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diff --git a/36426-0.txt b/36426-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d10d71 --- /dev/null +++ b/36426-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7640 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Motor Girls at Camp Surprise, by Margaret Penrose + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Motor Girls at Camp Surprise + The Cave in the Mountains + +Author: Margaret Penrose + +Release Date: June 14, 2011 [EBook #36426] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR GIRLS AT CAMP SURPRISE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + THE MOTOR GIRLS + AT CAMP SURPRISE + + Or + + The Cave in the Mountains + + BY + + Margaret Penrose + + The + GOLDSMITH + Publishing Co. + + CLEVELAND OHIO + MADE IN THE U.S.A. + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. An Unpleasant Awakening 1 + II. The Lost Trail 10 + III. Two Strange Men 18 + IV. A Curious Story 26 + V. Counterfeit Tickets 34 + VI. Off to Camp 42 + VII. Jack’s Bath 50 + VIII. The Storm 58 + IX. Tied Up 67 + X. A Night Ride 74 + XI. In Camp Surprise 83 + XII. Disappointment 90 + XIII. That Noise 98 + XIV. Was It Thunder? 108 + XV. A Narrow Escape 115 + XVI. Lost 122 + XVII. Two Men 131 + XVIII. Real Surprises 138 + XIX. Where’s My Light? 147 + XX. More Happenings 158 + XXI. A Dancing Light 163 + XXII. A Mountain Cave 170 + XXIII. The Trembling Noise 178 + XXIV. The Secret Passage 184 + XXV. The Patched Tire 191 + XXVI. The Dropped Bundle 200 + XXVII. The Girls’ Discovery 207 + XXVIII. Prisoners 214 + XXIX. To the Rescue 222 + XXX. All’s Well 235 + + + + +THE MOTOR GIRLS AT CAMP SURPRISE + + + + +CHAPTER I—AN UNPLEASANT AWAKENING + + +“Look where you are steering, Cora Kimball! You nearly ran over a +chicken that time.” + +“Yes, and avoiding the chicken on that side, you nearly hit a child on +this side. Such a dear little boy—or was it a girl? I never can tell +when they’re so young.” + +“Two misses are as good as two miles,” misquoted the bronzed girl at the +wheel of the automobile, as she straightened the car on the long, shaded +road, where the trees met in a green archway overhead, and where the +golden shadows flitted in the dust like so many little chickens running +to cover, away from the fat-tired wheels. + +“Why are you in such a hurry, Cora?” asked Bess Robinson, as she tucked +back a straying lock of brown hair. “It’s too perfect a day to do +anything in a hurry—even run a car.” + +“Bess doesn’t believe in doing _anything_ in a hurry,” lazily droned her +sister Belle, from the rear seat. “That’s why she’s so fat.” + +“Don’t dare use that objectionable word!” stormed Bess, turning about so +suddenly that she sent Cora’s elbow against the plunger of the horn, +thereby producing a sudden blast. + +“Oh!” exclaimed Bess. “Did we run into something again?” + +“Again?” demanded Cora. “Come, I like that—not! We haven’t run into +_anything_ yet.” + +“That chicken,” murmured Belle, even more lazily. “Yes?” + +“Was a good fifty feet out of danger!” declared Cora indignantly. + +“And what of the child?” + +“That never _was_ in danger. I didn’t see him—her or it—until we had +passed. But the child—gender unknown—was playing in the dust beside the +road. Queer how mothers can let them.” + +“Probably the mother didn’t know a thing about it,” said Bess, who had +discovered that she was the sole cause of the needless alarm in regard +to the horn’s blast. “One can’t be always on the lookout.” + +“Don’t start a discussion,” begged Cora, as a backward glance showed +some signs of Belle’s stirring up sufficiently to refute her sister’s +remarks. “It’s too hot.” + +“It is when you slow down,” observed Bess. “But the breeze is perfectly +fascinating when you keep the car moving, Cora.” + +“Well, I don’t intend to slow down right away. Have you girls any +particular desire to go to any particular place?” + +“Spare us all nerve-racking _particulars_ on a day like this,” entreated +Belle, sliding down into a more comfortable position in the big, +cushioned seat she occupied all alone. “It is so warm! Summer is coming +with a vengeance.” + +“And it makes me wish we had set the date of our departure for Camp +Surprise a week or so earlier,” remarked Cora. “I wonder if we could +arrange to go any sooner.” + +“I could,” declared Bess. “I haven’t a thing to do.” + +“Except reduce,” put in her sister tantalizingly. + +“Belle Robinson! If you don’t stop those mean, insinuating remarks, +I’ll—I’ll——” + +“You won’t give me any more of those chocolates you sneaked into your +bag as we were coming out,” finished Belle. “I saw you, and you know +what Dr. Blake told you would happen if you didn’t stop eating sweets. +You’ll get so——” + +“These aren’t sweet!” interrupted Bess. “They’re the bitter kind, and +they’re delicious, too. They have them so fresh at Gordon’s.” + +“It’s a wonder she wouldn’t give us a chance to decide for ourselves, +instead of introducing expert testimony on her own account,” laughed +Cora. “Come, Bess, out with them!” + +“Certainly,” agreed the plump girl, with easy grace. “I intended to +share them all along, but it was so warm——” + +“Don’t say warm again!” drawled her sister. “Your nose is as shiny now +as a tin teakettle.” + +“Belle Robinson! It is not!” + +Instantly Bess had her little mirror and vanity box in use, and a quick +dab on her rather up-turned nose did away with the condition complained +of, or at least alleged, by her sister. + +“There, does that satisfy you?” she asked, turning about for inspection, +as Cora swung the big car around a turn in the road. + +“Oh, I’m easily satisfied,” Belle murmured. “What a perfectly gorgeous +view!” she cried, as she looked down from a height toward a village that +lay nestled in a green valley, girt around by a winding, silvery river, +glimpses of which could be had now and then between the trees that lined +the shores. + +“Yes, it is a good view,” agreed Cora, stopping the car. “Cheerful +Chelton looks even more amiable and love-like than usual to-day. It’s +cooler up here, too. Now pass over those chocolates, Bess.” + +“And watch her get more and more—well, I’ll say plump—before your eyes, +like that fat boy Scott tells about,” laughed Belle. + +“It wasn’t Scott’s fat boy. He was in Dickens,” corrected Cora. +“Nicholas Nickleby, I think.” + +“Pickwick Papers!” voiced Bess. “There! I know something even if I +am—plump. But, girls, I have lost five pounds in the last month.” + +“Not so’s you’d notice it,” murmured Belle. + +“Cease! Cease and have done!” admonished Cora. “How does that new one +go—two slow and one quick to the side and then——” + +“Not slow at all!” interrupted Bess. “You’ve got to follow through or +you’ll slice the ball and——” + +“What in the world are you talking about?” demanded Cora, her eyes +opening wide. “Slice the ball? What’s that in? The fox trot?” + +“I was speaking of golf,” murmured Bess. + +“She’s taken it up to—reduce,” whispered Belle. + +“I thought you meant that new three-step we tried the other night,” came +from Cora. + +“It’s too warm even to talk about dancing,” declared Belle. “Really we +must think of getting away sooner. Do you think we could get that +bungalow at Camp Surprise earlier than we had planned to take it, Cora?” + +“I don’t know. Mother made all the arrangements. But I can find out. Do +you really think you’d like to go sooner?” + +“I certainly do,” murmured plump Bess, who seemed to feel the sudden +summer heat more than did Cora, or the more svelt Belle. “Oh, by the +way, Cora! why do they call it Camp Surprise?” + +“I meant to ask that, too,” added Belle. “It’s such an odd name.” + +“And there’s an odd story connected with it,” said Cora. “I’ll have to +ask mother about it. She merely mentioned it, and something else came up +so I forgot to get the particulars. I’ll find out when we go back. But +if you girls are really in earnest about starting our summer vacation a +little earlier this year——” + +“I most certainly am in earnest,” Bess said. + +“And I,” added her sister. + +“Then I’ll see what we can do,” went on the girl at the wheel. “Oh dear! +I wish I hadn’t eaten those chocolates!” she exclaimed, making a wry +face. “I ought to have known better. Candy always makes me thirsty, and +I didn’t bring the vacuum bottle.” + +Belle sat up, carefully removed, with the tip of her tongue, some brown +chocolate stains from the tips of her pink, well-manicured fingers and, +looking up and down the road, announced: + +“That dear little tea room—Ye Olde Spinning Wheel—is only about a mile +farther on. Suppose we go there? I’m dying for a cup of tea with lemon +in it.” + +“Oh, so am I!” added Bess. “They say lemon is thinning.” + +“Then you’d better have lemonade with a leaf or two of tea in it,” said +Belle. + +“You—you——” spluttered Bess, drawing back her hand in which nestled a +chocolate. And then her desire to throw it was overcome by her appetite +for the confection. + +“Ye Olde Spinning Wheel,” repeated Cora. “That sounds most enticing. +We’ll go there, if only to keep you two from bickering. What’s gotten in +you sisters to-day, I never saw you so on each other’s nerves.” + +“It’s the weather,” returned Belle. + +“Let us hope so. Well, if you’ve admired the view enough we’ll go on.” + +They had come to a pause at the crest of a shaded hill, and down below +them lay the village in which the three girls lived. Cheerful Chelton it +had been designated, and cheerful it was. + +Cora, who had not stopped the engine, slipped the clutch in after +shifting the gear and the car moved down the slope, gradually cutting +off the view of the town. + +“What about the boys?” asked Bess, apropos of nothing in particular. + +“What boys?” demanded Cora. + +“Ours, of course,” and Bess looked surprised that any others should have +been thought of. “I mean your brother Jack, Walter Pennington and Paul +Hastings. Didn’t you say Paul was thinking of going to camp with our +boys, if they took the little bungalow near ours at Camp Surprise?” + +“Yes, Paul is coming,” Cora said. + +“Well, can the boys get away earlier if we do? It won’t be any fun going +there alone, particularly if there’s a mystery about the place.” + +“I didn’t say there was any mystery about the place,” corrected Cora. +“Though there may be. Besides, we’re to have a chaperon, you know. Or at +least the caretaker and his wife live in Camp Surprise, and I presume +she will be a chaperon.” + +“But it won’t be half the fun if the boys don’t come along,” declared +Belle. “They are so jolly, and—er—well, you know what I mean,” she +finished a bit lamely. + +“No need to explain at all,” said Cora cheerfully. “It’s perfectly all +right. If I go, that means mother can close the house so much earlier. +Jack won’t stay there alone, I know, so he’s likely to tag along.” + +“And if Jack goes Walter will. I guess we can count of making an earlier +start on our vacation than we contemplated,” said Bess. “It will be +lovely.” + +“Yes,” Cora assented. + +“There’s the tea room,” added Belle a little later as the car came out +on a long, level stretch of road. “It’s a perfect dear of a place; isn’t +it?” + +“A regular gazelle,” agreed Cora mockingly. + +She swung her machine into the parking place provided, and a few minutes +afterward the three girls were sitting at one of the wicker tables, in +wicker chairs, near a window which opened on a vine-shaded porch, while +electric fans hummed and droned breezily and refreshingly behind them +and in front of them stood rose-tinted plates heaped high with pale +yellow cream, nestled alongside of which were delicately browned +macaroons. + +“Oh, what a symphony of color!” murmured Cora, as the white-capped, +colored waitress set the refreshments from off her mahogany-cretonne +tray. + +“If it tastes half as good as it looks,” murmured Bess, “I’m going to +have another plate, if I have to roll twice my usual number of times +before I go to bed to-night.” + +“It is good,” said Belle. “It’s delicious!” + +“I could just sit here and—dream,” announced Belle, as she closed her +“effective” eyes, as Jack Kimball had designated them. + +“Yes, it is very soothing and restful,” agreed her sister, who had been +rendered sleepy by the combination of heat, a refreshing meal and the +droning of the electric fans. + +“I feel sleepy myself,” Cora confessed, closing her eyes. + +She opened them a moment later though, for a cry from Belle brought her +and Bess to a most unpleasant awakening. + +“Your car, Cora!” cried the slim Robinson twin. “Some one is taking your +auto!” + + + + +CHAPTER II—THE LOST TRAIL + + +“My car! Some one taking my car!” repeated Cora Kimball. “Who is it, +Belle?” and she hurried to the window from which the tall, willowy +Robinson twin was gazing toward the spot where the auto had been left. + +“Two young men. I saw them get in, and—there they go! Out into the road! +We must stop them!” + +Belle turned to make her exit, but her dress caught on a chair, and as +Cora and Bess were behind her, they, too, were delayed. + +“Oh, hurry!” begged Cora. + +“I can’t tear my dress,” retorted Belle. + +With a pull she loosed it from a splinter of the wicker chair, and then +made for the doorway, followed by the other girls. + +And while they are thus on their way to intercept those who had taken +Cora’s car I will devote a few minutes to acquainting my new readers +with the characters and incidents that go to make the previous volumes +of this series. + +“The Motor Girls,” was the title of the initial book. In that we find +Cora Kimball, the daughter of a wealthy widow, with her brother Jack, +living in “Cheerful Chelton,” as it has been called, a village on the +Chelton river, in New England, not far from the New York boundary. Cora +and Jack each had an automobile, but most of the adventures took place +in or about Cora’s car, in which she and her two most intimate chums, +the Robinson twins—Bess and Belle—went for many a ride. + +The Robinson girls were the daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Perry Robinson, +the former a rich railroad man, and I think I have already sufficiently +indicated to you their characters. Bess was plump, and Belle tall and +willowy, inclined to indolence which she imagined was graceful. Cora +Kimball was a leader, and where she went the Robinson twins generally +followed. + +Jack Kimball, a student at Exmouth college, was almost as much a chum of +Cora’s as were her girl friends, and the girls regarded Jack and his +chums, Walter Pennington and Paul Hastings, as their especial retainers +and vassals as the case demanded. Paul’s sister Hazel, a sweet girl—if +you know what I mean—had been quite friendly with Cora and her chums, +until her removal to another city. Hazel was expected for a visit to +Cora soon, and, as has been mentioned, Paul contemplated going camping +with the boys. + +Soon after Cora secured her car the Robinson twins induced their father +to purchase one. The Motor Girls, as they had come to be known, went on +a tour, in the course of which many things happened. They had more +adventures at Lookout Beach, and also when they went through New +England. + +In succession Cora and her friends paid a visit to Cedar Lake, down on +the coast, and next they spent a summer on Crystal Bay. They had there a +most delightful time, but perhaps not more so than that told of in the +book immediately preceding this one. + +That volume is named “The Motor Girls on Waters Blue.” I forgot to +mention that the girls, after having served their apprenticeship, as it +were, in automobiles, had acquired a fine, large motor boat. In this +they had many good times, though it was not this boat that figured +largely on the blue waters. When Mr. Robinson had been called to Porto +Rico on business he had taken his daughters and Cora with him. + +How the steamer on which Mr. Robinson sailed to another island was +endangered, how the _Tartar_ was chartered by Cora and her chums to look +for the shipwrecked ones, and how Inez Ralcanto, the beautiful Spanish +girl, and her father, a political refugee, were aided—all this is set +down in the book preceding this present volume. + +It was not until after many hardships and not a little anxiety that +matters were finally straightened out, and our friends came back to +Cheerful Chelton, which had never seemed so homelike or so desirable, +Cora said, as after the exciting episodes in what was practically a +foreign land. + +A fall and winter of gaiety had brought spring and early summer, in +which delightful time of the year we now find our girl friends once +more. + +“It is gone! My car is gone!” exclaimed Cora, as they ran out of the tea +room. + +“Of course it is!” declared Belle. “Didn’t I see them take it!” + +“Two young men, you say?” asked her sister. + +“Yes. I didn’t see their faces, but I knew they were young by the way +they moved about—so lively!” + +“Say!” cried Cora, imbued by a sudden idea. “Could they have been Jack +and Walter?” + +“Your brother?” asked Bess. + +“Yes. I heard him say he was coming over in this direction in his car. +He and Walter might have driven up, and, seeing my car and guessing that +we were inside, may have gone off in it just for a joke.” + +“It’s _possible_,” assented Belle. “Anything is possible for Jack and +Wally. But if they came here they must have left their car near by. Turn +about is fair play—let’s annex theirs.” + +“Let’s find it first,” said Cora. + +They hurried out to the road. A quick look up and down showed no +automobile in sight—not even Cora’s. + +“They must have speeded up,” murmured Belle. “Oh! why weren’t we +quicker?” + +“It doesn’t amount to anything if those young men were really Jack and +Walter,” Cora said. “But we can’t be sure of that; can we, Belle?” + +“No, I can’t. I only had a glimpse of their backs, and all backs look +alike to me.” + +“It can’t have been Jack,” declared Bess, “or his car would be somewhere +in sight. He wouldn’t know we were in the tea room until he came up +close, and then there wouldn’t have been time to run his car back.” + +“You can’t tell what they would do,” said Cora. “Come on, we’ll walk as +far as the turn in the road, and see what’s down there.” + +“Hadn’t you better report your loss to the proprietor of the tea room?” +suggested Belle. “He might send a man out to look for the machine.” + +“I don’t want to make too much fuss if it was Jack and Walter,” Cora +objected. “Let’s take a look ourselves first.” + +The girls hurried down the road, all their drowsiness gone now. They +were rather alarmed in spite of the cool way in which Cora took it. + +“It’s dreadfully warm walking,” complained Bess. “I shall have to have +more cream after this is over.” + +“You can go back and wait for us,” suggested Cora, “if you’re too——” + +“Don’t dare say I’m too stout to keep on the trail!” cried Bess. “I’ll +never give up!” + +They were almost at the turn when the honking of an automobile horn +warned them of the approach of a car. + +“There they come back!” cried Belle, in relieved tones. + +But a moment later, as a machine swung into view around the curve, the +girls saw that it was not Cora’s. + +“But it’s Jack and Walter!” cried the former’s sister. “Wait! Stop!” she +begged. “Jack—Wally—we’re in trouble! Did you take our car?” + +“Take your car?” repeated Jack, bringing his machine to a stop with a +screeching of brakes. “What’s the joke?” + +“It isn’t a joke at all!” declared Belle. “I saw two young men making +off with Cora’s car. At first we thought it might be you and Wally.” + +“Not guilty!” affirmed the latter, holding up a protesting hand. + +“Where did all this happen?” Jack wanted to know. + +“At the Spinning Wheel tea room. We stopped there,” his sister informed +him. + +“Which way did they go?” asked Walter Pennington. + +“Down this way,” Belle said, explaining what she had seen, and how they +had come along the road thinking to meet the perpetrators of the joke. + +“Come on, Wally!” cried Jack. “We’ll get after those fellows. It may +have been a joke, and, again, it may not. No use taking any chances. +There have been several cars stolen around here lately. Maybe there’s a +regular organized gang. Go on back to your tea and cakes, girls. We’ll +round up the villains. Ha! Ha!” and he struck a theatrical attitude. + +“We’ll wait at the tea room for you,” Cora said. “You can trace my car +in the dust, Jack, by the tire-marks. There’s a big patch, where it was +vulcanized. It’s on the right forward wheel, and it makes a mark like a +big Z. Look for it.” + +“I will, Sis. But there isn’t much chance. Too many cars pass along this +road to let the dust-marks of any particular one stay in sight long. But +we’ll do the best we can.” + +Jack backed and turned his car around, and was soon off down the road in +a clatter of exhausts, while the three girls went back to Ye Olde +Spinning Wheel. + +“Who do you suppose they could be—those two fellows?” asked Bess. + +“Haven’t the least idea,” her sister assured her. + +“It couldn’t have been Paul Hastings, could it?” + +“Of course not!” declared Cora. “Paul isn’t given to playing such jokes. +Besides, he’s in the auto business you know, and he doesn’t believe in +taking chances with the cars of others. It may be a joke, as Jack says, +and some of our numerous friends may have tried to scare us, or it may +be——” + +“Don’t say your lovely car is really _stolen_!” interrupted Bess, +impulsively. + +“Well, I’d have to say it if it were,” declared the practical Cora. “And +the sooner we find out the better, in order to get the police after the +thieves.” + +Wearily they trudged back to the tea room, which they had left so +suddenly. + +“Let’s have some more ice cream while we’re waiting,” suggested Bess. + +They had nearly finished their second plates when the honking of a horn +warned them of the approach of some one. Eagerly they looked out to see +Jack and Walter returning. + +“We lost the trail!” Jack called. “I saw the tire marks, Cora, for a +little way, then they disappeared. We’ll have to notify the police. Your +car’s stolen all right.” + +“Oh, Jack!” + +“Might as well realize it first as last, Sis! Where’s a telephone?” he +asked the waitress. + + + + +CHAPTER III—TWO STRANGE MEN + + +“What are you going to do, Jack?” asked Cora. + +“Notify the Chelton police, and also the authorities here. They will +send out a general alarm better than we can. Now who saw these chaps, +and how did they look?” + +“Belle saw them.” + +“Then, Belle, I’ll have to call on your detective abilities. Describe +these villainous characters.” + +“I wouldn’t call them particularly villainous looking,” said the tall +girl. “In fact we thought for a time it was you two, and——” + +“I see,” interrupted Walter. “Belle, I thank you for your good opinion.” + +“Come on, get down to business!” exclaimed Jack Kimball. “I want to know +how these fellows looked so I can tell the police. Were they young or +old?” + +“Two young men,” answered Belle. “They were about your age, Jack.” + +“But, unfortunately, they did not have his angelic disposition,” mocked +Walter. “Bouquets are coming your way fast, Jack.” + +“I’ll dispense with them. Come on now, Belle. Anything else except that +they were young?” + +Belle thought for a moment. She had had such a momentary glimpse of the +two that, really, it was hard to describe them adequately for the +purposes of police detection. + +“Why not describe the car?” asked Cora. “No matter who is in my machine +they haven’t a right to it, and they should be arrested on sight.” + +“Good idea!” agreed Jack. “I can describe the car right enough.” + +“And give the license numbers,” said Bess. + +“Of course. Good girl. Let me have them, Cora.” + +They were the only ones in the tea room at this time, and the excitement +was only communicated to the help. The waitress showed Jack where the +telephone booth was, and while Cora, Walter and the girls explained to +the girl cashier at the desk what had happened, Jack got the Chelton +police over the telephone and asked them to send out an alarm, and also +to be on the lookout for the thieves. + +The tea room was in Pepack, the township next to Chelton, and Jack also +called up the town hall and notified the authorities there, who promised +to do what they could. + +“But they may have taken any of half a dozen roads leading out of here,” +Walter said. “They must have hurried away.” + +“And you didn’t have a glimpse of them?” asked Belle. + +“Not a trace,” answered Jack. “We managed to pick up the trail by means +of that patch on the tire. Saw it in the dust several times. Then it was +lost in the shuffle, as you might say, so we thought it better to come +back. I wonder if the people here noticed anything of two strange men +hanging about.” + +“We’ll ask the cashier,” suggested Cora. + +She knew, slightly, the girl who sat at the cash register, for Ye Olde +Spinning Wheel was a popular resort for automobile parties. + +“Yes, Miss Kimball,” the girl said, “there were two young men in here +this morning, though whether they were the ones who took your car I +can’t say.” + +“How did they look?” asked Jack. + +“Well, I don’t know that I can tell you. They were both of medium +height, and were smooth shaven—I mean they had no beards or moustaches, +though both of them would have been better for a visit to the barber’s.” + +“What did they do or say?” asked Walter. + +“They came in and each had a plate of cream,” went on the girl. “I +didn’t exactly like their looks, for, though we try to run a place that +will suit every one, we are a bit particular too. But they didn’t make +any fuss, and even tipped the waitress.” + +“Then they must be ‘regular fellows,’” said Walter, jokingly. + +“‘Scuse me,” broke in the voice of the waitress—the same one who had +waited on the girls—“but de dime tip dey gibbed me wasn’t any good.” + +“Why not?” asked Jack. + +“It was plugged. Look!” and she exhibited it. + +“So it is!” exclaimed Cora’s brother. “They weren’t so regular after +all.” + +“I didn’t see it till after dey’d gone,” the negress went on. + +“Perhaps you can describe them for me,” Jack suggested. + +It developed that the waitress could give a better word-picture of the +two young men than could the cashier, whose attention, naturally, was +taken up with her duties at the desk. + +Jack noted down the none too good distinguishing marks as described by +the waitress, and went to telephone them to the police as an additional +help in capturing those who had gone with Cora’s car. + +There was nothing more that could be done just then, and Jack was about +to suggest that, by means of a little crowding, he could take his sister +and her chums back to Chelton in his car when the young woman who had +charge of the tea room entered, it being her hour to go on duty. + +“What’s the matter?” she asked, as she observed the group of excited +young people about the cashier’s desk. + +“Two strange young men went off with Miss Kimball’s auto,” was the +cashier’s answer, and the circumstances were related. + +“Two young men!” exclaimed the manager. “Why I remember those two who +had cream in here this morning. They spoke to me as they came out on the +porch, and I bought tickets of them.” + +“Tickets!” exclaimed Jack. “Tickets?” + +“Yes. They seemed all right—I mean respectful and all that. They said +they had unexpectedly run out of funds and wanted to know if I wouldn’t +buy some railroad tickets they had to New York. I said I hadn’t any use +for them, and couldn’t get off to go to New York anyhow, as this was our +busy season.” + +“So you didn’t buy them?” asked Cora. “But I thought you said——” + +“I didn’t buy the railroad tickets,” said the young lady manager. “But I +did purchase two tickets for the opera performance that is to be given +at Chelton on Friday night. I’d been wanting to go, and I was going to +telephone for tickets when these young men said they had two good ones +they’d let me have for less than the regular price.” + +“And you took them?” asked Walter. + +“Yes. It seemed a bargain, and I am desirous to see the play.” + +“Do you mind letting me see the tickets?” asked Jack. + +“Certainly you may see them,” was the answer, and from her pocketbook, +which she had left in charge of the cashier, the manager took out two +slips of blue pasteboard. + +“Hum! They seem regular all right,” remarked Jack. “Date and seat +numbers all proper. I know where those seats are, too, right in the +middle of the first row balcony. I always sit there myself when I go.” + +“They said they were good seats,” declared the girl, “and I saved a +dollar. They wanted the money they said, for they had spent their last +for some ice cream. They seemed to be all right.” + +“Maybe they were,” agreed Jack. “Of course it’s perfectly proper for +persons who can’t use railroad or theatre tickets they have purchased, +to sell them again. And these tickets seem to be the same as those you +would get at the box office. And there’s no crime in being without cash. +But it is a crime to take an automobile.” + +“The only question is whether the same two fellows are involved,” +suggested Walter. + +“That’s it,” agreed Jack. “I wish you girls had had a better look at +those who went off in the machine.” + +“It all happened so suddenly,” Belle explained. + +“Yes, such things generally do,” remarked Cora. “Well, there’s nothing +else to do, is there?” + +“I guess not,” said Jack, who had telephoned in the additional +description of the young men who had sold the tickets, adding the +information that there was only a suspicion that they were the same two +who were responsible for the taking of the car. + +“If they had only kept the theatre tickets, instead of selling them,” +said Walter, “we’d have a good chance of arresting them.” + +“How?” Belle demanded. + +“By watching those two seats. As soon as the fellows came in to take +their places we could have an officer arrest them.” + +“Please don’t try it on me,” begged the young lady who had purchased the +coupons. “I don’t want a scene,” and she regarded Walter smilingly. + +“Of course not,” agreed Cora. “Oh, dear! My nice car, that I was +counting on taking to Camp Surprise with me.” + +“We’ll get it back before then!” declared Jack. + +“Oh! but we’re going earlier than we planned originally,” said Belle. + +“And she wants you boys to come, too!” cried Bess. + +“No more than you do!” snapped Belle, her fair face flushing. + +“What’s the idea?” asked Walter. + +“It’s getting so unbearably warm,” said Cora, and then she explained +that they might go earlier than originally planned to the bungalow camp +in the mountains. + +“Well, we might manage it,” Jack said. “We’ll talk it over, Wally. Have +to see Paul, though I guess he’d fit in anywhere Bess went.” + +“Oh! is that so?” cried the plump girl, blushing in her turn. + +The tea room people promised to be on the lookout for the strange young +men, and to notify Jack or the police if they came around again. + +“But if they were the ones who took the car they won’t come back,” +Walter declared. + +By crowding, all the young people managed to get in Jack’s car. On the +way back to Chelton a sharp lookout was kept for the missing machine, +but no trace of it was seen, and Cora was much depressed when she +reached home. + +“Never mind,” whispered Jack, “you may use mine, Sis, until yours shows +up. Don’t worry, we’ll get it yet.” + +“I hope so,” murmured Cora. + + + + +CHAPTER IV—A CURIOUS STORY + + +Such measures as one might expect to have taken in a place like Chelton +and the surrounding towns were taken by the authorities in an endeavor +to recover Cora’s stolen automobile. For stolen it certainly was, and +not taken in a joke. That fact was patent when several days passed and +no trace of it was found and no word received as to where it might have +been taken or abandoned by the two strange young men. + +“They might merely have taken it to get some place, seeing that they had +no money,” observed Belle, when the three girls were talking the matter +over one day at Cora’s house. + +“They had railroad tickets, though,” said Belle. + +“Yes, but to New York, and perhaps they didn’t want to go there.” + +“I should think New York would be just the place where they would want +to go if they had no money,” came from Cora. “There are so many chances +to make money there.” + +“Perhaps they didn’t dare go,” suggested Belle. + +“What do you mean?” came in a duet from the others. + +“They might have done something—perhaps have taken another auto—and they +knew the police would be after them,” explained Belle. + +“Quite dramatic,” observed Cora. “But whoever they are or whatever their +motive, I wish they’d send back my car. I want it.” + +“I don’t blame you a bit,” came from Bess. “Come on, we’ll go out on +another searching tour.” + +“All right,” agreed Cora, and they were soon on the road again in the +car of the Robinson twins. The girls had not left it all to the +authorities to find the missing automobile. They had made diligent +inquiries themselves on all roads leading out of Chelton and in the +vicinity of the tea room. Nor had the boys been idle. Paul Hastings +arrived in town on business connected with the automobile concern by +which he was employed, and he, Jack and Walter, made it their business +to scurry around in Jack’s car, looking for clews. + +But the slender ones they found proved unavailing. Automobiles are all +too common to attract attention unless there is something unusual about +them. And Cora’s car, while it was a fine one, was not unusual enough to +call for special notice. + +The number on the license plates had been given to the police and +constables, but it would have been a comparatively easy matter for the +thieves to change the number or rub oil on and let dust accumulate until +it would have been all but indecipherable. Then, too, persons seldom +notice the number on a car unless there has been some accident. + +“It just seems to have disappeared,” declared Cora at the close of the +day, when a long tour and many inquiries had resulted in nothing. “I +just wish I had hold of those two fellows!” + +“It _is_ provoking,” agreed Belle. “Let’s stop at the tea room and see +if they’ve heard anything more there.” + +The girl at the cash register, the young lady manager, and the colored +maid who had waited on them before greeted the three pretty chums +smilingly as they again entered the pleasant tea room of Ye Olde +Spinning Wheel. + +“Were your tickets for the play all right?” asked Cora as the manager +stepped over to inquire if everything was to their liking. + +“I haven’t used them yet. They are for this week Friday. Oh! I’m sure +they’re all right. Some of my friends bought tickets from the same +fellows for the same night and they are next mine.” + +“Those chaps must have planned for a regular theatre party,” observed +Belle. + +“Have you had any trace of your car yet?” the cashier asked, as Cora +went up to pay the check. + +“No, I’m sorry to say, I haven’t.” + +“If you don’t get it soon, Cora,” said Belle, “you’d better plan to use +ours to go to Camp Surprise.” + +“Oh, we’re going in the motor boat,” Cora said. “I didn’t tell you, but +mother learned that the roads around the camp were so rough that it +would certainly spoil a car to take it to camp, so I wouldn’t take mine, +anyhow.” + +“Camp Surprise,” repeated the pretty cashier. “That sounds interesting.” + +“I hope we don’t find it too much so,” returned Belle. + +The plans for going to live at the bungalow with the odd name, which was +situated in the mountains some miles west of Chelton, had been talked +over at length, and an earlier trip than the one originally decided on +had been voted for. + +“Going in the motor boat! How nice!” cried Bess, as they went out of the +tea room. “Then it doesn’t matter about your auto, Cora—I mean, of +course—oh! I don’t mean that!” she cried, blushing. “Of course you want +it back——” + +“Well, I should say I do!” exclaimed Jack’s sister with mock +indignation. + +“I mean we won’t have to wait until you get your car back before going +to Camp Surprise,” Bess went on. + +“No,” agreed Cora. “That won’t delay us.” + +“And now don’t you think you ought to tell us why the camp where we are +going to spend most of the summer has such an odd name?” asked Belle. + +“I’ve been meaning to this long while,” assented Cora, “but so many +things have happened that I didn’t get to it. Come on, let’s sit out +here on the porch, where it’s so nice, cool and shady, and I’ll tell you +all I know.” + +“You couldn’t, Cora, dear—not in the limited time at our disposal,” said +Belle, languidly sinking into an easy wicker chair. “You know too much.” + +“Thank you. I believe this was my treat, so now we’re even. But I meant +all I know about Camp Surprise.” + +“First, how did it get its name?” asked Bess. + +“Because of the surprising things that happen there.” + +“Happen—happen?” queried Belle. “Do you mean they still happen?” + +“Well, so mother said,” observed Cora. + +“Bur-r-r!” shivered Bess, with a hasty glance over her shoulder. “I’m +not so sure I want to go there.” + +“Nonsense!” cried Cora. “If there’s a ghost we’ll lay it—whatever that +means.” + +“Oh, Cora! Ghosts!” + +“Oh! I don’t mean that, exactly. It isn’t so bad as that. The worst +things that have happened are that things in the bungalow seem to be +upset and misplaced without reason.” + +“Upset? Misplaced?” murmured Belle. + +“Without reason?” added her sister. + +“Oh! perhaps I am making a mountain out of a molehill,” confessed Cora. +“This is how the matter stands. Up in the mountains are a number of +camps, cottages, bungalows—what you like—which belong to a development +company. The bungalows and camps are rented, furnished, to whoever wants +them. Camp Surprise, where we shall have a good-sized bungalow to live +in, is one of the best of these resorts. It is about five miles in from +the Towanda river, which is what the Chelton is called up state, and it +was going up the river that I planned to use the motor boat.” + +“How do we get over the five miles?” asked Bess. + +“By buckboards over a mountain road. That’s why we won’t need the autos. +Of course we could use a car, but as long as mine is still among the +missing we won’t make any such plans. Camp Surprise is right on the edge +of a stream which is quiet enough in dry weather, but a torrent when +there’s a heavy rain. And there’s a little lake and a waterfall near the +bungalow.” + +“That sounds lovely,” remarked Belle. + +“It is lovely,” asserted Cora. “I’ve seen pictures of it. And while our +bungalow is on one side of the mountain torrent there is another one, +not far off, on the other side, where the boys are going to stay.” + +“How nice,” commented Bess. + +“Is that other bungalow within sight or calling distance of ours?” asked +Belle. + +“One or the other, yes,” assented Cora. “But why so anxious?” + +“Because when those ghosts, or whatever they are, get to moving things +about I want a man, or at least a good-sized boy around,” was the +answer. + +“Nonsense!” exclaimed Cora. “It isn’t so bad as that.” + +“Say it again,” begged Bess. “You told about unseen hands moving chairs +and tables.” + +“I didn’t mean it exactly that way,” and Cora smiled. “You see there is +a man and his wife who have rooms in the bungalow, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd. +They look after the place, and they’ll be our chaperons. I did think +mother might be able to go with us, but she won’t. But mother knows Mrs. +Floyd, and says she’s very nice.” + +“I hope the ghosts will be nice,” said Belle. + +Cora laughed. + +“Oh, you funny girl! Why will you persist in calling them ghosts?” + +“Well, aren’t they? Moving chairs about?” + +“Is that what happened—or happens?” asked Bess. + +“So I understand,” returned Cora. “Mr. and Mrs. Floyd don’t use the main +bungalow, keeping to their own rooms. But they wrote mother that, of +late, there have been some queer goings on. They said they would go out, +leaving the rooms in perfect order, only to find them all upset on their +return. Chairs would be misplaced, tables that had been in the middle of +the room would be shoved back against the wall. Dishes would be taken +out of the closets, and——” + +“Tramps!” interrupted Belle. + +“What?” cried Cora, rather startled by the suddenness of the +ejaculation. + +“I mean tramps got in and did it.” + +“No, I don’t think so,” and Cora spoke slowly. “For, though the dishes +were taken from the pantry, there was no food missing. Tramps would take +food.” + +“Is this all that happened?” Bess demanded. + +“Well, once something was taken,” Cora said. “A party had the bungalow, +and when they left at the end of their stay, they forgot to take some of +their silver with them. Then came one of the upsetting periods, and the +furniture was misplaced and the silver taken.” + +Belle and Bess looked at their chum, then the former said slowly: + +“I—I don’t believe we want to go to Camp Surprise, Cora.” + + + + +CHAPTER V—COUNTERFEIT TICKETS + + +Cora laughed melodiously. Belle and Bess looked at her with just a shade +of indignation in their eyes. + +“I didn’t think you’d be such—such, well, I won’t say cowards,” Cora +voiced, when the gale of merriment had passed. “But I think, Belle, that +you would rise above the occasion, even if Bess——” + +“Now what is there she can do that I can’t?” demanded the plump twin +truculently. “I guess if it’s a question of bravery, I’m as willing as +she is to go to Camp Surprise.” + +“I thought you’d be,” Cora observed. + +“But is it a question of bravery?” asked Belle. + +“What else?” her sister demanded. + +“Well, from the way in which Cora told it, I should think it would need +some members of the Society for Psychic Research to get to the bottom of +all those queer manifestations. Cora Kimball!” Belle suddenly exclaimed, +sitting up in her chair. “You haven’t been hoaxing us; have you? This +isn’t a joke; is it? I mean all those things really did happen; didn’t +they?” + +“My! what a lot of questions to set off at once,” objected Cora. “But I +can answer them all by saying that I have given the story to you just as +it came to me. As far as I know, it’s no joke, and the way the furniture +behaved, or rather, was made to act, is strictly true.” + +“And you are still going to Camp Surprise?” asked Bess. + +“Certainly. Why not?” + +“Well—er—that is—— Oh! of course I know there’s no such thing as a +ghost,” said Belle. “But, at the same time, even if those things +happened by human agencies—as naturally they did—it might make it very +unpleasant for us up there.” + +“Nonsense!” cried Cora. “It will make it all the more interesting. Think +of the fun we can have, organizing ghost-detecting parties, sitting up +until all hours of the night, daring the boys to sit with us. And then, +after all, finding out it is only the tricks of some alleged fun-loving +person, or perhaps boys of the neighborhood.” + +“Do you really think so, Cora?” Belle asked. + +“Why, yes.” + +“I don’t know,” murmured Bess, thoughtfully. + +“Come! Where has all the bravery of the Motor Girls vanished to?” +demanded Cora with a silvery laugh. “We didn’t act thus timidly when we +solved the secret of the red oar on Crystal Bay. And perhaps——” + +“Cora’s right!” interrupted Belle. + +“She generally is,” contributed Bess. + +“There’s a secret here, and we will solve it!” her sister went on. “I +didn’t look at it that way before, but I see it now. We mustn’t be +driven away, or kept from going just because of these rumors. We’ll go +to Camp Surprise and surprise those who are making such a fuss there. I +wonder some one hasn’t done it long ago.” + +“Just what I was about to remark,” came from Cora. “I’m glad to see that +your natural courage has come back. I thought it would. We haven’t been +together on various quests for nothing. Now we’ll prove ourselves true +Motor Girls, and get at the bottom of these surprising happenings. You +won’t back out?” + +“Never!” affirmed Bess. + +“Cross my heart!” laughed her sister, with the old, familiar, childish +gesture of emphasizing a statement. + +“Then it’s all settled. Now let’s go home. Jack and Walter said they +were going over to Meadport to-day to see if any word had been received +there of my missing auto. They may have returned with some news.” + +“Why was Meadport regarded so favorably?” asked Bess. + +“Well, a constable there sent word to our police that there had been a +number of petty robberies committed in the neighborhood. A number of +thefts would take place in one night, and so far apart that the only +probable theory was that the thieves used an auto. Jack thought my dear +car might be used for such base purposes, so he and Wally went over +there to-day.” + +“Let us hope they have good news,” said Belle, as with her sister and +Cora she entered the Robinson automobile and headed back for Cheerful +Chelton. + +“Nothing doing,” announced Jack, as his sister and her chums came in +sight of the Kimball home, and saw him with Walter, sitting on the +broad, shady piazza. “Absolutely nothing transpiring, as the poet +saith.” + +“College hasn’t improved your slang any,” observed Bess. + +“No, I guess I’ll have to take a P. G. course to accomplish that. I am a +bit rusty. Wally, suppose you give them a sample.” + +“Spare us,” murmured Cora. “Was there really no news, Jack?” + +“Not an atom, or even a molecule. Which is smaller, Wally? I forget.” + +“Same here. Anyhow they hadn’t caught those Meadport thieves, so whether +they have your auto or not, Cora, my dear, remains yet to be proved.” + +The young people talked on, the conversation reverting naturally to Camp +Surprise. + +“What do you think it all means, Jack?” asked Bess. + +“Kids playing tricks,” declared Jack tersely. “So it didn’t scare you +girls out from going?” + +“Of course not!” declared Bess indignantly. A look passed from her to +Cora, from Cora to Belle—and that was all. + +“That’s right!” chimed in Walter. “Don’t let a little thing like that +scare you away. We’ll get at the bottom of this mystery.” + +“When do you plan to go?” asked Cora of her brother. + +“As soon as Wally can get his new suit that he’s ordered from that nobby +tailor.” + +“Don’t you believe him,” cried Walter, thumping his chum on the back. +“I’m as ready as he is. He’s waiting for one of those sport shirts——” + +“Go on! I wouldn’t wear one!” + +“Well, make up your minds, and we’ll all go together,” urged Cora. “We +can go up in the motor boat as far as possible, and take buckboards the +rest of the way. We’d like to have you boys on hand when we begin the +investigation of Camp Surprise.” + +“Oh, ho! Afraid?” laughed Walter. “I thought there was a mouse in the +woodpile somewhere, Jack, my boy!” + +“Nothing of the sort!” came from Cora. “Besides, you’re thinking of the +mouse and the lion. It is an African gentleman of color who makes the +woodpile his habitation.” + +“That’s right,” admitted Walter. “I never was very good at dates +anyhow.” + +“Fig paste is more to your liking. Have a chocolate,” urged Bess. + +“We want you along to bear testimony when we have routed out the +mischief-makers,” said Cora, after the laughter had subsided. “Your +bungalow is near ours, and we can call to you to come and hold the +disturbers when we capture them.” + +“Is that what you’re going to do?” asked Jack. + +“Certainly,” returned Belle, as if the girls had never hesitated. + +“Well, it would be a pity to disappoint you,” Walter declared. “We’ll go +when they do, Jack. But—whisper—they’ll be more than a week yet. I know +girls.” + +“You only _think_ you do,” mocked Cora. “We’ll be ready before you are.” + +Then they began to talk seriously and plan for their summer outing. It +was not the first time they had been away together, the boys and girls +often going to the same resort and occupying adjacent bungalows or +cottages. In this way they divided such work as there was, and +multiplied the possible good times. + +Mrs. Kimball was to go to the Thousand Islands with her sister, which +left Jack and Cora free to do as they pleased. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson +would, as usual, occupy their seashore cottage, but Bess and Belle would +not join them there until later in the season, going first to Camp +Surprise with Cora. + +“Well, now it’s all settled,” declared Cora, after a season of talk. +“We’ll go to Camp Surprise two weeks from to-day. I’ll tell mother, and +have her write to Mrs. Floyd to have everything in readiness.” + +“Even the ghosts?” demanded Walter. + +“Even the ghosts,” agreed Cora, accepting the implied challenge. + +“Good!” cried Jack. + +A few days after this the three girls, all of whom belonged to a church +home mission society, went to take some medicine and food to an old +woman who was one that the society looked after. This dependent lived +some distance out of Cheerful Chelton, and the Robinson twins brought +their car in which to carry the baskets of food. + +They had done their little errand of mercy and on the way back Cora +proposed that they stop at Ye Olde Spinning Wheel for some tea or ice +cream, as the girls preferred. + +They had the place practically to themselves, as it was not the hour +when most motorists stopped for refreshments. Cora and her chums spoke +to the manager, and noticed that she seemed a bit downcast. + +“What is the matter?” asked Cora. + +“Oh, it’s something that happened last night. You know I told you I had +two tickets for the opera. My friend gave me the money to get them, and +I bought them off the two young fellows who were here one day last +week.” + +“Yes, it was the time my auto was taken,” Cora said. + +“Of course! I ought to have remembered. Well, I bought two tickets for +the opera from those men at a reduced price.” + +“And couldn’t your friend go with you?” asked Belle sympathetically. + +“Oh, yes. He came for me all right. But when we went to go in they +wouldn’t let us.” + +“Who wouldn’t let you, those two young men?” asked Cora eagerly. + +“No, I only wish it had been the young men. I’d have had ’em arrested. +But the doorkeeper would not let me and my friend in on those tickets.” + +“Why not?” asked Bess. + +“Because he said they were counterfeit. And after my friend had given me +his good money for them. I was that angry I could have cried! +Counterfeit tickets! What do you know about that?” + + + + +CHAPTER VI—OFF TO CAMP + + +“Really, were they bogus tickets?” asked Cora after a pause. + +“And wouldn’t they let you in?” Bess cried. + +“How could they tell they were counterfeits?” was Belle’s question. + +“’Cause some one else had our seats, or the seats our tickets called +for,” said Miss Magin, the manager of the tea room. “This is how it was. +I got all ready to go—it was my day off, you know, and I had a new +dress. Had my nails manicured and went to a hair dresser, for I wanted +to look nice. My friend is some swell dresser himself, and you know how +it is. You want to be a credit when a person goes to the trouble to take +you out.” + +“I know,” Cora murmured. + +“Well, I did look nice, if I do say it myself,” went on Miss Magin, “and +I was quite pleased when I handed my friend back a dollar. + +“‘What’s this for?’ he asked me. + +“‘What I saved on the tickets,’ I told him, and I mentioned how I’d +bought two from the fellows who were here trying to sell some railroad +transportation as well. My friend was quite pleased, of course, for he +has to work hard for his money. ’This’ll do to help get a lunch after +the show,’ he said, and I was glad. + +“Well, we got to the opera house all right, but they wouldn’t let us in. +That is, they wouldn’t give us the seats our coupons called for. We did +get in, but when we went to the seats there was a couple already in +them. + +“My friend thought the usher had made a mistake, and there was a mix-up +for a while. Then the usher got the other couple’s coupons and they were +the same number as ours. They called the manager, and he said our +tickets were counterfeit. + +“First my friend wouldn’t believe it, but the manager showed by the +other tickets taken in that ours were different. The print was the same, +and so was the color of the pasteboard, but it was stiffer than the +regular tickets. There was no way out of it. We had been cheated, and so +had some other people who had bought tickets from those fellows. There +was quite a disturbance.” + +“It’s too bad!” exclaimed Cora. “Then you didn’t see the opera after +all?” + +“Oh, sure I did!” exclaimed Miss Magin. “My friend wouldn’t see me +disappointed. He bought other tickets, though they weren’t as good as +the ones I had—or thought I had.” + +“And they really were counterfeit?” repeated Bess. + +“Yes, but cleverly done. It was only the quality of the paper, or +pasteboard, that showed,” went on the tea room manager. “If we had +gotten there first we might have had our seats without any trouble, +though of course when the folks came in that had the real tickets it +would have been found out, I s’pose.” + +“And you say others also bought the bogus tickets?” Cora asked. + +“Yes, quite a few. Got them from the same fellows, too, who told the +same story about being hard up for cash, and wanting to sell the tickets +they’d purchased.” + +“Were they the same young men?” asked Belle. + +“The descriptions were the same as the two who were here, and who must +have taken your auto, Miss Kimball. When I found out our tickets were +worthless I told the manager about your car, though of course he had +heard of it from reading the paper. Oh! I just wish I could have them +arrested!” + +“So do I,” agreed Cora. + +“Could they find out where the tickets were printed?” asked Bess. + +“Not just by looking at them,” answered Miss Magin. “The bogus ones +looked for all the world like the real ones, even to the company’s name +that was printed on them. But the opera house manager kept those my +friend and I turned in and said he’d make an investigation. Say! I felt +pretty cheap when it turned out I’d bought bogus tickets with my +friend’s money.” + +“Oh! you couldn’t help it,” Cora said, her chums murmuring their +agreement. + +“Well, I meant all right,” Miss Magin went on, “but I cost my friend +more than if I hadn’t a’ been so soft-hearted wanting to help out those +fellows who told a hard-luck story.” + +“They’ll be caught some day,” declared Bess. “Printing bogus theatrical +tickets isn’t easily done. Care has to be used, and sooner or later +those fellows will be arrested.” + +“The sooner the better,” said Cora. “I want my car back.” + +The girls and the manager talked for some little time longer about the +happenings of the night before. Presently a man alighted from a taxicab, +or rather, one of the town’s few jitney cars, and entered the tea room. +He looked rather sharply at our friends—at least so Cora thought—and, +taking a seat at a table not far away, ordered a cup of coffee and a +sandwich. + +He spoke casually to the waitress, and as Miss Magin, as was her custom, +walked up to see if the service was satisfactory, he spoke also to her +pleasantly, and she replied. + +“Was it one of the young ladies here who recently purchased some bogus +theatre tickets?” the man asked, after some casual remarks. + +“I hope you haven’t any more to sell!” retorted the manager, a bit +sharply. + +“No. I am a detective sent out by the agency which prints theatre +tickets for many shows. This isn’t the first time we have had trouble, +and I want, if possible, to get on the track of the persons responsible. +Do you mind telling me all you can of this?” + +Of course Miss Magin was only too glad to do so, and, incidentally, she +mentioned the loss of Cora’s automobile. Naturally that brought our +friends into the conversation, and the detective, who introduced himself +as Mr. Boswell, went over to the girls’ table. He spoke of having been +for some time unsuccessfully on the trail of the bogus ticket sellers. + +“Taking automobiles is a new line for their activities, though,” said +Mr. Boswell. “This may make it easier to catch them.” + +“Of course,” suggested Cora, “we are not altogether certain that the +same persons who sold Miss Magin the tickets took my auto.” + +“Very likely they were,” declared the detective. “They probably realized +that they had done all the illegitimate business possible in this +neighborhood, and they wanted to get as far away as they could before +the fact about the tickets became known. An auto offered the simplest +means.” + +“I should have locked the ignition switch,” said Cora. “I usually do +when I get out. But we thought we would stay only a little while, so I +didn’t do it this time.” + +“Too bad,” said Mr. Boswell. “If I get on the track of your car, Miss +Kimball, I’ll let you know.” + +He made a memorandum of the description of the two men as furnished by +Miss Magin, and took his departure, promising to let Cora hear from him +in case anything developed. + +“More of the mystery,” remarked Bess, as she and the others were on +their way back in the automobile. “What with this and what may happen at +Camp Surprise, I can see we are in for a busy summer.” + +And busy enough the girls were during the next week. There were trunks +to pack, messages to send to the caretakers at the camp, dresses to have +finished in time, and many odds and ends to be looked after before +leaving for so long a time. + +“There’s a nice dancing pavilion not far away,” Cora told her chums. +“And of course there’ll be one or two formal affairs at a neighboring +hotel.” + +Hazel Hastings had come on to be Cora’s guest and was staying at the +Kimball house. She was the same sweet girl as before, though a little +older, and not quite so timid as she had been. + +Paul was the same jolly chap, quite engrossed in his automobile +business, but not so much so that he could not enjoy the little outing +in prospect. + +“I’ve sent a description of your car, with the number of it, the number +of the engine and other identifying marks, to all the second hand +dealers,” he told Cora. “If it’s offered for sale to any one in the +dealers’ association I’ll hear of it and there’s a chance that we’ll get +it back for you. + +“Of course there are some ‘outlaw dealers’ who do not belong to the +association, and who might take a chance on buying a stolen car,” said +the young automobile agent. “But we can’t help that. I think we’ll get +your machine sooner or later.” + +Cora was grateful for Paul’s efforts, but she had about given up hope. +The police had secured no clews, and, though they professed to be +active, there really was little for them to do. + +The motor boat had been overhauled and put in shape for the trip up the +Chelton river. Though the craft offered accommodations for sleeping on +board they did not plan to use the berths on this occasion. They were to +make an early start and reach Riverhead, the end of navigation on the +Chelton, early in the afternoon. From Riverhead they would go to Camp +Surprise in wagons of the buckboard type, made with wooden slats for +springs, very comfortable to ride in over rough roads. + +The boys were to go with the girls, Jack and his sister acting as +chaperons for the others until camp was reached, when Mr. and Mrs. Floyd +would perform this office. + +Light baggage would be taken with them on the boat, the trunks being +sent on ahead. + +“And we’ll take lunch along, of course,” Bess said. + +“Of course,” echoed her sister. “We don’t want to go hungry any more +than do you.” + +The day of departure came at last. Bess and Belle were early at Cora’s +house, and found her, Jack, Paul and Hazel busy making the final +preparations. + +The valises and bundles were carried down to the motor boat, good-byes +were said over and over again, various cautions were given by Mrs. +Kimball and Mrs. Robinson, and then Cora, standing at the wheel of the +craft, steered out into the middle of the pretty stream. + +“Off for Camp Surprise!” she cried gaily. + + + + +CHAPTER VII—JACK’S BATH + + +Out into the sunlit Chelton river swung the smart motor boat with Cora +at the wheel. The sun glinted on the water, it reflected from the +polished brass rail and the white forward deck of the craft, it sparkled +from the brass letters of the name—_Corbelbes_, and danced in javelins +of light on the little waves. + +The _Corbelbes_ was the latest name of the motor boat which had been +variously christened at times. The craft was owned jointly by Cora, +Belle and Bess, and in accordance with their agreement they had in turn +the privilege of naming it, such name to be used during a whole season. + +In turn the girls had adopted various more or less classical +nomenclature. Each one’s time having expired, it came to Cora again, and +she confessed that she did not know what to select. + +“Let me name the boat for you,” suggested Jack. “I’ve thought of a swell +name.” + +“Something ridiculous, I’m sure of that,” ventured Cora. + +“No, something really classy. How’s this,” and Jack quickly printed on a +piece of paper the name now glinting on either bow of the craft. + +“_Corbelbes_,” repeated his sister. “That isn’t half bad. What is it, +Spanish or Latin?” + +“It’s French for curling iron and face powder,” laughed Jack. + +“You mean thing!” + +“No, it isn’t, Sis. Don’t you see, it’s the first part of the names of +all three of you.” + +“Oh, so it is.” Cora was smiling now. + +“What better name could you have for a boat?” Jack demanded. “It’s +something distinctive and individual.” + +Cora and her chums agreed with him, and the motor boat became the +_Corbelbes_, and as such had remained. + +“Does she steer all right, Cora, with the new tiller ropes on?” asked +Jack, as he lolled lazily on one of the cushioned lockers, which, at +night, could be turned into comfortable bunks. + +“A bit stiff,” responded his sister. + +“Well, the ropes will stretch, after they’ve been used a bit, so it’s +just as well to have them tight now. You get quicker action when you +turn the wheel, though the river will not be crowded after we get up a +way.” + +Bess, Belle and Hazel busied themselves setting to rights their various +possessions in the little cabin, and then they sat out in the wicker +chairs in the after part of the craft, where Jack and Walter were. Paul +seemed to find entertainment up in the bow with Cora. + +“Where are the eats?” demanded Walter, when they had been under way for +perhaps a half hour. “Didn’t I see you smuggling something on board, +Bess?” + +“Eats? Now?” cried Jack. “And if you saw Bess have anything it was a box +of chocolates.” + +“It was not, Jack Kimball!” retorted the pretty, plump twin. “I’ve given +up chocolates.” + +“For how long?” he teased. + +“For ever. I’m eating lime drops and lemon drops now. Have some?” + +“I knew I saw you have something,” declared Walter. “Why, they’re +chocolates after all!” he went on, as he helped himself to what Bess +offered. + +“I know they are, but the chocolate coating is very thin,” she said. +“They’re sour inside.” + +“Sort of Christian Science treatment,” remarked Jack. “Bess couldn’t +altogether give up her chocolate, so she takes it in homeopathic doses. +Whew! they _are_ sour!” he cried, as he bit into one of the candies, +making a wry face. + +“Fruit acids make one thin, I read,” Bess stated, “so I had these made +to order.” + +“Bess Robinson, you never did!” voiced her sister in surprised accents. + +“Why shouldn’t I? They didn’t cost any more than the others. All the +candy shop did was to dip their regular lime and lemon drops into +chocolate for me.” + +“Well!” exclaimed Belle. “Did you hear that, Cora?” + +There was no reply from the girl at the wheel. She and Paul were busy +talking. + +“Let her alone,” urged Bess. “She knows about my candy. I told her.” + +“Yes, don’t disturb ’em,” agreed Walter. “But I want something more +substantial than candy. Didn’t you bring anything else, Bess?” + +“Yes, we have a nice lunch, but I’m not going to have you spoil your +appetite by eating now,” declared Belle. + +“You don’t know how hard it is to spoil his appetite,” laughed Jack. +“I’ve tried several times to find out just where the vanishing point is, +but I haven’t succeeded. I’ve begun to believe that his appetite is like +the poor—always with us—or him.” + +“Base traitor!” retorted Walter, reaching out to punch Jack, but finding +him too far away he did not exert himself. + +The Chelton river was a busy place in the neighborhood of the town where +our friends lived. On the way up the _Corbelbes_ passed a number of +craft, some of them slow-moving coal or grain barges, others passenger +steamers, and not a few pleasure craft. Those in charge of the latter +recognized the _Corbelbes_ and saluted her with the regulation three +whistles, which Cora returned. + +“We couldn’t have had a better day,” remarked Paul, as he sat beside +Cora. + +“No, it’s perfect. If the weather only behaves when we get to camp we’ll +be in all sorts of ways obliged to it.” + +“Oh, I guess it will,” was the comment. “Look out for that fellow, Cora. +He doesn’t seem to know which way he wants to go.” + +“I’ve been noticing him,” and Cora looked at a man in a rowboat who was +yawing from side to side as though unfamiliar with the proper method of +navigation. + +Cora blew the whistle sharply as the man seemed about to cross her bows, +and this further confused him so that he was really in danger of being +run down. + +“Look out!” cried Paul again, instinctively, though he knew Cora knew +how to manage the boat. + +And she proved that she did by quickly reversing the propeller, while a +series of sharp blasts informed any craft coming astern to look out for +themselves. + +“What’s the matter with you?” demanded Paul, as the _Corbelbes_ passed +the man in the rowboat. “You ought to take lessons before you come out +on the river.” + +The man looked frightened but did not answer, pulling awkwardly away. + +“What are you trying to do, Cora?” demanded Jack. “Have an accident +before we’re fairly started? Better let me steer.” + +“I will not, indeed! It wasn’t my fault!” + +“I should say not!” cried Paul. “That fellow was a dub!” + +That was the only near approach to a collision, though the river was +unusually crowded that morning. In a little while, however, the water +traffic thinned out, and Cora did not have to devote so much attention +to the wheel. + +“Say, isn’t it time for lunch now?” demanded Walter, insinuatingly. + +“It’s only eleven,” announced Belle, with a look at her wrist watch. + +“That’s his regular feeding time—at least he’ll say so,” put in Jack, +before his chum had a chance to answer. + +“I had an early breakfast,” put in Walter in extenuation. + +“Oh, well, give the child something,” laughed Bess, “and let us have +peace!” + +Sandwiches, cake and other things were brought out, set on a table which +unfolded from the side of the boat, and the merry chatter was soon +interspersed with periods of silence to allow a chance to eat. + +“We’ll get there in good season,” Cora was saying, when the engine gave +a sudden combined cough, wheeze and sneeze, and stopped. + +“No gasoline!” cried Walter. + +“Indeed not!” answered Cora. “Both tanks are full.” + +“Ground wire broken,” suggested Paul. + +A hasty look at the conductors proved this theory to be wrong. + +“Then it’s the carburetor,” Jack affirmed. “The worst possible place for +trouble. I’ll look after it, Sis. I’ve had the dingus apart, and if +anybody knows about its insides I do. Throw that anchor overboard, +Wally, and I’ll tinker with the troublemaker.” + +A small anchor splashed into the river, while Jack, putting on an old +jumper and overalls, kept for such emergencies, took off the carburetor +and proceeded to examine it, from cork float to butterfly valve. + +“Must be poor gasoline they’re serving us lately,” he said. “It’s +awfully dirty. Look!” and he held up his grimy hands. + +“Have you found the trouble?” Cora asked. + +“Yes, it was the air intake valve. Little speck of carbon in it +prevented the proper mixture. I’ll have it fixed in a jiffy.” + +Jack proved the truth of his assertion by replacing the carburetor, and, +a little later, by starting the engine without any trouble. + +“Hurrah!” cried Paul. “That’s what it is to have a good mechanician +aboard.” + +“It’s a wonder you wouldn’t qualify yourself,” said Jack grimly. “Look +at me! I’ll have to take a bath!” and he held up his hands, grimier than +ever. + +“There’s some of that mechanic’s soap—with pumice stone in it—in one of +the lockers,” volunteered Cora. “Use that, Jack.” + +The anchor was hauled in and the _Corbelbes_ started up the river once +more. Jack knelt down on one side of the stern deck, and, reaching down +into the river, wet his hands, rubbing on them some pasty soap, +guaranteed to remove grime of all kinds and leave most of the original +skin. + +“Where’s the camera?” asked Bess. + +“What for?” demanded her sister. + +“I want a view of Jack at his bath. Doesn’t he look cute?” + +“Wait until I pose for you,” Jack suggested, making a lather of the +soap. “I’m a dandy when it comes to poses. Just watch me.” + +He stood up on the after deck, but his foot slipped on a bit of the +lather that dropped from his hands, and, a moment later, Jack plunged +overboard. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII—THE STORM + + +“Oh, Jack!” cried Cora, as she had a hasty glimpse of her brother making +a rather ungraceful dive over the side of the _Corbelbes_. “Oh!” + +Her words were echoed by Bess and Belle, and while they started up, +overturning the chairs on which they had been sitting, Cora, alive to +the emergency, quickly threw in the reverse clutch, and a smother of +foam arose under the stern of the boat as it lost way. + +Nor had Walter and Paul been idle. The former seized a canvas covered +cork life ring, and, waiting a moment to catch a glimpse of the bobbing +head of his chum, threw the ring to him, with a cry of: + +“There you are, Jack!” + +“I’ll go after him in the boat!” called Hazel’s brother, for a small +dingey was riding astern of the larger boat, and Paul now hauled this +toward the side. + +There was no need for any one else to go overboard, for Jack, as his boy +and girl chums well knew, could swim excellently, and he had fallen in +with only overalls and jumper on, which made raiment almost as light as +a bathing suit. True, he had on his shoes, but in several tests at +summer camp Jack had swum across a lake with all his heavy clothes on. + +Still Paul was not sure but what his chum might have struck his head +going overboard, and in this case it would be advisable to have the +little boat ready. + +“There he is—he’s all right,” cried Walter, as he saw Jack striking out +for the motor boat, ignoring the life ring. + +“Get it, Jack! Get it!” cried Cora, indicating the white, floating +object. + +“Don’t need it!” Jack sung out, cheerfully enough. “What do you think I +am, an invalid?” + +However, he was glad enough to crawl into the smaller boat, which Paul +sent over toward him, for Jack found his shoes heavy, and the side of +the _Corbelbes_ was high out of water, making it difficult for one to +reach the gunwale. + +“All right?” asked Cora, as Jack sat dripping on the stern seat. + +“Sure I’m all right. I was going in for a swim anyhow, and this saved me +the trouble.” + +“Well, come on board and we’ll start again,” Cora said. “Pick up the +ring, Paul. I don’t want to lose it!” + +“Aye, aye, my captainess!” and he saluted with an oar. + +“How did it happen, Jack?” asked Walter, when his chum, dripping, was +safe on board again. + +“Somebody pushed me! I think it was Hazel,” and he winked at the others +while he gazed as severely as possible (which was not greatly) at the +blushing girl. + +“Oh, Mr. Kimball! I—I did not!” cried Hazel. + +“My goodness, how very formal! _Mr._ Kimball!” mocked Bess. “Since when, +Hazel?” + +“Since he accused me that way.” + +“Oh! I’ll withdraw the accusation if you’ll only call me Jack! I love to +hear you say that, Hazel! Call me Jack.” + +“Silly!” muttered Cora. + +“Mushy, I call it,” declared Bess. “Downright mushy!” + +“You’re jealous,” added Walter. + +“Say Jack!” commanded the dripping owner of the name, “or I’ll come over +and sit by you, Hazel, and I’m almost sure that blue dress of yours +spots.” + +“It does! Oh, don’t let him come near me!” begged Hazel, trying to +retreat into the cabin. + +“Say Jack then!” commanded the relentless one, dripping at every step as +he pursued her. + +“Oh—Jack!” she complied. + +“Your brains seem to have gone overboard, and not to have come back with +you,” said Cora to her brother. “Quit your fooling. You’re getting the +cushions all wet.” + +Jack subsided after blowing a kiss to his sister, and sprinkling her +with water from his dripping hair. Then the boat was put back on her +course, the dingey was made fast, the life ring put in place, and there +was peace and quietness once more, broken only by Jack’s grunts and +exclamations as he struggled to get off his wet shoes. + +“Cora,” called Jack, from the curtained cabin, where he was changing +into dry garments, “I didn’t put an extra pair of shoes in your valise; +did I?” + +“I rather guess not,” was the quick answer. + +“Then I haven’t any,” wailed Jack. “I’ll have to borrow a pair of you +girls’ slippers. The biggest I can get—don’t all speak at once.” + +There were some subdued giggles. + +“Did I hear Cora say hers would be too big for me?” asked Jack. + +“Oh, do get sensible!” commanded his sister. “There’s a pair of worsted +bedroom slippers of mine you can take until your shoes get dry. You +can’t stretch them any too much. Put your shoes near the muffler. +They’ll dry there.” + +“Yes, and get all out of shape,” objected Jack. “I’ll put them on the +forward flag staff and let the gentle breezes dry them. ’Tis Nature’s +way.” + +“You’ll do nothing of the sort!” groaned Cora. “What would people say on +seeing a pair of shoes at the top of the staff? Please put them near the +muffler and they’ll dry all right.” + +This Jack did, the iron cylinder that received the burned gases from the +engine being quite hot, so that the wet garments and shoes bid fair to +dry speedily. Jack, meanwhile, donned a pair of his sister’s slippers—a +pink one and a blue one, Cora not having been able to find mates. + +“I don’t know what’s in him to-day,” Cora confided to Hazel. + +“He’s awfully jolly, I think,” said Paul’s sister. + +“Jolly? You wouldn’t think so if you had to live with him as long as I +have had to.” + +“Is he always this way?” + +“No, thank goodness; it goes by streaks, like the lean and fat in a +piece of bacon.” + +“The idea of comparing Jack to a piece of bacon!” commented Bess, who +overheard. + +“Well, he is that way,” insisted Cora. + +“I hope my shoes get dry by the time we reach Riverhead,” Jack confided +to Paul and Walter. “I have another pair in my trunk, but that may not +be there when we get to camp. And I do hate wet shoes to dance in.” + +“Who said we were going to dance?” asked Walter. + +“I did,” replied Jack. “There’s a hotel not far from the camp, I hear, +and the season ought to be partly in swing now. Well, if you fellows +don’t want to go I can borrow your shoes.” + +“Who said we didn’t want to go?” Paul cried. + +“Oh, well, don’t bite me!” pleaded Jack, in falsetto accents. + +The little excitement caused by Jack’s involuntary bath gradually +subsided. He made a final and fairly successful effort to rid his hands +of the grime caused by cleaning the carburetor, and then, attired in dry +garments, and with one pink and one blue slippered foot resting +“nonchalantly” (as he called it) on the rail, he watched the receding, +wooded shores of the Chelton. + +From somewhere in the distance a factory whistle blew. + +“One o’clock!” cried Jack. “Is dinner ready? I say, Cora, I have a +wonderful appetite!” + +“Never knew you when you didn’t have,” she replied. + +“Why, we just had lunch—just before Jack fell overboard!” ejaculated +Hazel. + +“That won’t make a bit of difference to him—or them,” said Belle, with a +resigned air. “We’ll have to serve another meal I suppose.” + +“A regular one this time, if you please,” begged Walter. “Those olives, +anchovies and the caviar sandwiches only made me a bit keen.” + +The girls were nothing loath to put out the food again, for, truth to +tell, the river air had given them, as well as the boys, an appetite. +They had brought plenty with them, for though they had requested Mr. +Floyd to have supper ready when they reached the bungalow (the first +meal in camp the boys were to share with the girls), still Cora had +feared they would arrive late, and had made arrangements accordingly. + +They had as much fun over the regular lunch as they had had over the +“temporary” one, as Walter and the boys designated the first meal, and +the afternoon waned pleasantly. + +“I hope we shall get to Riverhead before the storm,” observed Cora, as +she came back to take her place at the wheel again, a post she had +abandoned while she helped the girls put away the dishes and what was +left of the food. + +“What storm?” asked Paul. + +Cora indicated a bank of sullen-looking clouds in the west. They were +sufficiently ominous to cause Cora to speed up the motor a bit, and to +request her brothers and his chums to see to the side curtains. + +“We ought to get in long before that breaks,” Jack declared. + +But he did not count on the speedy approach of the storm, nor on the +fact that the boat ran into a shallow section of the river, where there +grew long grass which got entangled in the propeller. + +Though the _Corbelbes_ managed to force her way through this patch of +“seaweed” as Jack called it, when she emerged into free water again the +motor could hardly turn the screw. It was necessary to reverse the +engine, to unwind the grass, and even then some had to be pulled away +with the boat hook—no easy task. + +And then, when they were once more under full speed, the storm came down +with a rush and a roar, with blinding sheets of rain, with a wind that +caught the boat broadside, where the rubber curtains made a wide sail +area, and heeled her over at no small angle. + +With the rain came thunder and lightning, sufficiently fierce and loud +for a time to terrify at least Belle, who was the most nervous of the +girls. + +“I can hardly see to steer,” said Cora, peering out of the rain-drenched +windows of the cabin. + +“Want me to take the wheel?” asked Jack. + +“No, thank you, I think not. We ought to be almost there now. But I +don’t know about going over the mountain trail in this storm.” + +“Maybe it will stop,” suggested Belle. + +“It doesn’t act so,” commented Walter. + +The thunder had almost ceased, and the lightning was not so startling, +but the rain came down harder than ever. + +“I declare I can’t see either bank of the river,” Cora said. “I hope I +shan’t run into anything.” + +They kept on for perhaps an hour longer, the rain never ceasing. But +they were good and dry in the snug motor boat. + +“I think we’d better put ashore and find out where we are,” suggested +Jack, after a bit. “We may have run past Riverhead, Cora.” + +“Run past it! How could we, Jack? The river’s almost too shallow for a +rowboat past Riverhead. We’d be aground.” + +“Not necessarily. They’ve lately dredged a channel about a mile beyond, +to let boats bring ice down from the houses up above. You may be in the +channel,” Walter said. + +“I don’t believe—” began Cora, when suddenly the boat ran against an +obstruction. The occupants were almost thrown off their feet. A +grinding, scraping sound was heard and Cora threw out the gears. + +“Why—why!” she cried, as she looked out into the dark mist of the storm. +“We’ve run ashore!” + + + + +CHAPTER IX—TIED UP + + +Silence followed Cora’s startling announcement—that is comparative +silence, for the rain, hissing into the river, and pelting on the deck +and cabin roof, made quite a noise. + +“What’s that you say?” demanded Walter, arising from a stern locker +where he had been talking more or less nonsense to Hazel. + +“Run ashore?” echoed Jack. + +“At least I suppose it’s the shore,” said Cora, who had stopped the +engine, the controls being near the wheel. “There aren’t any islands in +this part of the river; are there?” + +“Not one,” said Jack. “It is the shore,” he confirmed after a look +through the cabin window. + +“Any damage done, Sis?” + +“Not to the shore, at any rate. We didn’t hit very hard. I saw something +looming up through the mist and slowed down.” + +“We must be up to Riverhead all right,” remarked Bess. “Though I haven’t +noticed anything like a town.” + +“You couldn’t notice much of anything in this rain,” Cora said. “We’re +not aground, at all events,” for they could feel the boat moving down +stream under the influence of the current. + +“Switch on the searchlight and see if we can discover where we are,” +suggested Belle. + +“Good idea,” commented Captain Cora. A push of a button and the small +but powerful searchlight, mounted amidships on the cabin roof, gleamed +out. It was operated by a storage battery, which, in turn, was charged +by a small dynamo connected to the engine fly wheel. And by means of a +worm gear, operated by a wheel near the steering apparatus, the light +could be deflected in any direction. + +Cora trained it on the bank. Looking through the rain-covered windows of +the cabin the girls, and their boy guests, saw a water-soaked bank, +covered with bushes and rushes. It was dusk now. + +“That doesn’t look like Riverhead,” commented Jack. + +“More like river-end,” said Paul. “Where in the world are we?” + +“Don’t ask me!” exclaimed Cora, a trifle nervously. “I’m sure I did the +best I could in the mist.” + +“Of course you did, Sis,” said her brother soothingly. “It isn’t any +one’s fault. We’re all right. The boat doesn’t seem to be damaged by +trying to poke her pretty nose into the bank, and if we can’t go on to +Camp Surprise in the darkness and rain we can go to some hotel and stay. +There’s one in Riverhead.” + +Just then, into the radiance of the searchlight stepped a man clad in +yellow oilskins, rubber boots and with a sou’wester on his head. + +“I’ll ask him,” said Jack. “He’ll tell us where we are.” + +The individual—evidently a fisherman, as indicated by his unjointed pole +and a basket—stopped in some surprise as he saw the big motor boat so +close to shore, with lights gleaming and the powerful beams of the one +on the cabin roof setting him out in bold relief in its glare. + +“How far to Riverhead, if you please?” called Jack, sliding back one of +the cabin windows. + +“Riverhead?” cried the man, and surprise was plain in his voice. “Why, +Riverhead’s over on the Chelton side, about ten miles from here.” + +“On the Chelton side!” repeated Jack. “Isn’t this the Chelton?” + +“No. This is Batter Creek,” the man explained. “The Chelton river +branches off to the right, six miles down. You must have taken the left +turn where Batter Creek runs into it. First you know you’ll be up in the +swamp.” + +“Good-_night_!” cried Jack, with a tragic gesture. + +“On Batter Creek!” echoed Walter. + +“Ten miles from Riverhead!” was Cora’s gasping remark. + +“No wonder the poor boat ran ashore,” commented Bess. “She’d rather do +that than get lost in a swamp.” + +“So this is Batter Creek,” went on Jack. “I see how it happened. You +steered over to the left at the junction, Cora, instead of following the +right shore—I mean the right hand shore.” + +“I suppose I must have,” Cora admitted. “But I couldn’t see in all that +storm.” + +“Of course not,” said Hazel, slipping her arm around Cora’s waist. “It +wasn’t your fault.” + +“Certainly not,” added Walter and Paul in a duet. + +“Jack, please shut the window,” begged Belle. “That is, if you have +finished talking to that man. The damp wind will——” + +“Take all the frizz out of your hair—I know!” Jack cut in. “All right. +Much obliged to you, sir,” he continued. + +“Don’t mention it,” replied the man of the yellow oilskins. “Quite a +drizzle; isn’t it?” + +“Regular Scotch mist!” chuckled Walter, in exaggerated Highland accents. + +“I suppose we can get to Riverhead by turning around, following the left +shore here until we come to the place where Batter Creek runs into the +Chelton, and then go up the river?” suggested Jack, as he slowly slid +the window shut. + +“That’s right,” returned the fisherman. “But don’t go up this creek any +further, or you’ll run aground in a swamp.” + +“Thanks,” called Jack. “Oh, I say, are you going or coming?” + +“What do you mean?” + +“I mean have you been fishing, or are you just going?” + +“Just going. They always bite pretty well for me in a rain.” + +“Oh. I thought maybe if you had any we’d buy ’em.” + +“Sorry, but I haven’t anything but shiners for bait. I’m going down to +the deep water.” + +“What in the world did you want to buy fish for, Jack?” asked his sister +as he closed the window, and the yellow figure splashed away. + +“To eat,” was his answer. “We’ve got to have supper; haven’t we?” + +“But can’t we go on to Riverhead, and then to the bungalow?” asked Bess. + +“Hardly,” declared Jack. “It isn’t so late, of course. But this rain is +going to keep up, if I’m any judge, and though we might manage to reach +Riverhead, we certainly couldn’t undertake a ride over the mountain +trail in an open buckboard in this downpour.” + +“But what are we going to do?” cried Hazel, opening her eyes wide. She +seemed in much distress. + +“Do? Why, stay right here, my dear,” said Jack. “That is, if you will +allow that poetic license—because ‘dear’ rhymes with ‘here.’” + +“Oh,” murmured Hazel, blushing. “Stay here?” + +“We have remained on board over night,” Cora remarked. “But we’ll be a +bit crowded,” and she glanced appraisingly at Jack and his chums. + +“Don’t worry about us, Sis,” he hastened to assure her. “We can bunk +anywhere, or sit up. I don’t feel sleepy anyhow.” + +“But we’ve got to eat,” said Walter. “Too bad that chap didn’t have any +fish. We could have fried them on the gasoline stove.” The _Corbelbes_ +was fitted up with a little galley, the girls often having stayed on +board for days at a time. + +“Maybe we can catch some ourselves,” suggested Paul. + +“No outfit or bait,” remarked Jack. + +“A bent pin and a piece of string?” suggested Paul, but not with any +degree of enthusiasm. + +“Well, we’ve got to do something,” Cora declared. She had again set the +engine in motion, but it was running only fast enough to overcome the +sluggish current in the creek. + +“Stay here,” urged Jack. “We know where we are now, but if we go down +stream in the darkness we may fetch up at a place we don’t know.” + +“You mean tie up here?” asked his sister. + +“Sure. Cast the anchor, set the riding lights, make everything snug +below and aloft, my captainess, and turn in. Set an anchor watch, heave +the lead, and ’ware the lee shore and breakers ahead! Yo ho! My +hearties! The stormy winds do blow, do blow, do blow!” and Jack began +howling an old sea-song at the top of his voice. + +“Jack, be quiet!” insisted Cora. “You’ll arouse the neighborhood.” + +“There aren’t any neighbors here,” he laughed. “The only one there was +has gone fishing, and he doesn’t mind! Yo, he ho!” + +“I guess to tie up is the best thing to do,” said Paul, and there was +something in his manner that caused Cora to say: + +“All right, Jack. Drop the anchor, and we’ll stay here for the night.” + +“And then see about something to eat,” suggested Walter. + +Jack made a dash outside, shoved over the anchor, took a turn of the +cable about a deck cleat and came back into the cabin. The _Corbelbes_ +was tied up for the night. + + + + +CHAPTER X—A NIGHT RIDE + + +“Well, now that we’re here——” + +“Because we’re here,” Walter interrupted Cora, in the words of the +foolish song. “Excuse me,” he added, as he caught her look, “I didn’t +mean anything special.” + +“Now that we’re here,” Cora resumed, “hadn’t we better——” + +“See to the eats,” broke in Paul. “No offense, loidy!” he hastened to +add, imitating a tramp, “but wees would loik a bit of a bite——” + +“Speaking of bites,” laughed Jack, “some fish wouldn’t go half bad.” + +“Will you be quiet!” commanded Cora. “I want to say something!” + +“Say on!” urged Jack. “Now that we are here, as snug as a rug in a +bug——” + +Cora reached for something, she was not just sure what, and Jack, +knowing that his sister had a straighter aim than have most girls, +cried: + +“Don’t shoot, Davy Crockett, I’ll come down.” + +“You’d better,” Cora said, laughing in spite of herself. “Now that we +are here——” + +“She said that before,” whispered Jack, but his sister took no notice, +going on with: + +“We must see about something to eat. We have enough for supper, but +breakfast will be another matter. I’d like to get some bacon and eggs. +That, with coffee, will make a good morning meal.” + +“And what, if I may be so bold as to ask,” came from Bess, “is to be the +menu for this evening.” + +“We’ll have a look,” suggested Cora. Attached to the small galley, in +which was a gasoline stove, was a sort of cupboard. An inspection of +this did not reveal as much as Cora had hoped for. + +“There isn’t a great deal left; is there?” she said. + +“I should say not!” cried Jack, peering over his sister’s shoulder. +“Fellows, we’ve got to rustle for the grub! Don’t all speak at once. +Listen to that!” and he signaled for silence, which, when it came, +enabled them all to hear the swish and patter of the raindrops on the +roof. + +“I’ll go,” offered Walter. “I’m hungrier than any of you, I guess, and I +have a pair of rubbers in my valise.” + +“Regular fireman you are,” commented Jack. “Why didn’t you bring rubber +boots?” + +“And I see Cora has an umbrella,” Walter went on, ignoring Jack’s +sarcasm. “I’ll go out in the rain, and——” + +“Give a correct imitation of a duck doing its Christmas shopping!” gibed +Jack. “Wally, you’re all right!” + +“If you had some of his public spirit we’d all be better off,” said +Cora. + +“Oh, don’t um be mad at um’s ‘ittle bruver!” mocked Jack. + +“Oh, quit it!” begged his sister. + +“Where can you get anything to eat around here?” asked Paul. + +“I don’t know, but I can forage for it. The presence of that fisherman +clearly proves that this is an inhabited land, and where there are +inhabitants there must be food. I may find a country store, or, if I +can’t find that, I’ll find a house, describe our plight in such moving +words as I am able to command, and buy what they’ll sell.” + +“I’d like a cup of tea,” murmured Belle. “My nerves——” + +“Are nothing to what they’ll be when the ghosts of Camp Surprise begin +to make the stairs stand on their head,” broke in Jack. + +“We have tea,” Cora said. “I’ll put the kettle on at once. It seems a +pity to have you go out in this storm, though, Walter.” + +“I don’t mind a bit. I’m glad to do it.” + +“He’ll say anything as long as there are ladies present,” declared Jack. +“But wait until you’re gone. He’ll say you drove him to it.” + +Walter paid no attention to his tormenting chum, but began talking to +Cora as to what best he had better try to get in the way of food, +provided he could find a store or a house where some might be obtained. + +And then, having donned his rubbers, and taking Cora’s umbrella, Walter +set off on his quest. It was still raining hard, but the thunder and +lightning had ceased some time since. + +While he was gone the others began their preparations for spending the +night on board. The girls would occupy the main cabin, where there were +four berths. The after part of the boat had been enclosed in heavy +curtains when the rain set in, and here the boys could sleep on the +locker cushions spread on the floor. They had done it on one or two +other occasions. + +There were a few blankets, besides those for the bunks, but the boys +said they would not need many coverings, as the night was warm. + +Cora put the kettle on the gasoline stove, and as soon as it boiled, tea +was made. There was condensed milk in the larder, and sugar for those +who wished it, though Bess bewailed the lack of lemon, for she wanted to +“reduce” she said, and some one had told her lemon juice in tea was +helpful. + +Cora was setting out what remained of the sandwiches and cake, and Jack +was eyeing, rather dubiously, the apology for a meal, when they heard a +hail: + +“_Corbelbes_ ahoy!” + +“That’s Walter!” declared Paul. + +“And may he come well-laden!” ejaculated Jack. + +“You poor boy!” exclaimed Cora, sympathetically, as Walter came dripping +into the after cabin. “Are you soaked?” + +“Not quite so bad as that,” he answered, laying down some +brown-paper-wrapped bundles. + +“Never mind how _he_ is, what about the eats?” asked Jack. + +“You are heartless,” said Hazel, and then she wished she had not spoken, +for Jack flashed a look at her, and whispered: + +“Can you blame me for being heart-_less_ where _you_ are?” + +“Oh, oh!” she murmured. + +“Found a store about half a mile down the—well, I wouldn’t call it a +road,” and Walter looked at his mud-splashed feet. “Say, rather, down +the swamp. Found a store there, and I got a few things.” + +“I should say you did!” exclaimed Bess, who, with Belle, had opened the +packages. “This will be fine,” for Walter had purchased jellies, jams, +some tinned meat, bacon, eggs and enough canned food, together with some +rather doubtful oranges, to make a substantial meal. + +“That looks good to me!” declared Jack, while Walter divested himself of +his rubbers, and put the umbrella where it would not flood the cabin. + +“Oh, and even olives!” gasped Hazel. + +“Olives for Olivia,” crooned Walter. “Say, Jack, s’pose those overalls +you went bathing in would be dry enough for me?” + +“Sure! Try ’em on. You’ll look sweet in ’em.” + +“I don’t care whether I look sweet as long as I feel dry,” retorted +Walter. + +And while the girls prepared the supper, he changed to the garments Jack +had used, they having dried sufficiently. + +With the hot tea, and with what Walter had foraged for, a really good +meal was made. The young people were hungry, and their appetites made up +for any lack in the nicety of the food. + +“It was a regular country store,” Walter explained, “but they had some +good things.” + +“And now we have ’em,” murmured Jack, tipping back on his stool +contentedly. + +It was still early, for the storm had brought darkness ahead of time, +and, unwilling to retire so soon with no very good prospects of +sleeping, the boys and girls sat up and talked. + +“I wonder what Mr. and Mrs. Floyd will think, when we fail to arrive on +time,” remarked Cora. “I hope they don’t send telegrams home, telling +the folks we have turned up missing.” + +“I don’t believe they will,” argued Jack. “They’ll know the storm +delayed us. And in the morning we can send telegrams ourselves, +notifying our folks that we’re all right, any reports to the contrary +notwithstanding.” + +The girls passed a fairly comfortable, and the boys a rather +uncomfortable night, but it could not, as Jack said, last forever, and a +bright morning sun made them all forget the discomforts. + +Hot coffee, bacon and eggs, that were fresher, Cora said, than the +high-priced ones at home, made them all look at the day’s prospect with +genial spirits. + +“And now we’ll make another attempt to get to Camp Surprise,” said Cora, +as the anchor was hauled up and the engine set in motion. + +“I’m surprised that we didn’t get there before,” Jack said. + +“Oh, what a miserable pun!” groaned Walter. + +Good time was made to the junction where Batter Creek flowed into the +Chelton river. It was not much of a junction and the creek was so +unimportant a stream that Cora and her friends had never thought of +going up it. + +“But this time we did it in spite of ourselves,” said Bess. + +“It was only because of the mist and darkness that I made the wrong +turn,” declared Cora. + +They stopped long enough to send reassuring telegrams home, and also one +to Mr. and Mrs. Floyd, explaining the delay. + +Again they were on their way up the Chelton river, and for a time all +seemed to go well. But four miles from their destination, engine trouble +developed, and when the cause of it was discovered, it proved to be a +break that needed the attention of a machinist. + +“We could leave the boat here and go on,” Cora said, “but we have made +arrangements to have it taken care of at Riverhead, and the man I have +engaged won’t know what to think if we don’t come.” + +“Oh, let’s wait here until it’s fixed,” suggested Belle. “We want to +arrive in style. It won’t take long, and to go on we’d have either to +hire another boat or go by wagon.” + +“All right,” Cora agreed. + +The repairs took longer than they anticipated, and it was not until late +afternoon that they were able to go on. This time they arrived safely at +Riverhead, shortly before dusk, which was the time they should have been +there the previous evening. + +The man who was to dock the _Corbelbes_ was on hand and took charge of +the craft. He also directed the party to the big waiting buckboard, in +charge of a driver, that had been sent by Mr. Floyd to meet the girls +and boys. + +“You’re a little late,” said the man. “Not that I mind, but we’ll have +to make a night drive of it.” + +“We don’t care,” Cora said, “as long as the roads are safe.” + +“Oh, they’re safe enough.” + +“What about supper?” asked Jack. + +“Mrs. Floyd said she’d have it ready for you,” the driver stated. + +“I’ve got some sandwiches and a box of candy,” observed Bess. + +“Then we won’t starve,” said Jack. + +“May blessing be upon thy head!” intoned Walter. + +The driver looked at them in a queer sort of way, as though he did not +know altogether how to take them, and he was heard to murmur something +about “queer city folks.” + +The valises and other belongings they had brought along on the motor +boat were put in the big wagon, the driver climbed to his seat, and, +with the shadows of night falling, they set off up the mountain for Camp +Surprise. + +“Some buckboard this!” remarked Jack, as he surveyed the vehicle. + +“It sure is,” responded Walter. “The largest buckboard I ever saw.” + + + + +CHAPTER XI—IN CAMP SURPRISE + + +“Isn’t it dark!” voiced Belle, nestling against her sister. + +“Well, we don’t have many electric lights up here,” chuckled the driver +of the buckboard. + +“How do you see the road?” asked Cora, the wagon lurching along over the +rocky way, though riding much easier than an ordinary vehicle would have +done, for buckboards are made for just this purpose. + +“I don’t try to see it,” the driver said. “I let the horses pick their +way. They’re like cats, I reckon—can see in the dark.” + +“What sort of place is this Camp Surprise?” asked Jack, giving Walter, +next to whom he sat, a nudge as a signal to play second to his game of +questioning. “We’ll get some inside information about this business,” +Jack said in an aside to his chum. + +“Camp Surprise?” repeated the driver. “Well, it’s a mighty nice place, +as far as scenery goes—for them as likes scenery,” he hastened to add. +“I don’t care much for it myself. There’s a waterfall, and a little +lake, though I don’t reckon you could get your boat up to it,” and he +chuckled. “Yes, folks what come up here always like this neighborhood, +and Camp Surprise is one of the best outfits around here. You boys are +going to take the small bungalow, I hear.” + +“Yes,” assented Jack. “If we get there alive!” he said quickly, for the +wagon gave such a lurch that Jack, who was on his feet to assume a more +comfortable position, nearly slid out. + +“Oh, this isn’t anything,” the driver said. “That stone must ‘a’ been +put there since I come down this afternoon,” and he chuckled again. +“We’ll get there alive all right.” + +“But what I meant was,” went on Jack; “what sort of place is our camp? +It has a queer name, you see, and they say—at least we’ve heard—that +queer things go on there. What are they?” + +The driver was silent a moment, and then he answered: + +“Well, I don’t take much stock in them stories myself. I never see +anything out of the way happen.” + +“Oh, don’t spoil all the romance that way!” begged Cora. “Aren’t there +any ghosts?” + +“Ghosts! Huh!” the man fairly snorted. “I never see any.” + +“But about things being taken?” ventured Bess. + +“And the furniture being moved?” asked Belle. + +“Humph!” and the driver seemed out of patience. “Things will be taken +from almost any camp or bungalow if you don’t watch ’em. Thieves up here +aren’t any more virtuous than in the city.” + +“And didn’t you hear anything about chairs and tables being moved +about?” asked Cora. + +The driver fidgeted in his seat. + +“G’lang there!” he called to his horses. + +“Didn’t you?” persisted Jack’s sister. + +“Oh, yes, there was some such story,” the driver finally admitted, +slowly. “But I reckon it was just boys skylarking. That was all. Boys +will go into any place they can get in you know, and I reckon when they +found the bungalow of Camp Surprise without any one in it they just +naturally went in and cut up.” + +“If they try anything like that when we’re around, there’ll be trouble!” +threatened Jack. + +Cora sighed. + +“All the poetry seems to be going out of it,” she said. “I hoped we +would have at least one visitation from the spirits.” + +“You may yet,” Walter whispered in her ear. “In my private opinion this +driver person is concealing something from us.” + +“Do you think so?” asked Cora, hopefully. + +“Yes. He’s afraid we won’t stay if he tells all the horrible details of +the story.” + +“What object would it be to him to have us stay?” + +“Why, he may get a percentage on our board. Or perhaps he has the only +mountain-cruising buckboard in these parts, and he doesn’t want to lose +trade. Have done with thy queries, Friend Jack,” he went on. “We’ll +scare up a ghost or two for the young ladies ourselves, if this sordid +and heartless driver person refuses.” + +Jack left off with his questions about Camp Surprise, and the +conversation became general. The driver, who volunteered the information +that his name was Jim Dobson, said there was good fishing in the pool of +water at the foot of the cataract. + +“All you have to do is to throw in your baited hook,” he told the boys, +“and haul out as many fish as you want for breakfast, dinner or supper.” + +“That sounds good!” commented Jack. “I’m glad I brought my pole.” + +“Same here,” echoed Paul, who, when he had time, was an ardent +fisherman. + +Up and up, and on and on they went over the rough mountain trail, for +they had to ascend to a height of about fifteen hundred feet to reach +the reservation owned by a company which had divided it into camps and +bungalows. + +“My, but it is dark!” said Cora, after a period of silence. + +A lantern was slung under the buckboard, and cast gleams of light on the +ground, but the darkness seemed only blacker by contrast. The horses, +however, did not seem to find any difficulties in making their way. They +never stumbled, though the boys and girls tried in vain to distinguish +anything like a road ahead of them. The wagon was going along in a lane +of trees, which in most places met in an arch overhead, thus cutting off +what little light might have come from the stars. + +Occasionally there would be a break in this leafy arch, and then +glimpses could be had of the star-studded sky above. It was a +beautifully clear evening, and warm enough to be comfortable. + +Now and then Jim Dobson spoke without being asked a question, but he was +not unduly talkative. He seemed to enjoy the chatter of the young folks, +chuckling now and then at some of their remarks. + +As for Cora and the others they talked about everything imaginable, as +you may well imagine, from the latest dance steps to what they would do +now that they were really starting their summer vacation. + +“Is there any golf up here?” asked Bess, who had taken up the sport to +“reduce.” + +“Well, not enough to hurt,” the driver said. “Once in a while I hear of +a case, but it ain’t nothing like as bad as hay fever, and there’s none +of that here.” + +“Mercy!” whispered Bess to Cora. “I guess he thinks golf is a disease!” + +“Well, don’t say anything. He’s real nice.” + +“I won’t. But I guess I’d better ask only plain questions after this.” + +“I guess so,” Cora agreed. + +“Come on there, boys, not that way!” the driver suddenly called, as he +pulled his team to the right. “They want to take the road home,” he +explained. “There’s a turn here.” + +“How you know it I can’t tell,” said Jack. “It’s all as dark as a +pocket.” + +“Oh, I’m used to it and so are the horses. We’re on a private road now, +leading to Camp Surprise. Be there in half an hour.” + +“Are you sure this is the right road?” asked Cora. “We don’t want to be +lost again,” and she mentioned their going up the creek instead of the +river. + +“Oh, sure, this is the right road,” the driver assured them. + +There was silence for a little while, and suddenly Belle grasped Cora’s +arm, and whispered: + +“What’s that?” + +“Where?” inquired Cora, for Belle’s voice was startling. + +“Over to the left—in the woods. Don’t you see something white?” + +Cora looked where Belle directed. At the moment the others were deep in +a discussion about something of comparative unimportance. + +“There!” whispered Belle, tensely, and she gripped Cora’s arm hard. + +“Yes—yes. I see it!” + +“It—it looks like a—a ghost!” + +They both saw something white that seemed to float, rather than move +among the trees, and Cora was about to call it to the attention of the +others when it disappeared. + +“Don’t say anything about it,” she quickly whispered to Belle. “Of +course it wasn’t a ghost. It may have been a wisp of fog, or some one +going through the woods. Then there’s that—oh, what do they call that +light which comes from rotting wood?” + +“You mean _ignis fatuus_?” asked Belle. + +“Yes; that’s it. Will-o’-the-wisp some folks term it. It comes from +phosphorus. It may have been that.” + +They went on a little farther, and suddenly a light shone through the +woods, while a dull rumble and roar, increasing in intensity, came to +the ears of all. + +“What’s that?” asked Jack. + +“Camp Surprise,” announced the driver. “That’s the waterfall you hear. +Here we be!” he called in louder tones, as an approaching lantern +flashed through the dark forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XII—DISAPPOINTMENT + + +“Well, well! Glad to see you!” called a small, grizzled, but +cheerful-faced man, as he came out to the buckboard. “Got here all right +did you?” + +“This is Mr. Floyd,” explained the driver. + +“Yes, we’re here,” said Cora. “Sorry to be so late, but we had engine +trouble and——” + +“Don’t make no manner of difference at all. We’re used to seeing people +come early and late. I’ll help set your things inside. Here comes Mrs. +Floyd.” + +“Is that them?” asked a woman’s voice. “The Kimball party?” + +“They’re here,” her husband answered while the boys helped the girls +down from the wagon, and the driver and Mr. Floyd looked after the +baggage. + +“Glad to see you all!” went on Mrs. Floyd, who was the same genial sort +of personage as her husband. “I was afraid you’d give us another +disappointment, and not get here.” + +“Oh, we’re here,” affirmed Cora, “and we’re sorry to give you so much +trouble by being late.” + +“No trouble at all!” the chaperon assured them. “Come right in. Supper +is all ready and——” + +“Whoop!” + +“Supper is my middle name!” + +“Lead us to it!” + +Thus in turn cried Jack, Walter and Paul. + +Mrs. Floyd looked a bit startled as she stood revealed in the light of a +lamp, the illumination streaming out of the door of a big bungalow. + +“It’s only the boys,” explained Cora. + +“Only!” accented Bess with a resigned expression. + +“Jack!” chided Cora. “Why don’t you behave? Hazel, say something to your +brother, you and I have more responsibility than the twins.” + +Hazel did not know what to say, and the girls could not help laughing, +in spite of themselves at the antics of Jack and his two chums. + +“Welcome to Camp Surprise,” said Mrs. Floyd as the girls followed her +into the house, or rather, bungalow, for it was of that style of +architecture, and was but a story and a half high. The boys followed the +girls, Mr. Floyd and the driver bringing up the rear with the valises. + +“Do we eat with the family, or at second table?” Jack demanded. + +“You shan’t eat with us if you don’t behave,” his sister threatened him. +“Do quiet down, boys. Mrs. Floyd may not like——” + +“Oh, don’t worry about _me_, Miss Kimball,” the chaperon hastened to +say. “I’ve raised a family, and I know what _boys_ are.” + +“If she doesn’t she’ll find out before those three leave,” observed +Belle. + +The buckboard rattled off in the darkness and the young people were thus +thrown on their own responsibilities as far as getting away from the +place was concerned, for it was near no railroad. + +“Isn’t he afraid to go home alone?” asked Belle. + +“Who?” inquired Mr. Floyd. + +“That driver; Mr. Dobson I think he said his name was.” + +“Afraid? Him? I guess not!” exclaimed the caretaker. “What’s there to be +afraid of?” + +“The dark woods,” said Belle. “Cora and I thought——” + +“Belle, dear, don’t you think we’d better see to our baggage?” +interrupted Cora with a sharp glance at her chum. She raised her +eyebrows meaningly. + +“Oh, yes, I suppose we had. Of course he, being a big man, wouldn’t have +anything to be afraid of,” she concluded, nodding in the direction of +Mr. Dobson. + +“But there’s nothing here to be afraid of,” insisted Mr. Floyd. +“Leastways, nothing you can put your hand on, though——” + +“Harry,” said Mrs. Floyd, and it seemed as though there was a caution in +her voice, “I think I’ll have to ask you to bring in some more wood. I +want a hot fire to finish supper.” + +“All right,” he answered, and went out. + +“Now if you young ladies want to freshen up you’ll have time before I +get the meal on the table,” went on the chaperon. “The boys can go with +my husband and they’ll be shown where they are to stay. Their bungalow +is just across on the other side of the mountain stream. I don’t know +just what arrangements you made about the meals for the young men, Miss +Kimball——” + +“Oh, they’re to shift for themselves,” said Jack’s sister. “They are so +uncertain, going and coming, that no earthly mortal could tell when to +feed them. They were to have supper with us to-night, and perhaps +breakfast in the morning, my mother said. But after that they’ll look +after things themselves. They’d rather, anyhow.” + +“Sure,” assented Jack, while the others nodded assent. “We can’t be +positive when we’ll be on hand.” + +The boys followed Mr. Floyd, while Cora and her chums looked about the +bungalow before going to their rooms, where their trunks had been +carried, having arrived safely the day before. + +The main floor of the bungalow consisted of one big living room, with +three smaller rooms opening off from it. These could be used as sitting +rooms or bed rooms, folding bunks making beds at night. The living room, +as also an alcove dining room, was simply but tastefully furnished, with +rustic furniture. At one end was a big stone fireplace, though it was so +warm now that no blaze was needed. + +A broad stairway gave access to the upper story and here the bedrooms +were. Though the rooms there were not high-ceilinged they had such large +windows that plenty of air was assured. There were two bath rooms, a +spring up in the hills filling a tank on the roof so that a supply of +running water was to be had. + +The bedrooms each contained a white iron bed and just enough furniture +to make a simple life agreeable. There was a touch of daintiness, +mingled with utility, and the girls were delighted with their +apartments. + +Soap and water, with a mere suggestion of talcum powder, wonderfully +refreshed the four, and they were ready for the appetizing meal, odors +of which were wafted up from the kitchen. + +This was in a separate part of the bungalow, and the quarters of the +caretaker and his wife were in a building connecting with the bungalow +by a covered passageway. + +“There come the boys back!” exclaimed Hazel, giving a hasty glance in a +mirror, as she floated out of Cora’s room, having come in to borrow some +hairpins. + +“Yes, you can hear them before you see them,” agreed Jack’s sister. “I +hope Mrs. Floyd has enough for them to eat.” + +“And for us, too. I’m hungry, Cora. But she looked like a good cook.” + +“Mother said she was. Well, are you ready to go down?” she called to +Bess and Belle. + +“Whenever you are,” answered the plump twin. + +They found the boys waiting for them in the dining room, which opened +off the living room at the rear, and a supper which met the most +exacting requirements of Jack and his chums was soon on the table. + +“How do you like your quarters?” asked Cora of her brother. + +“Couldn’t be better. Not that we’ll be in them much, though. We’ll be +over here or out-of-doors most of the time.” + +“You can’t live here,” Cora warned him. + +“Oh, you’ll be glad enough to have us when the ghost begins to walk,” +prophesied Walter. + +“Has anything really strange happened here, Mrs. Floyd?” asked Cora, +determined to get at the bottom of the matter. + +“Well, I suppose you must have heard the stories about Camp Surprise,” +answered the chaperon. “It would be strange if you had not. And I must +admit that there have been little happenings here that I can’t explain.” + +“Such as——,” hinted Bess. + +“Oh, disturbances in the bungalow when we weren’t here. Misplaced +furniture, and once some silver was taken. But that might be the work of +tramps. I don’t set much store by that. However, don’t let it worry you. +I don’t believe anything will happen while you’re here.” + +“I hope it does,” Jack said. “We’re going to lay the ghost.” + +Talk went on during the meal and toward the close Jack said: + +“This sure is a fine place! You ought to see the waterfall.” + +“Is it nice?” asked Cora. They could hear the roar of it as they sat at +table. + +“It’s great! I’m going to take some pictures of it,” said Walter. “And +the way to our bungalow is over a bridge just made for lovers to stand +on and look down into the water.” + +“As long as they don’t _fall_ down into the water they’ll be all right,” +commented Paul. “But it sure is nice. Our shack is just across the +stream.” + +“We’ll be all ready to respond to the first alarm, girls,” promised +Walter, as the boys left the main bungalow later in the evening to +repair to their own. “If the tables begin dancing, or the chairs do a +jig, call us.” + +“It’s a little far to shout,” said Cora. “We’ll have to put up some sort +of telephone from one bungalow to the other.” + +It must be admitted that the girls were a little nervous when they went +to bed that night. Tales of queer happenings, not easily explicable, are +apt to get on the nerves of the best of us. But the young people were +tired from their journey and lack of restful sleep the night before, so +they had hopes of a good rest. + +Cora was awakened by a shout under her window. + +“I say! Sis! Cora! Stick out your head!” cried Jack. + +Slipping on a robe Cora went to the casement. + +“Go on away, Jack!” she ordered. “Let the girls sleep.” + +“Sleep? Why, it’s nine o’clock,” he said. “Say, did the ghost walk?” + +Cora yawned. + +“Not even a creep,” she said. “I didn’t hear a sound.” + +“Well, if that isn’t poor luck!” exclaimed Jack in disappointed tones. +“There we go and stay awake half the night, expecting a summons to +capture a spirit, and nothing happens. Camp Surprise! Where’s the +surprise come in, I wonder.” + +But there was plenty of time, as Jack soon learned. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII—THAT NOISE + + +One after another the girls drifted lazily downstairs to the dainty +breakfast Mrs. Floyd had prepared for them. + +“I just couldn’t bear to get up,” confessed Bess, “though I knew it was +a perfectly glorious day outside.” + +“It is wonderful,” declared Cora. + +“How do you know? Have you been out?” asked Hazel, with a questioning +look at Cora’s negligee. + +“Peeped from the window—Jack called to me,” explained his sister. + +“I was _so_ tired,” said Belle. “I thought I never would get enough +sleep. I wouldn’t have gotten up if a ghost had called me.” + +“Jack was a bit disappointed that we didn’t call on them for help,” +remarked Cora, and she detailed her brother’s morning salutation. + +“I think it’s all perfect nonsense,” declared Belle. “Of course I don’t +mean you, Cora,” she said, “for you only told us what you heard. But I +don’t believe a thing will happen.” + +“I hope nothing unpleasant does,” remarked Bess, tucking back a +rebellious lock of her pretty hair, and glancing at her pink nails which +she kept, as Jack taunted her, “in a state of faultless repair.” + +“Did you sleep well?” asked Mrs. Floyd, coming in with more coffee. + +“Fine,” answered Cora. “And please don’t think we are going to impose on +you in this way every morning. We came up to help with the work, and +we’re going to do it. But this morning——” + +“I know, my dear. You girls don’t exactly need any beauty sleep,” and +she beamed at the four pretty faces that smiled back at her, “but you +must have been tired after your trip. I don’t in the least mind.” + +“You’ll find us quite energetic after this,” predicted Belle. “That is +all but my sister, and you see she is——” + +“Belle Robinson! If you talk about me that way I’ll—I’ll—— Oh! why do +you all poke fun at me?” and Bess seemed quite distressed. + +“I won’t any more,” promised Belle. “She is trying to ‘reduce’” she +added to Mrs. Floyd, “so let her do all the work she wants to. We shan’t +stop her.” + +“What’s the program to-day?” asked Hazel, as the girls finished their +coffee. “It is perfectly glorious outside. From my window I can see part +of the fall. It’s beautiful. I could sit and look at it forever.” + +“And not want anybody to share the view?” asked Cora, pinching her +blushing cheek. + +“The witness refuses to answer,” mocked Belle. “But we mustn’t dawdle +here all day. Let’s go and get dressed, and by then——” + +There came a knock at the door. + +“May we come in?” asked Walter. + +“We—want—our—breakfast!” bawled Jack and Paul. + +“Mercy no! Don’t let them in!” cried Bess, beating a precipitate +retreat. + +“We—are—coming!” chanted Walter. + +“Stay out a minute,” ordered Cora. “Don’t be afraid, the door’s locked,” +she added to her companions. “We’ve just finished,” she went on in +louder tones. “Hurry with your breakfasts, and then prepare to give us a +good time.” + +“Your majesty’s wishes shall be obeyed,” declared Paul, and as the girls +went upstairs to put on more conventional garments, the boys hurried in, +bubbling over with good spirits, greeting Mrs. Floyd effusively, and +preparing to devour everything in sight, which not very remarkable feat +(for them) they nearly accomplished. + +“Did that waterfall bother you?” asked Jack, of his chums. + +“Kept me awake a little,” admitted Walter. “Sounded a bit like the surf +at first, and I dreamed I was down at Crystal Bay again.” + +“We sure had a swell time down there,” said Jack. + +“I like the mountains better,” confessed Paul. “This place suits me.” + +“It will be all right,” Jack said. “Now then, let’s see what’s doing.” + +“Fishing for mine,” declared Walter. “That pool below the fall looks +good to me.” + +The others also voted to try their luck as disciples of Izaak Walton, +and presently, with rods and lines, having dug some worms where Mr. +Floyd showed them a place, they were patiently waiting on the bank of +the stream that flowed away from the waterfall. + +Camp Surprise was situated amid one of the wildest and most desolate +parts of the mountains west of Chelton. It was remarkable, in a way, +that such a lonesome place could be found so close to such a number of +large and thriving towns and villages. But it was this wildness and +isolation that gave it the peculiar charm, and which had led the land +company to establish a number of camps and bungalows in the vicinity. + +So rugged and diversified was the scenery, that, with the exception of +the two bungalows occupied respectively by the boys and girls, no other +two buildings were in sight of each other. Though not far removed from +one another the dwelling places were off by themselves, giving a +seclusion so often demanded by those who go to summer resorts. + +At present, as the season had hardly opened, there were no other +visitors at Camp Surprise, though many were expected later in July and +August. Camp Surprise was not the real name of the place, which was +called by the development company, Mountain View. But Camp Surprise had +been applied because of the queer happenings, as has been intimated, +though so far our friends had seen no occasion for such appellation. + +The waterfall and the stream which flowed from it divided practically in +half the area of land owned by the Mountain View Company. Having its +origin some miles back in the mountains, the stream was augmented by +brooks, creeks and other streams until, on reaching Camp Surprise, it +had become almost a river. + +Flowing along peacefully, through green meadows, or down the slope of +some rocky hill, the river came suddenly to a great cleft in the hills, +and down this it plunged in a most beautiful fall, from a height of +about fifty feet, and perhaps a hundred feet in breadth. + +At the foot of the fall was a deep pool, worn in the limestone rocks by +the erosion of the falling water, and there the white foam boiled and +bubbled in a miniature whirlpool and rapids until the stream slipped +farther on down the side of the mountain, in a series of little +cascades, in which were, so it was said, many fishes. + +The boys had selected as their spot a quiet one, where a sort of eddy, +or back-water, made a quiet pool that looked, as Jack said, “like a +regular bachelor apartment for fish.” + +“Keep still! Don’t move!” called Belle, as she and her chums, now with +all their “war paint on,” as Walter hinted, approached the three young +men. + +“What is it—the ghost or the furniture mover?” asked Walter. + +“I just want to get a picture,” Belle explained, snapping her camera. +“You look so respectable to what you do ordinarily.” + +“Just for that you shan’t hold my hand!” declared Paul. + +“Don’t come any nearer,” warned Walter. “I think I have a bite. Yes! +He’s on!” he cried as the tip of his pole bent, and a moment later he +hauled out a flashing beauty. + +“Oh, I want to catch one!” cried Cora, who was as ardent a lover of +outdoor sports as any of her boy friends. + +“You may take my pole,” offered Paul, as Walter unhooked his fish. + +“Oh, no, I don’t want to deprive you,” Cora objected. + +“I’ll sit near and watch you—have all the fun and let you do the work,” +he retorted. And the boys and girls were soon together on the bank. + +Luck was fairly good, and presently enough fish had been caught for a +“good mess,” as Mr. Floyd observed when he came past. + +“We’ll cook them for you,” offered Belle. “Won’t we, girls?” + +“Do you know how?” asked Jack. + +“Listen to him!” mocked Bess. + +As Mr. Floyd and his wife had to go to one of the more distant +bungalows, to see about some repairs, and as they would be gone most of +the day, Cora and her chums agreed to be the housekeepers and to let the +boys share the lunch with them. + +“Which isn’t such a concession after all,” Jack said, “seeing as how we +caught the fish.” + +“I caught one myself,” Cora declared. + +“With Paul’s pole, so that doesn’t count,” retorted her brother quickly. + +They had a jolly time at lunch and spent the afternoon roaming about the +mountainside. The girls took pictures of the fall, which was really a +beauty-spot, and some of the prints were afterward enlarged, and they +made most charming pictures. + +“There’s the hotel,” said Paul, as they came out on a ledge of rock, and +looked down in a valley. “That’s where I’m going to have some tango +tea.” + +“To-night?” asked Jack. “I’m with you if you go.” + +“Count me in,” added Walter. “I haven’t had a good dance, not since——” + +“The one with me,” cut in Cora, for she and Walter were good partners. + +“Right—oh, little one!” he cried. “Shall we all go down to-night?” + +The hotel was about a mile from the Mountain View property, and was +quite a well-known hostelry, though the season was not yet in full +swing. + +“Some other night,” suggested Cora. “We haven’t really gotten settled +yet, and we don’t know what time Mrs. Floyd will come back. Besides, do +they let any others than guests and their friends dance?” + +“Oh, I guess so,” said Walter. “We’ll find out. But if you don’t want to +go to-night we’ll wait.” + +This was agreed to, and the rest of the day was spent on the part of the +girls in getting their rooms in order, putting away their dresses and +arranging for supper, for they were going to do much of their own work +in camp, Mrs. Floyd being more of a chaperon and general manager than +housekeeper or cook. + +The boys said they would shift for themselves. + +“Aren’t you going to get your suppers?” asked Cora of her brother, as +she saw him and his two chums going down the road about five o’clock in +the afternoon. + +“Later,” he answered. “We’re going for the mail now. It gets in about +this time, and Walter is expecting a letter.” + +“No more than you are!” was the quick retort. + +“Bring us all one!” called Bess. “Does the mail really come up here?” + +It did, twice a day it developed, coming to the little village of +Mountain View, which was about a mile from Camp Surprise. + +“Maybe there’ll be some word about your car, Cora,” said her brother. + +“That’s too good to hope for, Jack.” + +There was a letter for Cora from her mother, but there was no news of +the car. And as there were epistles also for Bess, Belle and Hazel, the +boys took great credit to themselves for having fulfilled the commands +of the girls. + +“And we think we ought to be rewarded, too,” said Walter. + +“What form ought the reward to take?” Cora asked. + +“The form of supper,” was the quick answer. “We don’t feel like pitching +in and opening a tin of corned beef just now. Feed us to-night, and +we’ll rustle the grub for ourselves after this.” + +“Well, in view of the fact that you’ve been so nice to us, we will. +Shan’t we, girls?” asked Cora. + +“Yes!” came in an unhesitating chorus; and once more the boys ate +bounteously with no effort on their part. + +Mrs. Floyd and her husband returned about eight o’clock, to find the +young people playing games in the big living room, and having a jolly +time. + +They planned an excursion for the next day, to include a stop at the +hotel to ask about dance privileges, and then, this having been arranged +for, good nights were said. + +Cora, whose room adjoined that of Belle, was awakened some time in the +night by a touch on her arm. + +“Yes! What is it?” she asked, sitting up quickly, and reaching for the +little electric flashlight she always had under her pillow. “Oh, it’s +you,” and she revealed Belle’s face. “What’s the matter—are you ill?” + +“No, but listen! Did you hear that—that noise?” + + + + +CHAPTER XIV—WAS IT THUNDER? + + +The silence of Cora’s room, into which Belle had tiptoed, was broken +only by the accentuated breathing of the two girls. + +“I don’t hear anything,” began Cora. “Are you sure——” + +“Listen!” interrupted her chum. “Did you hear it then?” + +For a moment Cora was not aware of anything, and then there seemed +gradually to come to her a dull, scraping sound. Perhaps it would be +more correct to call it a vibration. If you have ever tried to raise a +window which fits loosely in the frame sidewise, as compared to the +other direction, and have felt it go up in a series of vibrations, you +will understand what is meant. The whole room seemed to tremble like the +shaking of the window. + +The whole bungalow, too, seemed to be vibrating and delicately trembling +from some cause—a deep, low and hardly audible sound that was, in +effect, more sensation than noise. + +“It’s the waterfall,” said Cora. “Don’t be a goose, Belle!” + +“I’m not. It’s a noise. Can’t you hear it above the sound of the water?” + +Cora listened more intently. + +“Yes, I can,” she reluctantly confessed. “It’s like the rumbling of a +wagon going past the house.” + +“Yes,” agreed Belle in a whisper. “But it isn’t a wagon. There isn’t any +out at this hour, and the noise is in this bungalow, not outside.” + +Cora agreed to that, also. She snapped on the switch of her little +portable light, so that it would glow without the necessity of holding +her finger on the push-button, and then she slipped on her robe, and put +her feet in slippers. Belle was similarly attired. + +“What are you going to do?” asked Belle. + +“Find that noise,” whispered Cora. “But don’t let’s wake up the others. +It may be—nothing, and they’d only laugh.” + +“It can’t be nothing,” insisted Belle. “There it sounds louder than +ever.” + +Together they went silently to the door of Cora’s room. But either their +movements or the queer noise had awakened Bess in the adjoining +apartment. + +“Is that you, Cora?” she called. + +“Yes. It’s nothing. I’m going to get a drink, Bess. I am,” she added in +a whisper to Belle, to justify herself. + +“Bring me one,” begged Bess, sleepily. + +It was evident that the noise which had alarmed—or if not alarmed, had +awakened—Belle, had not disturbed her sister. For as Belle and Cora went +toward the door they could both hear and feel the vibration more plainly +now. + +“What can it be?” asked Belle. “Some one trying to get in?” + +“Nonsense!” chided Cora. + +“But it sounds like raising a sticking window. Are you going to call Mr. +Floyd?” + +“I wish he weren’t so far off,” said Cora, pausing undeterminedly in the +middle of the room. “He might just as well be in another building as +where he is. I don’t like going through that connecting passage. And he +and his wife both sleep soundly. She told me so.” + +“We ought to have some means of summoning them—or the boys,” continued +Belle. + +“We can always scream,” Cora remarked. + +“Yes, and startle every one. I almost screamed when I heard the noise, +and then I thought I’d come in to you.” + +“I’m glad you did. Can you hear it now?” + +They were out in the hall, and could see the light that was kept aglow +in the bath room. Cora switched off her electric. + +“I don’t hear it,” affirmed Belle. “The noise has stopped.” + +It had, that was certain. The silence of the night outside was broken +only by the distant roar of the waterfall, a sound with which by this +time the girls had become so familiar that they did not notice it unless +they listened especially for it, as the receiver of a wireless message +must be tuned to catch the wave impulses of a certain length. + +“I can’t hear it,” said Cora, breathing softly, as Belle was doing. + +There was no more noise. + +“Could it have been distant thunder?” asked Cora, when a minute passed +in silence—and a long minute it seemed to the waiting ones. + +Belle stepped to the window and looked out and up at the sky. + +“The stars are shining,” she said. “If there is a storm it is a distant +one, and one that far off wouldn’t sound so near. I don’t believe it was +thunder.” + +Whatever it was, the sound was not repeated. Together Cora and Belle got +a drink in the bath room, and brought one to Bess. Cora called softly to +her, but the plump twin had gone to sleep again, without waiting for the +water. Cora set it in a chair by the bed and came out of the room as +softly as she had gone in. + +“No use letting her know about it,” she remarked to Belle. “And we won’t +tell anything in the morning, until we hear what the others have to +say.” + +“All right,” agreed Belle. “I’ll lie with you a while.” + +“Yes,” assented Cora. She understood Belle’s feelings. + +The two girls talked in whispers, straining their ears for a repetition +of the strange noise, but none came, and finally Belle, who was fighting +off sleep, announced that she was going to her own room. + +Cora and Belle looked significantly at one another across the breakfast +table, and Bess remarked: + +“Did you hear me knock it over?” + +“Knock what over?” asked Cora, wonderingly. + +“The glass of water in the chair by my bed. I didn’t know it was there, +and just before daylight I awoke, and as I put my arm out of bed I +knocked the glass to the floor. I thought sure you must have heard it.” + +“No,” Cora replied. “Did you break it?” + +Bess shook her head. + +“It fell on the rug, but the water splashed in my ties. I’ll have to +wear my high shoes until the others dry. Why didn’t you tell me the +water was there?” + +“You were asleep when I brought it in,” Cora said, “and I felt it was a +pity to disturb you.” + +“What were you prowling around for?” asked Hazel. + +“Oh, just for fun,” Cora said, with another warning look at Belle. + +“They didn’t hear anything,” the latter said to Cora when they were +alone a little later. + +“No, and Mrs. Floyd or her husband didn’t either, for they didn’t say +anything.” + +“Unless they heard it and don’t want to tell us.” + +“Why shouldn’t they tell us?” Cora asked. + +“Oh, they might think we’d go away if the queer things begin happening.” + +“It wasn’t so very queer—just a noise,” declared Cora. + +“Was it just a noise?” asked Belle, suspiciously. + +“I don’t know—was it—or—wasn’t it?” Cora questioned. + +“I guess we’ll have to let it go that way,” Belle decided. “Here come +the boys. Shall we tell them?” + +“No—that is, not directly. I’ll see if I can’t find out in an indirect +way.” + +“All right, I’ll leave it to you.” + +After some general talk when the boys had come in, Cora brought the +subject around to the waterfall. + +“Have you boys gotten used to the noise of it yet?” she asked. “You’re +nearer to it than we are. Does it keep you awake now?” + +“Can’t anything keep me awake,” yawned Jack. “I don’t get half enough +sleep as it is.” + +“You certainly slept soundly last night,” said Walter. + +“How do you know? Did you stay awake to find out?” + +“No, but I heard it thundering, and I called to you that you’d better +put your window down, for your room faces the west and most storms come +from there this time of the year. You didn’t answer so I concluded you +must have been sleeping.” + +“I was,” declared Jack. “Thunder, eh? I didn’t hear it.” + +“It was only a rumble,” Walter said. “I didn’t stay awake longer myself +than to hear that.” + +“They heard it, too,” said Belle, when she and Cora had walked off by +themselves. + +“Yes,” agreed her chum. “But was it thunder?” + +“We’re right back where we started,” laughed Belle, “arguing in a +circle. Let’s forget it.” + + + + +CHAPTER XV—A NARROW ESCAPE + + +But though Cora and Belle agreed to drop the matter of the unexplained +noise, they could not dismiss it from their minds. Several times that +day Cora would notice Belle in a brown study, and on taxing her with it +would be met with the statement: + +“I can’t think what caused it.” + +“That noise you mean?” + +“Yes. Wasn’t it queer?” + +“Oh, not so very. At home we wouldn’t give it a second thought.” + +“Yes,” agreed Belle, “but there are so many ways of explaining noises in +town, and so few ways up here. I wonder if that is the beginning of the +surprises, Cora?” + +“If it is they aren’t so unpleasant. Noise never hurt any one.” + +So they said nothing to the others about the little disturbance in the +night, and the only remark the others made, having any reference to it, +was that of Walter’s about thunder. + +“It must have been thunder,” Cora said, “for if the noise had been in +our bungalow the boys couldn’t have heard it in theirs.” + +“I don’t see how they could,” Belle agreed. + +“But, all the same, I’m going to have some way of calling to Jack and +the others without screaming our lungs out,” declared Cora. “It’s only +right to be able to summon them if we want them. One of us might become +ill, and they’d have to go for the doctor. I’d rather call Jack than Mr. +Floyd.” + +Cora spoke to her brother that afternoon. + +“We should have some sort of speaking tube,” he assented. “I might rig +up one of the string telephones we used to make with tin baking powder +boxes that served both as transmitter and receiver.” + +“Can you do it?” asked Cora. + +“I guess so.” + +“I know something better than that,” Paul put in. “There’s a toy +telephone that comes now, made of string, but the baking powder boxes +are replaced by wooden cylinders with parchment tightly stretched over +one end. You can hear quite well with them.” + +“Where can we get it?” asked Cora. + +“I have one,” Paul said. “I bought it just before we left to come up +here, intending to give it to a kid cousin of mine, but I forgot to mail +it. You can use that if you like.” + +“Just the thing!” exclaimed Jack. “The dear girls can’t get along +without us after all; can they?” + +“Oh, don’t flatter yourself that we’re as fond of you as all that,” +laughed Belle. “But we do like to have you within call—especially up +here.” + +“Why, have you seen any suspicious characters lurking around?” asked +Walter. + +“Nary a lurk,” responded Cora. “We’re just getting ready for +emergencies.” + +The toy telephone was strung that day from the girls’ bungalow to that +of the boys’, and it worked quite well. As simple as it was, and it +scarcely could have been more simple, talk could be plainly heard over +it. The string took up the vibrations imparted to the parchment by the +voice, and transmitted them across space to the other end of the line. +Of course the string had to be tight, and it must not touch anything in +its course, or the vibrations would have been interfered with. But space +was what they had most of in Camp Surprise. + +“To my mind the camp isn’t living up to its name,” declared Paul, after +the telephone had been put up and tested, the boys sending any number of +foolish messages over the string. “No, sir! There hasn’t been a surprise +worth talking about,” went on Paul. “Why doesn’t something happen?” + +“Give it time,” suggested Jack. + +“Perhaps that noise was the start,” said Cora to Belle when they were +alone. + +“Perhaps.” + +The trip down to the hotel had given the young folks the information +that there were dances twice a week, the Saturday night “hop” being +quite an event. They were cordially invited to attend, and the first +Saturday night in camp they took advantage of the chance. + +The crowd was not large, but, as Walter said, it was “nice and +comfortable,” and the girls and boys thoroughly enjoyed the dance. The +hotel proprietor introduced them to some other young folks and, as was +voted by Jack and his chums afterward, “a large and glorious time was +had by all.” + +“What a splendid moon!” cried Belle, as she walked along with Jack on +the way home. “It’s a shame to go to bed.” + +“Let’s don’t!” proposed Paul. “Let’s go down where we left the motor +boat and have a ride.” + +“Let’s don’t!” cried Cora. “Walk over that rough mountain road at this +hour of the night? I guess not!” + +“But look at the moon!” begged Paul. “The glorious moon!” + +“You’ve been looking at it too long already,” was Cora’s retort. “I +guess you’re looney.” + +And so, laughing and joking, they walked on. + +“This is how it goes!” said Belle suddenly, seemingly apropos of nothing +at all, and, at the same time she began to step backward and forward in +a peculiar manner in the road. + +“What in the world——” began Hazel. + +“That new Cortez step the girl in pink was doing with that nice man +dancer,” Belle explained. “I’ve been puzzling over it. I hoped he would +ask me to dance, but he didn’t.” + +“Say, I like that!” cried Walter. “Didn’t I ask you?” + +“Yes, but you can’t do that step. I remember now how it went. I was +watching that couple. It’s a rocking step forward, then one back, step +back with the left, draw the right and go forward again with the left, +see!” + +She executed it there in the road, her shadow, cast by the moon, bobbing +curiously back and forth. + +“It is pretty,” agreed Cora. “How does it go?” + +Belle and she took a dancing position and Cora had soon acquired the new +Cortez step. + +“Now you’ve got me doing it!” cried Jack. “Come on, Hazel, I’ll show +you.” + +“He doesn’t even know himself,” derided Cora. + +“You watch!” challenged Jack. + +“Why, he can do it,” said Belle, as she looked at Jack and Hazel. For +Hazel was a natural dancer and, it developed, she, too, had been +watching the girl in the pink dress. + +“Well, here we are,” said Bess, as they reached their bungalow. “I’m +tired.” + +“Is that all you’re going to say, after we took you to the dance?” +demanded Walter. + +“Don’t we get asked in to have some cake and chocolate?” questioned +Jack. + +“Shall we?” queried Cora. + +“Please do!” urged Paul. + +And they did. + +The plans for the next day included a long walk up the mountain to a +place where it was said a wonderful view could be had. They were to take +their lunch and stay all day, for they could not get back to the +bungalow by noon. + +“All aboard!” cried Jack, as he and his two chums called for the girls, +crossing the rustic bridge at the foot of the fall. “All aboard!” + +They started off merrily together, talking and laughing. Walter had been +down to get the early morning mail, and there was a letter from Cora’s +mother, which said, among other things, that the police had some clews +to the men who took the automobile. + +“Good!” cried Jack, when Cora read out this. “What’s the rest of it?” + +“Well, it seems that some more bogus tickets have been disposed of in +places around Chelton, and the men who sold them are described as the +same two who sold the coupons in the tea room. The police seem to think +there is a good chance of getting them.” + +“They didn’t see them have your car; did they, Cora?” asked Hazel. + +“No such luck, I suppose. But mother doesn’t mention that.” + +The view was voted all that had been said of it, and after admiring it +for some time, preparations were made to eat lunch. + +“Let’s sit down here,” proposed Cora, pointing to a grassy spot in the +shade of a big sycamore tree. “Boys, spread the cloth and unpack the +baskets. Oh, what a curious root!” she cried, stooping over toward +something near a stone. + +“Look out!” suddenly cried Paul, pulling Cora back so sharply that she +nearly toppled over. The next moment Paul caught up a stone and threw it +with all his force at the spotted root. There was an angry hiss. + +“Narrow escape for you, Cora,” said Paul, a trifle pale. “That was a +copperhead snake!” and he pointed to the writhing, dying reptile. His +stone had struck it fairly. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI—LOST + + +Cora Kimball was not an unusually nervous girl, nor was she given to +hysterical demonstrations, but, somehow or other, she felt sick and +faint as she looked at the wiggling snake in its death agony. Her eyes +saw black, and she swayed so that Paul stepped forward and slipped an +arm around her waist. + +“I thought you were going to faint,” he said in explanation. + +“I—I was,” faltered Cora. “But I’ve gotten over the notion. Thank—thank +you, Paul. Could I have a drink of water?” + +Jack brought her some from a spring not far away. + +“Brace up, Sis,” he said with rough, brotherly kindness. “You’re all +right. That snake wouldn’t have killed you anyhow. I’ve been bitten by +’em, and it isn’t much worse than a mosquito.” + +“You have?” cried Paul, in such a queer tone that all save Cora realized +that Jack was bluffing for the sake of minimizing the effect on Cora. + +Jack made this plain to Paul by winking quickly, and motioning to him to +confirm what he had said. + +“Oh, yes, that’s right,” Paul went on. “I’d forgotten that the +copperheads aren’t poisonous this time of year. You wouldn’t have been +much damaged, Cora, if you had been nipped by this fellow,” and with a +swift motion of his foot he kicked the still writhing reptile to one +side. + +“Really?” she asked. + +“Really.” + +She looked relieved. The faint spell passed and Cora smiled. The color +was coming back to her cheeks. + +“I’m sorry I acted so,” she said, “but I have a terrible fear of snakes, +even harmless ones. I thought this one was a curiously mottled root, and +I was going to pick it up. Suppose I had? Oh!” + +She shuddered and looked at Paul. + +“A miss is as good as a bird in the hand,” he misquoted. “Come on now, +let’s eat.” + +“Say, old man,” said Jack to Paul, when they were alone a little later, +“that snake was a bad chap, wasn’t he?” + +Paul nodded in confirmation. + +“I thought so,” Jack went on. “Just as well, though, not to let her +know, she’s so deadly afraid. There’d have been trouble if she had been +bitten?” he questioned. + +“Yes,” said Paul, simply. “Of course they’re not sure death, but they’re +dangerous enough.” + +“I thought so. Shake!” + +After the temporary scare of the snake had passed, the picnic party made +merry, laughing and talking as they enjoyed the lunch the girls had put +up. It was a perfect day, rather warm, but cool enough in the shade, and +the mountain air was invigorating. There followed a delightfully lazy +time, lying on the grass under the trees when every one had eaten +enough. + +Then they packed up the rest of the food and walked on, intending to +make a circle and return to Camp Surprise late in the afternoon. Now and +then they would come to some open space, where the sloping mountain +dropped away suddenly, revealing below a vista which made them pause in +admiration. + +Once they reached a point where they could look down on Mountain View, +and, though they could not distinguish their own bungalows, they could +see about where they were situated. + +Cora stood gazing down, in rather a thoughtful mood. Walter was by her +side, and noted her abstraction. He held up the proverbial penny. + +Cora shook her head. + +“No. I won’t tell,” she said with a smile. + +Walter guessed that she was thinking of the snake, but he refrained from +saying so. And then Cora, fearing he might put a wrong construction on +her words added: + +“I was just wondering when they were going to continue.” + +“What was going to continue?” he inquired. + +“The surprises in our camp. You know——” + +“Continue!” he interrupted. “I didn’t know we had had any. I had begun +to think it was all a hoax.” + +“Oh, no,” cried Cora, impulsively. “There was a——” + +She caught herself just in time, for she recalled that she and Belle had +agreed not to mention the queer noise. + +“Was it a ghost?” asked Walter. + +“It wasn’t anything,” Cora hastened to say. “Look, see that curl of +smoke. Isn’t it just like a great big ostrich plume? What a hat it would +require to carry it! A giant’s hat.” + +“Lady giant you mean,” said Walter. “But look here, Cora, you are +keeping something from me.” + +“Not at all.” + +Her manner was light, but Walter was a good guesser. + +“Yes, you are!” he insisted. “Something did happen, Cora. Go on, tell a +fellow.” + +“Nothing really happened, Walter.” + +“Then you heard something.” + +“How did you know?” she asked with a start. + +“I thought I’d catch you. Come now. Own up. You didn’t have that toy +telephone strung to our bungalow just on general principles. Did you +hear something, Cora?” + +She looked around to make sure none of the others were listening. Then +she told Walter of the queer noise, enjoining him to secrecy, however. + +“So that’s what it was,” he said. “I thought it was thunder myself, but +if you heard it in your bungalow it couldn’t have been.” + +“And it was in our bungalow,” Cora said. “Seemingly away down in the +cellar, or sub-cellar, if they have such a thing.” + +“Not as deep as that, I guess, Cora. But it was a queer rumbly noise, +though how I could hear it, when it was under your bungalow I can’t +imagine.” + +“Unless it came from the waterfall.” + +“How could it come from the waterfall?” Walter asked. + +“I don’t know,” said Cora. “But there might be some sort of hollow +rock—blowing stones I believe they are called—and when air is forced +into the hollow, by the action of the water, it might give a roaring +sound, and vibrate the earth.” + +Walter considered a moment. + +“It’s worth looking into,” he said. “I won’t say anything, but the first +chance I get I’ll have a peep at the fall. I think I can get behind the +water curtain.” + +“Oh, Walter! don’t take any risks.” + +“I won’t, Cora. But come on. The others will wonder what we find to talk +about and look at here. Not that I wouldn’t want to stay talking a great +deal longer, but, well——” + +“I understand,” and she smiled. + +“We’re going berrying,” cried Bess, as Walter and Cora came up to join +the others. “That is, unless you two want to stand there on the edge of +‘Lovers’ Leap’ and think sad thoughts.” + +“Is that place called Lovers’ Leap?” asked Cora. + +“Well, it might be if any lovers ever jumped off there. Do you want to +go berrying?” + +“Surely,” said Cora, and Walter nodded assent. + +The berry hunt was not very successful, though a few early ones were +found. However, it served as an incentive to call the young folks +farther afield and up the mountainside, and they found new beauties of +nature at every step. + +“This is the nicest place I was ever in,” declared Hazel. + +“I like it, too, almost as well as any place we ever picked out for our +vacation,” said Belle. “My hair doesn’t get so slimpsy as at the beach.” + +“We’re getting beautifully tanned, instead of the lobster-red I always +turn at the shore,” said plump Bess. + +“Say, hadn’t we better begin to think of turning back?” asked Cora, +after a while, when the few berries that had been gathered had been +eaten, though Jack begged that they be saved for a pie. + +“Yes, it’s getting late,” said Paul, looking at his watch. “And we have +a few miles to go.” + +“I should say they were a few!” chimed in Walter. “Seven at the least +back to Camp Surprise.” + +“Don’t say that!” begged Bess. “You’ll have to carry me.” + +“All right. We’ll make a litter of poles and drape you over it in the +most artistic fashion,” said Paul. “Do you prefer to be carried head or +feet first?” + +“Feet, of course. Riding backwards always makes me car-ill.” + +“It’s down hill, that’s one consolation,” came from Jack. “Well, come +on. All ready! Hike!” and he marched off, swinging a long stick he had +picked up to use Alpine-stock fashion. + +There was a patch of woodland to go through, a fairly good path +traversing it. The party of young people went along, talking and +laughing, occasionally breaking into song as one or another started a +familiar melody. + +“Say, Jack,” remarked Cora at length, “aren’t these woods pretty long?” + +“What do you mean?” + +“I mean oughtn’t we to be out of them by this time? Are you sure you’re +going the right way?” + +“Well, I never was here before,” said Jack, “but I set our course by +compass,” and he indicated the little instrument on his watch chain. + +“We started to walk due west,” he said, “up the mountain. Now we are +going east, as you can see, because the setting sun is at our backs. So +we are going toward camp.” + +“But we swung off to the right as we came up the mountain,” Cora went +on. + +“Exactly, a sort of northwest course,” agreed Jack. “And now we are +heading southeast, which is exactly the reverse. Look for yourself, +Sis.” + +He held out the compass, the tiny needle vibrating as the instrument +rested in his hand. Cora was enough of a navigator to see that Jack was +right. + +“Well, the only thing to do is to keep on,” she said. “But I should +think, by this time, we’d be somewhere near the camp.” + +“Oh, not yet!” declared Jack. “We’ve got miles and miles yet to go!” + +“You horrid creature!” cried Bess. “Oh, my feet!” + +“This is the best exercise for reducing you could have,” laughed Paul. +“Come on, I’ll race you.” + +“Run? Never!” wailed the plump one. “I can only hobble.” + +They tramped on. The afternoon shadows were lengthening now, and Cora’s +face wore a somewhat anxious look. They entered another patch of +woodland, and as they emerged into a clearing Cora cried: + +“Look at the sun!” + +“What’s the matter with it?” Belle demanded. “I think that is a +perfectly good sun.” + +“But it’s in front of us,” said Cora. “It’s in front of us!” + +For a moment the others did not realize what she meant. They stared at +the big red ball which was sinking to rest amid a bank of gorgeously +colored clouds. Then Jack exclaimed: + +“By Jove! you’re right, Sis. The sun should be back of us. We were going +east, but we’ve got turned around, and are going west.” + +“Unless the sun has changed,” put in Paul, with a laugh, “and is coming +up in the morning. We may have been walking all night and didn’t know +it.” + +“It’s no joke,” said Cora, seriously, as the others laughed. “Jack, +we’re lost!” + + + + +CHAPTER XVII—TWO MEN + + +Naturally enough Cora’s words were echoed aloud by some of the party. + +“Lost!” cried Belle. “How do you know?” + +“We’re going in the wrong direction,” Cora said. “Don’t you know when +persons get lost in the woods they always go around in a circle? Nearly +always they turn to the right, as we have done. I forget the +explanation, but it has something to do with the right side of the body +being stronger than the left. And that’s what we’ve done. We’ve wandered +around in a circle, so of course we’re lost.” + +“That doesn’t follow at all,” declared Walter. + +“Why not?” challenged Cora. + +“Because the path may have been shifting. We’ve only followed the trail +through the woods. We haven’t gone off it.” + +“That’s so,” chimed in Paul. “We’re still on the path, and it must lead +somewhere.” + +“Perhaps it’s a cow-path,” suggested Bess. “It’s narrow enough for one.” + +“Well, even a cow-path leads somewhere,” said Hazel. “We’ll end up at a +stable.” + +“Or a dairy,” added Jack. “Some bread and milk won’t go bad if we miss +our supper.” + +“Oh, we won’t miss it,” declared Walter. “We’re bound to end up +somewhere, and even if we come out a mile or more from our camp. And if +we see a house, we can hire a farmer to drive us over, if we’re too +tired to walk.” + +“Yes, we could do that,” Cora assented. “But what plan is best to follow +now? Shall we keep on the way we are going, on this path, even though it +leads west and our camp is to the east? Or shall we go back until we +find a path extending in an easterly direction?” + +“Whew!” whistled Jack. “That sounds like a question in my old school +geography. What’s the answer, Cora?” + +“I wish I knew,” said his sister. “Let’s take a vote on it.” + +They discussed the matter a little while, and the general opinion was +that it was better to go on than to retreat. + +“We didn’t see any houses in all the distance we came,” said Walter, +“and it is getting so late now we may have to appeal to a farmer to +drive us back. I say go ahead, even if the direction seems to be wrong. +We may reach a house this way.” + +“I guess you’re right,” admitted Cora, “though it seems illogical to go +deliberately away from, instead of toward, our camp.” + +“Perhaps it isn’t called Camp Surprise for nothing,” suggested Hazel. + +“What do you mean?” asked her brother. + +“I mean it may surprise us by appearing when and where we least expect +it.” + +“You always were a hopeful child,” laughed Paul. His sister blushed. +“You believed in Santa Claus long after I had detected our respected +parents sneaking down the back stairs with the presents,” he continued. +“Hope on, foolish one.” + +“She may be right at that,” said Jack, championing Hazel’s cause. “If +the sun insists on appearing where we think it oughtn’t to be the camp +may take a notion to do the same thing. Come on! Forward!” + +A little anxious, they kept on, rather tired, but not greatly +discouraged. Youthful hearts are not made for discouragement, +fortunately. + +“Anything left to eat?” asked Jack after a bit, when the path seemed to +be shifting somewhat toward the east. + +“A little,” announced Walter, who was carrying the basket. “But you +can’t have any.” + +“Why not?” demanded Jack, indignantly. “I have as good a right as you. +Who delegated you to carry the rations?” + +“Nobody else seemed to want to. Now I’m in charge of the commissary +department, and I’m going to put you, and myself included, on short +rations. We may have to stay out all——” + +“Ahem!” interrupted Paul, giving Walter a nudge. “Do you see anything +like a house through the trees? Cut out that talk about having to stay +out all night, if that’s what you were going to say,” he added in a +quick whisper. + +“It was,” Walter admitted. “But I’ll cease.” + +“You’d better. We don’t want the girls to get nervous.” + +“I don’t see any house,” Jack reported, having looked in the direction +indicated by Paul. + +“I thought I saw smoke, and where there’s smoke there’s generally a +house or a camp,” Paul said. “However, I may have been mistaken.” + +It was evident that he had been, but a little later, as they once more +emerged from the woods, Cora gave a joyful cry and called out: + +“There it is!” + +“What, our camp?” asked Belle. + +“No, a house! See it?” + +They looked to where her finger pointed. Undoubtedly, it was a +farmhouse, located on the farther edge of the clearing in which they had +halted. There was a vacant space about it, and several barn-like +structures. But there was a curious lack of life around the place. + +“I don’t believe any one lives there,” said Jack. + +“Don’t be a pessimist,” urged his sister. “Let’s go and find out.” + +They hurried toward the house, but the nearer they approached it the +more it seemed that it was not a farmhouse in the ordinary sense of the +word. Though in the midst of cleared fields that must at one time have +been part of a farm, there were no growing crops. The fields were +overgrown with weeds, there were no horses or cattle to be seen, and no +challenging dog rushed out to bark at the boys and girls. + +“Still some old man or woman may live there who can put us on the right +road,” Cora suggested. “We won’t give up yet.” + +Confirmation of Jack’s idea that the house was uninhabited was given as +they went up the weed-entangled front path. And the sight of broken +windows, a door sagging open on fractured hinges gave further aspects of +abandonment. + +“Anybody home?” called Walter, knocking on the door, which swayed as +though it wanted to part company from the only hinge that held it up. +“Who’s in here? Hello inside!” + +An echo was his only answer, though as they had approached the place +Paul had said he heard a noise inside. + +“Nobody home,” said Jack. “But this is at least encouraging. We are +getting ‘warm’ as they say in hunt the thimble. Let’s go around back. +Maybe they don’t use the front door.” + +He started around a side path, followed by Cora, Bess and Belle. The +others straggled along in the extreme rear. As the four in the lead +turned around an ell of the house, Cora uttered a cry and pointed to two +men who were running out of the barn, not far off. + +“Look, Jack!” she cried. + +Jack stood still, quite taken by surprise, and then Belle added: + +“Why, Cora! I declare! One of those men looks like one of the two who +ran off with your car!” + +“Are you sure about that, Belle?” demanded Cora’s brother. “I don’t want +to make a mistake.” + +“I only saw their backs, of course,” explained Belle, quite excited. +“But that one on the left looks like the one who took the wheel and +steered Cora’s auto away from the tea room. The coat is just the same.” + +“Well, it’s pretty slim evidence on which to chase after two strange +men,” said Jack, “but here goes. Come on, boys!” he called to Walter and +Paul. “Tally-ho!” + +“What’s the excitement?” asked Walter, as he and Paul came running +around the corner of the house. “Dog after you, Jack?” + +“No, but we want to get after those two fellows. See ’em?” + +He pointed to the fleeing men. + +“Who are they?” Paul queried. + +“Belle thinks they’re the ones who took Cora’s auto. It’s a rather slim +identification, but we’ll take a chance.” + +“Yell at ’em,” suggested Paul. + +“Good idea,” commented Jack. “I say there—you two! Hold on a minute, we +want to talk to you!” he cried. + +The two men, running away, never heeded nor looked around. They ran on +toward the woods, the boys following, while the girls stood in a group +near the deserted house. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII—REAL SURPRISES + + +“They aren’t going to stop,” observed Paul, as he ran along beside Jack, +watching the fleeing men. + +“No, and that makes me suspicious. Why should those men run away just +because we hailed them? They don’t know us—that is, they haven’t any +reason to suppose we represent the girl whose auto was taken. They have +never seen us.” + +“And they didn’t have a chance to get a good look at Cora and the other +girls, even supposing they are the thieves who took the auto. According +to what Belle says, the men didn’t once look around as they got into the +car and drove off. + +“Though they must have been hanging around the Spinning Wheel for some +time to have disposed of the tickets,” said Walter. “They might have +seen the three girls, and again recognized them as they came along now.” + +“Possibly, but not probably,” declared Jack. “They are either tramps, +who have been sleeping in the barn and think we own this place and have +come to drive them out, or they are the auto thieves, and naturally +would run.” + +“I’m inclined to the tramp theory,” declared Paul. “They don’t look like +knights of the roads, though.” + +“I guess we won’t have much further sight of them,” commented Jack. +“They’re almost at the woods, and going strong.” + +The men, indeed, were distancing the boys, running fast with never a +backward glance. + +“Give ’em another hail!” cried Paul. “All together. Tell ’em we only +want to ask the way from them. Now yell!” + +The three lads united their voices in a loud shout, but it had no +effect, and, a moment later, the two fleeing men plunged in among the +trees. + +“Shall we follow?” asked Paul, bringing his run down to a walk. + +“Hardly worth while,” commented Jack. “We’d never find them in the +woods.” + +“Besides, we don’t want to leave the girls alone,” added Paul. + +“They are evidently determined not to be left alone,” commented Jack +with a smile. “There they come after us.” + +Cora and her chums were advancing across the weed-grown field that lay +between the house and the woods, and over which the unsuccessful chase +had taken place. + +“Come on, we’ll give it up,” Walter said, as he started back to meet the +girls. + +“We didn’t like to stay there all alone,” confessed Cora. + +“So we observe,” remarked Jack. + +“You didn’t get them?” questioned Cora. + +“They wouldn’t even hesitate,” laughed Walter. “Now for an inspection of +the barn and house.” + +“Are you going in?” asked Hazel. + +“Why not? We may find some valuable evidence that will put us on the +track of Cora’s auto. We may even find some hermit living in the house +who can put us on the right road. Let’s try the barn first, though, as +it was from there the men came.” + +The girls would not go in, but Walter and Jack did, leaving Paul to stay +with his sister and her friends. + +“Just keep your eyes open, Paul,” suggested Jack. “Those fellows may +come back while Wally and I are inside.” + +“Trust me,” observed Hazel’s brother. + +But Jack and Walter found little to repay them for their inspection of +the barn. It was a dilapidated building, almost tumbling down in fact, +and contained nothing save some wisps of hay and straw. In one corner, +though, was a pile of old feed bags, arranged as a rude bed. + +“Tramps been sleeping here,” observed Walter. “Maybe those two men.” + +“Maybe,” agreed Jack. + +But that was all they could gather, and they came out. + +“Now for the house,” suggested Walter. + +“There’s some sort of lane over there, leading to the cow shed,” said +Cora. “Suppose you look in that building.” + +“Might as well,” agreed Jack. And it was in approaching the smaller farm +building through the grass-grown lane that they made a discovery. + +“There’s been an auto in here!” cried Paul, as he saw some depressions +in the ground. “An auto has been driven in here and out again. I can see +two sets of wheel marks plainly.” + +“Did one tire have a vulcanized patch on?” Cora asked eagerly. “Mine +had.” + +“The marks aren’t plain enough to decide that,” said Paul. “If there +were dust or dirt here I could tell, but grass and weeds don’t take a +good enough impression. The auto was put in the shed, evidently.” + +That proved to be a good guess, for the marks of the big-tired wheels +went up to the shed, which was roomy enough for a car. + +“Yes, one’s been in here!” cried Jack, as he swung open the door. “See +the tire marks on the boards.” + +“Was it mine?” asked Cora, eagerly. But again the impression left was +too faint to show the vulcanized patch. + +“Maybe some autoists, caught out in a storm, put in here,” suggested +Walter. “We mustn’t build up too hopeful a theory on a slender basis of +fact.” + +Traces of the automobile wheels were lost a short distance down the +lane, and none appeared in the road which ran in front of the house—near +which the highway did not seem to be much traveled. + +“And now for the house itself,” said Jack. “Come on, boys!” + +“And girls, too!” exclaimed Cora. “We’re not going to be left outside.” + +They entered the old farmhouse, calling aloud to ascertain if in some +distant room there might not be an occupant. But their voices were +answered only by echoes, with which their footsteps mingled. + +The house was typical of many another deserted farm residence, of which +there are many throughout New England. + +Windows were void of glass, doors hung uncertainly on one hinge, moldy +wall-paper drooped down from the ceiling like unlovely Spanish moss, and +in many of the rooms the dampness and rain had loosened the plaster +which had fallen. + +There were some old boxes, a broken chair or two, and a moldy horsehair +settee that, in bygone days, must have graced the closed-up parlor, +opened only for marriages or deaths. Or, perchance, on its glossy and +slippery surface, lovers had sat long ago. + +“Ugh!” exclaimed Cora, with a little shudder. “Come on out. It gives me +the creeps in here.” + +“Yes, I guess there’s nothing to gain by staying,” Jack remarked. +“Nobody home, and there’s no use wasting time.” + +“I wish we were home,” said Belle. + +“And I. At least, back in camp,” added her sister. + +As they went from the house they saw out in the road a man driving a +horse attached to a farm wagon. + +“Oh, there’s something human at last!” cried Cora. “Wait, please, we +want to ask you something!” she called impulsively. + +But the man had already stopped of his own accord, and a look of +surprise came over his face as he saw the party of young folks come out +of the abandoned house. + +“Can you tell us the way to Mountain View?” asked Jack. + +“Yes, I’m going that way myself,” the man answered. “At least within a +mile of it. Want to ride?” + +“Oh, do we!” exclaimed Bess with such a sigh of relief that the others +laughed. + +“Pile in,” invited the farmer. “You aren’t thinking of buying the old +Mellish place; are you?” + +“Is that what this is called?” asked Walter. + +“Yes. Zeb Mellish used to own it, but he went crazy and hung himself and +nobody’s lived here since; ’ceptin’ maybe tramps.” + +“Yes, we saw two run away from the barn as we came up,” stated Jack. + +“Humph!” commented the farmer. “I’ll have to speak to the constable +about ’em. Too many of us have been losin’ chickens lately. I suspected +it was tramps. Which way’d they go?” + +The boys told; also narrating the details of their little picnic and of +their becoming lost. + +“Well, that ain’t surprisin’, considerin’ how th’ cow paths in the woods +twist to and fro,” commented the farmer, who gave his name as Anthony +Wale. “So you’re from one of the bungalows in the Mountain View +property; eh?” + +“Yes, Camp Surprise,” said Cora. + +The man seemed to start, and looked sharply at Cora. + +“Camp Surprise; eh!” he exclaimed. + +“Know anything about it?” asked Walter. “We have been expecting to be +surprised, but haven’t been, so far.” + +“I know they tell queer stories about it,” said Mr. Ware, “but that’s +all I do know. Maybe the surprise party hasn’t started yet.” + +“Well, if it’s bound to happen, I wish it would get over and done with,” +said Cora. “It’s awfully good of you to give us a lift this way.” + +“Glad to do it,” said Mr. Ware. “There’s room on the seat with me for +two of you gals—at least the thinnest ones—not meanin’ anything against +you,” and he looked at Bess, half smiling. + +“Oh, I’m used to it now,” she declared. “You can’t hurt my feelings. +I’ll be glad to sit on one of the boxes.” + +The wagon contained several crates, and these were utilized as seats, +Hazel and Belle, as the “thinnest gals,” sitting on the seat with Mr. +Ware. + +He drove them to within a half mile of their own camp and they were soon +at the bungalow, just as Mr. and Mrs. Floyd were getting anxious about +their charges, and were talking of going in search of them. + +“What happened to you?” Mrs. Floyd inquired. + +“Lost,” explained Jack, sententiously. + +The adventures of the day were gone over again at a joint supper, the +boys being invited in by the girls. + +“You aren’t doing any housekeeping at all,” Cora complained to Jack, +afterward. + +“What’s the use when you girls are such good cooks?” he asked with a +laugh. “We’re thinking of hiring a chef, anyhow, and then we’ll +reciprocate and give you a good feed.” + +A trip down the mountain stream to where it widened into a lake was the +plan for the next day, and an early start was made, Mrs. Floyd and her +husband stating that they had to go to town to do some shopping, and +would not be back before night. They started before the young folks +left, and the girls locked their bungalow as they came out. + +Nothing of moment occurred on the trip to the little lake, if the fact +that Jack fell in up to his knees, while trying to get some pond lilies +for Hazel be excepted. + +“Well, I wonder if anything happened while we were away?” asked Cora of +Walter, as they neared their camp on the return trip. + +“Why do you suggest that?” he queried. + +“Oh, I don’t just know. I have a funny sort of feeling ‘in my bones,’ as +mother used to say.” + +Cora had the key and opened the door. The boys were coming in, as they +usually did, and stood waiting for the girls to enter. + +As Jack’s sister threw back the door she gave one look in the living +room, and exclaimed: + +“It’s here!” + +“What?” asked Walter, quickly. + +“The surprise! Look!” + + + + +CHAPTER XIX—WHERE’S MY LIGHT? + + +Crowding up behind Cora, the others peered over her shoulders. The +setting sun, streaming in through the windows, revealed a strange sight +in the big living room. Several chairs were overturned, a large couch +that had been against the wall was out in the middle of the floor, a +table that had been piled with magazines and books was turned on its +side, and turned upside down on the overturned table was perched a +chair, as though children had been playing some simple game, like +stagecoach or steamboat, with the table and chair to represent +make-believe articles of locomotion. + +For a moment surprise and wonder held them all dumb, then Jack burst out +with: + +“Say! who did this monkey-business, anyhow?” + +“Monkey-business?” repeated Cora. + +“It’s the surprise!” exclaimed Belle, and her voice was not quite +steady. “We’ve been expecting this. The ghosts have paid one of their +visits. Oh dear!” + +“Don’t be silly!” exclaimed Bess, who, perhaps because her nerves were +better protected, did not give way to emotion so readily as did her +thinner sister. “Isn’t this just what we’ve been looking for—and hoping +for?” + +“Hoping for?” asked Paul. “Well, I must say it’s a queer sort of hope!” + +“Oh, I don’t mean that, exactly,” Bess went on. “But we knew something +like this was bound to happen, and this is the first manifestation.” + +“No, not exactly the first,” Cora said. + +“What do you mean?” asked Bess. “Isn’t this the first time anything has +been upset in our bungalow?” + +“Yes, but it isn’t the first manifestation,” Cora went on. “Shall we +tell, Belle?” she asked. + +“Yes,” nodded the slim Robinson girl. + +“Though how you can connect the queer noise with what has taken place +here I don’t see,” put in Walter who had been looking curiously about +the upset room, which none of them had ventured yet to enter. + +“What! Does he know about it, too?” asked Belle. + +Cora nodded. “He heard it, and thought at first it was thunder.” + +“Say, what’s this all about?” demanded Jack. “Are you hiding part of the +secret from us, Sis?” + +“Well, in a way—yes.” + +“That isn’t fair. If there’s a secret here we ought to share it. And if +you girls are going to keep things to yourselves we fellows will pack up +and leave, and——” + +“Don’t dare desert us!” cried Belle. “I won’t stay here a minute after +the boys go; will you, Cora?” + +“Well, I like to have them here, of course,” answered Jack’s sister. +“But if we talk that way about them they’ll get an exaggerated idea of +their importance, and there’ll be no way of enforcing discipline. So if +they want to go let them, and we’ll solve this mystery ourselves.” + +“I think we’re making a mountain out of a molehill,” declared Walter. “I +don’t see any great mystery here. A few chairs and a table are upset. +It’s the most natural thing in the world.” + +“Natural? How do you make that out?” asked Bess. + +“Why, Mrs. Floyd has been sweeping and dusting in here, and she has +moved the chairs about. They always do it at our house. And say! some +days it’s as much as your life is worth to try to navigate through the +misplaced furniture. You need a harbor pilot and a searchlight, to say +nothing of a chart and an automobile road map. That’s all that’s +happened here. Mrs. Floyd has been doing a little house-cleaning.” + +“So that’s your explanation of it; is it?” asked Cora. “Then how do you +account for the fact that Mrs. Floyd and her husband have been away all +day?” + +She pointed toward the road and the others saw the two caretakers in Mr. +Floyd’s light wagon approaching the bungalow. They were returning from +their day’s shopping trip, as was evident by the number of bundles in +the vehicle. + +“I think you’ll find that Mrs. Floyd hasn’t done any house-cleaning +to-day,” said Cora. “You can’t account for the surprise that way.” + +Cora was right, in so far as Mrs. Floyd was concerned. The chaperon and +her husband had been away all day. + +“What is it? What has happened? Is anything the matter?” asked Mrs. +Floyd, as she saw the young people on the porch of the bungalow, looking +in at the open door. “Is any one hurt?” + +“No, it’s just the surprise,” said Cora. “Is that what has happened +before, Mrs. Floyd?” + +The caretaker looked inside, and caught her breath sharply. + +“Yes—yes,” she answered slowly. “This has happened before, but never as +bad as this. I mean it never before was quite so upset. I—I can’t +account for it.” + +“It’s them pesky tramps!” said Mr. Floyd. “I’ll notify the constable +again; that’s what I’ll do!” + +“Do you think it was tramps?” asked Jack. + +“Who else could it be?” the caretaker demanded, and neither Jack nor the +others could answer, though Walter asked: + +“Well, if it were tramps, wouldn’t they steal something if they had the +chance they’ve had to-day? Let’s take a look and see if anything is +missing.” + +Then they went in, a bit gingerly at first, for there is a queer, +uncanny sort of feeling in coming back to find the furniture upset in a +strange fashion. They all felt it, even joking Jack. + +But, aside from the misplaced tables, chairs and couch, nothing wrong +was found. Nothing was missing, as far as could be ascertained, and no +food had been taken from the pantry, though more than once, Mrs. Floyd +said, on former occasions when the “surprise” had been manifested, the +larder showed signs of an unknown visitor. + +“Now before we set things to rights,” suggested Jack, “suppose we see if +there are any clews. Let’s go at this thing right. Look at each piece of +furniture and see if it has——” + +“Any finger marks on? Is that what you mean, Jack?” asked Paul. + +“No, I’m not drawing it quite as fine as that. I mean look around on the +floor for bits of mud, for any signs of foot prints—anything, in fact, +that would give us a line on who did this.” + +“It seems to have been done deliberately, anyhow,” observed Walter. “The +chairs and other things weren’t misplaced in a hurry. They took their +time. Why any one but a child would want to pile that chair on the table +is remarkable.” + +“That very thing may indicate that it was just some skylarking boys,” +commented Jack. + +Mr. Floyd shook his head. + +“There aren’t any boys around here,” he said. “Of course lads might come +out from the village, and break in to do this mischief, but it isn’t +likely. This is private land, and on several previous occasions +trespassers have been arrested, so the boys don’t generally come here. +Besides, they wouldn’t have had a key to come in with.” + +“Did they use a key to enter?” asked Paul. + +“The door was locked when we got back,” replied Cora, as if that settled +it. + +“And the window fastenings are still on,” reported Jack, who made a +quick inspection. + +“Here’s a bit of mud near this one chair, as if it had dropped from some +one’s shoe,” Walter said. “So the surprisers must have come in from +outside.” + +“Where else would they come from?” Jack demanded. “Did you think they +were concealed in the bungalow?” + +“I don’t know what to think,” Walter answered slowly. “It’s a queer +mystery.” + +“I hope it won’t cause you folks to leave,” said Mrs. Floyd a bit +anxiously. “We’d like you to stay on.” + +“And we will!” cried Cora. “We knew that a surprise awaited us when we +came here, and we haven’t been disappointed. And, now that it has come, +we’re not going to turn cowards and run away. We’ll get to the bottom of +this mystery.” + +“That’s right!” cried Jack. “Who’s afraid? You aren’t; are you, Hazel?” + +“Not—not if——” + +“Not if _I_ stay! There, I knew it!” and Jack puffed out his chest. “See +what it is to have confidence in a man. Now if the rest of you will act +as I do, we’ll soon——” + +“Oh, I didn’t say that at all!” cried the blushing Hazel. “I meant I +would stay if the _rest_ did.” + +“Squelched!” murmured Jack in dejected tones. “Never mind, I’ll lay this +ghost yet. Now let’s get things to rights, and then we’ll stay to supper +with you girls.” + +“Hadn’t you better wait until you’re invited?” asked Cora. + +“Oh, do let them stay!” begged Belle. “I—I’m a bit nervous over this.” + +“Another manly protector needed,” murmured Paul. + +“Let us stay and we’ll help find the ghost,” suggested Walter, and the +girls were glad enough to agree, for, truth to tell, they were a bit +upset, and even Cora looked over her shoulder nervously as she ascended +the stairs. + +“Well, they didn’t come up and disturb your bedrooms this time,” said +Mrs. Floyd, as she went to the upper story with the girls. + +“Do you mean to say they actually have upset the things in the +_bedrooms_?” asked Belle. + +“Sometimes,” replied the caretaker. “Though that hasn’t happened of +late.” + +“Oh, dear!” sighed the slim girl. “I did hope we would be safe from them +up here.” + +“Oh, they never come—that is, things never happen—when any one is in the +house,” Mrs. Floyd hastened to add. “It’s always when the place is left +to itself.” + +“Then the—er—well, call it ghost, for want of a better name,” said +Jack—“then the ghost must keep watch to know when we go out.” + +“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Mrs. Floyd. “It’s very annoying, and I do +hope you will find out what does it and stop it.” + +“We will,” Jack declared. “I’m sure, after all, we’ll find out that it +is due to perfectly natural causes.” + +“That’s what I believe,” said Walter. “I wonder if it could be an +earthquake?” + +“Earthquake?” echoed the others. + +“Yes,” Walter went on. “You know that queer noise which Cora, Belle and +I seem to have heard to the exclusion of you others? Well, that was a +sort of rumbling of the earth. It might have been a slight shock, a +reaction from a distant quake. Such things have been known to happen. +And if there was one there might well be another. If the bungalow shook +hard enough the chairs might have been upset as we found them.” + +Jack shook his head. + +“Your theory won’t hold water,” he said. “If there was a hard enough +shock to knock over chairs and tables, the dishes in the closets would +have been broken.” + +“I think so, too,” declared Paul. “The earthquake won’t account for it, +Walter.” + +“Perhaps not. But I can’t think what else it could be.” + +“A human agency, you may be sure of that,” declared Cora. “I don’t +believe in the supernatural. This was done by human hands and, sooner or +later, we’ll discover by whom. Humans are fallible and will make a +mistake. We must watch for that mistake.” + +They righted the furniture and talking of the matter seemed to make it +lose some of its mysteriousness. The boys stayed to supper and until +late in the evening. Jack offered to remain all night, and sleep on the +couch downstairs, but Cora would not hear of it. + +“We’ll be all right,” she declared. “We can call you on the telephone if +we want you. Besides, Mr. Floyd is going to leave open the door leading +to his quarters, and he can hear if we call. We’ll be all right.” + +“Well, ring us up if you find the chairs doing a fox trot or hesitation +waltz in the middle of the night,” suggested Walter. + +The girls went upstairs together, casting quick, nervous glances over +their shoulders as they ascended. They locked their hall doors as soon +as they were inside. But as the four chambers communicated, it was as if +they were in one large apartment. + +“Oh dear!” exclaimed Cora, as she was taking down her hair. “I’ve +forgotten it.” + +“What?” asked Bess, who was taking off her shoes. + +“My flashlight,” Cora answered. “I left it on the table in the living +room. I meant to bring it up, for I like to see what time it is if I +awaken in the night.” + +“I’ll go down with you if you want to get it,” offered Hazel. + +“No, thank you. I’ll do without it. I dare say I shan’t need it.” + +“Let’s burn a light all night,” proposed Belle. + +And no one called her silly. So the lamp was left aglow, turned down a +little. + +Contrary, at least to some expectations, the night passed peacefully. +There was no disturbance, and the girls awoke refreshed and with only a +little feeling of uneasiness as to what might happen in the future. + +But when Cora went downstairs, and began looking among the things on the +table in the living room, another manifestation of the queer happenings +was in evidence. + +“Where’s my light?” she demanded. “I left my flashlight here last night, +and now it’s gone. Did any one take it?” + +No one had, the boys and girls denying all knowledge. Nor had Mr. or +Mrs. Floyd removed it, and Cora was positive she had left it on the +table. She recalled her remarks about it the night previous. + +“Well, it’s gone,” she said. “Another one of the mysteries.” + +“You seem to be singled out,” observed Walter. “First it’s your auto, +and now your light.” + +“Do you think the two cases have any connection?” asked Cora. + + + + +CHAPTER XX—MORE HAPPENINGS + + +Walter considered the matter rather judicially before answering. Then he +gave as his decision: + +“No, I can’t say that I do. It is, perhaps, only a coincidence that your +automobile and your flashlight should have been taken. I dare say that +had it been a light belonging to any one else it would have disappeared +just the same.” + +“You mean that they—the mysterious They—would have taken the light, no +matter to whom it belonged?” asked Jack. + +“Exactly! It was a case of wanting a light and taking it.” + +“But how did they get in to take it?” asked Paul. “There’s no sign of +anything having been broken; is there—no doors or windows?” + +“We didn’t look,” Cora said. + +“Then that’s what we’d better do,” Jack suggested. + +But an examination did not show that any means had been used to force a +passage from without. The windows were provided with screens which +fastened from within in such a way that force would have to be exerted +to slip them. And this had not been done. Nor had the door been tampered +with. + +“There’s only one way to account for it,” said Walter, “and that is on +the theory that the Surprisers, Ghosts, They—whatever you choose to call +them—used skeleton keys. And they must be professional burglars, or they +would have made noise enough to have aroused you girls. You didn’t hear +anything; did you?” + +Not one had heard a sound. + +“But if they were professional thieves wouldn’t they have taken +something else besides a flashlight?” asked Jack. “There’s plenty of +other things they might have picked up.” + +This was true enough, for the girls had left many of their more or less +valuable belongings downstairs. But none of them had been taken. + +“Perhaps they just needed Cora’s light to help them in some of their +other surprise visits,” suggested Bess. “Isn’t it most delightfully +mystifying?” + +“I don’t know that I find it especially so,” retorted Belle, with a +quick glance over her shoulder. “It’s getting on my nerves.” + +“Well, you can quit and go away when you want to,” suggested her sister. + +“Never!” cried Cora. “We’re not going to desert in the face of danger; +are we, Belle?” + +The slim twin hesitated a moment, and then answered, but not very +decidedly: + +“No.” + +“I knew you wouldn’t,” said Jack’s sister. “We Motor Girls aren’t +cowards.” + +“We give you credit for that,” declared Walter. + +In spite of the brave front of Cora and her chums, the happenings at +Camp Surprise were getting on their nerves. The boys, true to their +promise, began to plan to do their own cooking; but in view of the fact +that the oftener they were in the girls’ bungalow the better Cora and +her chums liked it, it was decided to have the boys take all their meals +with the girls. Jack, Walter and Paul would merely sleep in the smaller +building, where they were in close call by means of the telephone. + +For the next two days nothing happened. No more articles were missed, +and the furniture remained where it was put. Then came two or three days +when our friends were off on long picnics, remaining all day, leaving +Mr. and Mrs. Floyd in charge. Nor on these occasions did anything +happen. The bungalow was as peaceful when they returned as when they +left. + +“I guess it’s all over,” said Cora, when nearly a week had passed, and +there had been no more manifestations. “It was a flashlight they were +looking for all the while, and, now that they have it, they are +satisfied.” + +“It might be,” admitted Belle. “I hope it is.” + +There were happy days in the mountains. Sometimes the young folks would +wander far afield or through the woods, taking their lunches and staying +all day. Again they would go berrying or fishing. And they did not get +lost again, for the boys became familiar with the lay of the land. Cora, +too, as well as Belle and Bess, got her bearings, and knew how to find +the back paths. + +Fishing formed a pastime that all enjoyed, for the streams and ponds in +Mountain View were private property, and had not been depleted of their +finny inhabitants. So fish formed many a dainty dish for the table. + +It was one day when Mr. Floyd had gone in to town, and Mrs. Floyd had +departed to one of the more distant bungalows to get it in readiness for +occupancy, that Cora and her friends again went on a little trip to the +small lake which once before they had visited. + +“And make sure everything is well locked,” Belle advised, as they +started away, boys and girls together. + +Windows and doors were seen to, though no one had more than a faint +suspicion that any unbidden visitors would call. They got back rather +early in the afternoon, for a thunder shower was threatening, and as +Jack opened the door and looked in the living room, he called out: + +“All serene. They haven’t been here this time.” + +“That’s good,” said Belle. “I guess we’ve broken the hoodoo.” + +But when Cora and Hazel went upstairs there came simultaneous cries of +surprise from them. + +“Oh, Cora!” cried Hazel. “Look at my room!” + +“And look at mine!” Cora added. + +“What’s the matter?” asked Jack from below. + +“Everything!” answered his sister. “They’ve been up here, Jack!” + +“Who?” + +“The Surprise, of course. Our rooms are all upset.” + +“Is anything taken?” asked Jack, who, with the others, came up to look +at the strange evidences left by the mysterious visitors. + +“We can’t tell yet,” said Cora. “Oh dear! what does it all mean?” + +No one answered for a moment, but Belle and Bess looked half-fearfully +about, as though even then they might be standing in the presence of +some unseen creature. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI—A DANCING LIGHT + + +“This is getting to be the limit of patience!” exclaimed Jack a bit +wrathfully, as he looked at the disordered rooms. “Why can’t we do +something?” + +“We could, if we knew what to do,” said Walter. “But you can’t fight +nothing with something.” + +“It is very intangible,” said Cora. “Oh, all my pretty things scattered +about!” + +“Look and see if anything is taken,” suggested Paul. “If we can find out +what is missing—I mean the character of the things—we can get a better +line on who might have taken them. So far, the flashlight indicates +regular burglars.” + +For a time the girls were so put out, and so nervous over what had +happened, that they could not ascertain what, if anything, was missing. + +Then Cora began to reckon up her belongings, and found that a number of +articles had been taken. Hazel found the same misfortune had visited +her. + +“There are lots of my things gone,” said Cora. + +“What?” asked Walter, producing pencil and paper. “Let’s get at this +systematically.” + +“Oh, well, there are lots of things you—you wouldn’t understand about,” +said Cora, blushing slightly. + +“That’s true enough,” Walter admitted with a smile. “You are not on the +witness stand, so you needn’t mention face powder, nose rings——” + +“Well, I like that!” cried Cora. “As if we used face powder!” + +“Just for that he will have to eat at the second table,” pronounced +Hazel. + +“Come on!” challenged Jack, laughing. “Get down to business. What sort +of things are missing, Cora?” + +“Girls’ things, of course,” said his sister. “We didn’t have much else +up here.” + +And that, it developed, was what was missing. Trinkets, some toilet +articles, including a silver-mounted set belonging to Cora which Jack +had given her the previous Christmas, were gone. Hazel lost a +silver-backed mirror and a box full of bright ribbons. + +“Well, this beats me!” said Walter with a puzzled air, as he looked at +the list he had made. “They took some things they may possibly dispose +of at a pawnshop, but why grown men burglars should want hair ribbons, +or neck ribbons, or whatever ribbons they are, gets me.” + +“What makes you think they were men?” asked Belle. + +“Who else would it be?” + +“Well, we first had a theory that the upsetting might have been done by +boys,” said Cora. + +“Yes, that theory would fit, under certain circumstances,” agreed +Walter. “So would the taking of the flashlight. Almost any boy would +have been glad to get that. But what boy would take a lot of pretty +ribbons, even though he were enough of a criminal to know that he might +be able to dispose of the silver-mounted toilet articles? It doesn’t +jibe.” + +In the main, they were forced to agree with Walter. + +“Well, the fact remains that we have had another visit from the +unknowns,” concluded Walter, “and what are we going to do about it?” + +For a moment no one knew what to say. And then, as brains were busy with +the mystery, several schemes were offered. + +“Put some animal traps about and catch the intruders,” said Jack. + +“One of us stay and watch, while the others go away,” was Paul’s +contribution. + +“Sprinkle talcum powder on the floor, and then we can track them by the +marks,” offered Hazel. + +“Not such a bad idea,” declared Jack, as the others laughed. “It has +been known to work.” + +“Call in the police,” came from Bess. + +“Pooh!” scoffed Cora. “If they couldn’t get back my automobile they +can’t find mysterious thieves who enter through locked doors or windows, +and vanish into thin air with their ill-gotten gains.” + +“Let—let’s go home!” faltered Belle. + +“Nonsense!” cried Cora. “We’ll stick it out. It is just getting +interesting.” + +“That’s all right,” announced Belle, “but suppose—suppose they come in +the night, when we’re asleep, and take one of us?” + +“Let them begin on Bess,” suggested Jack, with a laugh. “No offense, of +course, fair one,” and he bowed, “but you know you could give a good +account of yourself if some one did try to walk off with you.” + +“Don’t dare suggest such a thing!” cried the plump twin. “I’d never go +to sleep if I thought they’d come at night.” + +“They do seem to confine their visits to daytime, and to the periods +when we are away,” said Cora. + +“Which makes it look, more than ever, as if they watched the bungalow +and knew just when to take advantage of our absence,” commented Paul. + +“Oh, don’t say that!” begged Belle. “Just think—they—they may be +watching now!” + +“Well, if they are let’s go and see if we can rout them out,” suggested +Jack. “There aren’t many places of concealment about the bungalow.” + +While the other girls helped Cora and Hazel put to rights the upset +rooms, the boys made a thorough search outside. There did not seem to be +any place where the mysterious persons might conceal themselves in order +to spy on the bungalow. There were trees all about, but the underbrush +had been cut away, and there was small chance for concealment. The boys +also started to make an inspection about their own bungalow, but this +was cut short by a shower that came up. + +“Well, so far, we are just about where we started,” said Jack, as he and +his two chums were eating supper with the girls that night. “We haven’t +found out anything.” + +“But we will!” declared Cora. “I’m not going to be beaten this way. +We’ll organize a campaign.” + +They talked to this end, making a tentative plan that the next time they +went off on a trip, some member of the party would be left behind in +concealment in the bungalow, to see, if possible, who the visitor or +visitors were. + +“And if that doesn’t work we’ll try something else,” said Walter. + +It was evident, though, that after the first few trials the new plan was +not going to work. Though the boys took turns in remaining in +concealment while the others went away, not a sound or sign of +disturbance was noted. No furniture was misplaced, and nothing was +taken. + +“We’ve got to have a new scheme,” said Cora. “Let’s talk to Mr. and Mrs. +Floyd about it. Maybe they can suggest something.” + +But the caretaker and his wife had nothing to offer. They were as much +worried and disturbed by the queer happenings as were the girls and +boys. And though they were generous and kindly souls, they were not +quick thinkers, and had little imagination. + +“It’s just spirits,” said Mrs. Floyd. “Spirits come and go.” + +“There aren’t any such things,” declared Cora. + +“Maybe it’s lightning,” suggested Mr. Floyd. “We have pretty heavy +thunderstorms up here.” + +“Lightning can’t move furniture, nor carry off looking glasses and hair +ribbons,” Cora went on. + +“Well, once lightning struck Jim Dobson’s cabin,” the caretaker said, +“and knocked all his pots and pans off the stove, and burned a hole +right through his clock.” + +“That’s within the bounds of possibility,” admitted Jack. + +“It’s boys!” decided Walter. “You’ll find that some youngsters are up to +these tricks, and they’re cute enough to cover up their tracks.” + +“That’s it,” said Paul. “They’re too cute. They don’t leave any tracks. +How they get in and out again, without leaving a clew or a mark is more +than I can see.” For an examination of the place after the losses +suffered by Cora and Hazel had disclosed no apparent means of egress or +ingress. + +One evening when the girls had gone over to the boys’ bungalow to sit +and talk, Cora, who had gone to the end of the porch, whence a view +could be had of the other building, uttered an exclamation. + +“There’s a light in our bungalow!” she called. “Did we leave one +burning?” + +“No,” answered Belle. “I put it out, as I was afraid of fire.” + +“Well, one’s there now. See how it dances about!” + +Indeed, a light could be observed, dancing up and down, flashing first +from one window and then from another. + +“It’s Mr. or Mrs. Floyd,” said Jack. + +“They’ve gone to the village,” Paul said. “I saw them go.” + +“It’s the mysterious visitors!” cried Walter. “They’re using Cora’s +flashlight! Come on, boys, this time we have them!” + +He ran toward the bungalow, followed by the others. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII—A MOUNTAIN CAVE + + +Advancing rapidly toward the girls’ bungalow, where so many strange +happenings had occurred, and where even now the strange light was +flashing, first at one window, then at another, Cora and her chums—boys +and girls—speculated on what could be the cause. + +“Let the boys go first,” cautioned Belle. “We don’t know what it might +be.” + +“That’s right! Wish the danger on to us!” commented Jack. “But we’re not +afraid.” + +“It’s only those mischievous boys,” declared Paul. “We’ll catch ’em in +the very act now.” + +“But how did the little rascals get in without our seeing them?” asked +Walter. + +“We weren’t watching the bungalow very closely,” said Paul. “They could +easily have slipped in from the back, around on the forest side. They +watched their chance.” + +“But what’s their game?” asked Jack, as they crossed the rustic bridge +on the run, their footsteps echoing dully on the boards. + +“Go easy!” cautioned Walter. “Don’t make so much noise, or we’ll scare +them away before we have a chance to catch them.” + +“They can’t hear us above the noise of the waterfall,” declared Jack. +“But what’s their game? That’s what I want to know. Why are they +flashing that light about so?” + +“There must be two or three of them with lights,” said Cora. “For first +I noticed it up in the window of my room, and a second later, certainly +in less time than any human boy could make the trip downstairs, the +light showed from a window in the living room.” + +“Probably there are three or four of the little rascals,” said Walter. +“Come on now, we’re almost there.” + +“Wait here, girls,” suggested Cora. “Let the boys go ahead, though after +they catch these mischief-makers I’ll feel like giving them a good +shaking myself.” + +Walter, Paul and Jack advanced toward the bungalow. They went softly up +on the porch, looking sharply for a sign of the light. + +“Seems to have gone out,” commented Jack in a whisper. + +“Yes. They must have heard us and switched it off.” + +“Probably they’ve skipped out, too, worse luck!” came from Paul. + +Indeed, as they listened, they could hear no sound from the bungalow, at +the door of which they now stood. All was silent and dark within. + +“Got a match?” Walter asked. + +“Take my flashlight,” returned Jack. “It’s stronger than Cora’s.” + +The brilliant white beam of light from the electric flash which Jack +handed to Walter illuminated the interior of the living room. And at the +sight which met the gaze of the boys, they could not restrain murmurs of +astonishment. + +“Well, would you look at that!” + +“Same thing over again!” + +“And right under our noses too! They never made a sound!” + +“What is it?” called Cora, from where she and her chums stood waiting. +“Did you catch them?” + +“Haven’t yet,” answered Walter, playing the light about the room. “But +the furniture is all upset, just as it was the other day, only more so. +Come on up, girls. I guess there’s no danger. The boys have probably +skipped out, though we may get them yet. Jack, you go around to the side +door. Paul, you cover the back. I’ll take a run through the bungalow and +stir them up.” + +Pausing to light a lamp in the living room, Walter ran up the stairs to +the apartments of the girls, while Jack and Paul formed a guard outside +the bungalow. The girls still remained a little distance away, awaiting +developments. + +But there were none—at least inside the bungalow. Walter came down +stairs to report that no one was up there. + +“But are things upset in our rooms?” asked Bess. + +“And is anything taken?” Hazel questioned. + +“I didn’t stop to look,” confessed Walter. “I was just trying to drive +out intruders.” + +“None came out the door I was watching,” declared Jack. + +“Nor where I was,” said Paul. + +“How in the world did they get away so quickly?” asked Walter. + +No one could answer him and they all turned their attention to the +living room. + +As Walter had said, it was more upset than on the other occasion. Every +chair in the big apartment had been overturned, and in some cases two +were jammed together, the legs interwoven. On a table two chairs had +been piled, while the couch was turned completely upside down, and a +stool perched on top of it, a sofa cushion surmounting that. + +Other sofa cushions were tossed about the room, as though the intruders +had been having a pillow fight, and in fact the whole room had that +appearance. + +“But nothing seems to have been taken,” said Cora, after a look around, +when the furniture had been put to rights. + +“Better not be too sure,” cautioned Walter. “Wait until you take a look +upstairs. I only glanced around.” + +“How in the world could they do all this without making a noise?” asked +Paul. “It seems to have been done in a hurry, and boys are rather +clumsy—I know I was. They ought, by rights, to have stumbled all over +themselves, doing this by the light of only a pocket flash. And yet we +heard no racket as we ran up. It was all quiet.” + +“That’s one queer part of it,” admitted Walter. “It almost makes one +believe in——” + +“Ghosts! Go on and say it,” challenged Cora. “You can’t scare us.” + +“Any more than we are frightened now,” said Belle. + +“Are you frightened?” asked Jack. + +“A little,” she confessed. “Wouldn’t you be—if you were I?” + +“I might be,” he admitted. “But we’ll get at the bottom of this for you, +and catch those youngsters.” + +“If we only could be sure they were boys,” Belle murmured. + +“Who else could it be?” asked Jack. + +“Ask us something easier,” suggested Paul. “Go ahead upstairs, girls, +and see if anything is missing.” + +This advice was acted upon, and when the place was aglow with lights +Cora and her chums took “an account of stock,” as Jack said. + +“Well, any of your ‘war paint’ missing?” he demanded of his sister when +she came down. + +“Only a few little trinkets,” she said, “ribbons and things like that. +If it were not impossible, I should say girls had a hand in this.” + +“It isn’t impossible,” declared Walter. “Girls can do almost anything +nowadays. But it isn’t likely. Some boys are just as fond of bright +things as are girls, and probably these youngsters hope to make neckties +of your ribbons.” + +“Well, what are we going to do about it?” asked Jack, when they had sat +discussing the curious happening for some time. + +“What _can_ we do?” Walter demanded. + +“I know one thing _I_ am going to do,” declared, Belle, “and that is I’m +going home in the morning.” + +“No!” cried Cora. + +“I am if this mystery isn’t cleared up. It’s getting on my nerves +horribly,” and she gave a quick glance over her shoulder as a slight +noise sounded. + +“I did that,” confessed Hazel, who had dropped a book. + +“Don’t do it again, my dear,” begged Belle. + +“Now look here!” cried Cora, “this won’t do. We’re going to stick it +out. We agreed on that, you know. We’re going to find out what this +mystery is.” + +“That’s what I say!” came from Bess. + +“I’m willing to stay,” declared Hazel. + +“Well, since I seem to be in the minority I’ll have to give in,” sighed +Belle. “I’ll stay if you all do, but I really think some one ought to be +in this bungalow with us—one of the boys or——” + +“I’ll stay here,” came from Jack, Walter, and Paul in a trio. + +But when Mr. and Mrs. Floyd returned from town, and heard of the strange +happenings, they offered to sleep in a small room opening off the living +apartment. + +The night, however, passed without incident, though none of the girls +slept well. Morning seemed to quiet the frayed nerves, and the +happenings of the night before did not seem so mysterious in the glare +of the golden sun. + +The season for berries was at its height now, and as many varieties grew +on the mountainside the young campers organized another expedition one +day, about a week after the disturbance in which the light figured. Mrs. +Floyd promised to bake the pies if the boys and girls gathered the +berries. + +They planned for an all day stay, taking their lunch, and early in the +afternoon all berry baskets were filled. Then, as there were some +ominous-looking clouds in the west, they decided to start for the +bungalows. + +They were about half a mile from Camp Surprise, on a new short cut which +Mr. Floyd had mentioned, when Cora, who was hurrying along in the lead, +slipped on a slight declivity and, to save herself from falling, grasped +a bush. + +The bush, however, offered little hold, for it came away in her hand, +and Cora slid on, until she brought up on a level place. She looked +back, to join the others in the laugh at her slight mishap, when her +eyes noted the place from which the bush had pulled away. + +“Why look! Look here!” she called to the others. “Here’s a regular +cave!” + +“A cave?” echoed Jack. + +“Yes. There’s a big hole which I’d never have seen only the bush became +uprooted. Come here!” + +“Come on!” cried Jack. “Let’s see where this leads to. It may have +something to do with the mystery.” + +“What mystery?” asked Bess. + +“What mystery? The mystery of Camp Surprise! Maybe the boys hide in this +cave. Come on!” + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII—THE TREMBLING NOISE + + +Jack, Walter, and Paul tore away more of the bushes screening the mouth +of the natural cave. As they removed the leafy branches the black hole +was seen to be of large size, fully high enough to permit even a tall +man to enter without stooping, and wide enough to enable three to walk +abreast. + +“This is some cave!” exclaimed Jack. “I wonder Mr. Floyd never told us +about it.” + +“Perhaps he didn’t know,” suggested Cora. “I wouldn’t have seen it, and +I was within a few feet of it, if I hadn’t slipped and pulled away the +bush.” + +“Well, we’ll soon see if it amounts to anything,” declared Paul, setting +down the pail of berries he was carrying. + +“Are you girls coming in with us?” asked Walter, looking at Cora and her +chums who had not advanced. + +“I don’t know. Shall we?” asked Hazel, looking at her brother. + +“I don’t want to stay here,” said Cora. “Besides, something might happen +to the boys. But how are you going to explore the cave in the dark? And +it is as dark as a bottle of ink in there. Have any of you your +flashlights?” + +“We can make a torch of wood,” said Jack, when it developed that none of +them had one of the pocket electric lights. + +But just as Jack and the others were about to enter the cave the +mutterings of thunder which had been increasing, culminated in such a +clap that the girls, involuntarily placed their hands over their ears. + +“Come on! Run for the bungalow!” cried Cora. “Else we’ll be caught in a +terrible storm! It’s starting to rain now.” + +Some hot drops hissed down, the prelude to an almost tropical fury of +the elements it seemed. + +“We can go into the cave,” suggested Paul. + +“No!” cried his sister. “You shan’t go in there with this storm coming +up. The cave will keep. Come on, let’s run!” + +She darted off down the side of the mountain, the other girls following. +The boys hesitated a moment, and then, not wishing to desert the girls, +even though the latter ran first, they followed. + +“We can come back to the cave to-morrow,” said Walter. “It won’t run +away. And to explore it well we ought to have the electric lights. Come +on.” + +Paul and Jack followed him, and they all reached the girls’ bungalow +just as the deluge of rain came down. + +For an hour or more the storm raged, blinding lightning and deafening +thunder succeeding one another. But the bungalow was snug and safe, +though once, when a tree was struck not far away, the girls screamed in +terror. + +That crash, however, seemed to be the culmination of the outburst, for +from then on the rain began to slacken, and the thunder died away in +muttered rumblings and the lightning became paler and paler until it was +only a faint, shimmering light. + +Then the dark sky cleared and the sun came out, shining through the +storm-riven clouds and warming the ground and trees which were dripping +from the vigorous bath. + +“We got home just in time,” commented Cora, as they looked out on the +ceasing storm. “A little longer on the mountain and we would have been +drenched.” + +“That cave was a find,” commented Jack. “I want to see what’s in it.” + +“Probably nothing more than a hole in the side of the mountain,” +commented Bess. + +“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” voiced Walter. “I wonder if Mr. Floyd +knows anything about it?” + +It developed that the caretaker did not, though he said there were +several small mountain caves in that section, and this was probably one +of them that he had not chanced upon. + +“Do you think smugglers or pirates might have used it?” asked Hazel, +with a smile. + +“Hardly pirates,” commented Jack. “Too far from the water. But smugglers +might have done so. We’re not so far from the Canadian line.” + +“All bosh!” declared Paul. “It’s probably a garage dating from the stone +age when the early inhabitants used the dinosaur as a jitney!” + +They all laughed at his conceit and talked further of the cave and what +they might find in it when they explored it the next day. + +Whether it was the severe thunderstorm, or whether it was the +culmination of the happenings of the past few weeks was not made clear, +but it was certain that the girls, even Cora, were more nervous than +they had been at any time yet. + +“I—I wish we didn’t have to stay here to-night,” said Belle when supper +was over, and they sat out on the porch, gazing into the fast-gathering +darkness. + +“Why?” asked Cora. + +“Because I—I’m afraid. Come now, aren’t you?” she challenged. + +“Well, I can’t say I like all the mysterious happenings,” Cora admitted. +“And now that we know there is a cave near us—more than one perhaps—and +that we don’t know who—or what—may be in them, why, I can’t say it is +the most pleasant vacation we have experienced.” + +“This bungalow gives me the creeps!” complained Hazel. + +“Why not take ours?” suggested Walter. “It’s large enough for you to +sleep in, and we’ll take this one. Come on, what do you say?” + +“No, not to-night anyhow,” decided Cora. “We’ll keep to our agreement +and stay here. Mrs. Floyd will be here with us.” + +“And not Mr. Floyd?” asked Belle. + +“No, not until later. He has to go to some town meeting I believe, and +will come in around midnight. But nothing has happened in the last few +days—not even a noise.” + +“I’ve heard noises,” confessed Belle. + +“What sort?” Jack inquired. + +“Oh, sort of rumbling, trembling noises, and they seemed to be away down +under the ground. I heard one yesterday, when I came back to get my veil +after the others had gone out. It scared me,” Belle added. + +“I think the waterfall causes those rumbling noises,” said Walter. +“We’ll have to investigate that to-morrow.” + +The boys went to their own bungalow, and Mrs. Floyd came in to occupy +the small temporary bedroom. Her husband would be in later, she +explained, confirming Cora’s information in that respect. The +thunderstorm had cooled the rather oppressive air and there was a +refreshing breeze blowing as the girls went up to their bedrooms. + +Just who awakened first, it would be hard to say. Probably it was Belle, +as she was the lightest sleeper. Cora heard her calling, and at the same +time she was aware of another disturbance. + +“Do you hear it?” asked Belle from her room. + +“Yes,” Cora answered. At the same time she could hear Bess and Hazel +getting up. + +The whole bungalow seemed filled with a roaring, trembling noise, and +there was a slight vibration of the building. + +“What is it? Oh, what is it?” cried Belle, in hysterical tones. + +“I don’t know,” answered Cora. “But I’m going to find out.” + +“How?” + +“By calling the boys. Mrs. Floyd, are you awake?” Cora demanded, going +to the head of the stairs. + +“Yes. That noise awoke me.” + +“Is Mr. Floyd home?” + +“Not yet.” + +“Then I’m going to telephone for the boys!” + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV—THE SECRET PASSAGE + + +Hastily donning robes and slippers, the girls gathered about Cora as she +rang the electric bell which had been arranged to summon the boys in the +other bungalow to the toy telephone. Meanwhile, Mrs. Floyd had arisen +and dressed to let in the boys. The rumbling, trembling noise had +stopped. + +“Oh, why don’t they answer?” cried Cora, impatiently pushing the +electric bell button again and again. + +Then, through the toy receiver came a faint voice. + +“Hello! Hello, there! Is that you, girls? What is the matter?” + +“This you, Jack?” Cora asked. + +“Yes.” + +“Come over as fast as you can! Hurry!” + +“What’s the matter?” he asked. + +“Don’t stop to question! Hurry over!” Cora begged. “It’s that terrible +noise again. Can’t you hear it?” + +“No,” answered Jack. “But we’ll be right over. Come on, fellows!” Cora +heard him call to Walter and Paul, as he left the telephone. “The girls +are scared.” + +“I guess he’d be too, if he heard that noise,” Cora said. “Did you all +hear it?” and she appealed to her chums. + +“I did,” affirmed Hazel. “It sounded like distant thunder.” + +“Could it have been?” asked Mrs. Floyd, who had joined the girls. + +“The stars are shining,” reported Belle, looking from a window, shading +her eyes with her hands from the light in the room. They had partly +dressed and gone down to the living room. There they listened and waited +both for a recurrence of the noise and for the approach of the boys. + +The latter made their presence known first, fairly running along the +graveled way that led from their bungalow, over the rustic bridge, to +the girls’ abiding place. + +“What’s all the racket about?” demanded Jack, as he and his two chums +entered, rather breathless from their run and their hurry in dressing, +the hurry showing itself in the absence of collars and ties. + +“It’s that noise,” said Cora, her voice trembling slightly. “We heard it +again, Jack.” + +“Was it so scary?” demanded Paul, looking at his sister. + +“It certainly was—too scary for words!” answered Belle. “I’m not going +to pass another night in Camp Surprise!” + +“It _has_ been a surprise with a vengeance,” declared Bess. “Boys, can’t +you do something?” she appealed. + +“What’s to be done?” asked Jack. “We’ll have to wait until we hear the +noise again, and then we can tell from which direction it comes. +Suppose, while we’re waiting, you girls just tell us what you heard.” + +They had all heard something different, it developed. At least, they all +had a different impression of the noise. + +Cora described it as a “trembling roar.” + +Bess said it was a rumble, as though a heavy wagon had passed in front +of the bungalow. + +Belle said it reminded her of a deep, heavy sound, such as she had once +heard in a blast furnace. + +It was reserved for Hazel to describe accurately the noise, though none +of them knew her description was correct until afterward. + +“It was like a factory or machine shop next door,” said Paul’s sister. +“It seemed to shake the bungalow as though heavy machinery were +working.” + +“It must be the waterfall,” decided Jack. “Only a large body of water, +tumbling down into some chasm, could make a noise like that. There’s no +machinery around here. Besides, the waterfall is bigger than ever now, +on account of the rain. It must be that.” + +“It wasn’t!” declared Cora, though when pressed for reasons to bolster +up her denial she could give none. “It wasn’t that sort of noise at +all,” she affirmed. “It was more like——” + +“What’s that?” asked Belle so suddenly that the other girls jumped +nervously. + +It was the sound of a footstep on the porch, a firm, unhesitating +footstep. + +“I expect that’s my husband,” said Mrs. Floyd. + +It was Mr. Floyd, and he was, greatly surprised to see the “whole family +up,” as he expressed it. + +“What’s the matter?” he asked, looking around on the circle of rather +startled faces, ending with his wife’s. “Did you sit up to see how late +I got in? Strictly business, young ladies and gentlemen,” he went on, +smiling at them. “The committee had considerable to transact, and I had +to stay.” + +“This is a sort of surprise party,” Cora told him. “Camp Surprise is +living up to its name,” and she went on to tell about the noise, the +others adding bits here and there. + +“Pshaw now! That’s queer!” commented Mr. Floyd. “I have heard them +rumblings myself, but I laid ’em to the waterfall. It’s a curious +cataract at times.” + +“This noise,” began Cora, “isn’t like anything I ever——” + +She paused midway in the sentence, and a strange look grew and spread +over her face, as it did over the faces of the others. + +“There it is now,” whispered Bess. “That—that noise!” + +They all heard it, a dull, rumbling roar that made the bungalow tremble +as when a heavy wind blows and vibrates the timbers of a house. + +“So that’s what it is!” exclaimed Jack. “This is my first experience.” + +“I heard it once, though distantly,” said Walter. + +“Listen!” cautioned Cora. + +The noise seemed to increase. + +“Say, that is curious!” commented Mr. Floyd. “I never noticed that +before. Where does it come from?” + +Hardly had he spoken than the rumbling ceased, and there came a sharp +crash, as though wood had broken somewhere. + +“The chimney’s fallen!” cried Mrs. Floyd. + +“Nonsense, Eliza,” said her husband. “The crash would be up on the roof +if the chimney toppled over. Besides, there’s no wind, and the noise +didn’t come from above, it came from—down there!” + +He pointed to the floor of the living room, which was of bare boards, +with rugs here and there. + +“That’s right!” cried Jack. “The crash was below us. It’s under this +bungalow somewhere. Up with the floor boards! We’ll get at the bottom of +this!” + +There was no doubt on that score. Every one in the room was sure the +noise had come from under the floor. + +“But how could it?” asked Walter. “There’s no cellar to the bungalow; is +there?” + +“None that I ever heard of,” said Mr. Floyd. “I didn’t live here when +the bungalow was built, but I’ve always understood it had no cellar.” + +“It hasn’t,” Cora affirmed. “At least none that you can find. There are +no cellar stairs and the place seems to rest on piles.” + +“But the noise came from down there,” and Jack pointed to the floor. +“The only way to find out is to take up the boards. May we, Mr. Floyd?” + +“Why, yes, I reckon so. We’ve got to get at the bottom of this. It’s +better to spoil the floor than to lose the renting of the bungalow by +ghosts scaring tenants away. Take up the boards. I’ll get an axe and a +crowbar.” + +And so, in the middle of the night, for it was close to twelve o’clock, +the strange work of looking under the floor of the bungalow for the +source of the queer noise was begun. + +“Where shall we start?” asked Jack, when Mr. Floyd had brought the +implements. + +The caretaker considered a moment. + +“If there is some sort of cellar, or space under this bungalow, it must +be near the center of the floor, I’m thinking. We’ll begin there. Don’t +be afraid of spoiling the floor. I’ll take the responsibility.” + +Jack swung the axe vigorously, and, being aided by Walter, soon had +removed two or three of the narrow boards. As they were prying on +another, a queer thing happened. + +A solid section of the floor from the middle of the room suddenly sank +down, and then rolled back, exactly as a sliding door rolls, only this +door was horizontal instead of vertical. Back it rolled, leaving what +was practically a trap in the floor, and as the light shone down this a +flight of steps was revealed leading into darkness. + +“Great bumblebees!” gasped Jack. “See what we’ve done! Uncovered a +secret passage! Now for the solution of the mystery!” + + + + +CHAPTER XXV—THE PATCHED TIRE + + +Crowding around Jack they all gazed down into the opening. For a moment +no one spoke. Then Cora softly murmured: + +“A secret passage.” + +“What else is it?” demanded her brother. “No one knew it was here. You +didn’t; did you?” he asked Mr. Floyd. + +“Never had the least notion of it. How it got here is a mystery to me.” + +“It must have been built in the bungalow, or put in after it was built,” +said Bess. “What does it mean? What’s it all about?” + +“That’s what we’re going to find out,” declared Walter. + +“You don’t mean to say you’re going down—there!” and Belle, with a +dramatic gesture, pointed to the dark opening. + +“Why shouldn’t we go down there?” asked Paul. “It’s nothing but a +cellar.” + +“Cellar!” ejaculated Jack. “We’ll find this more than a cellar I’m +thinking!” + +“Well, the steps are just like cellar stairs,” said Paul. + +“Except they’re of stone,” added Walter, “and that passage isn’t going +to prove as prosaic as a cellar, I’m thinking.” + +“How did you come to open it, Jack?” asked Hazel. + +“That’s what I can’t tell you,” was the answer. “It seemed to open of +itself when the axe, or something, hit on the hidden spring. It’s a +secret door to a secret passage, and the land knows what we may find at +the end.” + +“Why, it’s just like in a book or a play!” gasped Belle. + +“More like a play,” said Cora. “They have sliding doors like this on the +stage where the spirits appear and disappear.” + +“That’s it!” cried Jack, as if an idea had suddenly come to him. + +“What’s what?” Walter demanded. + +“This is where the spirits came from—the spirits that have been having +fun with the furniture,” Jack went on. “Don’t you see? They came up +through this secret door, did what they pleased, and went down again, +closing the door after them by means of some secret mechanism.” + +“You’re not so far wrong at that,” remarked Paul, examining the queer +sliding door in the floor with a mechanic’s eye. “This is a pretty piece +of work. You seem to have smashed the operating part of it with your +axe, Jack, or at least the part of it that opened the door from this +side. It slides back and forth though,” and Paul rolled the section of +the flooring to and fro. + +“Don’t close it!” cried Walter. “You might shut it so we couldn’t get it +open again. We want to explore that passage.” + +“That’s what!” came from Jack. “This is where the furniture-movers came +from all right.” + +“Though why they should want to upset chairs is more than I can account +for,” commented Walter. + +“We’ll find out when we go down there,” suggested Paul. “Wait until I +take a look at this apparatus. We don’t want it closing over our heads +after we get down there.” + +The sliding door, or rather the section of flooring, was comparatively +simple in arrangement. It was made so that it could be dropped down two +inches, and then it could be rolled under the floor on small steel +wheels, which ran on projecting strips of wood. + +As Paul had said, Jack, by a blow of his axe, had destroyed the spring +that controlled the mechanism, but this very chance blow of the +implement had revealed the secret. Probably there was one certain board +which, when pressed on, or shifted, operated the sliding door. And so +cleverly was it fitted into the floor, and so tight was the joining, +that the presence of it would never have been seen. Only by chance had +they happened upon it. + +“Well, who’s going down?” asked Jack, as they stood looking into the +opening. “We’ll need lights, though.” + +“I have my flash,” said Walter. Paul, it developed, had his also. Both +were powerful pocket electric torches, with dry storage batteries. + +“We’ll all go,” suggested Paul. + +“No you won’t!” cried his sister. “We’re not going to be left here +alone, with that queer noise likely to happen at any time.” + +“I guess there won’t be any more noise, now that we have discovered +this,” said Jack, significantly. “This is where it came from all right.” + +“But what caused it?” asked Bess. + +“That’s what we’ve got to find out,” said Walter. “Come on, boys. Into +the secret passage!” + +“I’ll stay with you girls,” said Mr. Floyd. “Let the boys investigate +all they like. But this sure does beat me! To think this bungalow had +this concealed under the floor all the while, and I never knew it.” + +“No wonder this was named Camp Surprise,” said Cora. + +“I don’t believe even them folks that give it that name suspected +anything like this,” Mrs. Floyd remarked. + +“We’ll take all the surprise out of it before we’re through,” Jack said, +as he started down the stone steps. Walter and Paul followed, their +flashes switched on. The stone steps proved to be made of cement well +moulded, and there were ten of them, which led to a flat place under the +bungalow, the floor of which was now three feet above the boys’ heads. +They found themselves standing in a rectangular space, with heavy planks +on the sides. + +“Is it just a cellar?” called Mr. Floyd from up above, where he stood at +the edge of the opening, with the girls and his wife. + +“There’s a long narrow passage leading off somewhere,” Jack called back. +“We’ll investigate. It doesn’t seem to be just a cellar though.” + +“Be careful,” warned Cora, as the boys passed out of sight of those who +were watching. + +Jack, Walter and Paul found themselves in what was practically a planked +passageway, about four feet wide and eight feet in height. There was a +musty, damp smell to it, and when they had walked on a few feet over the +hard-packed dirt floor, Jack said: + +“This goes beyond the bungalow.” + +“What do you mean?” asked Walter. + +“I mean that we have passed beyond the limits of the bungalow. This +passage extends back under the ground, perhaps into the mountain.” + +“Maybe right into that cave we found to-day,” suggested Paul. + +“It might be,” agreed Walter. “There’s something queer about +this—something big, too. Keep on, and we’ll find where this passage +leads to. It’s been built some time, that’s evident.” + +This was shown by the fact that the planking on the sides and overhead +was old, and rotted in some places. And the ground underfoot was packed +so hard that it gave no evidences of footprints or other marks. + +Wondering what lay before them, the boys pressed eagerly forward. And +then, after a sudden turn, the passage came to an abrupt end. They found +themselves up against a stone wall, a veritable, and not figurative one. + +“Well, what do you know about this!” exclaimed Jack in chagrin. + +“This is the end,” said Paul. + +“Perhaps not,” asserted Walter. “This passage must lead somewhere. +Nobody would go to all this work making it, only to block it off in this +fashion. And it’s blocked off solidly enough, too,” he added as he +banged his fist against the stone. Like the steps it seemed to be of +cement. + +“Isn’t there any way of opening that?” asked Jack. + +“There doesn’t seem to be,” Paul said, examining it closely. “Looks to +be pretty solid.” + +“Can’t be,” declared Jack. “Else how could those spirits or boys get +through and up into the bungalow to play tricks with the furniture?” + +“If they were spirits a stone wall wouldn’t stop them,” Paul said. “But +we can’t do anything more to-night.” + +“Can we at any time?” asked Walter. + +“Sure!” cried Jack. “We’ll get crowbars to-morrow and tear down this +cement wall. Then we’ll find what’s at the other end of the passage. Now +come on back and tell the girls.” + +They found their friends eagerly waiting, though there was some +disappointment when the boys reported finding nothing. + +“Not a thing in that passage except the solid wall at the end,” Jack +said. “But we’ll tear that down to-morrow and see what’s beyond.” + +“Now hold on a minute,” said Mr. Floyd. “Of course I’m as anxious as you +folks are to get at the bottom of this. But I don’t own this property, +and before I let you go to work tearing down stone walls and so on, I’ll +have to get permission from the owners.” + +“Well, that’s right,” assented Jack. “Who are they?” + +Mr. Floyd gave the name, and added the information that they, or rather +the one man who owned this particular bungalow, could be reached by the +long-distance telephone. + +“Then we’ll call him up in the morning,” decided Jack. “I don’t know how +far the passage extends, or whether it’s all under the property that +goes with this bungalow, but we’ll get permission before we go ahead.” + +This was agreed to, and when the girls learned that there was nothing to +be alarmed at they went down into the passage also, as did Mr. and Mrs. +Floyd. + +“Well, there’s nothing more we can do,” said Cora. “Let’s get what +little sleep there is left, and then prepare for work in the morning.” + +“It’s almost morning now,” said Belle, pointing to the windows through +which they could see a faint glow in the east, presaging the rising sun. + +They were all too highly excited to sleep much, and they were up early. +Boards were laid over the opening in the floor, it being feared if the +sliding section was closed there might be trouble in opening it again. + +The strange happenings of the night formed the only topic at breakfast, +and then the boys set off for town to get in communication on the +telephone with the bungalow owner. + +“I can’t see why he would object,” said Jack. + +“Unless he made that passage for his own use, and doesn’t want any one +to meddle with it,” Paul remarked. + +“What could he use it for?” asked Walter. + +“Well, that may be part of the mystery. Let’s take a short cut to the +village,” and he indicated a path that led toward the cave in the +mountainside. + +They emerged into a country road, thick with dust, and were trudging +along this, talking on all the aspects of the queer discovery, when Jack +suddenly stopped and stared intently at something in the dirt of the +highway. + +“What is it?” asked Walter. “A snake?” + +“No, marks of an automobile tire,” Jack answered. + +“Nothing very remarkable in that,” laughed Paul. + +“There is in this one,” Jack declared excitedly. “See the big Z mark +where the tire has been patched—vulcanized. Boys, that’s the same mark +as was on the tire of Cora’s car! I believe her machine has been along +here this morning!” + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI—THE DROPPED BUNDLE + + +Walter and Paul stood beside Jack, looking at the queer mark of the +automobile tire in the dust. + +“It is just as Cora described it,” said Walter. + +“I remember, too,” added Paul. “She spoke about it at the time, saying +the man at the garage had made a poor job when he vulcanized on that +patch. He didn’t know his business, that’s a fact. But still there might +be other cars with that same sort of tire, Jack.” + +“Of course, but this is worth taking a chance on. What do you fellows +say?” + +“Tell us first what you want to do,” suggested Walter. + +“Follow this tire mark until we either see the car, or lose trace of +it.” + +“What about telephoning to Mr. Haight about permission to rip down that +cement wall?” + +“We can do that, too,” answered Jack to Paul. “This auto seems to be +headed for town, and that’s where we’re going. If we see the men who +have stolen Cora’s car, we’ll get it back for her.” + +“If the men let you,” added Walter, significantly. + +“Oh, we’ll get help if we have to,” said Jack. “Come on.” + +For some distance it was comparatively easy to follow the automobile +track by means of the prominent impression left by the patch on the +tire. + +“But if you can tell whether it’s going to town or coming from there, it +is more than I can,” asserted Paul, “and I know something about autos.” + +“Of course, I’m not sure of that part of it,” Jack admitted. “But we +have to go to town anyhow, and it won’t be any harm to go by this road, +on the chance of seeing Cora’s car; will it?” + +“No,” agreed Walter. “Perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone that +way, as well as any other.” + +But the hopes of the boys were doomed to disappointment, at least in +respect to getting further trace of Cora’s car, provided the tire marks +were made by hers. At least it was a temporary setback. For after about +half a mile there came a patch of hard oily road, in which the +impression of the big Z was lost. And when next a dusty stretch was +encountered, there were so many marks of automobile tires that it was +impossible to distinguish any particular one. + +“Baffled!” exclaimed Walter, semi-dramatically, after a back-aching +inspection of the road. + +“Only for a time,” added Jack, cheerfully. “After we telephone we’ll +take the trail of the marks, going in the other direction. That will be +back toward the cave, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some +connection between the cave, the passage under the bungalow and the men +in Cora’s car.” + +“Some cute little detective you’re getting to be,” laughed Paul. “Well, +it may be that you’re right. Go on.” + +A little later the boys reached the village, and, after executing some +commissions for the girls, including the purchase for Bess of a box of +chocolates, they found a long distance telephone in a drug store where +there was a booth to insure privacy. + +It was decided that Walter should explain matters over the wire to Mr. +Haight, the owner of the bungalow, and ask permission of him to batter +down the stone wall that brought the secret passage to such an abrupt +end. + +“And while you’re about it, Wally,” suggested Jack, “ask him what the +whole mysterious business means, what makes those noises, and why +spirits, or humans, should have the nerve to sneak into the girls’ rooms +and upset the furniture.” + +“I’d need a night letter to get all that information,” Walter retorted. +“You forget this is long distance telephone rates I’ll have to pay.” + +“We’ll whack up on it,” suggested Paul. “Go ahead, Walter, get all the +information you can.” + +Walter’s stay in the telephone booth was a lengthy one. His chums only +caught disconnected murmurs of his talk, but they had glimpses of his +face through the glass door and there was sufficient astonishment and +satisfaction depicted to whet their curiosity to the utmost. + +“Whew!” Walter exclaimed as he came out. “It was some hot in there!” + +“Never mind about that!” exclaimed Jack. “Can we tear down that wall?” + +“Sure!” gasped Walter. “Mr. Haight was as surprised as we were to hear +about it. He’s coming up to have a look.” + +“Do we have to wait until then?” asked Jack, in disappointed tones. + +“Not at all. He said to go right ahead.” + +“And doesn’t he know anything about the queer goings on, or who upsets +the furniture?” came from Paul. + +“Not in the least. It’s all news to him, though he says Mr. Floyd did +write a letter telling about some strange happenings. Mr. Haight didn’t +pay much attention—said he couldn’t make head or tail of the letter. He +intended to look into the matter when he had a chance, but now he +authorizes us to do it for him.” + +“And couldn’t he give even a hint as to why the sliding door was made in +the floor, and who cut the passage?” asked Jack. + +“No, though he said something which may prove to be a clew. He said he +bought the bungalow from a man who used to be a well-known actor. This +actor gave up the stage, and it was rumored that he was slightly +demented before he died. Now it occurs to me that this theatrical chap +may have had this sliding door made to gratify his whim for sudden and +unexplained comings and goings. Perhaps to frighten his servants. Any +sort of theory might explain it. That’s only a guess, but it’s as good +as any.” + +“It sounds reasonable,” admitted Jack. “At least the actor may have had +the secret door built, but the passage, which leads to goodness knows +where, looks more like the work of smugglers or a band of outlaws.” + +“Perhaps it may turn out to be that before we’ve finished,” said Walter. +“Anyhow, we have permission to go ahead, and the sooner we get at it, +and have that wall down, the sooner we’ll know where we’re at.” + +They hastened out of town, eager to begin work on the wall, and were +soon on the same highway where they had seen the automobile marks. + +“And this time we’ll follow them in the other direction,” said Jack. “We +might as well spend a little time on this end of the game now as later, +and it may be that this will fit in with the rest of the mystery.” + +“Good idea,” commented Walter. + +As the boys retraced their steps they took note of the fact that the +mark of the big Z in the dust became plainer. + +“We were wrong before,” decided Jack. “We were going in the direction +from which the auto had come. Now we’re following it.” + +“To its lair, I hope,” said Paul. “I’m anxious to get back to the +bungalow and have a go at that wall.” + +“Same here,” commented Walter. + +The boys were walking along, their eyes on the ground so as not to lose +sight of the marks, when Jack, raising his head, uttered a cry that +attracted the attention of his companions. + +“Look!” he cried, pointing down the road. “There’s Cora’s car now, and +two men are in it!” + +There was no doubt about it. Cora’s car was of a peculiar purple tint +with maroon trimmings. It had been made especially for her, and that it +was her machine was evident at a glance, especially to Paul who was in +the automobile business. + +“Come on!” cried Jack. “We’ve got ’em!” + +But had they? The automobile had turned out of a field, against a side +hill of which was built a wooden building, like a farmer’s spring-house. +The men seemed to have been using it as a garage, and Cora’s automobile, +occupied by two strangers, was rapidly speeding down the road. + +At Jack’s cry one of the men looked around, and then the machine was +speeded up, raising a cloud of dust. + +“No chance of catching them!” cried Paul. “We’ve got to get another +machine somewhere.” + +“We can’t!” exclaimed Jack. “We’ll have to follow until we see where +they go. We mustn’t lose sight of ’em now.” + +It seemed a hopeless chase, and it was, practically. Jack distanced his +companions, who called to him to come back so they could examine the +building in the lot. + +“Maybe we’ll find a clew there,” cried Walter. + +And finally even Jack gave up. Human legs, even those of an ambitious +youth, are no match for an automobile. But as Jack slackened his pace he +saw something which caused him to run forward again. For a bundle had +been dropped from Cora’s car, and the men did not stop to pick it up. + +“Maybe that will prove the best clew yet,” thought Jack, as he hastened +forward to pick it up. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII—THE GIRLS’ DISCOVERY + + +“Why don’t they come back?” + +“What keeps them so long?” + +“I declare this waiting is worse than——” + +“Doing nothing,” Cora finished for Bess. “Probably the boys can’t find +the kind of chocolates you ordered, pretty little plump maid, and +they’re afraid to come back without them.” + +“Silly,” protested Bess. + +“But they are a long time,” said Hazel, she and Belle having uttered the +two rather impatient sentences at the opening of this chapter. + +The girls were in the bungalow, eating, not exactly bread and honey, but +ice cream and cake, which Mrs. Floyd had made. And they were talking of +the absence of Jack and his chums, who had gone to town to telephone to +Mr. Haight. + +It was now lunch time and the girls, after waiting in vain for the boys, +had eaten, and were enjoying their dessert. Or rather, they were trying +to enjoy it under the rather unappetizing influence of impatient worry. + +“If they don’t come back pretty soon I’m going down there myself and see +if we can discover anything,” Cora declared. + +“Down where?” asked Belle. + +“In the passage, of course. I want to see if we can find where that +queer noise came from.” + +“And who upset the furniture,” added Bess. + +“Well, we’re on the track of it,” said Hazel. “We are pretty certain, +now, that whoever did it came up through that sliding door, and went +down the same way. That accounts for our never seeing any one enter or +leave the bungalow after the manifestations, and that’s why, after the +boys ran over so promptly the time we saw the dancing light, they +couldn’t find any one. Whoever it was just slipped down through the +secret passage, pulled the section of flooring back into place, and +there was no trace.” + +“But where did they go after they got down in the passage?” asked Belle. +“They couldn’t stay there all the while, and there’s no sign of any one +there now, unless they’re invisible. They couldn’t get past the blocking +cement wall.” + +“There’s something beyond that wall, and we’re going to find it!” +declared Cora. + +“Perhaps when the boys come back they won’t have permission to tear it +down,” suggested Bess. + +“Then we’ll begin our investigations from the other end,” Cora said. + +“What other end?” Hazel questioned. + +“The cave! I think this passage connects with the cave. That would +explain a hiding place for whoever has been playing these tricks on us, +and making that strange noise.” + +“You mean the cave you accidentally discovered yesterday?” asked Belle. + +“Yes,” Cora answered. “I’m sure that has something to do with the +mystery. So if Mr. Haight won’t let us open the wall, we may be able to +see what is on the other side by going to the cave, and finding the +passage that connects with the one which comes out into our bungalow.” + +“In that event the stone wall must be movable,” suggested Hazel. + +Cora jumped up so suddenly that she disturbed Bess who was leaning +against her. + +“That’s it! That’s it!” Cora cried. “I wonder we didn’t think of it +before. That surely is it!” + +“What is?” eagerly demanded Belle. “You are talking in riddles.” + +“This whole affair is a riddle, girls!” exclaimed Cora. “But what Hazel +said gave me an idea. That cement wall seems solid, but it can’t be. If +it were no one could pass. So it must be made to look solid to deceive +those not in the secret. Probably it is a balanced stone like the ones +you read of in stories of the cave dwellers. Some of them closed the +entrances to their caves by heavy rocks, set on pivots, turning when you +pressed on a certain mechanism. There are counterweights, just as in a +window, which makes the heaviest rock move easily. I’m sure that’s what +is in the passage—a balanced rock doorway. And there won’t be any need +of tearing the wall down at all!” + +“It sounds like a detective story,” commented Bess. + +“It may turn out to be one before we’re through,” Cora said. + +“Oh, dear! Why don’t those boys hurry back?” cried Belle for perhaps the +tenth time. “Let’s go out and look down the road to see if they are +coming.” + +The girls went out, too anxious and too eager to sit still, but they had +no sight of Jack and his chums. + +“I’m not going to wait any longer!” exclaimed Cora at length. “If I’m +right, there will be no need of tearing down the wall. That is, if I can +find the mechanism that turns the rocky door. And if I’m wrong, there +won’t be any harm in doing it.” + +“Doing what?” asked Bess. + +“Going down into the passage to see what we can discover. Will you +come?” + +“I will!” exclaimed Hazel. + +“Then we will, too, Belle,” said Bess, quickly. “They shan’t call us +cowards, even if we are twins.” + +“Come on,” cried Cora gaily. “We must do something or fly to pieces with +nerves. Anything is better than sitting still, waiting.” + +Back to the bungalow the girls hastened. The hole in the floor was still +open, the sliding door having been braced back so it could not be closed +by any accident. + +“We don’t want to go down there and not be able to get up again,” Cora +remarked. + +“Shall we tell Mrs. Floyd we’re going to see what we can find?” +suggested Belle. + +“No,” decided Cora, after a moment’s thought. “She might not want us to +until we have Mr. Haight’s permission. We’ll just do this on our own +responsibility. We won’t damage the wall any.” + +Down the cement steps went the four girls, into the dark passage. The +boys had left behind their flashlights and these were carried by Cora +and Hazel. The small, but powerful lamps gave a good light. + +“Ugh! It’s rather creepy in here,” complained Belle, looking back over +her shoulder. + +“Don’t be silly!” said Cora, sharply. “Just think of it! We may solve +the mystery all by ourselves.” + +“Let us hope so,” murmured Bess. + +They came to the cement wall that barred further progress along the +passage. + +“First to see if it’s solid rock,” Cora suggested. + +“How?” asked Belle. + +“By tapping. I brought along a hammer.” With this implement Cora gave +several blows against the obstruction. An unmistakable hollow sound +resulted. + +“I believe it’s only a wooden door, covered over with cement stucco,” +Cora said. “Now to find the secret catch.” + +With their flash lamps the girls went over every inch of the surface of +the door. At first it all looked alike, dull, gray, smooth cement. Then +Cora’s light lingered a moment on a certain place. + +“Girls, watch!” she said suddenly. + +With her thumb she pressed on the spot where it seemed the cement was +worn smoother than elsewhere. And then, to the surprise of even Cora +herself, the cement door swung slowly back, revealing a dark passage +beyond. + +“We’ve discovered it!” cried Cora. “No need to tear the door down. Just +as I suspected, it’s on hinges. Come on, girls!” + +Hardly realizing what they were doing, the others followed, their +torches illuminating the plank sides of the underground tunnel. + +“Are you sure this is all right, Cora?” asked Belle, as she stepped +beyond the open door. + +“I’m not sure anything is right about all this mystery,” was the answer, +“but this is a chance we mustn’t miss. Come on.” + +“But where are we going?” Belle queried. + +“I can’t tell, but I think to the cave,” Cora answered. “Don’t be +afraid. There’s no danger.” + +Hardly had she spoken than a noise sounded behind them. + +“Oh! what’s that?” cried Belle, rushing forward. + +“It sounded like a door closing,” said Hazel. + +She flashed her light back on the way they had come, and as she did so +she cried: + +“It was the door. It has swung shut, girls! We’re trapped!” + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII—PRISONERS + + +Walter and Paul stood close beside Jack Kimball, as he turned over the +package which had dropped from the automobile—Cora’s automobile, to be +exact. + +“What is it?” asked Walter. + +“Just what I’m going to find out,” answered Jack. “Feels like a package +of money, if I’m any judge.” + +“Whew!” whistled Paul. “Counterfeiters, do you think?” + +“I’m not so rash as to do any thinking after the queer things that have +been happening,” retorted Jack. “I’m going to make sure before I do any +guessing. Here goes!” + +He cut the string of the packet. It was well wrapped in stout brown +paper, and when Jack, sitting down on a wayside stone and resting the +bundle on his knees, had folded back the covering, there was revealed to +the boys bundles of tickets tied in little packets. + +“What in the world is this?” asked Paul, picking up one of the little +packages. “Tickets?” + +“Railroad and theatrical,” added Walter, as he examined some more +closely. “Say, this is a queer find!” + +Jack whistled shrilly and then cried out: + +“It fits in! It all fits in!” + +“What does he mean?” asked Paul. + +“I don’t know,” Walter answered. “Tell us, Jack. Can you see through the +puzzle?” + +“Part of it. Don’t you see? These tickets—some railroad and the others +for theatres and opera houses—they’re counterfeit—bogus—no good! They’re +just like those that girl in the Spinning Wheel tea room bought. Don’t +you remember, she purchased two of a couple of young fellows. It was +thought at the time they might have been the ones who went off with +Cora’s auto. Now we reverse the process. We find the bundle of tickets +that dropped out of Cora’s car, and we see two men running away in it. +They’re the same ones, or in the same gang, I haven’t a doubt. It’s up +to us to get after them.” + +“You seem to have struck it,” commented Walter. “Do you mean these men +have gone into the business of counterfeiting tickets on as big a scale +as this?” + +“I’m thinking that,” Jack answered. “You see it wouldn’t pay to print a +few tickets. They’d have to make a whole lot of them, and in the case of +theatrical coupons, sell them quickly, for the fraud would soon be +discovered. Railroad tickets might take a little longer to prove +invalid, for they would have to go to the head offices, and there the +railroad men could tell by the consecutive numbers that there was +duplication somewhere. And the tickets would have to be pretty well +distributed—only a few in each city.” + +“That’s what they wanted of Cora’s auto,” suggested Paul. “They wanted +to cover a big area.” + +“Yes,” Jack went on. “And they probably have accomplices in many places. +Once the tickets were printed, they had to distribute them over a wide +territory. Boys, I think we’ve discovered a daring band of +ticket-counterfeiters.” + +“But where do they do their work—their printing?” asked Walter. + +“Why not in the cave?” asked Jack. “It would be the most natural place +around here.” + +“What’s the matter with looking in that shack where the auto came from?” +asked Paul, nodding back toward the field against a hill in which the +shed was built. + +“I was going to suggest that,” Jack went on. “Perhaps that is another +entrance to the same cave Cora found. Come on, we’ll have a look, +anyhow. We’ve got this for evidence, in any case,” and he held up the +bundle of tickets. + +“Are you sure they are bogus?” asked Paul. + +“Well, not positive, of course,” Jack said. “But you’d hardly find so +many kinds of railroad and theatrical tickets, the latter for a number +of different cities, all in one bundle unless something were wrong. I +put these fellows down as counterfeiters of tickets, and you’ll see I’m +right.” + +“Well, we’ll take a chance,” decided Walter. “Now what are we going to +do about getting Cora’s car back?” + +“We can’t do much right away,” said Jack. “But those fellows will come +back, I’m sure. Let’s explore a bit in that shack, and then we’ll go and +rip out that door in the secret passage.” + +The doors of the shack which stood against the hill in the big field +were fastened with a cheap padlock, and Jack, after a moment of +hesitation, smashed it with a stone. + +“Come on in, boys!” he called, swinging back the doors. + +“It’s as dark as pitch,” complained Walter. “Did any of you bring your +flash lamps?” + +“Left ’em at the bungalow,” Paul answered. “I have some matches though.” + +By the glimmer of one he struck, the boys saw that the shack was a sort +of vestibule to a cave, for a big hole extended under the side of the +hill. + +“Jack was right!” Walter exclaimed. “This is a cavern, and it looks to +be a good-sized one. I wish we had a light.” + +“Here’s a lantern,” said Paul, who had lighted another match. “We’ll +explore a bit.” + +By the greater light of the lantern, which was found near the doors, the +boys saw that the cave was indeed a large one, extending well back under +the hill. They went in cautiously at first, not knowing what they might +find, or what hidden pitfalls might lie in their path. + +“Look!” exclaimed Jack, pointing to several boxes lying about. “They +must have been doing, or else are getting ready to do, lots of business. +Those boxes contain paper and cardboard by the looks and marks on them. +And now——” + +“Hark!” exclaimed Paul in a whisper. They all listened. From somewhere +far back in the cave came a dull, rumbling, vibrating noise, and the +ground faintly trembled. + +“There it is again!” said Walter—“that strange noise. Now we’ll find out +what it is. Come on.” + +He started forward, the others following, Paul in the rear with the +lantern, for it had a reflector on and gave better light when carried +behind the boys. + +“Wait a minute!” cautioned Jack. “I don’t seem to hear that noise now. +It’s stopped.” + +“So it has,” concurred Paul. + +They listened intently, then Jack said: + +“I hear another sound, though. It’s behind us, toward the mouth of the +cave. Boys, it’s those fellows coming back. Out with that light, Paul. +We’ll hide in here and surprise them. Quick! Down behind some of these +boxes!” + +Paul extinguished the lantern, and he and his companions sought places +of concealment. They could now plainly hear footsteps approaching, while +they also distinguished the murmur of excited voices. + +Meanwhile, another part of the strange mystery was being enacted with +the girls as principal characters. They had entered farther into the +secret passage, beyond the queer swinging door which had closed after +them. + +“We’re caught!” cried Belle. “Oh, Cora!” + +“Perhaps not,” said Jack’s sister. “If that door opened once for us it +will do it again. But don’t go back. Come on. We must see what is ahead +of us. The boys will laugh if they hear we turned back when we had such +a good opportunity.” + +“Well, they shan’t laugh at _me_!” declared Hazel. “I’m with you, Cora.” + +“And you may be sure we’re not going to be left alone,” cried Bess. +“Come on, Belle!” + +The latter hesitated a moment, looked back at the closed door, and then +went forward. Their lamps made the place fairly light, and they could +see that the passage was planked here as it had been nearer the +bungalow. + +They had gone on perhaps fifty paces more and were wondering when the +queer tunnel would come to an end, when Cora, who was walking in advance +with Hazel, put her hand on her companion’s arm, and cried: + +“Do you hear it?” + +“Hear what?” + +“That strange, rumbling, trembling noise. Don’t you _feel_ it?” + +“Yes! Yes!” cried Belle. “Oh, what is it?” + +There was no doubt of the noise. It seemed to fill the whole passage +with a dull, rumbling roar, and the ground vibrated and trembled. + +“Come on!” cried Cora, resolutely. “It’s just ahead of us. We will solve +the mystery now!” + +Willing or unwilling, Belle, Bess and Hazel followed their leader. With +their electric lights showing the way the girls pressed forward. +Suddenly the passage turned, and, making that turn, the girls came upon +a strange sight. + +Before them was an open door, which gave entrance to a large cave with +rocky sides and roof. Vaulted and large the cave was, and from long +wires fastened somewhere in the roof hung a number of incandescent +lights. In the cave the girls saw several queer machines, and Cora, at +least, recognized more than one of them as printing presses. A gasoline +engine was throbbing away in one corner, and it was this, Cora decided, +which made the rumbling, the throbbing and trembling vibrations. + +Hardly realizing what they were doing, the girls walked forward, and, +passing through the open door, entered the cave which widened out at the +end of the secret passage. + +“What—what does it all mean?” asked Bess. + +Low as her voice was it seemed to awaken strange echoes in the vaulted +cave. And at the sound of it something stirred in one corner. From a +pile of boxes something arose—a something that resolved itself into an +old man with white hair and a long, white beard. He peered from beneath +his bushy white eyebrows, with piercing eyes at the startled girls, and +from his throat came a guttural cry. + +“Ah, ha! Police spies—four of ’em!” he snarled. “I thought we’d be found +out!” + +With surprising quickness in one seemingly so aged the man slipped +behind the girls. They turned, fearing an attack, but they need have had +no alarm on that score. With a quick motion the old man closed and +locked the door through which they had come. + +“Now you’re here—you’ll stay!” he rasped out. “On guard here, Bombee! +Hist! Watch ’em!” + +And, as he called, a raw-boned, half-witted boy shuffled forward, and +squatted, with a horrible grin, in front of the terrified girl +prisoners. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX—TO THE RESCUE + + +Jack and his two chums, waiting in the dark of the cave, wondered who it +was approaching. They had guessed it would prove to be the two men who +had gone down the road shortly before in Cora’s car, but this was only a +guess. And whether these two were the same men who had first taken the +machine was, of course, only a conjecture. + +“What’ll we do, Jack?” whispered Paul, from behind a barrel where he was +crouching. “Jump out on ’em?” + +“No,” was the answer. “Not at first. Let’s see what their game is and +then we’ll have better evidence against them. Just lie low and wait.” + +“Here they come!” cautioned Walter. + +The sound of the footsteps and of the voices was nearer now, and +presently the boys saw the glimmering reflection of light on the rocky +and dirt sides of the cave. + +“We’ve got to work lively!” said a man’s voice. “Those campers are +beginning to suspect there’s something wrong. We’ll have to clear out, +bag and baggage, presses, engine and everything.” + +“That’s right,” added another. “Lucky we have the car. We can take most +of the stuff in that if we have time, and set it up somewhere else. This +graft is too good to give up.” + +“Where’ll we take it?” a third voice asked, and the boys, who could not +see the speakers, wondered how many of them there were. + +“Oh, we can stow it away at——” began the man who had spoken first when +there came an interruption from his companion. + +“No names!” he cautioned. + +“Who’s to hear?” + +“You can’t tell. Since those boys opened up the floor of the bungalow, +there’s no telling what might have happened. Besides, I don’t want old +Jason to know where we are going. I’m going to get rid of him; he’s more +trouble than help.” + +“Especially with that horrible boy of his,” some one said. “Ugh! I can’t +bear the creature!” + +“Still he’s been useful. He did the tricks all right. But it was a +mistake to go to the bungalow. That’s caused all the trouble. We should +have stuck to this end of the cave.” + +“We had to have an emergency exit,” declared one of the men, “and the +bungalow was the best.” + +“Yes, until these campers came. Now that jig is up.” + +“Yes, the whole business is up, I’m afraid. Well, let’s see what we can +get out now before we’re found.” + +Jack and his chums could hear the men moving about boxes and barrels. +They seemed to be taking them outside. What was in the packages the boys +could only guess. And Jack was wondering what he and his companions +could do if the men in the cave should suddenly discover the presence of +the intruders. + +Jack peered out from behind his barrel and had a glimpse of a man moving +about in the light of a lantern the criminals had brought into the cave +with them. But the man’s legs alone were visible and Jack could form +very little idea from them of how the man looked. + +“Isn’t this enough for one load?” asked one of the men. “We don’t want a +breakdown.” + +“Oh, that machine will carry more,” declared another. “We did a fine +stroke when we picked that up. I wonder if those girls have an idea +where their car went to?” + +“They’ll have one soon,” thought Jack, gritting his teeth. “The nerve of +you!” + +“Let’s go back and get that little numbering press,” suggested a man. +“It’s too valuable to leave, and it won’t take up much room. Come on, +and pick up what we can. The fewer trips we make, the better it will be +for us. Come on.” + +The light flickered and the footsteps of the men died away. + +“I say Jack!” called Walter, after a moment’s pause. + +“Yes, what is it?” + +“What’s the matter with our going outside and getting Cora’s auto now. +It’s got a lot of their stuff in it that will be fine for evidence +against them. It’s our best chance—just slip out now and get Cora’s +car.” + +“That’s right,” agreed Paul. “If we let them get away with it again we +may never see it.” + +“All right,” agreed Jack. “You two go out and capture the car. Do +whatever you think best about it. I’ll stay here and follow the men when +they come out. If they have some of their machinery that will be +additional evidence against them. Go ahead.” + +Paul and Walter hurried out, leaving Jack alone in the dark cave. They +left him the lantern, saying they could find their way out by means of +matches. Jack felt a little apprehensive as he was left alone, knowing +that at least three men, who might prove desperate criminals, were in +the cave with him. And if they discovered him, and knew that he was one +of those working against them—well, Jack did not altogether like to +speculate on what might follow. + +Those seeking to solve the mystery were now divided into three parties. +There was Jack, alone in the cave, waiting for the return of the three +men. Walter and Paul were on their way outside to get the automobile. +While Cora and her chums were prisoners of the old man and his imbecile +son. + +Walter and Paul reached the outer end of the cave without incident, and +just without the wooden shack found Cora’s car standing unguarded and +well-laden with packages and some small bits of machinery. + +“Caught with the goods!” chuckled Paul. “This game is coming right into +our hands now. What shall we do?” + +“Drive the car as near to the bungalow as we can,” decided Walter. “The +girls will be anxious about us, anyhow. We can leave the car with Mr. +Floyd and then come back to Jack.” + +A quick examination showed that Cora’s car, though it had been sadly +misused, was in shape for running. It responded at once to the +self-starter and Walter and Paul were soon chugging down the road, +taking off the spoils of the ticket counterfeiters. + +“Camp Surprise ahoy!” called Walter as he ran the car as near as he +could to the bungalow. “Girls, where are you? We’ve got great news! +We’ve solved the mystery!” + +There was no answer to the hail, and Paul looked at his chum rather +apprehensively as they alighted. + +“They don’t seem to be here,” he said. + +“They must be,” Walter argued. “There’s Mrs. Floyd. We’ll ask her.” + +“Why, aren’t the girls in the bungalow?” asked the chaperon, +wonderingly. “I have been away a little while, and just got back. They +were here when I left.” + +A quick search through the bungalow failed, of course, to disclose the +presence of Cora and her chums. The entrance to the secret passage was +still open, but Walter, running down the steps, reported that the girls +were not there, and that the blocking door was closed. + +“But we’ll soon have it open,” he said. “We have permission from Mr. +Haight to tear down the obstruction.” + +“Where is Mr. Kimball?” asked Mr. Floyd, who had been summoned by his +wife from a bungalow not far away, where he was making some repairs. + +“He’s up in the cave, keeping watch on the counterfeiters,” said Paul. +“It’s a great story!” + +Thereupon he and Walter gave a short account of the movements of +themselves and Jack up to the present. + +“But where are the girls?” asked Paul. “We must find them.” + +“Perhaps they went up to the cave Cora found,” suggested Walter. “Let’s +go there and look.” + +“First we’d better see if Jack doesn’t need help,” Paul said. “I guess +the girls know enough to keep out of danger, and it’s daylight yet. +We’ll go to Jack.” + +“I’ll take charge here,” said Mr. Floyd. “I’ve got a man working with me +at the other bungalow, and he and I will stand guard over the auto. When +you come back, if the girls haven’t returned, we’ll go after them.” + +This plan was deemed the best to follow, and Paul and Walter hastened +back on foot to the cave where they had left Jack. + +Cora and her friends, made prisoners in the cave by the old man and his +horrible, grinning, half-witted helper, felt faint and sick as they +realized what might be the outcome. For a moment none of them spoke. The +old man laughed, showing his blackened teeth—a strange contrast to his +white beard—and then he chuckled: + +“Police spies; eh? Come to catch the old man! But he was too smart for +ye; wasn’t he? He caught you; didn’t he?” + +“What do you mean by locking us in?” demanded Cora. “Open that door at +once and let us go!” + +“And call away that—that horrid idiot!” half-sobbed Belle. “If he +catches hold of me——” + +“Oh, Bombee won’t hurt you; will you, Bombee?” said the old man, patting +the half-witted youth on the head. “That is, he won’t if you do as I +say, and don’t try to run. Bombee’s like a dog. He’s my pet, so he is. +Hi, Bombee! Do a trick for the ladies!” + +The idiot gave a shrill cry, bounded up on a box and stood on his head, +his legs kicking in the air. + +“See!” chuckled the old man. “Bombee minds me. If I was to tell him to +bite you he would, but I won’t tell him.” + +“You let us go!” demanded Cora, her thoughts in a whirl with the strange +ideas that came to her mind. + +“I didn’t ask you to come here,” snapped the old man. “And them as comes +uninvited must stay until they’re let go. Ye can’t go out and bring in +the police.” + +“But if—if we promise not to tell the police?” faltered Bess. + +“I wouldn’t trust you,” snarled the old man. + +“Then there must be something here about which you are afraid,” said +Cora, boldly. “Why do you fear the police?” + +The man gave her a sharp glance. + +“Never you mind that,” he said. “When the others come I’ll know what to +do with you. I’ll make you——” + +He paused and seemed to be listening. At the same time the idiot gave a +whimpering cry. + +“Some one’s coming!” snarled the old man. “The police, maybe. You’ve +sent ’em. But they won’t find you. Quick, Bombee—the secret room—open +the door!” + +The half-witted creature bounded forward, and caught up a club. Bess +screamed, fearing the fellow was going to attack them. But the idiot +merely put the stick in a hole in the wall, and pressed on the lever +with all his might. A heavy plank door swung out, revealing a black +room. + +“Into that with you!” cried the old man. + +“No!” screamed Cora. + +“In there with you or I’ll——” + +He looked so terrible, and made such a threatening gesture, and the +half-witted youth seemed so ready to do his master’s bidding that the +girls shrank back from the claw-like hands of the old man, and fairly +ran into the secret room opened by the helper. Once inside they heard +the door close after them. + +“Oh!” gasped Belle. “This is terrible, Cora! What shall we do?” + +“Keep quiet a minute. Let me think. Oh, oh!” + +Hazel flashed on her light. + +“Thank heaven for that!” moaned Belle. “We can at least see.” + +The girls looked quickly about them. The light showed them that they +were in some sort of office. There were desks and chairs in it, and on +the desk were a number of papers, while innumerable tickets were +scattered about. The girls attached no significance to them at first. +There was an incandescent lamp swinging above the desk, and Cora turned +the black key. At once there was light, showing that the gasoline +engine, the rumble of which could still be heard, operated a small +dynamo. + +“Oh, what shall we do?” gasped Bess. + +“Listen!” whispered Cora. + +From the cave outside came the murmur of excited and angry voices. There +followed sounds of great activity, as if boxes and barrels were being +moved about. Once or twice came a snarl from the idiot, and the +commanding voice of the old man. The other voices the girls could not +recognize. + +“I’m going to call for help,” said Cora. “That may be the boys come to +rescue us. Come on, girls! We’ll all shriek!” + +This they did, uniting their shrill voices in an appeal for help. Cora +caught up a paper-weight from the desk and hammered on the door of their +prison. But neither their calls nor the pounding brought an answer. The +noise in the outer cave continued. The men seemed to be quarreling among +themselves now. + +Then came silence. The girls called again but with no result. They +listened. Not a sound came from beyond the door. + +“What has happened?” asked Bess. + +“I can’t even guess,” Cora said. “But don’t worry. We’ll get out of here +some time. Meanwhile, let’s see if we can by any means open the door.” + +Events were now happening in several different places—events connected +with the boys and the counterfeiters. + +Jack was waiting in his hiding place, wondering what would next take +place, and he was getting rather tired of his cramped position, when he +heard footsteps coming back. + +“Here’s where I do a sleuthing act and follow them,” he decided. But he +was hardly prepared for what followed. The footsteps broke into a run, +and there were excited voices calling one to another. There was the +crash of falling boxes, and above everything came a strange unearthly +yell, like that of some animal in pain. + +“What in the world——” began Jack. + +There was a rush of several bodies past his hiding place. Jack looked up +over the head of the barrel in time to see four men, one carrying a +lantern, dash along the cave, and behind them came another with +abnormally long arms. + +Pausing a moment to allow the fleeing ones to get a little ahead, Jack +followed. His brain was excitedly thinking. + +“There’ll be a grand ruction in a minute,” Jack chuckled to himself. +“Things will happen with a vengeance.” + +He heard cries of rage from the shack at the mouth of the cave. +Advancing into it, but keeping himself concealed, Jack peered out. He +noted that the automobile was gone, and from the absence of Paul and +Walter he argued that they had driven away in it. + +The talk of the men confirmed this. + +“They’ve dished us!” exclaimed one, angrily. + +“The car’s gone!” faltered another. “We were too slow!” + +“What are we going to do?” asked a third. + +“Cut and run for it!” some one answered. “The game is up. Scatter, and +we’ll meet again, later. Lively’s the word!” + +Jack looked out to see the two men he and his chums had observed before, +with a third one, start for the wooded slope of the mountain. Then he +saw the old man and the half-witted helper. + +“Wait—wait for me!” pleaded the aged one. “I can’t run fast, I’m all +crippled with rheumatism! Wait!” + +“We can’t wait. Look out for yourself,” one man flung back unfeelingly +over his shoulder. “It’s every one for himself.” + +“Ah! desert me, would you!” cried the old man, shaking his fist at the +fleeing ones. “But I’ll get even with you. Old Jason will get even! I’ll +let the girls out of the cave, and tell them the whole story! I’ll let +the girls out of the secret room in the cave!” + +Jack had been in two minds whether to advance and speak to the old man, +or follow the fleeing ones, but as he heard these words he knew +something else now called for his attention. + +“The girls in the cave!” he murmured. “It must be Cora and the others he +means. They must have gone into the cave while we were in town. I’ve got +to rescue them. Let the men go! I must help the girls.” + +Catching up his lantern, Jack dashed back into the dark cavern. + +“I’m coming, girls! I’m coming!” he cried. “To the rescue!” + + + + +CHAPTER XXX—ALL’S WELL + + +Walter and Paul, hurrying to aid Jack, whom they had left in the cave, +came in sight of the shack just as the old man and his helper were +turning back into it. The two boys did not glimpse the three fleeing men +who had by this time disappeared among the trees. + +“Look—look at that!” gasped Paul, rubbing his eyes. “Am I dreaming, +Wally, or is that an ape or a human being?” + +“It’s real enough—some sort of a crazy chap, I should say. But what’s he +doing?” + +“Calling down the vengeance of heaven, I guess,” observed Paul, for they +saw the old man shaking his fist in the air. + +“Hurry up and we’ll speak to him,” urged Walter. “Somehow I think he’s +part of the mystery.” + +They reached the old man just as he was turning back into the shack. He +did not seem greatly surprised to see them. + +“Will that—er—fellow hurt us?” asked Walter. + +“Not unless I tell him to. Are you the police?” + +“No, but we can get them if you wish,” said Walter. “We are after the +ticket counterfeiters,” he added shrewdly. “We have recovered the stolen +auto, and a lot of the stuff is in our possession. Now if you——” + +“Yes, I’ll give up. I’m too old to run away. They deserted me, and I’ll +tell all I know. I’m getting tired of it anyhow. Being a criminal +doesn’t pay. I’ll give up. Come on back and I’ll let out the girls. I’m +sorry I locked them in, but I thought there was a chance to escape. I +didn’t hurt them.” + +“Girls! What girls?” gasped Walter. + +“Well, I guess likely they’re of your party—from the bungalow,” said the +old man, from whom all the spirit of rage and fighting seemed to have +gone. “They’re in the secret room of the cave. Come on, Bombee, we’ll +let them out.” + +Wondering what it all meant, Walter and Paul followed the old man back +into the cave. He seemed to know his way in the dark, though Walter had +brought an extra flashlight from the bungalow, and now switched this on. + +A little later the two boys, with the old man and the half-witted +helper, entered the main cave where they found Jack running about half +wild with excitement. He was shouting, and muffled cries—the voices of +the girls—came in answer. + +“Jack! You here!” cried Walter. + +“Yes, and the girls are here too, but I can’t locate them, though I can +hear them. They’re locked in some secret room. We must find it.” + +“I’ll let them out,” said the old man. “I locked them in. Hi, Bombee, +open the door.” + +Once more the powerful helper took up the wooden club, or lever. He +inserted it in the opening and the plank door, which could not, at first +glance, be told from part of the cave sheathing, swung open. Then, +tearful and disheveled from their efforts to escape, out rushed the +girls. + +“Oh Jack!” + +“Oh Paul!” + +“Oh Walter!” + +Thus they gasped, the two girls seeking refuge in their brothers’ arms, +while Belle and Bess clung to one another. + +“Oh, that horrible man!” gasped Belle. + +“Bombee won’t hurt you,” said the old man, humbly. “And I ask your +pardon. I had to do what I thought best, but it is all over now. I give +up!” + +“Let’s get out of this terrible place,” begged Cora. + +“Come on, then,” returned Jack. “Why, it’s a regular underground +printing shop,” he added as he looked around. “Here’s where they made +the counterfeit tickets.” + +“Yes, this is the place,” confessed the old man. “You have found our +secret.” + +Walter and Paul started to go out of the cave the way they had come in. + +“There is a shorter way,” said the old man. “It leads to your bungalow.” + +“But that door is shut,” said Cora. “It shut after us.” + +“Bombee can open it,” was his reply. “He knows the secret as well as I. +Come. It opens easily.” + +He led the way back along the passage through which Cora and her chums +had lately come, first unlocking the door which he had closed after +them. When they came to the cement obstruction, the helper pressed on a +certain place, and it swung to one side. A little later the entire party +was in the bungalow, to the great surprise of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd. The +caretakers looked in astonishment at the old man and his assistant. + +“Well, now let’s have some explanations,” suggested Walter. + +“Did you get the auto?” asked Jack. + +“Yes, and a whole lot of tickets and other stuff,” Paul said. + +“My auto?” asked Cora. + +“Yes, we have it back for you,” answered Walter. “And before we lose any +more time we had better get the police after those three men.” + +“I’ll go into town,” offered Mr. Floyd. “And about him?” he nodded to +the man the counterfeiters had called Jason. + +“Oh, I’ll give myself up,” the old man said. “Old Jason is tired of the +game. Lock me up whenever you wish,” he seemed very tired and weary. “I +won’t run away. I’ll stay with Bombee.” + +A little later the authorities took charge of matters, entering the cave +and taking possession of a very complete though small printing plant, +and numberless bogus tickets. Constables were sent to look for the three +men. The old man was arrested and taken to jail, and Bombee, his son, +who would not be separated from him, went with him. But before Jason was +taken away, he told enough to make the mystery clear. + +He was an expert printer, it seemed, and had fallen in with a band of +men who planned to flood the country with bogus railroad and theatrical +tickets. They had set up their plant in the cave, the existence of which +they had learned by accident and kept secret. + +There were three entrances to the cave. One was in the side of the hill, +where the men had put up a shack in order to conceal the opening. The +second was the one discovered by accident by Cora. This was not used, +being too small. And the third was through the bungalow and the passage. + +This passage, the secret sliding door in the floor, and the cement door +that blocked the passage (it developed later) had been constructed by +the actor who formerly owned the bungalow. Just what his object was no +one knew, but his unbalanced mind probably built a romance about the +great dark hole. The cave was then used for nothing, but it admirably +suited the purposes of the ticket men who fitted it up as they wished. + +To it they brought their machinery and began issuing tickets, Jason, +aided by the half-witted Bombee, doing the printing, while the others +distributed the product. It was the rumble and clank of the gasoline +engine and presses that made the queer trembling sounds heard by the +girls and boys. The rocky cave acted as a sort of telephone, or sound +box, and sometimes the noises would be louder than others. The fact that +the engine stood on a strata of rock upon which the bungalow was +constructed accounted for the trembling and vibration of the building. + +“We did the printing when you folks were away from the bungalow at most +times,” said old Jason. “We found out when you were gone by means of the +secret passage. But sometimes we had to work on a rush order when you +were on hand.” + +“Then is when we heard the noise,” said Jack. + +“But who upset the furniture, and took our things?” asked Cora. + +“Oh, that was Bombee,” said the old man. “I could not always watch him, +and he would slip away, open the secret door of the passage and get up +into the bungalow through the floor. He is very mischievous, but gentle. +He likes to upset chairs and tables. He used to do that trick, among +others, in a theatre where he used to show as a human ape. He didn’t +look unlike an ape, you see.” + +“He took your ribbons and things, too. They are in the cave. I thought +they came from your bungalow, but I did not dare return them. Once he +brought in a flashlight.” + +“That was the time we saw the queer, dancing beams upstairs and down,” +said Hazel. + +Before our friends had occupied the bungalow, Bombee had been up to his +tricks. He had upset the furniture, giving rise to the strange stories +about Camp Surprise, and he it was who had taken the silver, having a +love of bright things. He would slip out of the cave, open the passage +door (having seen Jason operate the mechanism), get into the bungalow by +means of the opening in the floor, upset the furniture and then run out +through the passage again, closing the doors after him, so there was +nothing to show how any intruder had gotten in and out. + +It was learned that the time the boys and girls saw the two men at the +tumbled-down old house, that the counterfeiters had gone there to meet +some persons to whom they gave bogus tickets to dispose of. The men +probably realized that our friends were on their trail and fled. The +taking of Cora’s car had been done on the spur of the moment, the need +of some means of getting quickly about the country to dispose of the +tickets being pressing. + +The crash heard in the night, which caused the floor to be taken up, was +caused by one of the men dropping a box of tickets. He was storing it in +the passage near the secret door. Occasionally, when the bungalow was +not occupied, the men used it, and it was in this way that the big, +half-witted youth learned to find his way there. + +“Well, I guess that ends the surprises of this camp,” said Cora, as the +officers took Jason away. “Now we can enjoy our stay here.” + +And the surprises were indeed over. The secret door in the floor was +closed, and fastened, the mechanism having been broken. After the +printing apparatus had been taken out our boys and girls, and many +others inspected the cave. It was a large and curious place, and the +criminals had made it their living and hiding place for some time. + +Though a diligent effort was made to capture the three men, they were +not apprehended, and in view of his confession Jason was given only a +light sentence. + +Cora’s recovered car was put in good order and used some, though the +mountain roads were not very good for automobile riding. + +“And now for some glorious times!” cried Bess one day, about a week +after the mystery had been cleared up. “Boys, we’ll give you——” + +“A big chicken dinner!” interrupted Jack. “That’s what we want.” + +“Well, you deserve it,” said Cora, “for the clever way you laid your +plans.” + +“You girls were a bit clever too, getting into the cave by the secret +door while we were off in town telephoning,” said Walter. “We give you +the credit for that.” + +“Everything came out all right all around,” remarked Hazel. “But, oh! we +were scared stiff for a while.” + +“I should say so!” ejaculated Belle. “That horrible old man and his +awful son!” + +“Well, all’s well that ends well,” said Bess. “And I have a whole box of +chocolates to go with the chicken dinner.” + +“Marvelous—a whole box!” echoed Cora. “How did she ever manage it, +girls?” + +The chicken dinner was voted a great success. By this time the summer +season was in full swing, and many cottages and bungalows in Mountain +View were occupied. Cora and her friends entered with zest into the +jolly life, and they were the recipients of much attention, for the +story of Camp Surprise had been told in many papers. + +“But it’s nicer not to hear queer noises and see strange lights,” said +Cora. “And it’s a relief to come in and find the furniture the way you +left it.” And the others agreed with her. + +“Will we ever have another time like this?” asked Belle. + +“Perhaps. Who knows?” returned Cora. And leaving that question to be +settled later we will say good-bye to the Motor Girls. + + + THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Motor Girls at Camp Surprise, by +Margaret Penrose + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR GIRLS AT CAMP SURPRISE *** + +***** This file should be named 36426-0.txt or 36426-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/4/2/36426/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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