That Saturday night there was a dance in the gym of the community centre. It was billed as a 'Latin Night' but few of the islander knew how to do Latin dances correctly so they blithely danced in whatever style they felt comfortable with, and no one looked twice at a senior couple dancing cheek to cheek next to Mr. Fisk doing a sort of country swing with his partner. Jeremy Saxton was sitting in with the band for a few numbers. The Fisks had discovered that he was an accomplished acoustic guitar player. His wife made a striking figure on the dance floor with her long, flowing hair and her loose billowing white outfit, looking somewhat Middle Eastern in inspiration. She was doing some sort of interpretive dance, swaying and waving her arms sinuously, like a kelp plant.

Nancy and her friends felt a bit awkward. They were used to being friendly and gregarious back in River Heights but they didn't know anyone on the island their age, except Jesse, and Jesse was nowhere to be seen. Then a girl they recognized from Mr. Podmore's general store came up to greet them.

"Hi, my name is Rachel," she said. "I guess you know me from the store. We're all really sorry about how we treated you before." Nancy assured her it was done with and forgotten. Soon Rachel was joined by some of her friends, whom she introduced. They were all college students who came back to the island in the summer to work.

Jeremy and Mr. Fisk danced with Nancy and the girls, as did Michael.

"Did you get a look at Michael's girlfriend? She's fabulous," George gushed. "I bet she could give Latin dancing lessons." The girls looked over at Michael. His girlfriend had long, wavy dark hair and large brown eyes. She was wearing a short dress with thin shoulder straps in suitably tropical colors. She had her arms on Michael's shoulders as they danced and a seductive grin on her face.

"It's not fair competition, is it?" laughed Nancy. Bess gave a dismissive wave of her hand as if to say she was never interested anyway. "You know, I looked up Canadian professional boardsailing on the Internet, and Michael's name."

"Nancy, you didn't!" reproved her friend Bess.

"Sorry, it's just force of habit. I didn't find anything like a Canadian tour, or Michael's name associated with the sport, but I suppose that doesn't mean much. He could be telling the truth."

Ivy looked anxiously around for Jesse. "Where do you think Jesse is?" she asked.

"He probably thinks he's not the dancing type," said Bess, her face flushed and shining.

After many dances, Nancy stepped out to get some fresh air. As she stood outside the gymnasium doors she thought she heard her name whispered. It was Jesse. He came out of darkness into the semi-circle of illumination outside the door. Nancy thought he looked shaken. There was dirt on his pants and on his shirt.

"Are you all right? What happened?"

He looked around warily to make sure they weren't being overheard. "I was up at Bat Cave. Look, I found this note in my shirt pocket this morning. Don't tell the girls."

Nancy looked at the slip of paper. It read, "Meet me at Bat Cave tonight at 9:15. Don't let the others know. Ivy" It was written in block letters in pencil.

"So I went fifteen minutes early. As I got to the ridge I could see a person moving ahead of me. So I ducked behind trees and kept moving closer. This guy went straight to Bat Cave, took out something from his backpack and dropped it into the cave. When he turned around I knew it was Eberhart! He went back down the trail. I waited fifteen minutes or so, thinking he had left. Ivy wasn't there, of course. I went up to the cave and looked in. What Eberhart had dropped was a large envelope. I was kneeling down, peering down at it when someone tackles me from behind! He smeared my face in the dirt. It was Eberhart! I asked him what was going on.

"He said, 'Where the hell's the stuff?' I told him I didn't know what he was talking about. His eyes were wide and glaring down at me. I thought he might strangle me right then. He calmed down a bit and sat still. He was huffing and puffing. I guess he isn't in very good shape. He was thinking, trying to figure out what the situation was. 'Get off me,' I said, and he was so distracted he did let me get up. 'What are you doing here?' he asked. I said I came because of the note and I showed it to him, but by then it was too dark to read. He didn't seem to care anyway. 'Whose handwriting is it?' he asked, but he was already looking away as if he didn't care what I said. I told him I didn't recognize it, but it probably wasn't Ivy's. He didn't say anything. He just walked away very mechanically, as if he had already made up his mind. Oh, and he looked back just to make sure I was getting up and following him. So, do you know what this is all about?"

"I think we jumped to the wrong conclusion. I mean, I jumped to the wrong conclusion. But we're going to have to think it all through later."

"Should we go back to the cave?"

"It may be too late, but we have to try. I'll tell Mr. Fisk I have to leave. We're going to need the tent if we have to wait all night."

Jesse drove back from the village. Nancy grabbed the packed-up tent and threw some necessities into her backpack. She phoned the police, asked for Corporal Robinson, and had Jesse tell him his story. Hurriedly they gathered up the tent and went up the trail to Bat Cave.

"What did Cpl. Robinson say?" asked Nancy.

"He didn't seem very impressed. He did say he would come over tomorrow on the ferry."

"Then this is in our hands. We better be careful. If the envelope does contain money this could be a dangerous situation."

"It's too bad the trail is too steep to go up without flashlights. Anyone would be able to see us coming."

"Maybe that's one reason they chose this location."

Not to the great surprise of either of them, there was no envelope in the mouth of the cave. There was no one in sight either.

"That's just great," sighed Jesse. "When the police get here tomorrow they'll just think that I've got an overactive imagination, or I got panicked, or something. They might even think I made up the entire story."