’t come any farther,” Billie said to Laura and Vi, as she stretched herself out at full length on the ice and reached out to grasp one of the children in the water. “Lie down on the thick ice, both of you, and hold on to me just as hard as you can. When I say pull—pull!” Obediently Laura and Vi flopped down on the ice, each grasping one of Billie’s feet and holding on stoutly. “I’d like to see you get away from us now,” said Laura. Leaning over, Billie grasped the nearest child under the arms and tugged with all her strength. “Pull!” she gasped to the girls, “I’m slipping.” The girls pulled and dragged her, child and all, out on the more solid ice. They set the child on his poor shivering little feet and then went back for the next one. A moment more and all three of the little things were standing huddled together on the ice, shivering and crying miserably. “I wanna do home!” wailed the little boy. “I wanna do home.” CHAPTER III—POLLY HADDON “Where do you live?” asked Billie, turning to the oldest of the three children. “Tell us quick, so we can get you there.” “We live wiv our muvver, Polly Haddon,” said the little one quaintly, pointing with a shivering finger out across the lake. “We runned away dis mornin’.”