That evening the girls managed to corner Jesse as he watched a Simpsons rerun. "Look, Jesse, it's time you were honest with us. Mr. Fisk is offering you hospitality because he thinks you're on some sort of school natural history project, but you're not, are you?" Nancy questioned him with her eyes intense, revealing her natural indignation at dishonesty.

"No, I'm not. I'm sorry about that." At first his eyes were downcast, then he grinned mischievously. "I'll tell you why I came to the island. There's this history book of Catriola Island I read. It said that a prospector who came back from the gold rush hid a bag of gold nuggets on this island and never had a chance to spend it."

"Wait, I know," interrupted Bess. "You mean the prospector who built the cabin over there. You think he hid a bag of gold somewhere on this land?"

"The book said that people thought he had hidden it in a place called Bat Cave, but the book didn't say where this was and I can't find it on any map. The people I've asked haven't heard of it."

"Ooh, bats! I hate bats." Bess shuddered. "They get tangled up in your hair."

"That's just a myth. And they don't drink blood either. At least not any of the ones around here."

Jesse continued. "Now that I've apologized, we're all in this together, right? I mean, I'm willing to let you decide how to divide up the shares, if we look for it together."

George frowned. "You wanted to keep the gold all to yourself and not tell Mr. Fisk even though it's on his land. Now that you've been found out you want us to work as a team."

Nancy had difficulty deciding what to do. "I don't know. If there's gold on this property then we have to look for it. Mr. Fisk has a claim to it. If we kick you off the property and look for the gold ourselves, that wouldn't be fair to you. If you stayed, frankly I don't trust you to search by yourself. So I guess I want to find the gold first and worry about shares later. Does everyone agree to that?"

"I think we should forgive and forget, and work as a team," was Ivy's opinion. Bess was willing to give Jesse another chance. George shrugged and didn't argue.

"The majority rules then," concluded Nancy. Jesse reached out to shake the girls' hands in turn.

Now that this was decided, Nancy felt herself drawn into the mystery. "Does the book say for certain that Bat Cave was on the prospector's property."

"No, it doesn't even say that. It could be anywhere on the island, I suppose. But it makes more sense that it would be on his own property or close to it, since you wouldn't want to hide a treasure where you would have trouble getting to it yourself."

"If anyone knows this part of the island, it would be Horace. I think we should ask him if he knows anything."

In those days, Horace was often to be found around the Fisks' house. He had found people to install the new bathroom appliances and did some of the work himself. This time they saw Horace standing outside the upstairs bathroom, watching the plumber attach the pipes to the sink.

"Horace, you were telling us about the prospector, remember?" said Ivy. "What do you know about this story of the cave where he hid the gold?"

Horace frowned. "That's all just a load of hot air," he said testily. "It's just a legend. I wouldn't pay any attention to it."

"Well, that was pretty abrupt," said George later.

"Oh, he's just in a bad mood because the sink he was expecting didn't get delivered.The ferry from Haine was out of service," explained Ivy.