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+Project Gutenberg's The Motor Girls in the Mountains, 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 in the Mountains
+       or, The Gypsy Girl's Secret
+
+Author: Margaret Penrose
+
+Release Date: March 5, 2012 [EBook #39063]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE MOTOR GIRLS
+                            IN THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+                                   Or
+
+                        The Gypsy Girl's Secret
+
+                                   BY
+                            Margaret Penrose
+
+
+                          Copyright, 1919, by
+                         Cupples & Leon Company
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                             PAGE
+  I. Breaking the Speed Limit                                            1
+  II. Quick Thinking                                                    12
+  III. The Missing Purse                                                21
+  IV. The Sterner Sex                                                   29
+  V. A Group of Vagabonds                                               39
+  VI. A Perplexing Problem                                              47
+  VII. The Mountain Camp                                                54
+  VIII. Fun in the Open                                                 64
+  IX. The "Water Sprite"                                                74
+  X. Springing a Leak                                                   83
+  XI. Cora Makes a Discovery                                            92
+  XII. An Ugly Customer                                                100
+  XIII. A Momentous Step                                               107
+  XIV. In the Wilderness                                               115
+  XV. Consternation                                                    125
+  XVI. Help From the Sky                                               132
+  XVII. A Joyful Reunion                                               142
+  XVIII. Good News Travels Fast                                        150
+  XIX. An Uninvited Guest                                              159
+  XX. The Greedy Marauder                                              170
+  XXI. The Drifting Boat                                               177
+  XXII. The Gypsy Camp                                                 183
+  XXIII. A Tangled Skein                                               189
+  XXIV. The Knocking at Midnight                                       195
+  XXV. Falsely Accused                                                 202
+  XXVI. Council of War                                                 209
+  XXVII. A Narrow Escape                                               216
+  XXVIII. Waylaid                                                      223
+  XXIX. The Plot                                                       230
+  XXX. Brought Together                                                237
+
+
+
+
+                             THE MOTOR GIRLS
+                             IN THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+                        BREAKING THE SPEED LIMIT
+
+
+"Say, girls, isn't this the best thing ever?"
+
+Cora Kimball, the girl whose hand was on the wheel of the motor car as it
+sped swiftly along a sun-flecked country road, put the words in the form
+of a question, but they were really an exclamation drawn from her by
+sheer delight in living. She was gloriously indifferent as to an answer,
+but the answer came just the same from the two pretty girls who occupied
+the seat behind her.
+
+"It's perfectly grand!" cried Belle Robinson, the more slender of the
+two, as she snuggled down still more luxuriously in the soft cushions of
+the automobile.
+
+"It seems to me yet as though it must be a dream," declared her twin
+sister Bess, who was considerably larger than either of her companions.
+"Pinch me, somebody, so that I can be sure it's real."
+
+Cora reached over mischievously and took her at her word.
+
+Bess drew back with a little squeal.
+
+"Ouch!" she exclaimed. "You took a piece out that time!"
+
+"Well, what if I did?" laughed Cora. "You can spare a little without
+missing it."
+
+"You ought to be thankful to Cora for helping you to reduce," put in her
+sister slyly.
+
+Bess flushed a trifle, for her "plumpness"--she abominated the word
+"stout" and avoided it as if it were the plague--was rather a tender
+point with her.
+
+"I don't care for such drastic methods," she retorted. "I'd rather take
+the flesh off more gradually. Besides," she added with a show of pride,
+"I'm going down quite fast enough as it is. I'm two pounds lighter than I
+was last week."
+
+"Swell chance you have of getting thinner when you will keep nibbling at
+chocolate creams," remarked her sister unbelievingly. "You might hand
+some over, you stingy thing, instead of keeping them all to yourself."
+
+"No such thing!" denied Bess, producing a small box. "They're lemon
+drops, and everybody knows _they_ don't make you"--she was going to say
+"fat," but checked herself just in time to substitute "plump."
+
+"Slip one into my mouth, Belle," commanded Cora. "I don't dare to take my
+hand from the wheel."
+
+"I noticed that you took it away fast enough when you wanted to pinch
+me," remarked Bess.
+
+"That was different," returned Cora. "You asked me to, and I'd do a good
+deal to oblige a friend."
+
+"Heaven save me from my friends," sighed Bess, and then they all laughed.
+
+For laughter came easy on a day like this. The sun of early August was
+tempered by a light breeze that removed any suspicion of sultriness. The
+road was a good one, and Cora's car under her expert guidance glided
+along with scarcely a jar. Great trees on either side provided a grateful
+shade. Squirrels scolded noisily in the branches, and here and there a
+chipmunk slipped like a shadow along the fences and the hum of the
+locusts filled the air with a dreamy harmony. A bobolink flitted across
+the road, dropping a whole sheaf of silver notes from his joyous throat.
+It was a day on which it was good to be alive.
+
+"To think that we're really on our way to the Adirondacks," murmured
+Belle delightedly. "I've wanted to go there ever since I wore pigtails."
+
+"And to Camp Kill Kare," said Bess. "The very name seems to promise all
+kinds of fun."
+
+"Doesn't it?" agreed Cora. "And how much more fun it is to go this way
+than in stuffy old railway cars."
+
+"Are you sure we can get there by to-morrow night?" asked Belle.
+
+"We can if nothing happens to the car," answered Cora. "It's in splendid
+shape now, and we're fairly eating up the miles. Of course, if it rains
+and the roads get muddy it may take us a little longer. But after all the
+rain we had last week, I guess we can be sure of good weather. There
+isn't a cloud in the sky now."
+
+"Did you finally decide to stay at your Aunt Margaret's house to-night?"
+asked Bess.
+
+"Yes," replied Cora. "Isn't it lucky that her home is just about half-way
+on our trip? If it hadn't been for that, we'd have had to bring a
+chaperon along with us, and that would have been a nuisance. I suppose
+they are a necessary evil, but I'm awfully glad when we get a chance to
+do without one."
+
+"I suppose your Aunt Betty will be at Kill Kare when we get there,"
+remarked Belle.
+
+"She's already there," answered Cora. "We got a letter from her
+yesterday, saying that everything was all ready for us and that she was
+just dying to see us. And with Aunt Betty in mind, I'll take back what I
+said about chaperons. She's a perfect dear, and I'm sure you girls will
+fall dead in love with her."
+
+"I've no doubt we shall," answered Bess. "I'm prepared to love her just
+from your description. But say, girls," she continued, glancing at her
+wrist watch, "do you know that it's after twelve o'clock? Don't you think
+we'd better be looking about for some place to stop to get lunch?"
+
+"Hear that girl talk!" mocked Cora. "And she's the one that's always
+talking about reducing!"
+
+"Oh, that this too, too solid flesh might melt," quoted Belle.
+
+"If the truth were known, I'll wager I don't eat as much as either of you
+two," retorted Bess. "I had only a cup of coffee and two rolls this
+morning."
+
+"You had more than two rolls," declared Belle, "I counted them and there
+were at least ten."
+
+"What do you mean, Belle Robinson?" asked Bess, turning to her sister in
+bewilderment.
+
+"Rolls on the floor, I mean," explained Belle, "when you were going
+through your reducing exercises."
+
+Bess turned her eyes to heaven in mute appeal.
+
+"My own sister giving me away!" she moaned. "Well, our relatives are
+wished on us, but thank goodness I can choose my friends."
+
+"Stop your scrapping, girls," interposed Cora, "and listen to me. There
+isn't any hotel in sight, and even if there were, who wants to go indoors
+on a day like this? Mary put up a splendid lunch before we started.
+What's the matter with dining _al fresco_?"
+
+"Listen to the girl!" exclaimed Belle. "What does she mean by that?"
+
+"Sounds to me like a sleight of hand performer," murmured Bess.
+
+"You're thinking of 'presto change,'" laughed Cora. "No, my benighted
+sisters. To put the thing in terms that your limited intelligence can
+grasp, I meant that we would eat in the open air."
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Belle.
+
+"Right here in the car?" asked Bess.
+
+"Why, we could," answered Cora; "but don't you think it would be better
+yet to find some nice little place by the side of the road? I'm a little
+cramped from sitting so long, and I suppose you are too. It will do us
+good to have a change."
+
+"Let's choose some place where there's a brook or a spring," suggested
+Bess. "I'm dreadfully thirsty."
+
+"Been eating too many lemon drops," said Belle.
+
+"No more than you," retorted Bess.
+
+"No. But, gracious, that's too many," sighed her sister. "Less candy and
+more sandwiches for me when we are in the open air like this! Come,
+where's that brook?"
+
+"I've no doubt we can find such a place," observed Cora, as she put a
+little extra speed in the car. "You girls keep your eyes open and tell me
+when to stop. I've got all I can do to watch the road and save some dog
+or chicken from untimely death."
+
+Not many minutes had elapsed before Belle reached over and touched Cora's
+arm.
+
+"The very spot!" she exclaimed. "There's a brook and some trees that were
+just intended for a picnic party."
+
+Cora guided the car to the side of the road. The girls got out and
+stretched their cramped limbs with a sigh of relief. The lunch basket was
+taken from beneath the seat and carried to a cool and shady spot beneath
+a clump of great trees that stood a few feet away from the road. From a
+brook that rippled over the stones with a musical murmur, they brought a
+supply of water. A robe from the car was spread out on the grass, and
+napkins from the basket served as miniature tablecloths.
+
+Then Mary's offerings were brought to light, and amply maintained that
+person's reputation for culinary skill. Lettuce sandwiches, hard-boiled
+eggs, fried chicken legs, lemon tarts and fruit followed each other in
+rapid succession. Then, too, there was a thermos bottle filled with hot,
+fragrant coffee.
+
+Their morning in the open air had sharpened the appetites of the girls,
+and they ate with a zest that would have made a dyspeptic turn green with
+envy. Bess, to be sure, tried feebly to bear in mind her rules for
+dieting, but the temptation was too great, and for that once anyway her
+good resolutions went by the board.
+
+"I could die happy now," she murmured, between bites of a lemon tart.
+
+"You will die anyway if you eat much more," said her sister severely.
+"Bess Robinson, I'm ashamed of you."
+
+"You'll have to take twenty rolls to-morrow instead of ten, to make up
+for this," laughed Cora.
+
+"To-morrow's a new day," replied Bess mutinously. "Sufficient unto the
+day is the evil thereof."
+
+"She's a hopeless case, I'm afraid," sighed Belle. "But come along now,
+girls, and gather up these things. We want to get to the house of Cora's
+aunt before it gets dark."
+
+"Behold a stranger cometh," remarked Cora, as a horse and buggy came in
+sight, with a young man holding the reins.
+
+The vehicle approached rapidly, and the eyes of the driver lighted up as
+he caught sight of the three girls. Instead of driving by, he reined up
+at the roadside and jumping from the buggy made his way toward the little
+party.
+
+He was of medium height, flashily dressed, and had a weak,
+dissipated-looking face. The girls had risen to their feet and drawn a
+little closer together as he approached.
+
+He took off his hat and bowed, with a smile that he tried to make
+ingratiating.
+
+"I see I'm in luck," he remarked. "Just in time to have a bite of lunch,
+if there's any left."
+
+Cora, to whom the other girls looked for leadership, froze him with a
+glance.
+
+"If you're hungry, you can probably get something to eat at the next
+town," she said. "We haven't anything for tramps."
+
+The man flushed uncomfortably, and his impudent assurance went down
+several degrees beneath her stare.
+
+"What's the use of being so stiff?" he expostulated. "I'm only trying to
+be friendly."
+
+"That's just what we object to," replied Cora. "We don't want your
+friendship. My brother will be along shortly, and perhaps he will
+appreciate it more than we do."
+
+The young man cast a hurried glance up and down the road. It was evident
+that, however strong his craving for feminine society, he had no desire
+to meet the brother.
+
+"Oh, well," he muttered, as he made his way toward the buggy, "you
+needn't be so quick to take offence. There are plenty of girls who would
+be glad of my company."
+
+And with this, that was meant to be a Parthian shot, but that only
+provoked a nervous desire to laugh on the part of the girls, he gathered
+up the reins and drove off.
+
+They saw him go with immense relief, for there was no other man in sight,
+and his impudence had alarmed as well as offended them.
+
+"Well, of all the nerve!" ejaculated Belle.
+
+"You certainly can freeze when you want to, Cora," laughed Bess.
+
+"How lucky it was that you thought of Jack," said Belle. "Did you see the
+frightened look that came into his eyes?"
+
+"That sort of man always is a coward," replied Cora. "Perhaps he won't be
+so free and easy when he meets girls alone again. But let's get busy now
+and hustle these things back into the car."
+
+They soon had the thermos bottle and the depleted lunch basket tucked
+snugly away. The twins settled down in the rear seat, Cora threw in the
+clutch, and the car started.
+
+They had gone perhaps a mile, when they descried a car coming at a rapid
+rate from the opposite direction.
+
+"That man seems to be trying to break the speed limit," remarked Cora, as
+she drove her own car close to the right-hand side of the road so as to
+give plenty of room.
+
+"Like Jehu, the son of Nimshi, he driveth furiously," observed Belle.
+
+Just then the gate of a near-by farmhouse was pushed open, and a little
+child about three years old toddled out into the road, right in the path
+of the onrushing car.
+
+A shriek went up from the girls.
+
+"Oh, girls," screamed Bess, rising from her seat, "that child will be
+killed!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+                             QUICK THINKING
+
+
+For one tense moment it seemed as though nothing could avert a terrible
+tragedy.
+
+A woman burst out of the house and ran screaming toward her child. But it
+was clearly impossible for her to reach the little one in time to save
+it.
+
+The child, startled by the screams, stood helplessly right in the path of
+the Juggernaut that seemed doomed to crush it.
+
+The driver of the car had seen the danger, and he instantly threw out the
+clutch and put on the brakes. But he was too near to stop in time.
+
+There was only one thing to do, and, like a gallant man, he did it. He
+whirled the wheel around, and the car, its speed diminished but still
+considerable, dashed into a tree by the side of the road. The driver, an
+elderly man, was thrown out and lay stunned and bleeding.
+
+The mother rushed to the little one and gathered it up into her arms with
+sobs and exclamations.
+
+The girls, who had been unable to move and had sat paralyzed with horror,
+breathed a huge sigh of relief.
+
+"Thank God, the baby's saved!" cried Bess.
+
+"Yes," exclaimed Cora, "but the man may be killed! Let's see what we can
+do to help him."
+
+The three girls jumped from the car and rushed over to the injured man.
+
+While the girls are giving first aid to the man, and the mother is crying
+and crooning over her child, it may be well for the sake of those who
+have not followed our Motor Girls in their previous adventures to state a
+little more fully just who they were and what they had been doing up to
+the time this story opens.
+
+Cora Kimball and her brother Jack--the same Jack who had been brought in
+so handily in their encounter with the impudent young man--were the
+children of a wealthy widow living in Chelton, a New England village
+located not very far from the New York line. They were both healthy,
+normal, wideawake young people, and took vast delight in motoring. Either
+in a motor car or a motor boat they were equally happy and equally at
+home; and Cora was quite as expert in managing them as her brother.
+
+Cora's special chums were Belle and Bess Robinson, twin daughters of Mr.
+and Mrs. Perry Robinson, the former a well-to-do railroad man, living in
+the same town as the Kimballs. Belle, as we have seen, was tall and
+slender--"_svelte_" was the way she liked to put it. And Bess--well, Bess
+was "plump," but a very pretty and charming girl nevertheless. Of the
+three girls, Cora was the natural leader, and the trio were almost
+inseparable.
+
+Jack Kimball, Cora's brother, was a manly, likable chap and devotedly
+attached to his sister, although at times he liked to "lord it" over her
+with truly masculine complacency. He was a student at Exmouth College,
+and his most intimate friend was Walter Pennington, who spent most of his
+vacations and whatever other spare time he had at the Kimball home.
+Perhaps Jack's charming sister was the special magnet that drew Walter
+there so often---- But there, it isn't fair to delve too curiously into
+matters of that kind.
+
+Paul Hastings, who had a position in an automobile concern, was a close
+friend of Jack and Walter, and the girls too liked him very much.
+
+The love of motoring that all six, boys and girls alike, shared in common
+had led to many trips to various parts of the country, in the course of
+which they had met with many surprising and sometimes thrilling
+adventures. Both Cora and the Robinson twins had cars of their own, but
+as Cora seemed to take the lead in everything, most of the tours were
+taken in her car.
+
+Their trips took them at one time or another to almost every section of
+the interior and the coast. At Lookout Beach, through New England, on
+Cedar Lake, at Crystal Bay, on the coast, even as far as the West Indies,
+all that happened to them on these expeditions, and it was much, is told
+in the previous volumes of the series.
+
+In the volume immediately preceding this one, called "The Motor Girls at
+Camp Surprise," a number of very strange happenings are recorded. To
+begin with, Cora's car was stolen and she was almost inconsolable, for
+though her mother would have bought her one to replace it, she had an
+affectionate attachment for the old one that had so many happy memories
+connected with it. They found no real track of the thieves until, when
+they were spending the early part of the summer at Camp Surprise, they
+came across a gang of ticket counterfeiters, who had set up their plant
+in an underground passage leading from the very house where the girls
+were staying.
+
+And now, as the reader has seen, the girls were on their way to spend the
+late summer in the heart of the Adirondacks. And right at the outset they
+had been witnesses of what was so nearly a tragedy that for the moment
+their hearts had stood still.
+
+All alert, now that their terror for the child's safety was dispelled,
+the girls hurried over to the driver, who still lay stretched out in the
+road. As they approached he opened his eyes and looked about him in a
+dazed way.
+
+"The child," he murmured, as he brushed his hand over his forehead. "Is
+it safe?"
+
+"It's all right," replied Cora cheerily, immensely relieved to find that
+the driver was not dead, as she had feared. "But don't try to talk now
+until you feel a little stronger."
+
+She knelt down and took his head upon her knee.
+
+"Run to the house, girls, and get some water," she commanded, taking
+charge of things, as she always did in a crisis.
+
+The farmer's wife, who had now got back some of her self-control, led the
+way into the house, and in a moment the girls were back with plenty of
+cool water and some linen. Cora washed a cut in the man's head, deftly
+tied a bandage around it, and put some water to his lips, which he drank
+eagerly.
+
+The cut was not a serious one, and the farmer, who had joined the group,
+announced after a brief examination that no bones seemed to be broken. He
+was urgent that the man should be taken into the house and a doctor sent
+for, but the injured man, who was getting stronger by the minute and
+seemed to have a very determined will of his own, vetoed this
+emphatically.
+
+"There's nothing the matter with me except for the shock and a few
+bruises," he declared. "I'll be as well as ever as soon as this dizziness
+passes away."
+
+He proved himself a true prophet, for at the end of ten minutes he was on
+his feet and looking ruefully at his car.
+
+"Pretty much of a wreck, I imagine," he remarked with a twisted smile, as
+he walked around it and took stock of the damage.
+
+The girls joined in the inspection, and as they knew as much about
+automobiles as the man himself, they satisfied themselves that he had not
+exaggerated much in describing it as a "wreck." The wheels and part of
+the body were intact, but the machinery was badly knocked out of gear. It
+was clear that it would not be able to go under its own power.
+
+"There's a garage a few miles further on," the stranger remarked. "I'll
+have to leave word there and have them come back to get it."
+
+"No need of doing that," volunteered Cora. "We're going in that
+direction, and we'll be glad to tow you there."
+
+The man hesitated.
+
+"It's very good of you," he replied, "but I'm afraid I've taxed your
+kindness too far already."
+
+"It won't be any trouble at all," returned Cora cordially. "You can sit
+in the front seat with me, and as my car is a powerful one we'll be able
+to tow yours easily."
+
+He demurred a little longer, but finally accepted the offer with hearty
+thanks. The farmer brought out a rope, and with the aid of a couple of
+farm hands got the wrecked machine out in the road. Then the two cars
+were connected and the girls started off, with a parting wave of the hand
+and a smile directed especially to the little toddler, who was held
+tightly in the mother's arm.
+
+"That child won't be allowed to go out of the gate alone again in a
+hurry, I guess," laughed Belle.
+
+"It wasn't the child's fault," remarked the stranger. "I was going
+altogether too fast. If I'd been moving at a moderate rate I could have
+stopped in plenty of time. Fact is, I was thinking of something
+else--none too pleasant thoughts they were either--and I didn't realize
+just how fast I was going."
+
+"You were very lucky to get off as well as you did, Mr.----" Cora
+hesitated inquiringly.
+
+"Morley," supplemented the stranger. "Bless my heart, here I am accepting
+all this service from you young ladies and forgetting to introduce
+myself. Samuel Morley is my name, and I live in the town of Saxton, about
+twenty miles from here. Yes, as you were saying, I was very lucky to get
+off as well as I did--a good deal luckier than I deserved. Though perhaps
+it would have been just as well if I had been killed after all."
+
+He brought out the last sentence so savagely that the girls were
+startled.
+
+"You mustn't mind what I say," he said apologetically, as he noted the
+look on their faces. "I'm just a crabbed old stick anyway. If I hadn't
+been that, I wouldn't have so many painful memories now. Sometimes they
+come crowding in upon me until it seems as though I couldn't stand them.
+But I wouldn't want to say anything that would shadow the faces of young
+girls. There was a young girl once----"
+
+He caught himself up sharply.
+
+"But here I am doing all the talking," he said. "That's a sign I'm
+getting old. Now suppose you girls turn the tables. Tell me all about
+yourselves and where you are going."
+
+The conversation became general then, and from that time on he carefully
+refrained from saying anything bearing on himself, although the girls,
+who scented a romance or a tragedy somewhere, would gladly have forborne
+their own talk in order to hear more of his story.
+
+"There's the garage over there," he said, as they drew near the outskirts
+of a town, pointing to a low building on the right.
+
+Cora drove her car close in and the keeper of the garage came out and
+unfastened the rope that bound the two machines.
+
+"I can't thank you young ladies enough," Mr. Morley said gratefully, as
+he shook hands with them. "I only hope the time will come when I can
+repay the favor."
+
+"Are you feeling all right now?" asked Cora, as she got ready to throw in
+the clutch.
+
+"Nothing worse than a headache. You're a first-class doctor," he replied
+with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+Cora laughed.
+
+"Don't tell any one," she admonished. "It might get me into trouble. You
+know, I haven't a license to practise in this state."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+                           THE MISSING PURSE
+
+
+"What queer things that man said about himself," remarked Belle, as she
+settled back in her seat.
+
+"I was wild to have him go on," replied her sister. "I'm sure he's got a
+romance or a mystery of some kind in his life."
+
+"Did you see how suddenly he checked himself when he started to talk
+about that girl?" asked Cora.
+
+"Perhaps it was some girl whom he intended to marry," said Bess, who had
+a strong vein of sentiment in her composition.
+
+"Well, we'll never get a chance to know," observed Belle. "We've probably
+seen Mr. Samuel Morley for the first and last time."
+
+"I don't know about that," rejoined Cora. "I have a sort of feeling that
+we'll run across him again."
+
+"Listen to the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter," mocked Belle.
+
+"Sybilla, the reader of the mystic sphere, the gazer into the crystal
+globe!" gibed Bess.
+
+"I'm no prophetess," disclaimed Cora. "I just have a feeling that way.
+Perhaps I'll have the laugh on you scoffers yet."
+
+"We're willing to wait," returned Belle. "Just now it's the present more
+than the future that I'm worrying about. That Good Samaritan act of ours
+has taken up a good deal of time. And you know that we planned to stop in
+that department store when we get to Roxbury and buy some of the things
+we came away without in our hurry this morning. I've simply got to have
+that chiffon."
+
+"And I need a new box of powder," put in Bess. "My old one is nearly
+empty."
+
+"Such victims of the vanity of this world," sighed Cora. "But don't
+worry, girls. I'll throw in a little extra speed and you'll hear the car
+fairly purr."
+
+"Not too fast," cautioned Belle. "After what we saw to-day in the way of
+fast driving, I'm willing to go a little slower."
+
+"I'll be careful," promised Cora; "but all the same we can afford to go a
+good deal faster than we are moving now."
+
+She threw in more speed, and the gallant car responded at once with
+scarcely an added vibration. In a short time Roxbury was in sight, and
+turning into one of the main streets, they drew up before the doors of
+the leading store of the town.
+
+They went at once to the veiling department, where Belle purchased her
+chiffon. That and the powder that Bess secured in the drug department
+completed all the buying that they had intended to do. But they were true
+daughters of Eve, and so many things met their eyes that they were sure
+they simply could not do without, that before they knew it they had
+bought quite extensively.
+
+They were standing at one of the counters, waiting for their change,
+which seemed an unconscionable time in coming.
+
+"Even Job would have lost patience if there had been department stores in
+his day," remarked Belle.
+
+"But there _were_ department stores then," replied Cora.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Bess.
+
+"There must have been," said Cora. "Don't you remember where Job says:
+'All the days of my life will I wait till my change come'?"
+
+The girls laughed, but the laugh quickly faded when Cora gave a startled
+exclamation:
+
+"Oh, girls, I've lost my purse!"
+
+"You don't mean it!" cried Belle.
+
+"Are you sure?" asked Bess.
+
+"I had it in my hand just a minute ago," replied Cora in much agitation.
+"I took that ten dollar bill out of it that they're making change for
+now. I must have laid it down for a minute, and now it's gone."
+
+There were a number of bolts of cloth on the counter near which the girls
+were standing, and they made a hurried search among them without result.
+
+"And I had nearly a hundred dollars in it," mourned Cora. "Will you
+please help me look for my purse?" she asked of the man behind the
+counter, who had been standing with his back toward them, busily packing
+pieces of cloth on the shelves.
+
+He turned toward them, rather reluctantly the girls thought, and they
+were startled to find themselves looking into the eyes of the young man
+who had annoyed them while they were lunching at the roadside.
+
+A flush suffused his face as the girls looked at him coldly.
+
+"What can I do for you, ladies?" he asked, in an obsequious tone that was
+in strong contrast with the impudent one he had used a few hours before.
+
+"I've lost my purse about here somewhere," said Cora, "and as it had a
+considerable sum of money in it I am very anxious to have it found."
+
+He was profuse in his expressions of regret, and began with apparent
+eagerness to turn over all the goods on the counter, while the girls
+watched anxiously. But there was no sign of the purse to be seen.
+
+Just then the manager of the store came along, an alert, keen-eyed man,
+and seeing the little commotion about the counter, asked courteously if
+he could be of any assistance.
+
+He listened carefully to what Cora had to say.
+
+"It's singular," he said. "There doesn't seem from what you say to have
+been anybody standing close by within the last few minutes. Are you quite
+sure that you had the purse when you came to this counter?"
+
+"Positive," replied Cora. "I haven't moved from here since I took the
+bill out of the purse to pay for the goods I bought."
+
+"Have you made a careful search, Higby?" asked the manager, fixing his
+sharp eyes upon the clerk as though he would read him through and
+through.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Higby; "but I'll go through the goods again to make
+sure."
+
+He tossed the bolts of cloth about vigorously, and after a moment gave an
+exclamation of triumph.
+
+"Here it is!" he cried. "Is this your purse, miss?" he asked, holding the
+article out to Cora.
+
+The latter pounced upon it with a little squeal of delight.
+
+"Oh, yes, that's it!" she exclaimed. "Thank you ever so much."
+
+"You would better look over the money to make sure it is all there,"
+suggested the manager.
+
+Cora ran hastily over the roll of bills.
+
+"It's all right," she announced in a tone of relief.
+
+The manager expressed his gratification at its recovery, coupled with an
+expression of regret at the annoyance she had suffered, and the missing
+change having come by this time, the girls hurriedly gathered their
+purchases together and left the store.
+
+"You lucky girl!" exclaimed Belle, as Cora started the car.
+
+"Luckier than I deserve," laughed Cora happily. "It was awfully careless
+of me to let the purse out of my hand for a second. It would have served
+me right if I had lost it."
+
+"Do you think you really lost it?" asked Belle significantly.
+
+The girls looked at each other, and it was evident that the same thought
+was shared by all.
+
+"Perhaps it seems mean to say it," remarked Cora slowly, "but since you
+ask me, I must say that the whole thing looks queer. There was the way he
+kept his back to us when we were looking for it on our own account. But I
+don't lay so much weight on that, because he might have recognized us and
+felt a little sheepish after the way we took him down this afternoon. But
+why couldn't he have found it before the manager came along, and why did
+he find it so promptly when the manager was standing there watching him?
+Of course, it might have been mixed up in the folds of the cloth the
+first time, and dropped out when he went over the goods again the second
+time. I suppose anyway we ought to give him the benefit of the doubt."
+
+"He doesn't get the benefit of the doubt from me," said Bess in so
+emphatic a manner that the others, accustomed to her easy-going ways,
+looked at her in astonishment.
+
+"You hard-hearted thing!" exclaimed her sister.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Cora.
+
+"Listen, my children, and you shall hear," began Bess in her best manner.
+"I kept my eye on that young gentleman----"
+
+"The Gorgon stare," murmured her sister.
+
+"When he was turning those bolts of cloth the second time," went on Bess,
+disdaining to dignify the interruption by noticing it, "and while he was
+fumbling them with one hand, I saw him bring up the purse from beneath
+the counter with the other hand and slip it under the cloth. Then, before
+I could say anything, he called out that he had found it. I could have
+shaken you when you thanked him so sweetly, Cora Kimball."
+
+The girls looked at each other aghast.
+
+"Did you ever?" gasped Belle.
+
+"He ought to be exposed!" exclaimed Cora indignantly.
+
+"I suppose he ought," agreed Bess placidly. "But after all, the proof
+wouldn't be strong enough. It would be simply my word against his, and
+he'd swear black and blue that I was mistaken. We'd only get mixed up in
+an ugly mess, and nothing would come of it after all. I fancy that that
+young man will get to the end of his rope soon enough without our having
+anything to do with it. Thank your lucky stars, Cora, that you've got
+your money back, and let it go at that."
+
+"To think of Bess playing sleuth and tracking crime to its lair!" cried
+Belle. "I didn't think she had it in her."
+
+"Oh, I'm some little bright-eyes, if you ask me," remarked Bess
+complacently, as she reached out for the last of the lemon drops.
+
+"We'll have to work this up into amateur theatricals when the boys join
+us," laughed Cora.
+
+"Yes," agreed Belle, "we'll stage a one-act play and call it: 'The Greed
+of Gold; or, Bess Robinson, the Girl Detective.'"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+                            THE STERNER SEX
+
+
+"Talking of the boys----" began Bess.
+
+"Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh," drawled her
+sister.
+
+Bess flushed.
+
+"You think of them just as much as I do, Belle Robinson, and perhaps
+more!" she countered. "But what I was going to say when I was so rudely
+interrupted was to wonder when they were ever going to catch up with us."
+
+"Jack said they'd surely overtake us before night," replied Cora. "Walter
+and he were all ready, but Paul had had some things to wind up for his
+firm before he started in on his vacation. He had telegraphed, though,
+that he would be in Chelton before noon, and Jack said he'd show us just
+how fast that car of his could travel. He's awfully proud of that car,
+but between us, girls, I don't think he has anything on this car of mine
+in the matter of speed," and she patted the wheel affectionately.
+
+"Let's hope they don't get arrested for speeding," said Belle.
+
+"Or run over any babies," put in Bess, with a lively recollection of the
+thrilling episode of the afternoon.
+
+"I guess there's no danger of that," said Cora. "Jack's keen on speed,
+but he's a careful driver for all that. I tell you what we'll do, girls.
+You keep a sharp lookout in the rear, for they may come into sight at any
+minute now, and the minute you see them coming you let me know. Then I'll
+let out a little and we'll try to tease them by keeping just far enough
+ahead of them to drive them crazy."
+
+"That'll be dandy!" said Belle eagerly. "It'll do them good to take some
+of the conceit out of them. I suppose they think we've been pining to
+have them with us."
+
+"Well, haven't you?" asked Bess mischievously.
+
+"No, I haven't," declared Belle, but in a tone that somehow failed to
+carry conviction.
+
+"That looks like their car now!" cried Bess excitedly, as she caught a
+glimpse of an automobile that had just swung around a curve in the road
+about half a mile in the rear.
+
+Belle craned her neck in the same direction.
+
+"I guess it is," she confirmed. "I can make out three people in it, but
+they're too far away to see their faces."
+
+"We'll let them get a little nearer so we can make sure," said Cora,
+settling herself in her seat and taking a tighter grasp on the wheel,
+"and then we'll let them take our dust and see how they like it."
+
+Belle knelt upon the seat to get a better view.
+
+"Sister Anne, Sister Anne, do you see a man?" chanted Bess.
+
+"Three of them," replied Belle, "and they're coming like all possessed.
+I'm almost sure it's Jack that's driving. There, one of them has taken
+out a handkerchief and is waving it!"
+
+"It's them," pronounced Belle a moment later, forgetting her grammar in
+her excitement, and scrambling back into her seat again. "Now, Cora, it's
+up to you to show them what the Motor Girls can do."
+
+"See that your hats are on tight, girls," laughed Cora. "We're going to
+stir up some little breeze."
+
+They had a long stretch of road in front of them at the time, with no
+house or vehicle in sight. The conditions could not have been better for
+a race, and Cora increased her speed gradually until the car was going
+like the wind.
+
+The car behind had taken up the challenge at once and was also coming
+along at a tremendous rate. But Belle, venturing sundry peeks behind,
+announced gleefully that it was not gaining an inch.
+
+"But that isn't enough," Cora flung back. "We want to make them actually
+drop farther behind. When we've once done that I'll be satisfied. Then
+we'll slow up and let them catch up to us."
+
+Two minutes later, Belle clapped her hands in delight.
+
+"We've done it! We've done it!" she cried. "They're a quarter of a mile
+farther back than they were when we started in."
+
+"Oh, how we'll rub it into them!" gurgled Bess.
+
+"Well, enough is as good as a feast," laughed Cora, in great
+satisfaction. "Now we'll give the lords of creation a chance to explain
+how they came to let mere girls run away from them."
+
+"It will take some explanation," remarked Belle.
+
+"They're great little explainers, though," said Bess. "They'd rather die
+than admit we had the faster car."
+
+Cora gradually slackened speed until the car, while still running
+swiftly, had reached a more reasonable rate. Belle's glances behind told
+her that their pursuers were overtaking them by leaps and bounds.
+
+A moment later there was a wild chorus of shouts, and Jack's car drew up
+alongside. His two friends, Walter Pennington and Paul Hastings, were
+with him, both tall, athletic young fellows, with frank, pleasant faces.
+
+The girls looked up with well simulated surprise, and pleasure that was
+not at all simulated.
+
+"Why, it's the boys!" they cried in chorus.
+
+Both cars had by this time come to a full stop, and the masculine
+contingent, deserting theirs, came round to the girls' car to greet them
+and to shake hands. Jack went further and gave his sister a hearty kiss,
+a proceeding which brought a look of envy to the faces of his companions.
+
+"Where in the world have you slowpokes been?" asked Belle.
+
+"Not much of a compliment, keeping away from us so long," pouted Bess in
+a way to show a most bewitching dimple.
+
+"I guess they've been glad enough to be rid of us for a while," chimed in
+Cora.
+
+Looks full of reproach and denial greeted this onslaught.
+
+"That's pretty good!" remarked Paul.
+
+"Rich!" assented Walter.
+
+"Just as if we hadn't been breaking speed laws all day long in order to
+overtake you," mourned Jack.
+
+"What's the use of living when you're so misunderstood?" groaned Walter.
+
+"After all the ice-creams and sodas we've blown in on these girls, too!"
+wailed Paul.
+
+"Let's find a hole somewhere and crawl away and die," suggested Jack.
+
+"It seems to me that the shoe's on the other foot anyway," said Walter,
+becoming accuser in his turn. "It's you who didn't want us. Who was it
+just now that was trying to run away from us?"
+
+"Run away from you?" repeated Cora innocently. "What do you mean by
+that?"
+
+"You know perfectly well, you little minx," said her brother with mock
+sternness. "There we were, waving handkerchiefs at you and hustling the
+old machine along to beat the band. I know you saw us, for one of you was
+looking back."
+
+"I did see some one waving a handkerchief," admitted Belle. "But it
+looked as though some ill-bred person was trying to flirt with us, and of
+course we didn't pay the least attention."
+
+"No," said Bess primly, "we'd die before we'd flirt."
+
+"If we'd wanted to flirt we had a perfectly good chance to-day while we
+were eating lunch," said Cora. "He had a perfectly lovely necktie, too, a
+good deal brighter than any of yours."
+
+Jack threw up his hands with a gesture of despair.
+
+"No use, fellows!" he exclaimed. "You can't pin them down to anything."
+
+"But what did you have to wave your handkerchief for anyway to make us
+stop?" asked Cora demurely. "All you had to do was to put on more speed
+and catch up to us. That car of yours is so fast, you know. At least
+that's what you've always said."
+
+The boys looked at each other a little disconcertedly.
+
+"W-well," stammered Jack, "the oil--the sparking wasn't working just
+right----"
+
+"Tell the truth, Jack," spoke up Walter, with a fine assumption of
+candor. "The real reason, girls, was that we were afraid of bumping into
+you----"
+
+"And we didn't want to spill you all over the road," finished Paul.
+
+A groan went up from the girls.
+
+"Oh, Ananias!" exclaimed Bess.
+
+"Ananiases, you mean," corrected her sister. "One's just as bad as the
+others. They all hang together."
+
+"We're like Ben Franklin when he signed the Declaration of Independence,"
+laughed Paul. "He said they'd all have to hang together or they'd hang
+separately."
+
+"I'll admit that you have a good car, sis," said Jack.
+
+"And if that isn't enough to take us back into favor, we'll do anything
+else you say," said Walter, wringing his hands in pretended agitation.
+
+"We'll put on sackcloth and ashes, jump through a hoop, roll over and
+play dead," chimed in Paul. "No one has anything on us when it comes to
+humility."
+
+"It almost affects me to tears," said Belle, pretending to reach for her
+handkerchief.
+
+"They say cruel and unusual punishments are prohibited by the
+Constitution," laughed Cora, "so we won't deprive you of the refining
+influence of our society. Heaven knows you need it badly enough. We'll
+let you trail along with us if you'll promise to be very, very good."
+
+"We will," promised Jack.
+
+"There's one thing yet that needs to be explained, fellows," remarked
+Walter, as they climbed into their automobile. "What about that fellow
+with the iridescent necktie? I feel the demon of jealousy gnawing at my
+vitals."
+
+"Come, girls, 'fess up," admonished Jack.
+
+"He was just charming," said Cora promptly.
+
+"Perfectly lovely," agreed Belle.
+
+"Such soulful eyes!" exclaimed Bess languishingly.
+
+"That I should ever have lived to hear this!" groaned Walter.
+
+"I guess our cake is dough," said Paul.
+
+"Eftsoon and gadzooks!" cried Jack, striking an attitude, "lead me to
+him, and sooth it shall go hard with me if my trusty sword drink not the
+caitiff's blood."
+
+"I guess you don't need to go as far as that," laughed Cora. "Leave him
+alone and the police will take care of him."
+
+"A-ha, a criminal!" cried Walter.
+
+"That only makes him the more romantic," declared Paul.
+
+"It doesn't help our case one bit," said Jack. "Haven't you heard of how
+women will deck a murderer's cell with flowers?"
+
+"I don't think he'd have the nerve to be a murderer," remarked Belle.
+"His specialty is stealing purses."
+
+And while the boys listened intently and threw in occasional indignant
+exclamations, the girls told of the young man's attempt to scrape
+acquaintance, and of how later he had almost succeeded in getting
+possession of Cora's purse.
+
+"The cur!" growled Jack. "I wish I'd happened along when he was trying to
+get fresh!"
+
+"You helped me out just the same, even if you weren't there," replied
+Cora. "You ought to have seen how he made tracks for his buggy when I
+said my brother would be along shortly."
+
+"You see," said Jack, throwing out his chest, "how the terror of my name
+has preceded me."
+
+"It's comforting anyway," chimed in Walter. "It proves that we men are
+good for something."
+
+"And that the girls ought to have us with them all the time as trusty
+knights and vassals," added Paul.
+
+"You're too ready to jump to conclusions," rebuked Cora. "But now we'd
+better be hurrying along. It's getting towards dark, and we'll have all
+we can do to get to Aunt Margaret's in time for dinner."
+
+"Dinner!" exclaimed Jack. "Where have I heard that word before? Lead me
+to it!"
+
+"Do you think you can keep up with us in that car?" asked Cora wickedly.
+"If not, I'll give you a tow."
+
+"Listen to her rubbing it in!" moaned Paul.
+
+"It wasn't enough to beat us," complained Walter.
+
+"I guess that fellow was right," remarked Jack, "who said that Indians
+and women were alike. They both scalp the dead."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+                          A GROUP OF VAGABONDS
+
+
+The two cars rolled along smartly, for the various happenings of the day
+had put the Motor Girls behind the schedule they had hoped to make. But
+despite their best efforts, dusk was settling down and the stars
+beginning to peep out when they drove up to the Kimball's Aunt Margaret's
+door.
+
+She greeted them affectionately, and after they had washed off the dust
+of travel they were seated at the sumptuous meal she had had prepared in
+anticipation of their coming. After dinner was over, a number of young
+people in the neighborhood who had been invited to meet the tourists
+dropped in, and there was music and dancing. But Aunt Margaret's
+watchfulness over her charges prevented this from being prolonged to an
+unseasonable hour, and by eleven o'clock all the tired travelers were
+sleeping the dreamless sleep of vigorous, healthy youth.
+
+They needed a good sleep, for the longest lap of their journey still lay
+before them. And it was at an early hour the next morning that, after a
+hearty breakfast and cordial thanks and good-byes to their gracious
+hostess, they climbed into their cars and drove off.
+
+"Off at last for the Adirondacks!" cried Jack gaily, as he drew in great
+draughts of the fresh morning air.
+
+"And for Camp Kill Kare!" added Paul.
+
+The girls had started off a little ahead of them, but the boys soon drew
+alongside and Jack signaled for Cora to stop.
+
+"I would have speech with thee, fair maiden," he remarked, as his sister
+obeyed.
+
+"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Cora in pretended vexation. "Here are those rude
+boys interrupting us just when we were having the loveliest talk."
+
+"I guess you weren't talking about anything very important," replied
+Jack.
+
+"No," said Bess, dimpling, "we were talking about you boys."
+
+"And saying what a lovely thing it was to be all by ourselves for a
+little while," put in Belle.
+
+"Girls," exhorted Walter solemnly, "remember that if there was an Ananias
+there was also a Sapphira."
+
+"We're not so keen on having a stag party ourselves," explained Jack,
+"and we thought it would be a dandy thing if one of you girls would come
+into our car and one of us fellows go to yours. That would make life one
+grand sweet song."
+
+"It all comes from what Cora said yesterday about the refining influence
+of feminine society," said Walter. "I feel the need of that. In fact, I
+have a consuming desire to become refined. And I can't be, as long as I
+associate with these two low-brows. So you'd better let me ride in your
+car."
+
+"And leave us in our native coarseness?" queried Paul. "Not on your life,
+old man! I need refinement just as much as you do."
+
+"Peace, brethren," interposed Jack. "We'll do this thing on the level. My
+claims to coarseness are just as strong as either of yours, but do you
+see me engaging in unseemly brawls? Nay and again nay. We'll pull straws
+for it and may the coarsest man win."
+
+"I don't know that we want any of you," said Cora. "We don't take
+incurable cases."
+
+"Don't be too harsh, Cora," said Belle. "You know they say there's a
+spark of good in the very lowest."
+
+  "While the lamp holds out to burn
+  The vilest sinner may return,"
+
+hummed Bess.
+
+There were no straws at hand, but some matches served as well, and Walter
+proved to be the lucky one. Belle agreed to go to Jack's car, and Walter
+took her place alongside of Bess.
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Walter, as he availed himself of his good fortune. "I'm
+saved. I'm doomed to refinement."
+
+"Doomed?" laughed Cora.
+
+"Did I say doomed?" Walter answered. "How careless of me! Of course I
+meant destined to refinement."
+
+"I suppose you'll be eating lotus blossoms and water lilies before long,"
+called out Jack, as the cars started up again.
+
+"Watch me when lunch time comes," grinned Walter. "But I don't mind what
+you fellows say. I've got two refining influences while you have only
+one."
+
+"You need all you can get," was Jack's parting shot.
+
+With merry chaff and banter, the time flew by as though on wings. They
+had lunch at a quaint little inn by the roadside, and Walter proved that
+the charms of feminine society had not yet begun to affect his appetite.
+But then, as he explained, the cure would be all the more effective if it
+were gradual, and he had plenty of time yet to climb to higher planes.
+
+In the early afternoon they were turning a bend in the road, when Cora
+gave a sudden exclamation.
+
+"Look!" she cried, pointing to a little glade at the right of the road.
+"There's a camp of some kind. I do believe it's gypsies!"
+
+"Guessed it right the first time," declared Walter.
+
+"That's what it is," agreed Bess. "Oh, Cora, don't you think we might
+stop a few minutes? I'd dearly love to have a look at them, if you think
+we can spare the time."
+
+"I'm not so very keen about it myself," said Cora dubiously, for as those
+familiar with her previous adventures will remember, her experiences with
+these picturesque vagabonds had not been devoid of unpleasantness and
+danger. "But I'll see what Jack says about it, and if he thinks we have
+time, I won't mind stopping."
+
+She hailed Jack, and, after consulting his watch, the latter agreed that
+they could easily spare a half-hour or so for a visit to the gypsy camp.
+
+They drew their cars to the side of the road and picked their way through
+the woods to the little dell where the gypsy encampment lay.
+
+It was a typical camp of those strange nomads in whose blood runs the
+"call of the wild," and who in their mode of life are almost as far
+removed from other human beings as though they lived upon another planet.
+
+There were perhaps a dozen vans, from which came strange smells of
+cooking, amid which onion and garlic predominated. Unkempt children in
+tattered clothing played with dogs that seemed to be legion, while
+wrinkled and slatternly women sat on the steps of the vans or made their
+way through the grounds, whining their requests to visitors to cross
+their palms with silver and learn in return all that pertained to their
+present and future. Swarthy men, some of them with huge ear-rings and
+with sashes and turbans that reminded one of the pirates of tradition,
+lay sprawled out on the grass watching the throng with eyes that were
+sometimes indifferent and again sullen and smoldering.
+
+There were just two elements that redeemed the camp from its general
+aspect of squalor and forlornness. One was the fine horses that were
+scattered here and there, for the gypsy has the keenest eye for a good
+animal of any trader on earth. The other was the presence of several
+gypsy girls of a wild barbaric type of beauty, whose flashing eyes and
+gaudy trinkets contrasted with the prevailing ugliness of their
+surroundings.
+
+There were a large number of visitors present, due to the proximity of a
+large town a mile or so away, through which the automobiles had passed
+just before reaching the camp.
+
+"Here's the place to have your future told," said Jack.
+
+"Lucky they can't tell our past," remarked Walter. "What a give-away that
+would be for some of us."
+
+"I hope you haven't any deep dark secret that would 'chill the young
+blood, harrow up our souls' if it were told," laughed Cora.
+
+"Walter just wants to make himself interesting," gibed Bess.
+
+"Well, whatever I may have been, I'm all right now that you girls have
+undertaken to refine me," replied Walter.
+
+"I'm realizing more and more what a tremendous contract it is," Cora came
+back at him. "But look at that girl over there? Isn't she a beauty?"
+
+"She isn't hard to look at, for a fact," said Jack judicially, as his
+eyes fell on the gypsy girl his sister had indicated. "I think I'll get
+her to tell my fortune. I want to know whether I'm born to be hanged or
+drowned."
+
+"It's safe to say that you're booked for a long life anyway," remarked
+Paul. "Only the good die young."
+
+The girl had seen that the party were regarding her with interest, and
+she came over to them.
+
+"Do you ladies want to have your fortunes told?" she asked with a winning
+smile that showed two rows of beautiful white teeth.
+
+The girls hesitated.
+
+"Go ahead, girls, and show the sporting spirit," urged Jack. "You can get
+the promise of a perfectly good husband for fifty cents. And that's cheap
+in these days of high prices."
+
+"It's more than some of them are worth," laughed Belle.
+
+"I hope that isn't a shot at us," said Paul. "I'd be a bargain at a
+dollar."
+
+"She must have been thinking of that Higby fellow over at Roxbury," said
+Bess. "Why, what's the matter?" she asked, as the gypsy girl started
+violently and turned deadly pale.
+
+Cora sprang to the girl's side and put her arm around her to steady her.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+                          A PERPLEXING PROBLEM
+
+
+The gypsy girl regained her self-control in a moment and gently put
+Cora's helping arm aside.
+
+"It is nothing," she said. "I just had an attack of dizziness. The heat
+of the sun, perhaps."
+
+It was evident that this last remark was only a pretext, for a pleasant
+breeze was blowing and they were standing under a great tree that shaded
+them completely.
+
+"I hope it wasn't anything I said that startled you," said Bess
+curiously.
+
+"How could it have been?" put in Belle incredulously. "You only referred
+jokingly to that Higby fellow who nearly got away with Cora's purse when
+we were shopping yesterday. I'm sure there's nothing in that to startle
+anybody."
+
+Cora had been watching the girl intently, and at this second mention of
+the young man's name she saw a swift spasm--was it of pain or fright or a
+combination of both?--sweep over the girl's face.
+
+"Well, never mind," said Cora briskly, "if you're sure you're all right
+now. Perhaps you'd better have a drink of water. Jack, suppose you go to
+the car and get one of the drinking cups."
+
+Jack started promptly to obey, but the girl objected so strongly that he
+stopped and stood irresolute.
+
+"No, no," she said, "please not. Only leetle deezy, but all right now,"
+she continued, dropping into the slipshod gypsy manner of speaking. "Let
+me tell pretty ladies' fortunes."
+
+But just then one of the gypsy men, who had been watching the group
+sharply, stepped up to the girl and spoke to her roughly in a jargon that
+the girls could not understand. It was evidently a command, for the gypsy
+girl turned instantly and went away, disappearing into one of the vans,
+while the man, after a scowl that included all the party, sauntered away
+and dropped on the grass beside some of his comrades.
+
+"Well, what do you think of that?" demanded Belle in amazement.
+
+"Just when she had a husband picked out for each of you, too," chaffed
+Paul. "But cheer up, girls. We're here yet. Count on us to the last
+breath. You can't lose us."
+
+"No such luck," retorted Bess. "But what on earth made that man act that
+way?"
+
+"It isn't like gypsies to let good money get away from them," said Jack,
+"and they must have seen from our open countenances that we were easy
+marks and ready to cough up."
+
+"Jack," said Walter severely, "please pass up that line of chatter--I
+mean, please refrain from such vulgar slang. In my unregenerate days I
+could have stood for it--I mean, endured it--but since I have become
+refined it hits me on the raw--I mean, it affects me painfully."
+
+"Oh, stop your nonsense, you boys," chided Cora. "Can't you see I'm
+trying to think?"
+
+"Cora's trying to think!" exclaimed her irrepressible brother. "Heaven be
+praised that I have lived to see this day!"
+
+Cora gave him a scornful glance, and Jack sagged down at the knees,
+pretending to wilt.
+
+"Just how did that girl strike you?" asked Cora thoughtfully.
+
+"A peach," replied Jack promptly.
+
+"A pippin--I mean, she was very good looking," added Walter.
+
+"I'm asking the girls," said Cora witheringly.
+
+"She didn't seem to me like a gypsy at all," answered Bess. "And yet I
+suppose of course she must be, since she's here with them."
+
+"Did you notice the way she spoke when she was off her guard for a
+moment?" asked Belle. "She said that she had 'an attack of dizziness.'
+Later on, she was a 'leetle deezy.'"
+
+"Her eyes were blue," remarked Cora musingly, "and that is something
+unusual in a gypsy."
+
+"But her complexion was as dark as any of the others," objected Bess.
+
+"That might be accounted for by the tan from the open-air life," replied
+Cora. "And then, too, it would be easy to color it artificially."
+
+"I didn't know girls ever did such things," interrupted Jack with a
+pained expression.
+
+"And then too," went on Cora, unheeding, "when her sleeve fell back, I
+saw that her arm was white. But what I'm trying to get at especially is
+whom she looks like. She resembles some one that I've seen before, but I
+can't remember who it is."
+
+"What do you suppose made her act so queerly when I spoke of the stealing
+of your purse?" asked Bess.
+
+"It wasn't the robbery itself that startled her," said Cora. "It was the
+name of the man, Higby. He was mentioned twice, and each time she looked
+frightened."
+
+"I wonder if she knows him," murmured Belle.
+
+"He said there were lots of girls who would be glad of his company,"
+laughed Bess. "Perhaps she is one of them."
+
+"There was no liking in that look of hers," replied Cora emphatically.
+"It was positive alarm."
+
+"If a mere man may break into this discussion," said Jack humbly, "you
+fair detectives haven't yet told us why that pirate over there took the
+girl away from us."
+
+"That's easy," interposed Walter. "He was jealous. It was my fatal gift
+of beauty that worried him. The girls all fall for it--I mean, are
+attracted by it."
+
+"Girls," asked Cora exasperatedly, "why are those long legs of Walter's
+like organ grinders?"
+
+"Why?" asked Belle.
+
+"Give it up," said Bess.
+
+"Because," explained Cora, "they always carry a monkey about with them."
+
+Walter staggered back.
+
+"Stung!" he moaned. "Penetrated, I mean."
+
+"Well, don't suffer too much, poor boy," said Cora soothingly. "If it's
+any comfort to you to know it, your two accomplices in crime are just as
+bad. Women are the only sensible human beings anyway."
+
+"Are they human?" asked Walter. "I've always thought of them as angels."
+
+"Stop trying to square yourself," said Paul.
+
+"Don't knuckle down to them," Jack adjured him.
+
+"I must," replied Walter, "or they won't let me ride with them any more."
+
+"We're not going to, anyway; that is, for the rest of this afternoon,"
+said Cora. "I want to have the girls in the car with me where we can talk
+over this thing without being interrupted."
+
+"Shut out from Eden," groaned Walter bitterly. "You wash your hands of
+me. You cast me into outer darkness. Just when the better part of my
+nature was getting uppermost, you put me back into low company. I
+wouldn't have believed it of you, girls."
+
+"Back to the kennel, you hound!" exclaimed Paul, seizing him by the
+collar. "You might have known that the girls would throw you down. They
+always do, sooner or later."
+
+"Well, now that Lucifer as lightning has fallen from heaven," remarked
+Jack, "what do you say to hustling along? The afternoon waneth and my
+appetite waxeth. Dinner at Camp Kill Kare sounds awfully good to me."
+
+"I suppose we'll have to," assented Cora reluctantly; "but I would like
+to have another glimpse of that gypsy girl first."
+
+"Nothing doing," said Jack. "We're only visitors here anyway, and we
+haven't any right to intrude on their private affairs when they show us
+so clearly they don't want us to. Ten to one it's only a mare's nest
+anyway that you're stirring up, sis, about the girl. Probably she's an
+honest to goodness gypsy, just like the rest of them."
+
+"That's what my common sense tells me," agreed Cora, "but something
+outside of common sense tells me that she isn't."
+
+"That's the way I feel about it too," echoed Bess.
+
+"I too," agreed Belle. "She may have been stolen when she was a child.
+That happens often enough."
+
+"Not so often as it used to," said Paul. "The telegraph and the telephone
+make it too risky."
+
+"Well, how about it?" said Jack. "Are you three Graces coming along, or
+do we three scapegraces have to wend our way to Camp Kill Kare alone?"
+
+"There she is now!" exclaimed Bess, as she caught sight of the gypsy girl
+looking at them from the door of the van.
+
+But a wrinkled crone who was sitting on the top step of the van reached
+out a skinny arm and angrily pushed the girl inside and out of sight.
+
+"They've evidently made up their minds that we're showing too much
+interest in her, and for some reason they don't like it," sighed Cora.
+"Well, come along, girls. We'll have to go. But that gypsy girl has a
+history and a secret, and I'd give a good deal to find out just what they
+are."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+                           THE MOUNTAIN CAMP
+
+
+The Motor Girls, followed by the boys, made their way briskly back to the
+cars and climbed in, Walter resuming his place with the other boys and
+Belle going back to Cora and Bess.
+
+For some time previous to running across the gypsy camp they had been
+rising higher and higher into the mountains, and now the road became
+still steeper. They had to run more slowly in consequence, for although
+both cars were good hill-climbers, it took a good deal of power to make
+any kind of speed. Besides, as they got farther into the wilderness, the
+road was rougher and more neglected. But it was just this wildness they
+had come to seek, and their spirits rose with the difficulties they
+encountered.
+
+"You go in advance, Jack," said Cora, as the road grew narrower until it
+was difficult for the two cars to go side by side. "Of course, having the
+faster car, I suppose we ought to show the way, but we're nothing if not
+magnanimous. If your car balks we'll push you along. Besides, you have
+the map."
+
+"Don't worry about pushing us along," retorted Jack. "Just for that, I
+ought to shoot ahead out of sight and leave you to bitter regrets when
+you find yourselves lost in the wilderness. But I'm too noble to treat
+helpless girls that way, so you're safe for the present. But beware,
+woman, of goading me too far! It's a long worm that has no turning."
+
+"If you're as mixed in your road directions as you are in your proverbs,
+I'm afraid we won't get to Camp Kill Kare to-night," rejoined Cora. "But
+go ahead now like a good boy, and think up some more bright things to
+spring on us. We want to be by ourselves so that we can talk without
+foolish interruptions."
+
+"They want to talk," muttered Jack. "What a novelty!"
+
+"If women talk a good deal, I notice that lots of men take after their
+mothers," replied Belle, as Jack's car darted into the lead.
+
+"Isn't it tantalizing," said Cora to her chums, resuming their
+interrupted conversation, "that I can't think just whom that gypsy girl
+looks like? Don't you know how it is when you are trying to recall a word
+or a line of poetry or something, and have it just on the tip of your
+tongue but can't quite get it? I feel just that way about this
+resemblance. I'm perfectly sure I've seen some one very much like her.
+Can't you girls help me out? We're together so much, and we know the same
+people. Put on your thinking caps and see if you can't give me a hint."
+
+"I only wish I could," replied Belle thoughtfully. "There _was_ something
+a little familiar about the girl, though it didn't strike me as strongly
+as it did you."
+
+"There was a certain look in her eyes that suggested somebody I've seen,"
+said Bess, "but for the life of me I can't remember who it was. But even
+suppose we did remember? It wouldn't prove anything. There are lots of
+people in the world who look alike and yet who haven't the slightest
+relation to each other."
+
+"I know it," admitted Cora. "But just the same I have what the boys would
+call a hunch that in this case it would give us a clue to the gypsy
+girl's secret."
+
+"If she has any," laughed Bess.
+
+"Get out your crystal sphere, Sybilla, and pluck the heart from this
+mystery," smiled Belle.
+
+"You girls can laugh if you want to," rejoined Cora, "but all the same
+I'll think about this and perhaps dream about it until I recall the face
+I'm groping for."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if we'd have something more practical to think of
+before long," remarked Belle, pointing to the sky. "Do you see those
+clouds coming up there? I've been watching them for the last five minutes
+and they're getting bigger and blacker all the time. I'd hate to be
+caught in a thunderstorm."
+
+"And get into Camp Kill Kare all wet and bedraggled," added Bess. "Oh,
+Cora, let's hurry!"
+
+"It isn't getting wet that bothers me so much," replied Cora. "We could
+put up the top and keep dry enough. But a heavy storm would turn the road
+into a quagmire, and goodness knows it's bad enough as it is."
+
+The boys ahead had seen the signs, and Jack shouted back:
+
+"Give her all the juice she can stand, sis! If the storm only holds off
+for fifteen minutes we'll make the camp."
+
+His own car shot ahead, and Cora threw in the speed and kept close
+behind. They could hear now faint rumblings of thunder, all the more
+noticeable because of the sudden hush that had fallen over the forest, as
+birds and animals and insects sensed the coming storm.
+
+Darker and darker it grew and faster and faster the cars sped along, as
+their drivers called on the last ounce of speed they had in them. Despite
+their fluttering of anxiety, the girls had a keen sense of exhilaration
+in this race with the elements. Their veils whipped about their faces and
+their glowing eyes and reddened cheeks showed their inward excitement.
+
+A jagged flash of lightning shot across the sky, followed by a deafening
+peal of thunder. It was evident that the bolt had struck not far off, for
+a moment later they heard the crash of a falling tree at a little
+distance to the right.
+
+"Oh, hurry! hurry!" urged Bess and Belle.
+
+"Do you think I'm creeping?" Cora called back. "I can't talk to the car
+and encourage it as I might a horse. You'll notice that the boys aren't
+leaving us behind."
+
+As a matter of fact, the cars were nearly touching.
+
+"Keep up your pluck, girls!" Jack called back. "If this map is all right,
+we'll make the camp in five minutes more."
+
+"If we didn't have an old tub in front of us, we'd make it in four," sang
+out Cora.
+
+"If the rain will only hold off," murmured Belle.
+
+But the prospect grew ever more threatening. The peals of thunder were
+redoubled and the lightning played so vividly across the sky that Bess
+covered her face with her hands.
+
+"Suppose the car should be struck!" she exclaimed.
+
+"If it were, we'd probably never know it," was all the comfort her sister
+could give.
+
+Just then there was an appalling roar, and a great tree, split from top
+to bottom, swayed for a moment and then fell with a deafening crash right
+across the road, about a hundred feet in front of the leading car.
+
+There were shrieks from the girls, and a jumble of shouts came from the
+boys, as Jack brought his machine to a halt, and Cora, who had not lost
+her presence of mind, did the same.
+
+All jumped out and ran forward. A glance told them that there was no
+getting past the tree. It blocked the road completely. Nor was it
+possible to get around the fallen monarch with the cars, for there was
+dense undergrowth on both sides of the road.
+
+"No help for it, girls," announced Jack, after a hurried examination of
+the conditions. "We'll have to run for it. I caught a glimpse of the
+bungalow a minute ago, and it's not far from here. We'll have to leave
+the cars here and come back and cut a path for them after the storm's
+over."
+
+"But suppose they should be stolen?" objected Belle.
+
+"Mighty little chance of that in this neck of the woods," replied Paul.
+"You notice we haven't met any one for the last two hours. We'll put up
+the tops so that the inside won't get wet. And there'll be some one at
+the bungalow that we can send out to guard them and keep you from
+worrying about them."
+
+"Now we've got to make tracks for the house. Come ahead, girls!" cried
+Jack, as soon as the tops had been put up.
+
+Each of the boys took charge of one of the girls, and they skirted the
+tree, pushing their way through the underbrush till they reached the road
+on the other side.
+
+The outdoor life of the Motor Girls had made them fleet and strong, and
+although of course with their clinging skirts they could not keep up with
+the boys, the latter accommodated their pace to theirs, and they came in
+sight of the bungalow in a few minutes.
+
+But the rain was coming, too, and it was a pretty race. They could see it
+being driven before the wind in great gusts, and they felt the pattering
+of the advance drops. And just as they gained the shelter of the bungalow
+porch, the rain came down in torrents.
+
+Their coming had been seen from the house, and Aunt Betty King came
+running out to meet them.
+
+"You darlings!" she cried, as she tried to gather all the girls at once
+into her arms, and kissed them in turn. "How glad I am to see you! I've
+been watching for you for the last two hours and was beginning to worry
+for fear you wouldn't get here before dark. And how lucky you were to get
+here ahead of the storm. But how on earth did you come?"
+
+"We ran here all the way from Chelton," said Jack with a sober face. "How
+is that for Marathon work?"
+
+"Don't pay any attention to that fibber," laughed Cora. "You know what
+Jack is. Our cars are standing a little way down the road. The lightning
+struck a tree and it fell so that it blocked the path. So we had to make
+the rest of the way on foot."
+
+"You poor dears!" exclaimed Aunt Betty with ready sympathy. "But come
+right in now and get rested. You must be awfully tired after your long
+journey, and you're all out of breath from running so hard. And you boys,
+too. Your rooms are all ready for you and supper will be ready in a few
+minutes."
+
+She led the way inside, followed by the flushed and panting travelers,
+glad that the end of their journey found them safely housed at Camp Kill
+Kare.
+
+The bungalow was a strongly built and capacious one. It had only two
+stories, but was very wide and deep. It stood on a high point in the
+Adirondack Mountains, with a view that stretched for many miles in all
+directions. There was a large cleared space about the building, but one
+had only to go a few rods away to find himself in a genuine wilderness.
+
+The bungalow belonged to a relative of Mrs. Kimball. Usually the owner
+occupied it himself during the summer months; but this year he was on a
+trip to India, hunting for big game, and he had placed the camp at Mrs.
+Kimball's disposal, with a cordial invitation to occupy it and make use
+of all the facilities it afforded for enjoyment.
+
+As Cora's mother could not accompany the young folks, the question of a
+suitable chaperon had given her some concern. But this had been solved by
+securing the consent of Aunt Betty to undertake that responsibility.
+
+Mrs. King was not really Cora's aunt, being a second cousin of Mrs.
+Kimball. But everybody called her by the comfortable and affectionate
+title of Aunt Betty, and she was a great favorite in the Kimball home,
+which she frequently visited. She was a widow without children, and she
+welcomed the opportunity of mothering this lively brood of young people.
+
+The main floor of the bungalow was divided into two parts by the long
+hall that ran from front to back. On the right was a large living room
+and library combined. Off from this was a music room, and the girls gave
+little cries of delight as they saw a handsome baby grand piano through
+the portieres.
+
+On the left of the hall was the dining room, which appealed more strongly
+to the boys than the music room, and back of this was the kitchen, from
+which savory odors were wafted to their olfactory organs.
+
+Up the broad stairs Aunt Betty led the way, and pointed out to the
+various members of the party the rooms they were to occupy. Those of the
+girls were on the south side of the house, while the boys' quarters faced
+the north. Trunks had been sent on before and were in the rooms.
+
+"What perfectly darling rooms!" cried Cora, as the delighted girls let
+their eyes roam over the two connecting rooms that had been assigned to
+them.
+
+"That's all right!" shouted Jack from across the hall, "but don't forget
+that there's a perfectly darling little dining room downstairs, and I'm
+honing to make its acquaintance."
+
+"Don't worry," flung back Belle. "We'll be ready to go down as soon as
+you are."
+
+"Ha, ha!" cried Jack. "Listen to my low, mirthless laugh."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+                            FUN IN THE OPEN
+
+
+Jack's sardonic laugh seemed to be justified, for the boys had been below
+stairs for several minutes before the girls came trooping down.
+
+"One more proof that I'm never mistaken," Jack remarked, as he shook his
+head sadly at the laughing bevy.
+
+"You boys haven't so much to do as we girls have," said Belle, making a
+little face at him.
+
+"We haven't, eh?" replied Walter. "I lost all my hair-pins in that mad
+sprint for the house."
+
+"And the rain took my hair out of curl," added Paul.
+
+"And I had the greatest hunt before I found my box of powder!" said Jack
+in a high falsetto.
+
+Just then Mrs. King came in from the kitchen, where she had been
+supervising the preparations for dinner.
+
+"Come right along now and take your places at the table," she beamed.
+
+"Table is my middle name!" exclaimed Jack, as he led the way, followed by
+the others.
+
+It was a sumptuous meal that Aunt Betty had prepared, and with their
+appetites sharpened by their long ride, the travelers did it full
+justice. And the warmth and good cheer of the cozy dining room were
+emphasized by contrast with the rain that beat upon the windows.
+
+"A regular flood," commented Jack.
+
+"Noah would have felt at home in that," said Bess.
+
+"That reminds me," interposed Paul. "Noah was supposed to take two
+specimens of every kind of animal when he went into the Ark. But there
+was one species he overlooked."
+
+"What was that?" asked Cora.
+
+"Rats," replied Paul.
+
+"How do you make that out?" inquired Belle.
+
+"Why," Paul answered, "he had been sailing forty days before he saw ary
+rat."
+
+There was a moment of stunned silence.
+
+"Ararat!" Cora at length exclaimed. "Paul, how could you inflict that on
+us?"
+
+"You ought to be shot at sunrise," said Bess.
+
+"Now you see, Aunt Betty, what we've had to stand on our journey up
+here," moaned Cora.
+
+"I must say you seem to have thrived on it," smiled Aunt Betty, looking
+at the rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes of the girls.
+
+"Good for Aunt Betty!" cried Walter. "She appreciates us! You girls will
+too, when you've seen a little more of men and realize how we stand out
+from the common herd."
+
+"Who was that woman," asked Bess, turning to Cora, "who said that the
+more she saw of men the more fond she grew of dogs?"
+
+"Poor, misguided female," said Paul pityingly. "I suppose she was an
+inmate of a lunatic asylum."
+
+"More to be pitied than censured," added Jack.
+
+By this time they had reached dessert, and when they had finished, Aunt
+Betty proposed an adjournment to the porch.
+
+"It's perfectly dry and snug out here," she said, "and I think the rain
+will be over soon anyway. When it rains so hard up here it doesn't last
+very long. But you girls had better get some wraps, for even though it is
+August, the nights are rather cool, especially after a storm."
+
+There was an abundance of big, comfortable chairs on the porch, and they
+grouped them into a semi-circle and sat laughing and talking, on the best
+of terms with themselves and the world.
+
+"That was rather a narrow escape we had this afternoon," remarked Bess.
+"If we had been a hundred feet further on the road than we were, that
+tree would have come down plump on top of us."
+
+"A miss is as good as a mile," returned Jack lightly.
+
+"By the way, I suppose those poor old cars of ours are getting a thorough
+soaking," observed Cora. "What are you going to do about them, boys? It
+doesn't seem to me that we ought to let them stay there all night."
+
+"I guess it's up to us fellows to take a turn down there and look them
+over," answered Jack. "The fact is that I've had such a good dinner that
+I feel too lazy to move. But far be it from me to resist the plain call
+of duty."
+
+"What's the matter with us girls going along with you?" asked Bess.
+
+Aunt Betty looked aghast.
+
+"What, in all this mud and rain?" she protested.
+
+"You forget that we Motor Girls are used to being out in all kinds of
+weather," laughed Cora. "But we'll promise to wrap up well if you let us
+go. It's lucky that our trunks were sent on up here ahead of us, so that
+we have our rubbers and raincoats all ready to get into. Besides, it's
+practically stopped raining now."
+
+Aunt Betty was very easily won over.
+
+"I'll send Joel, the stableman, along with a lantern," she said. "He
+knows the woods like a book by night or day. Then, too, he's as strong as
+an ox, and he can help to get the cars out of the fix."
+
+"And we'll take a couple of axes along," said Jack. "I have an idea some
+tall chopping will have to be done before we get the cars where they
+belong."
+
+The girls went up to get their raincoats and overshoes, while the boys
+got their hats and hunted up Joel.
+
+He was a tall, gaunt backwoodsman, who in his earlier days had been a
+guide in the Adirondack region. But periodic attacks of rheumatism had
+made it difficult for him to continue his calling, and he had become the
+man of all work at Kill Kare Camp. He knew the forest thoroughly and had
+an intimate acquaintance with the habits of every creature that had fur,
+fin or feather.
+
+Despite his somewhat advanced years, he was still a powerful man, and his
+strength was equaled by his good-nature and reliability.
+
+The boys liked him at once, and he on his part was very friendly and
+cordial.
+
+"So you've got a couple o' them buzz wagons stalled there," he said.
+"Never rode in one in my life, but the pesky things suttinly have it all
+over a hoss when it comes to git up and git."
+
+"You've got a treat waiting for you, then, Joel," laughed Jack. "Some day
+we'll take you riding, and you'll go so fast you'll have to hold on to
+your hair to keep it from being blown off."
+
+"I ain't prezactly pinin' fur no sich speed as that," said Joel. "I sh'd
+think them gals w'u'd be skeered to death to ride in one uv them."
+
+"They drive them as well as ride in them," returned Jack. "My sister can
+handle one of them as well as any man can. You ought to have seen the
+race she gave me yesterday."
+
+"Ye don't say so!" replied Joel, and it was evident that his respect for
+the feminine members of the party had gone up several degrees.
+
+They were soon equipped with a lantern and three axes. In addition, Joel
+took along some sticks of resinous wood to serve as torches, and they
+came around to the front porch, where they found the girls impatiently
+waiting for them.
+
+All started out in high spirits, Joel leading the way. The road was
+muddy, but they found fairly good footing on the turf that bordered it.
+The rain had now entirely ceased.
+
+It was not long before they reached the fallen tree, and they found the
+cars standing where they had left them.
+
+"Ye needn't hev bin much skeered," grinned Joel. "There ain't many folks
+come along this way, an' them that do is giner'lly honest. It's only when
+the gypsies come round thet we hev to keep a tight grip on things,
+specially hosses. Them gypsies suttinly is light-fingered, an' they kin
+beat a weasel in gittin' into places where they ain't got no business to
+be."
+
+"We saw a camp of them to-day," said Cora, in whom the word "gypsy" just
+now woke an instant response.
+
+"Is thet so?" asked Joel in surprise. "Then they're probably headed up
+this way. I heven't seen 'em around these diggin's fur sev'ral years now,
+and I wuz hopin' I'd never see their ugly faces ag'in."
+
+"I'd like to see Joel go to the mat with that pirate that took the girl
+away from us to-day," grinned Jack.
+
+"It would be some scrap," agreed Walter, as he took in the brawn and bulk
+of the backwoodsman. "I'd bet on Joel unless the other fellow used a
+knife."
+
+In order to see more clearly what they were doing, the torches were
+lighted and placed where they would do the most good. Then Joel surveyed
+the scene of action.
+
+"There's jist one thing to do," he finally announced, "an' thet is to cut
+through this tree an' git it off uv the road. It might be a leetle bit
+easier to git the cars around through the brush, but the tree can't be
+let to stay there blockin' up the road, an' I might ez well git it out of
+the way fust ez last."
+
+He took off his corduroy jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt,
+showing the mighty biceps beneath.
+
+"You're not going to do it all alone," protested Jack. "Let us help.
+There are two axes besides yours."
+
+"Why," said Joel a little dubiously, "you boys ain't used to this kind uv
+work, an' I'm afraid it'll use ye up too much. It ain't only the
+strength, but there's a knack about usin' a woodsman's ax thet it takes
+time to git on to. Still, ye kin try it fur a while if ye want to."
+
+Jack and Paul took off their coats, while the girls, who were perched
+like so many birds in Jack's car, clapped their hands in mock applause.
+
+"Behold the gallant foresters," sang out Belle.
+
+  "'Woodman, spare that tree,
+  Touch not a single bough!'"
+
+quoted Bess.
+
+  "To-day it threatened me,
+  I've no use for it now,"
+
+improvised Cora.
+
+"Listen to the trilling of the merry songsters," said Jack, with
+impressive sarcasm. "They toil not, neither do they spin. They mock and
+fleer at us sons of honest toil. They----"
+
+"Get to work, Jack," Cora interrupted him heartlessly. "I love to see you
+work. It's so unusual. Joel will have the trunk cut through before you
+boys get started."
+
+Thus adjured, Jack and Paul started in with a right good will, each
+attacking the trunk at a distance of about ten feet on either side of
+Joel.
+
+Both boys were strong and sturdy, and they worked the more vigorously
+because they were under the appraising eyes of the girls. But their work
+was nothing compared with Joel's. Nowhere could there have been found a
+more striking illustration of the advantages of the professional over the
+amateur.
+
+Joel's work was the very poetry of motion. Back and forth his flashing ax
+swung tirelessly, biting with resistless force into the very heart of the
+tree, and in a surprisingly short time he had cut the trunk entirely
+through.
+
+Walter took his turn with the other boys and did valiant execution. But
+all were soon winded with their unusual exertions, and were forced to
+rest, while the perspiration poured down their faces in streams.
+
+"This has got it all over a Turkish bath," muttered Jack.
+
+"I'll bet I've lost five pounds in as many minutes," growled Paul.
+
+"There's an idea for you, Bess," said her sister mischievously. "Talk
+about reducing. You'd be a sylph in half an hour."
+
+"I'd be a corpse, you mean," responded Bess. "No, thank you. I'll take my
+reducing in homeopathic doses."
+
+Joel at this point insisted on finishing the job. He had not turned a
+hair in his previous exertions, and he seemed as fresh as ever when the
+work was completely done.
+
+"Now how are we going to get the logs off the road?" asked Jack.
+
+"What's the matter with making the car do its share of the work?" asked
+Cora. "We'll fasten a rope to each one of the logs and with you men
+guiding them we can drag them to one side of the road."
+
+The plan met with instant approval and in a very few minutes the road was
+clear.
+
+"Good idea, sis," said Jack approvingly. "Now we'll bundle these tools
+into the cars and go to Camp Kill Kare in style."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+                           THE "WATER SPRITE"
+
+
+The next morning dawned clear and beautiful. The storm of the day before
+had washed the dust from plants and trees, and seemed to have washed the
+very air itself, for it was as clear as crystal and had a tonic quality
+that set the blood to dancing.
+
+Cora had awakened early and stolen to her window, where she sat entranced
+by the beauty of the view. But she was not allowed to enjoy it long, for
+there came a thundering knock on the door that made her jump.
+
+"Come along, you sleepyheads!" sounded Jack's voice from outside. "It's
+too fine a morning to waste it in sleep."
+
+"Let us now be up and doing!" chanted Walter.
+
+"The day is one to stir the sluggard blood!" added Paul.
+
+"You boys just trot along," sang out Cora defiantly. "We're going to take
+our time."
+
+"You always do," retorted Jack. "If time were money you girls would be
+millionaires."
+
+"Let them rave," remarked Belle, as she opened her sleepy eyes.
+
+"I'm going to have another forty winks," said Bess, as she turned over on
+her pillow.
+
+"No, you're not!" declared Cora, as the boys went clattering down the
+stairs. "It's a perfectly gorgeous day, girls, and it's simply a crime to
+waste it in bed. The view from these windows is enough to make you gasp.
+Besides, we don't want to keep breakfast waiting."
+
+Bess still protested, but yielded to the laughing threat of being dragged
+from bed if she did not get up of her own accord, and the girls hurried
+with their dressing.
+
+They found the boys already at the table, making huge inroads on the
+food.
+
+"You see we're waiting for you," remarked Jack, as he passed his plate
+for another helping of bacon and eggs.
+
+"Yes," replied Cora, "I see you are."
+
+"You're a gallant lot!" reproached Belle.
+
+"We didn't think you'd get up till noon," defended Walter.
+
+"Besides," added Paul, "we've heard of something that makes us want to
+hustle."
+
+"What is that?" asked Bess with lively interest, as the girls took their
+seats.
+
+"Aunt Betty tells us that there is an old motor boat down on the lake,"
+replied Jack. "It hasn't been used much for the last two or three years,
+and it's probably a good deal out of repair. We thought we might be able
+to tinker it up and take you girls out for a sail on the lake."
+
+"You see, we're always thinking of how we can give you girls a good
+time," observed Paul.
+
+"Of course you weren't expecting to have a good time yourselves," mocked
+Cora.
+
+"I didn't know that there was a lake so close at hand," said Belle
+delightedly.
+
+"Hadn't I told you about it?" said Cora. "We've had so much to talk about
+that I must have omitted that from my description. But there is a
+beautiful mountain lake not more than five minutes' walk from here. I
+didn't know that there was a motor boat anywhere round, though. I'm wild
+to have a look at it."
+
+"Don't spend too long a time at the table then," admonished Jack.
+
+"That's pretty good, coming from you," countered Belle. "But don't worry.
+You boys live to eat, while we eat to live."
+
+"None of you seems to be wasting away," retorted Jack. "But hurry along
+now and all will be forgiven. We fellows have got to go out and see if
+Joel has the tools we'll need for tinkering up the boat."
+
+They excused themselves and went out, while the girls, who were all agog
+with the new pleasure promised them, hurried through their meal and were
+ready for the trip when the boys returned.
+
+A few minutes of brisk walking brought them to the borders of a lake
+whose blue waters shimmered in the morning sun. An exclamation of delight
+broke from them as they gazed upon its beauty.
+
+The lake stretched for about four miles in one direction and was perhaps
+a mile and a half in width. Near the center of it they could see a small
+island that appeared to be heavily wooded.
+
+Not far from where they were standing was a small boathouse with a pier
+projecting into the lake. Near the end of the little dock a motor boat
+was moored.
+
+"There's the boat!" cried Jack, and they all made a rush for it.
+
+"The _Water Sprite_," read Cora from the partly effaced letters on the
+stern.
+
+"It has good enough lines," said Walter, as he ran his eyes over the
+boat, "but it seems as though it had been pretty well neglected."
+
+"The owner never used it much," explained Jack. "He didn't care much for
+the water, and when he was here spent most of his time in hunting on
+land."
+
+"Looks pretty much like junk to me," admitted Paul, as he took in the
+dilapidated appearance of the boat.
+
+The others could not help agreeing that Paul's criticism seemed
+justified.
+
+"Doesn't look as though she'd be worth taking much trouble for, does
+she?" remarked Jack doubtfully.
+
+"Well, you wouldn't say that she'd just come from a motor-boat show,"
+observed Paul; "but just the same she may be a well made boat and capable
+of speed too if she's put in decent condition. Of course she looks like a
+total loss now, but it's wonderful what a little work will do. Let's take
+a look at the engine anyway."
+
+They boarded the little craft and removed a tarpaulin that had been
+spread over the engine. The boys then proceeded to give the latter a
+thorough inspection, first, however, bailing out the water that had
+collected in the bottom of the boat.
+
+"Say, fellows!" exclaimed Jack, as his eyes lit on the manufacturer's
+name plate, "this is a good little motor, no doubt of that. You know that
+any engine these people put out is bound to be first class, don't you?"
+
+"That's true enough," agreed Paul, "but the best engine ever built can be
+ruined by carelessness and neglect."
+
+"Yes," assented Walter, "but there may not be so much the matter with
+this chugger after all. First thing to do is to turn the old engine over
+and see how it sounds." He had already put in some oil and gasoline.
+
+"A fine idea," panted Jack after applying all his strength to the
+flywheel without result. "The trouble is that it won't turn at all."
+
+"Here," said Walter, taking it from his hand, "let me try. Only you
+mustn't mind if I pull the whole engine out of the boat. I'm mighty apt
+to if I really let myself go, you know."
+
+"Listen to Samson talking!" gibed Cora.
+
+"Go ahead," said Jack. "Look out for flying splinters, Paul. Sampson is
+going to tear things wide open."
+
+"He's mighty strong," mocked Paul. "He doesn't ask you to prove it. He
+admits it."
+
+There were no flying splinters, however, for in spite of all Walter's
+exertions, the engine remained immovable.
+
+"Well, that proves that she's a good solid boat to stand the strain,"
+grinned Walter, at last giving over the attempt.
+
+  "The muscles of his brawny arms
+  Are strong as iron bands,"
+
+jeered Cora.
+
+"Guess there's nothing to do," continued Walter, "but take the engine
+down and see what's wrong. It feels as though the parts had grown
+together."
+
+"Must be if you couldn't move it," said Jack scathingly. "But let's get
+busy, fellows. I suppose the first thing to do is to get the cylinders
+off."
+
+They fell to with a will, and soon had the smaller fittings dismounted.
+The motor was of the two-cylinder, two-cycle type, and according to the
+makers' plate was rated at six horse power. The exterior was in fairly
+good condition, only a few patches of rust showing here and there where
+the paint had been chipped off, leaving the metal exposed.
+
+With some difficulty, the boys got the cylinders off. As they removed the
+front one, Jack gave a long whistle.
+
+"I'll bet there's the cause of the trouble," he said, pointing to the
+front cylinder.
+
+The others examined it and Paul remarked:
+
+"Guess it's a case of broken piston ring, eh, Jack?"
+
+"No doubt of it," was the response.
+
+And indeed this would have been plain even to the most inexperienced eye.
+One of the grooves cut in the piston to receive a compression ring was
+packed with broken bits of metal and metallic dust, many of the fragments
+having actually been reduced to powder.
+
+"That's a bad job," remarked Walter, shaking his head. "I wonder if the
+cylinder itself is damaged much."
+
+"Easy to find out," said Jack. "Let's have a look."
+
+They were relieved to find that the cylinder was very little scored,
+considering the condition of the piston.
+
+"Looks to me as if a new set of piston rings would be necessary," judged
+Paul.
+
+"That's what," replied Jack. "But it would probably take a week to get
+them from the manufacturers."
+
+Cora gave a little exclamation of dismay.
+
+"And wait all that time before we can have a ride in the _Water Sprite_?"
+she asked.
+
+"Unless you can wave a magic wand and make the pistons come running,"
+said Jack.
+
+"I'm going to rummage through these lockers," declared Cora, jumping up
+and going into the little cabin. "Perhaps there are some spare parts on
+hand."
+
+A moment later she gave an exclamation of triumph.
+
+"Here they are!" she cried, holding up a pair of the much desired rings.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad!" exclaimed Bess.
+
+"Takes a woman to do things," said Belle in a superior way.
+
+The boys looked a little sheepish, but at the same time delighted.
+
+"She's a fairy all right," conceded Walter.
+
+"You're the real thing, sis," beamed Jack, as he held out his hand for
+the rings. "And now for the dirty work."
+
+They adjusted the rings and overhauled the rest of the engine, which
+proved to be in fairly good condition. There were no radical defects, and
+by dint of hard work they soon had the entire machinery in what seemed to
+be good working order.
+
+"There," panted Jack, as he straightened up, "I guess we're some little
+machinists, all right."
+
+"We ought to be able to get a union card," said Walter.
+
+"Toil has no terror for us!" declared Paul, striking an attitude.
+
+"Those boys just hate themselves, don't they?" laughed Bess.
+
+"They've worked pretty hard--for them," admitted Cora. "And as a special
+reward, boys," she added generously, "we'll let you take us for our first
+ride in the _Water Sprite_ this afternoon."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+                            SPRINGING A LEAK
+
+
+"You do us too much honor," said Paul, making a low bow in his best
+Chesterfieldian manner.
+
+"I know that perfectly well," replied Cora; "but I happen to feel in a
+condescending mood."
+
+"Good gracious, girls!" exclaimed Belle, consulting her watch, "do you
+know that it's nearly twelve o'clock? We've been working here all the
+morning."
+
+"_We've_ been working!" repeated Jack with marked emphasis. "I can see
+that you're all out of breath."
+
+"'Those also serve who only stand and wait.'"
+
+"That's the kind of job I'd like," said Walter, wiping the perspiration
+from his face.
+
+"No chance," opined Paul. "The girls have got in ahead of us."
+
+"Well, I notice you wouldn't have been very far ahead if Cora hadn't
+found those rings," retorted Bess.
+
+"You boys are well enough where only muscle is concerned," said Belle
+patronizingly, "but when it comes to a matter of brains you're not in the
+same class with us."
+
+They hurried back to the house, where they found a substantial meal ready
+for them. Then the girls put on their boating togs, and they started out
+to try the sailing qualities of the rejuvenated _Water Sprite_.
+
+The boys cast off the moorings, and Cora, who could run a boat as well as
+any one, took her place at the wheel. Jack stayed near the engine, where
+he could keep an eye on its workings, and the rest disposed themselves
+wherever they could be most comfortable.
+
+There was hardly any wind blowing and the water was scarcely stirred by a
+ripple. It was an ideal day for boating and they were prepared to enjoy
+it to the full.
+
+The boat darted away from the dock as though it shared the jubilant
+spirits of the party, and Jack observed with great satisfaction that the
+engine was chugging away without missing a beat.
+
+"She's working like a dream," he announced.
+
+"And look at the way she minds the wheel," said Cora. "She yields to the
+slightest touch. It's no trouble at all to handle her."
+
+"That's where she differs from most members of the fair sex," hazarded
+Walter.
+
+"And see how fast she's going," said Bess, ignoring the gibe. "We're half
+a mile from shore already."
+
+"Let's hug the shore and go all the way around the lake. We may be able
+to pick out some splendid spots to go picnicking in."
+
+"And on the way back let's land on the island," suggested Bess. "I wonder
+if anybody lives there."
+
+"Joel told me that there was a man who had a cabin over there and comes
+up here almost every summer," replied Jack. "He lives all alone, and
+spends his time in collecting plants and flowers. Joel can't understand
+that. Thinks he's a bug. I suppose he's a botanist or something of the
+kind."
+
+"Well, he ought to have plenty of chances on that island," remarked Cora
+as her eye took in the luxuriant verdure of the place.
+
+"Perhaps he wouldn't care to have us break in upon him," observed Belle.
+"He may be of the crank or hermit type."
+
+"Or a woman-hater," laughed Bess.
+
+"If he is, you'll cure him," declared Walter gallantly.
+
+"I guess he won't object," said Paul. "Anyway, he doesn't own the island.
+He just camps out on it, and we have as much right there as he has."
+
+They had quickly reached the further end of the lake, and kept up a
+running fire of delighted exclamations at the beauties that nature had
+flung about this favored place with reckless prodigality.
+
+"If a painter could only put it on canvas," sighed Cora.
+
+"He never could!" exclaimed Belle. "The best he could do would be a poor
+imitation."
+
+Suddenly Bess drew up her foot.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed, "my foot is soaking wet!"
+
+Jack looked at the bottom of the boat.
+
+"It's a little water that's seeped in," he remarked. "We'll get the
+bailer from the cabin locker and throw it out."
+
+Walter bestirred himself and got the bailer. But after he had used it for
+a minute, a puzzled look came into his face.
+
+"It's coming in faster than I can get it out," he said.
+
+Belle uttered a little cry, and Bess became a trifle pale.
+
+The other boys crowded around Walter.
+
+"It is coming in pretty fast for a fact," muttered Paul.
+
+"We'll all have to get at it," said Jack soberly.
+
+There was only one bailer in the boat, and there was nothing else in the
+shape of a can or pail.
+
+"Take off your sweaters," said Jack to the boys. "Soak up the water and
+wring them out over the side of the boat. Lively now!"
+
+A moment more and the boys were working like beavers.
+
+"It must have been the straining of the engine," explained Jack. "It's
+started a board in the old tub. Work like the mischief, boys!"
+
+Bess and Belle were huddled together in alarm, but they said nothing to
+betray the panic that was growing upon them.
+
+Cora's lips were pressed a little more tightly together and her cheeks
+were a trifle pale. But her eyes were glowing like stars, and were full
+of courage and determination.
+
+She gave the wheel a turn and headed straight for the island, which was
+the nearest land.
+
+The water continued to gain, and as the boat settled a trifle in
+consequence of the added weight, its progress was necessarily slower.
+
+The boys were working frantically. Bess and Belle would have gladly
+helped, but in the narrow limits of the boat they would only have been in
+the way.
+
+The open space in the bottom of the boat was yawning now. Jack doubled up
+his sweater and thrust it into the opening, while the others continued to
+bail.
+
+Still the water gained, and the boat was perceptibly settling. But they
+were near the island now, and Cora turned the bow toward a low, shelving
+part.
+
+A moment more and, with a sensation of infinite relief, they felt the bow
+slide into the mud of the bottom. Jack leaped to the engine and stopped
+its chugging. Then all took a long breath and looked at each other.
+
+The faces of the boys were white and in the eyes of the girls there was
+more than a suspicion of anxiety.
+
+"Land ho!" exclaimed Jack, giving his sister a hug.
+
+"Castaways!" cried Paul dramatically.
+
+"But not on a desert island, thank heaven!" said Bess.
+
+"But how are we to get on shore without getting wet?" queried Belle, a
+lesser anxiety seizing her, now that the greater one was dispelled.
+
+"Can you ask that," said Walter reproachfully, "when there are three
+husky sailors here who ask nothing better than to carry you to the
+shore?"
+
+"It's only a foot deep near the bow," declared Jack. "Over we go, boys,"
+and he set the example, that was instantly followed by his comrades.
+
+Each took one of the girls and landed her safely on the shore. With the
+exception of Bess' wet feet, the girls were almost as fresh and unruffled
+as ever, but the boys with their dripping trousers clinging closely round
+them presented a comical picture.
+
+"That's right, laugh at us!" said Walter, as the girls looked at them
+with mirth in their eyes. "Here we risk our lives for you and that's all
+the reward we get. Suppose a shark had bitten us when we were wading to
+the shore with our cargo of beauty. Suppose----"
+
+But his diatribe was interrupted by the appearance of a man who stepped
+from the trees that came down near to the water's edge.
+
+He looked at the party with a whimsical smile.
+
+"Why, it's Mr. Morley!"
+
+"So it is," echoed Bess and Belle.
+
+"The very same," smiled the newcomer. "And you are the young ladies that
+came to my help the other day when I ran my car into a tree. Who would
+have supposed that we would meet again so soon and under such different
+circumstances?"
+
+He shook hands heartily with the girls, and then was introduced to the
+boys.
+
+"You've had something like a shipwreck, I see," he said, as he looked at
+the boat.
+
+"Nothing very serious," replied Jack. "Although it might have been, if
+we'd had much farther to go to reach shore."
+
+"It's too bad," returned Mr. Morley. "However, I'm very glad it wasn't
+worse. But come up to my cabin. It's only a little way from here. You can
+build a fire outside and stand about it until your clothes are dry. I
+live rather simply here, but I can offer you some refreshments. After
+that, we'll see what we can do toward patching up your boat."
+
+He led the way, chatting with Cora, and the rest followed. A few minutes'
+walk brought them to the cabin. It was a small, one-story structure, with
+three rooms. One served as a living room, dining room and kitchen
+combined, while the others consisted of a sleeping room and a room where
+Mr. Morley kept his specimens.
+
+"'A poor place, but mine own,'" quoted their host, with a smile. "I spend
+most of my summers here looking for specimens. The rest of the year I
+teach botany in a college. Now I'm going to bring out some cakes and tea
+and put the young ladies in charge, and we'll have a regular afternoon
+tea."
+
+While the girls fluttered about inside, preparing the refreshments, Mr.
+Morley and the boys built a fire a little way from the door, and in a
+little while the youths were dry and comfortable again.
+
+It was a gay party that a little later sat around the table where the
+girls had spread the refreshments. Mr. Morley seemed genuinely glad to
+have them with him, and the boys and girls were in the highest spirits.
+What might have been a disaster had developed into a lark.
+
+While the girls were clearing up the things later, their host went down
+with the boys to the boat.
+
+He had brought along some boards and oakum, together with necessary
+tools. His own rowboat enabled them to board the _Water Sprite_ without
+getting another wetting. Once there, the boys took off their shoes,
+rolled their trousers to the knees and set to work. In less than an hour
+they had repaired the damage. Then they bailed out the water and watched
+anxiously to see if any more came in.
+
+But their anxiety was needless. The work had been well done, and the boat
+floated high and dry on the water.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+                         CORA MAKES A DISCOVERY
+
+
+The boys, followed by Mr. Morley, retraced their steps to the cabin and
+told the good news.
+
+"And now," said Cora, "I suppose we must go. It was awfully good of you,
+Mr. Morley, to take us shipwrecked travelers in and treat us so nicely."
+
+The others echoed this sentiment, but Mr. Morley put in a vehement
+disclaimer.
+
+"It's nothing compared to what you did for me the other day," he
+declared. "And I can't tell you how much good it has done me to have you
+young people here. It's a long time since I've had youth in my home. But
+that's my own fault. I drove it----"
+
+He brought himself up with a sharp turn.
+
+"Perhaps you'd like to take a look at my specimens before you go," he
+remarked tentatively.
+
+"We'd dearly love to," replied Cora.
+
+Mr. Morley led the way into the specimen room.
+
+"Just now I'm making a collection of vampires," he remarked.
+
+"No accounting for tastes," whispered Walter to Paul, in a voice too low
+to be heard by their host.
+
+"Do you keep them in a cage?" asked Jack.
+
+Mr. Morley looked up in surprise.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"Why," replied Jack, "you spoke of vampires, and I thought you meant
+vampire bats. They're the only kind of vampires I know anything about."
+
+"I was referring to the plant this leaf was taken from," smiled their
+host, as he held it up for them to see.
+
+It was a long, rounded leaf that seemed to be covered with tiny hairs, on
+which glistened something that resembled honey and gave forth a fragrant
+odor. On looking more closely they saw what appeared to be fragments of
+small insects.
+
+"We call it the sun-dew," explained Mr. Morley. "It's common enough, and
+you've seen it in the fields many a time. But instead of living on
+elements drawn from the soil, it feeds on flies and other insects. They
+are attracted by the honey that it spreads out temptingly to bring them
+within its reach. But as soon as they light on it, the leaf tightens
+around them and crushes them to death. Then it eats them at leisure.
+That's why it's called a 'vampire.'"
+
+"But," objected Cora, "any one would think from that that the plant had
+intelligence and knew just what it was doing, just as an animal does when
+it hunts for prey."
+
+"Exactly," agreed Mr. Morley. "Who are we to say that plants don't have
+intelligence? What proof is there in nature that they don't suffer and
+enjoy, feel and plan, as men and animals do, only on a lower plane? We
+humans are too conceited. We assume that we possess intelligence almost
+exclusively. We grant some to animals, though we slur even that by
+calling it only instinct. But we've been inclined to deny it altogether
+to plants.
+
+"Now I don't agree with this at all. And there are lots more of the newer
+school of naturalists who feel just as I do about it. Wherever there is
+life there is intelligence. Plants can be cunning and patient and cruel
+and deceitful. If they can't get enough of one kind of food, they hunt
+for another. When men and animals do these things or show these
+qualities, we admit that it is the result of thought. What is it, then,
+that makes a plant do precisely similar things with similar ends in view?
+
+"But there," he interrupted himself with a smile, "one might almost think
+that I was in my lecture room, talking to a class! It's a hobby of mine,
+and I forget sometimes that others may not be so interested in it as I
+am."
+
+"But we _are_ interested, keenly interested," protested Cora.
+
+"I never thought of plants in that way before," declared Bess.
+
+"It's opened up an entirely new way of looking at things," said Paul.
+
+"Are there many kinds of vampire plants?" asked Belle.
+
+"Lots of them," replied Mr. Morley. "And they use all kinds of
+devices--hooks, claws, poison, honey, snares and shocks."
+
+"Desperate characters," whispered Walter to Jack.
+
+"Worse than gunmen," murmured Jack.
+
+"There, for instance," continued their host, "is the 'devil's snare' that
+is found in South America. It has long, snaky tentacles that sweep the
+ground for many yards in every direction, for all the world like the long
+suckers of the devil-fish. It gobbles up anything that comes within its
+reach, insects, mice and larger animals. Once it gets its deadly grip on
+a victim, it keeps on tightening and tightening until it chokes the life
+out of it. It has been known to grasp and kill a good-sized dog."
+
+"The horrid thing!" exclaimed Bess with a little shudder.
+
+"The S. P. C. A. ought to get after it," laughed Walter.
+
+"There are plants, too," continued their mentor, "that show intelligence
+by the way they adapt themselves to changed conditions. The bladderwort,
+for example, used to live on insects. Perhaps it got a hint somewhere
+that it could do better on water than on land. At any rate, it became a
+water plant. It lies just under the surface and imitates the wide-open
+mouth of a mother fish. The little minnows swim into it to avoid their
+enemies and as soon as they're well inside, the mouth closes and the
+plant regales itself with a fish dinner.
+
+"Then there are the cannibal plants. There are hundreds of trees that
+have the life juices sucked from them by the parasitic plants that twine
+around them until they give up the ghost."
+
+"Just as the trusts do to the common people," observed Jack.
+
+"Well," said Cora, drawing a long breath, "I've always known that nature
+was cruel, but I've never connected that idea with plants."
+
+"Cruel everywhere," assented Mr. Morley, "from man, creation's crown, to
+plants, creation's base."
+
+They looked with a new interest and a heightened respect at the other
+specimens he showed, and the time passed so quickly that they were
+startled, on glancing out of doors, to see how rapidly dusk was coming
+on.
+
+"When I get to mooning along on my pet theories, I never know when to
+stop," said Mr. Morley apologetically.
+
+"It's been a real treat to listen to you, Mr. Morley," said Cora with her
+winning smile.
+
+"Truth is not only stranger but more interesting than fiction," smiled
+Belle.
+
+They separated with cordial good wishes and a hearty invitation to Mr.
+Morley to visit them at Camp Kill Kare. He stood at the cabin door,
+watching them as they hurried down to their boat.
+
+"This is the end of a perfect day," sang Bess gaily, as they stepped on
+board the _Water Sprite_, which the boys had brought around to the little
+dock at which Mr. Morley's rowboat was tied.
+
+"It certainly has been a crowded one," said Belle.
+
+"Isn't Mr. Morley an unusual man?" asked Cora. "I'm more and more
+convinced that there's a mystery about him."
+
+"He's a fine chap," said Jack, "but I didn't notice anything especially
+mysterious about him."
+
+"That's because you're a man," said Cora.
+
+"I can't help belonging to that despised sex, can I?" inquired Jack in an
+injured tone.
+
+"I suppose it's your misfortune rather than your fault," dimpled Bess.
+
+"What do you suppose he meant when he said 'I drove it,' and then stopped
+so suddenly?" asked Belle thoughtfully.
+
+"Probably thinking of his car when he drove it into a tree," remarked
+Jack flippantly.
+
+If he had not been hardened, he would have succumbed before the
+exasperated glare of three pairs of girlish eyes.
+
+"Better get in out of the wet, Jack," counseled Paul.
+
+"Come over here and I'll protect you with my life," adjured Walter.
+
+"Don't pay any attention to those idiots, girls," advised Cora. "We'll
+wait until we get by ourselves and can talk sense without being
+interrupted."
+
+The _Water Sprite_, as though repenting of its lapses that afternoon, was
+now on its good behavior, and she kept "dry as a bone" on the short
+passage from the island.
+
+They found Mrs. King a little worried at their late coming, and she threw
+up her hands at the story of their narrow escape from sinking.
+
+"You've had a lively brood wished on you, Aunt Betty," laughed Cora, as
+she threw her arm affectionately around her aunt's waist.
+
+"I can see that already," was the reply. "My only comfort is that you
+girls seem to bear a charmed life."
+
+"Call it 'charming,'" said Walter gallantly, "and we boys will agree with
+you."
+
+They had some music after dinner, but as all were tired from their
+strenuous day they went to their rooms early.
+
+"Girls," exclaimed Cora, as soon as they were alone, "I've found out whom
+that gypsy girl resembles! It's Mr. Morley!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+                            AN UGLY CUSTOMER
+
+
+"Mr. Morley!" exclaimed Bess and Belle in a breath.
+
+"Isn't it so?" demanded Cora. "I was struck by it when we first saw him
+just after we got off the boat."
+
+"When I come to think of it, I believe you're right," replied Belle
+slowly.
+
+"He has a way of holding his head like hers," agreed Bess.
+
+"But it's the eyes," went on Cora. "They're blue like hers, and there are
+times when they have exactly the same expression. Girls, I believe we're
+on the edge of a mystery!"
+
+"Don't talk so loud," cautioned Belle, "or the boys may catch something
+of what you're saying and they'll tease us to death about it."
+
+"But, after all, what does it all amount to?" asked Bess. "It doesn't
+prove that they have the slightest connection with each other."
+
+"And even if they have, what could we do about it?" asked Belle. "It's
+like the dog running after the train. What would he do with it if he
+caught it?"
+
+The girls laughed.
+
+"It is a tangle," admitted Cora. "We couldn't go to Mr. Morley and tell
+him that we'd seen a gypsy girl who reminded us of him."
+
+"He mightn't take it as a compliment," suggested Bess.
+
+"Or he might think we'd gone crazy," said Belle.
+
+"There are probably ten million people in the world that the gypsy girl
+looks like in one way or another," said Bess, with difficulty suppressing
+a yawn. "Let's go to bed and forget all about it."
+
+But Cora, as she slipped between the sheets, was far from intending to
+dismiss the subject in such cavalier fashion.
+
+At breakfast the next morning, Paul proposed that they should visit an
+old logging camp that Joel had told him was located a few miles away.
+
+"Of course it isn't in operation now," he said. "You'd have to visit it
+in winter to see it running full blast. But it will be interesting to see
+the bunk-houses and the flumes, and get an idea of the way the work is
+carried on."
+
+"We won't have to do much walking," said Jack. "Joel says that the road
+between here and there is a pretty good one for the cars. We can take our
+lunch along and make an all-day picnic of it."
+
+The girls fell into the plan with enthusiasm, and in a short time the
+cars were brought to the front of the house, and they were ready to
+start.
+
+Joel stood by, looking on with lively curiosity, as Cora took the wheel.
+
+"How about a little spin for a mile or two?" laughed Cora.
+
+Joel grinned a little sheepishly.
+
+"Come along," urged Cora, "and I'll show you what fast going is really
+like."
+
+"Better make your will, Joel," laughed Jack. "That sister of mine is some
+speed demon."
+
+"I'm afraid it will put ye out in yer plans," objected Joel, though it
+was plain he was tempted.
+
+"Not a bit of it," returned Cora cheerily. "We have all day before us.
+The rest will stay here, while you and I go down the road for a mile or
+two and back."
+
+Joel looked at Mrs. King, and as she smiled her approval, he climbed
+clumsily into the car and sat in the back seat. Cora threw in the clutch,
+and the car started off.
+
+"Hold on to your hair, Joel," Jack shouted after him.
+
+The road was fairly good right there, and Cora increased the speed until
+the car was going well.
+
+Joel gasped and held on tight to the sides of the car. He had never
+traveled on anything faster than the little narrow-gauge railroad train
+that wheezed along at about ten or fifteen miles an hour. Now he was
+moving at the rate of forty or more.
+
+After about two miles had been covered, Cora eased up and prepared to
+turn the car.
+
+"How about it, Joel?" she asked mischievously, as she straightened out
+for home.
+
+"It's--it's scrumptious, miss!" gasped Joel, "but ain't ye feared ye'll
+wreck yer car? Doesn't seem's if anything on four wheels c'u'd stand it."
+
+"Don't worry about that," replied Cora, and again Joel was treated to a
+burst of speed that set his heart thumping violently against his ribs.
+
+It was with a sigh of relief that he climbed down from the car when it
+had come to a full stop.
+
+"Sufferin' cats!" exclaimed the old backwoodsman, as he faced his
+grinning audience, "I've faced b'ars an' painters an' catamounts, but I
+wuz never so plumb skeered in all my life!
+
+"An' to think uv a gal havin' the spunk to drive like that!" he muttered
+to himself, as he made his way back to the barn. "She suttinly is some
+gal!"
+
+"A little rich for Joel's blood, I guess," laughed Jack, as the gay party
+started off.
+
+"He'll grow to like it, though," prophesied Cora. "He'll be ready for
+another one by the time we get back."
+
+The cars moved along now at a moderate pace, for they had ample time
+before them and were not at all anxious to reach their destination.
+
+Suddenly Jack's car, which was in advance, came to a full stop. He turned
+about and motioned for Cora to drive up as softly as possible.
+
+"What is it?" she asked as she drew up alongside.
+
+For answer, Jack pointed ahead, and the girls saw a big rattlesnake
+sunning himself in the road.
+
+The girls gave a shriek that roused the snake. He reared his ugly
+triangular head, saw the cars, and with an angry rattle threw himself
+into position for attack or defense as the case might call for. His
+forked tongue played back and forth like lightning and his wicked eyes
+sparkled with rage.
+
+"Beauty, isn't he?" asked Jack.
+
+"Oh, let's get back!" cried Belle. "He may try to climb into the car!"
+
+"A black snake does that sometimes, but a rattler never does," declared
+Walter. "He'll leave us alone if we leave him alone."
+
+"For goodness' sake, leave him alone, then!" pleaded Bess.
+
+"I'm going to get a closer look at him," said Jack, preparing to jump
+from the car.
+
+"Don't, Jack, don't!" cried Cora, and there was such fear in his sister's
+voice that Jack yielded, though reluctantly.
+
+"We're not going to let him get away, are we?" he grumbled.
+
+"Why not?" replied Cora. "He wasn't doing anything to us."
+
+"He ought to be killed on general principles," said Paul.
+
+"He's an enemy of the human race," added Walter.
+
+But this viewpoint did not appeal to the girls.
+
+"He has a right to his life," said tender-hearted Bess.
+
+"To be sure he has," acquiesced Belle. "Besides, you boys haven't any
+weapons, and you might get bitten."
+
+"There are plenty of rocks and sticks around here to kill him with," said
+Walter.
+
+But the girls insisted, and while they were excitedly talking, the snake
+himself, seeing that he was not attacked, solved the matter by uncoiling
+and gliding away into the bushes at the side of the road.
+
+"A perfectly good bunch of rattles gone to waste," said Jack disgustedly,
+as they prepared to start on again.
+
+"He's given us a tip anyway to be on the lookout," warned Walter. "Where
+there's one there may be others. Joel says they're not very plentiful
+about here, but he does run across them sometimes. I wonder what Joel
+would say if he knew we had a chance to kill one and didn't do it."
+
+"It doesn't matter what Joel thinks," said Bess. "I'm glad we let him
+go."
+
+"You can't help handing it to the old boy for pluck," said Jack, with
+grudging admiration. "He was ready to fight the whole six of us."
+
+"If it had been a regiment, it would have been just the same," remarked
+Paul.
+
+"He kept that old buzzer of his working overtime," laughed Walter. "No
+striking on the sly for him. He keeps telling you just what he hopes to
+do to you."
+
+"It's the first time I've met a rattler under such circumstances, and I
+hope it will be the last," said Bess.
+
+"I guess his snakeship feels the same way about us, so honors are even,"
+laughed Paul.
+
+The party kept a sharp lookout from that time on, but no other snakes
+were encountered, and a few minutes later the logging camp came into
+view.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+                            A MOMENTOUS STEP
+
+
+The camp, which consisted of a sawmill, an immense bunk-house capable of
+accommodating more than a hundred men, and a number of scattered
+outbuildings, was picturesquely located in a depression between two great
+hills. A mountain stream that came tearing down the side of one of the
+hills furnished power for the mill. Later on, some of its waters would be
+diverted to the giant flumes, down which the logs would come hurtling to
+the valley below.
+
+Just now it was by no means the scene of busy life that it would become
+in the late fall and throughout the winter. Then would come the bearded
+lumberjacks, hardy, red-faced giants of the woods, Swedes, Norwegians,
+Irishmen, Frenchmen, hard workers, hard fighters, hard drinkers, and the
+wood would ring with the clang of axes and the crash of falling trees.
+
+At present there was little work going on. The sawmill, with a small
+force of men, was running in a languid sort of way, clearing up some of
+the by-products of the season before. The camp might be said to be in a
+state of suspended animation.
+
+A sort of deputy foreman who was in charge gave the party a cordial
+greeting and showed them about the various points of interest, explaining
+volubly the processes through which the lumber passed from the standing
+tree to the shaped and finished product of the mills.
+
+"We've got only a small force working in the woods just now," he
+explained. "They're nicking the trees, so that the men will know which
+ones are to be cut down this coming fall and winter."
+
+"Sort of passing sentence of death, as it were," said Jack.
+
+"I suppose you might call it that," smiled the foreman.
+
+"It seems a pity that they should have to die," said Cora, as her eyes
+took in the stately trees that decked the mountain side.
+
+"Especially after what Mr. Morley was saying yesterday about the trees
+being alive," remarked Bess.
+
+"You girls are the limit," laughed Paul. "First you let the snake go, and
+now you want to save the trees."
+
+"They'll be afraid to pick a nosegay after a while for fear that the
+flowers will bleed," mocked Jack.
+
+"I wish my folks had believed in that plant theory when I was a kid,"
+drawled Walter. "Then I wouldn't have had to weed the garden for fear of
+hurting the weeds."
+
+"There's not a bit of poetry in you boys," said Belle reproachfully.
+
+"You're mistaken there," denied Paul. "We love beautiful things. If we
+didn't we wouldn't be chasing after you girls."
+
+There was only one other visitor to the camp, a sharp-eyed reticent man,
+who loitered about without betraying interest in anything especially. He
+made no attempt to join the party, but kept by himself.
+
+"Who is our unsociable friend over there?" inquired Jack.
+
+"I don't know," replied the foreman. "He's been hanging around off and on
+for several days. He doesn't talk much to the men, but he and I have
+chinned a little together. About all I know of him is that his name is
+Baxter. He doesn't let on about his business."
+
+"Maybe he's an author in search of local color," hazarded Bess.
+
+"More likely a detective," remarked Jack. "You'd better look out, girls.
+He's closing in upon you, knowing you are desperate criminals."
+
+After the foreman had left them, they climbed the slopes of the hill, and
+enjoyed the magnificent view from the summit. Then, as it was nearing
+noon, Jack suggested lunch.
+
+"I'm keen to see what Aunt Betty has had put up for us," he remarked,
+"and what I'll do to it will be a sin and a shame."
+
+"Let's go out into the woods to eat it," suggested Cora.
+
+"Isn't this woods enough for you?" asked Paul, as he looked around.
+
+"Not while we're in sight of the mill," returned Cora. "I want to go
+right out into the wild wilderness."
+
+"Mightn't we get lost?" inquired Belle rather doubtfully.
+
+"It's easier to get into the wilderness sometimes than it is to get out
+of it," added Bess.
+
+"I guess it's safe enough," remarked Jack. "We won't go very far, and I
+have a compass with me, anyway."
+
+There was no further protest. The boys went back to the cars and got the
+lunch basket. Then they rejoined the girls, and the party plunged gaily
+into the woods.
+
+"We don't know where we're going, but we're on the way," chanted Walter.
+
+There was a trail that had evidently been used by the lumberjacks, and
+the walking was easy.
+
+So easy, in fact, and the balsam in the air was so stimulating and
+delightful, that the party had gone a good deal farther than they had
+first intended to before they came to a halt in a mossy glade that seemed
+to be especially designed by nature for a picnic party.
+
+A little brook ran near by, and the boys brought drinking water from
+this, while the girls brought out the napkins and spread on them the host
+of good things that Aunt Betty had had put up for them.
+
+There were no dyspeptics in the party, and the food vanished in amazing
+fashion, to the accompaniment of a running fire of chaff and jokes.
+
+When the last crumb had disappeared, Walter filled one of the drinking
+cups with the crystal water and raised it up.
+
+"A toast," he cried. "I drink to Camp Kill Kare!"
+
+They all responded merrily.
+
+"I'm going to look around this place a little," exclaimed Cora, rising to
+her feet.
+
+"I'm just too comfortable to move," said Bess.
+
+"So am I," echoed Belle.
+
+"You're setting an example of pernicious activity," said Jack.
+
+"I won't go far," Cora assured him.
+
+She strolled about for a little while, picking an occasional flower and
+observing with interest the nicks made in the trees by the woodchoppers.
+The woods closed around her and shut her out of sight of the others. But
+she gave no thought to this, for she knew that they could locate her by a
+call, even though she was invisible.
+
+From the bushes in front of her, a mother bird darted out and ran along
+the ground, twittering sharply as though in pain or alarm. Cora gazed at
+her, and noticed that her wing was trailing as though broken.
+
+Her sympathies were aroused in an instant.
+
+"Poor little thing," she murmured to herself. "I wonder if I can't catch
+her and perhaps help set that wing."
+
+She followed the bird for some distance, but it managed to keep just a
+little out of reach of her outstretched hand.
+
+So much of design appeared in this that at last the truth dawned upon
+Cora, and she laughed outright.
+
+"You little fibber!" she exclaimed. "You haven't any broken wing at all.
+You're just trying to draw me away from your nest, so that I sha'n't find
+your babies."
+
+To make sure that her guess was correct, she followed the bird a little
+farther. Then the little creature seemed to realize that she had
+accomplished her object, and rising from the ground, she soared swiftly
+away.
+
+"Sold!" laughed Cora to herself. "I'll have to tell the others about
+that. They'll have the laugh on me, of course, but it's too good to keep.
+But I'd better go back or they'll begin to get worried about me."
+
+She turned in the direction of the picnic party, as she thought, and
+began to walk rapidly. But at the end of five minutes she saw no trace of
+them and a vague uneasiness began to take possession of her.
+
+"That little cheat must have led me a good deal farther than I thought,"
+she said to herself. "I guess I'd better call out to them."
+
+She sent out a loud yodel, such as she and the other girls were
+accustomed to use as a call, and waited expectantly for an answer.
+
+But no answer came.
+
+She repeated the call, but with the same result.
+
+"It must be these trees," she assured herself. "They smother the sound so
+that it can't go more than a few rods. I'll go on a little farther and
+try again."
+
+She almost ran now, stumbling occasionally in her haste, and trying to
+crowd back an awful fear that was rapidly taking form.
+
+Once more she stood still and called at the top of her voice, called
+desperately, frantically, repeatedly. But for all the response she
+received she might as well have been in the center of the Sahara desert.
+
+Then she stumbled over a tree root and rolled over and over down the
+mountain side, to bring up at last in a wilderness of brushwood.
+
+She was dazed for a few moments by the fall, but soon realized that she
+was not hurt. She arose and pushed her way in a zigzag course, trying to
+mount the hillside down which she had fallen.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+                           IN THE WILDERNESS
+
+
+Cora was lost!
+
+For an hour past she had refused to admit it to herself. The utmost that
+she would concede was that she had become separated from her party. But
+that of course often happened, was bound to happen again and again, when
+one was out in the woods.
+
+Jack and the rest must be looking for her as eagerly as she was for them.
+How heartily they would laugh and joke over the needless fears that had
+assailed her when she first realized that she was alone.
+
+So she had reasoned with herself, thrusting resolutely into the
+background the terrible dread that kept trying to get possession of her
+mind, marshaling all the pathetic sophistries by which those in similar
+plight have tried to delude themselves from the beginning of the world.
+But with every moment that passed she grew more certain of the truth,
+until she seated herself on a fallen tree, and, burying her face in her
+hands, gave way to the tears she tried in vain to hold back.
+
+There was no use in blinking the fact. She was lost in the Adirondack
+wilderness, cut off for the time being from her friends, doomed perhaps
+to suffer incredible hardships before she should be rescued. She
+shuddered as she recalled instances of others, lost in that vast region,
+strong men, some of them, for whom rescue had arrived too late.
+
+She pressed her fingers into her throbbing temples and tried to think.
+But her head swam, and it was only by a strong exertion of her will that
+she was able to pull herself together. It was some minutes before she had
+herself well in hand and was able to bring all her powers to bear on the
+problem before her. That problem had suddenly assumed gigantic
+proportions. Unless she solved it correctly, her life might pay the
+penalty.
+
+"What shall I do?" she asked herself. "What shall I do?"
+
+North, east, south, west, wherever she looked she could see nothing
+resembling a trail. In all that tangle of trees, rocks and undergrowth
+there was no indication that the foot of man had ever disturbed its
+solitude. And as Cora looked wildly about her, the forest seemed to mock
+her with a lurking smile as though taunting her helplessness.
+
+But she resolutely crushed back the feeling of panic that clutched at her
+heart and hunted about desperately to get her bearings. It was
+ridiculous, she told herself, that she should not find something that
+would give her the needed clue.
+
+She knew in a general way that the bungalow lay a little north of east.
+It was not much to go by, but if she could keep in that line it might
+make all the difference between safety and disaster.
+
+But how was she to find the cardinal points? She had no compass with her.
+And then her heart gave a great bound as she thought of her watch!
+
+Like all the Motor Girls, Cora, in her frequent journeyings, had picked
+up a good many points of woodcraft. Among others, she knew how by a
+simple device to locate the south, and with this as a starter find the
+other points of the compass.
+
+Where she sat, the trees were so thick that a perpetual twilight reigned
+beneath. A little to the right, however, they thinned out somewhat, and
+rays of light fell through the foliage. Here was her chance to get an
+idea of the sun's location.
+
+She went hurriedly to the spot and opening her watch carefully turned it
+until the figure twelve pointed directly at the sun. Then she measured
+half the distance between twelve and the hour hand and knew that this
+central point indicated due south. Directly opposite, of course, was
+north. Standing, then, with her face to the north, it followed that the
+east was on her right hand and the west on her left.
+
+She had a tiny penknife with her, and with this she cut two strips of
+bark and dovetailed them in the form of a cross, so that each of the four
+ends stood for one of the cardinal points. On these she cut the
+appropriate initials and carefully planted it in the ground at her feet.
+Then she put back her watch with a sigh of satisfaction.
+
+Now she had at least a point of departure. All she had to do was to start
+in the right direction and depend upon further glimpses of the sun to
+correct her course from time to time.
+
+From the beginning her progress was slow, owing to the absence of a trail
+and the necessity of forcing her way through the underbrush. At times she
+had to make a considerable detour, to avoid brush so thickly matted that
+she could not penetrate it. This of necessity threw her out of the course
+she was trying to keep. And her consternation was great to find, on
+reaching a more open spot, that the sun was now hidden by thick clouds.
+
+Still she went doggedly on for two hours or more, taxing every ounce of
+courage and resolution that she possessed, finding a mental relief in the
+physical effort that kept her from dwelling too intently on her desperate
+plight. The afternoon was rapidly waning and the gloom of the forest was
+deepening into dusk. And just then, panting with fatigue and exhaustion,
+her eye caught something familiar close to her feet.
+
+It was the cross of bark that she had made two hours earlier!
+
+This, then, was the reward of all her exertions. Obeying that inexorable
+and malign law that seems to hound desert and forest wanderers, she had
+worked around in a circle to the very point from which she had started!
+
+For a moment it seemed to Cora that she must be dreaming. She could not
+bring herself to admit that all the toil and effort of the afternoon had
+come only to this. It was absurd, ridiculous! She rubbed her eyes and
+looked again. It was only too surely the fact. There was the little cross
+with the edges still raw from the blade of her knife.
+
+Fate had played a cruel joke on her--a joke that might prove to be
+deadly. She had taxed her muscles until she was dropping with weariness,
+kept up her courage with the thought that she was making progress, only
+to find that all was utterly wasted, and that she was no nearer safety
+than when she had started. The reaction came on her with a rush and for a
+moment she thought she was going to faint.
+
+Now, for the first time, the full horror of her situation dawned on her.
+As long as she had kept in motion, she had been buoyed up by the thought
+that at any minute she might win her way to safety. But now her chance,
+for the day at least, was gone. She was alone, cut off from all human
+companionship in that vast wilderness, and night was coming on!
+
+What was to be her fate? She had everything to live for, youth, health,
+friends, home and love. She was just on the brink of womanhood, and life
+ran at full tide through her veins. The future stretched before her,
+glowing with promise and with hands heaped high with treasures. She was
+just getting ready to drink the wine of life. Was the cup to be dashed
+rudely to the ground, just as she was lifting it to her lips?
+
+For a little while she surrendered to these gloomy imaginings. The shock
+had been too severe for her to rally all at once. Then she took a grip on
+herself.
+
+For it was not in Cora's nature to yield tamely to despair. Her heart was
+naturally brave and she came of fighting stock. It was good red blood
+that ran in Cora's veins, and now, as the first depression passed, it
+began to assert itself.
+
+Not that she attempted longer to deceive herself. She admitted that her
+plight was desperate. But it was not hopeless. It never would be that,
+she told herself, as long as a spark of life was left. She would work,
+plan, struggle and never give up.
+
+But where would she find shelter for the night? In some dense thicket? In
+a hollow tree? She shuddered as she thought of spending the night
+entirely in the open. What wild animals might be abroad, coming out,
+soft-footed and wary, to make their nightly kill? She knew that there
+were bears, wolves and lynxes in these forests, and also rattlesnakes.
+Without anything approaching a weapon, what chance would she have in case
+of attack?
+
+If she only had some matches! None of the beasts would dare to touch her
+if she were seated close to a roaring fire. They might prowl about and
+eye her hungrily, but no matter how famished or savage they were, they
+would not venture into that zone of flame.
+
+But a fire was impossible. And as Cora realized this, she looked about
+her wildly, as though she expected even in the twilight to hear a
+stealthy footfall or see a pair of phosphorescent eyes glaring at her.
+She could almost hear the pounding of her heart.
+
+She must find shelter in the few minutes of daylight that remained. There
+was nothing to gain and everything to lose by staying where she was. With
+a little prayer on her lips, she set off, choosing no particular
+direction, but trusting to Providence to direct her.
+
+Five minutes later she gave a joyous cry, and ran forward to a tiny hut
+that stood in a little clearing.
+
+It was a rude cabin of a single room. Its weather-beaten and dilapidated
+appearance showed that it had been knocked together a long time
+previously, probably by some trapper or hunter. Part of the thatched roof
+had sagged in, leaving rifts open to the sky.
+
+On the earthen floor within were the ashes of a fire and several rusty
+pans and skillets, abandoned or forgotten by the last occupant. In the
+center was a bunk, consisting of four uprights, to which were fastened
+ropes that crossed and criss-crossed each other to form a rough mattress.
+A door swung loosely from the rusted hinges.
+
+From all appearances, no one had been in the place for years. Cora rushed
+inside, pulled the door shut and slipped a bar that she found within into
+place. Then she sat down on the cord mattress and cried with
+thankfulness.
+
+From all the terrors of a night spent in the open forest she was safe.
+
+Night had fully fallen now, and the myriad voices of the forest were in
+full swing. It was nature's symphony on a colossal scale. Locusts,
+crickets and katydids sought to outdo each other. From the trees came the
+hoot of owls and the mournful notes of the whippoorwill.
+
+Now that she was temporarily safe, Cora was conscious of being hungry.
+She had been so absorbed in her attempt to escape from the captivity of
+the forest that she had not even thought of food. Now she realized that
+her healthy appetite was clamoring for satisfaction.
+
+Suddenly she remembered that she had slipped a tablet of chocolate in the
+pocket of her blouse that morning, to nibble at on the trip. She had
+forgotten all about it till now, and she thanked the fates for the
+oversight.
+
+She drew it out, and as she did so she felt two other objects that she
+had not known were there. She drew them out and found that they were two
+cubes of compressed soup stock, wrapped in little pieces of waxed paper.
+
+How on earth had they gotten there? Some trick played by Bess or Belle
+probably. They had slipped them in when she had not been looking, just
+for the sake of seeing her perplexed expression when she should discover
+them. That must be the explanation.
+
+Her spirits rose with the discovery. If she could only have had a can of
+water and a fire, she could have made a delicious soup. But this was out
+of the question, and she had to content herself with putting one of the
+precious cubes in her mouth and letting it slowly dissolve. It was rather
+dry eating, but the nourishment was there.
+
+She was sorely tempted to let the other cube and the tablet of chocolate
+take the same course, as all of them together would have made but a
+slender meal. But prudence spoke more loudly than appetite and she
+crushed down the temptation. Although it taxed her resolution sorely, she
+thrust them back into her pocket.
+
+She lay down on the rude mattress, although she was sure that she would
+not close her eyes the whole night through. But she was utterly used up
+by the terrible strain of the day's experience, and tired nature demanded
+her rights. Sleep laid its soothing fingers on her eyelids, and all her
+troubles were, for the time being, forgotten.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+                             CONSTERNATION
+
+
+It may have been the drowsy charm of the day, the soothing murmur of the
+brook, or the satisfying quality of the lunch, or perhaps a combination
+of the three, that made the little party under the trees so content to
+sit still or lie still for a considerable time after Cora left them.
+
+"This is _dolce far niente_ for fair," murmured Jack lazily.
+
+"I'd agree with you," drawled Paul, "if I only knew what you meant. Talk
+United States."
+
+"Why, it means something like 'the happiness of doing nothing,' I
+believe," explained Jack.
+
+"It seems to make a hit with you," remarked Belle.
+
+"It does," admitted Jack brazenly.
+
+"I declare, you boys are like so many stuffed anacondas stretched out
+there," observed Bess.
+
+"We're members of the Amalgamated Order of the Sons of Rest," said
+Walter.
+
+"Come along, Belle," said Bess, rising. "If we stay here much longer
+we'll grow to be as lazy as they are. Let's go and find Cora. She's the
+only real live wire in the whole party."
+
+"You do yourselves an injustice," Jack called after them.
+
+The girls went off in the direction that Cora had taken, keeping a sharp
+lookout as they went along.
+
+"It's queer that she hasn't come back of her own accord by this time,"
+remarked Belle.
+
+"She's probably gathering flowers," replied Bess. "There are so many
+beautiful varieties around here." But Belle grew more uneasy every
+second.
+
+"I'm going to call her," she said, and gave the familiar yodel on which
+Cora herself had relied in vain.
+
+But no answer came back, and the girls looked at each other with unrest
+in their eyes.
+
+"Do you think she's teasing us by pretending not to hear?" asked Belle.
+
+"No," replied her sister, "that wouldn't be like Cora. She knows how that
+would worry us."
+
+"Let's try both together," suggested Belle, and they gave out a call in
+unison.
+
+Again there was no response, and thoroughly frightened now, the girls ran
+back to their companions.
+
+"Oh, Jack," exclaimed Belle, "we can't find Cora!"
+
+"What!" cried the boys, leaping to their feet.
+
+"It's true," confirmed Bess. "We've called her again and again, and we
+can't get any answer."
+
+Jack grew pale beneath his coat of tan.
+
+"It can't be!" he cried. "You didn't call loud enough. Cora, oh, Cora!"
+he shouted at the top of his voice.
+
+Paul and Walter joined in with stentorian yells, but their united efforts
+had no result.
+
+"There's got to be some quick work here, fellows!" cried Jack, a cold
+perspiration breaking out all over him. "You girls stay right here," he
+commanded. "Don't stir from this spot. We three fellows will spread out
+in a semicircle, and beat up the woods in the general direction that Cora
+started out in. We'll spread out as widely as we can, but we mustn't get
+so far apart that we can't hear each other shout. We'll keep calling out
+all the time, so as to keep in touch with each other. If at the end of
+half an hour we haven't found any trace of her, we'll know that she isn't
+in this section and we'll hurry back to the girls here. Then we'll raise
+a hue and cry and get the whole district out searching for her. Come
+along now and keep your voices going. And keep your eyes open, too. She
+may have met with an accident. Work, fellows! Work like mad!"
+
+The others needed no urging, for they were wild with fear for Cora's
+safety.
+
+For the next half-hour they yelled until they were hoarse, and covered as
+much territory as they could. They peered into every bush and thicket.
+Not one of them but thought of the ugly monster they had seen in the road
+that morning. Suppose one of this tribe had attacked the girl who was so
+dear to all of them? Suppose at that very moment she were lying somewhere
+helpless and dying?
+
+They looked everywhere in an agony of apprehension, but Cora's wandering
+feet and her fall down the mountainside had already carried her far
+beyond sound or sight.
+
+At the appointed time they rejoined the girls.
+
+"No use," announced Jack, in a voice that he tried to keep firm, despite
+the working of his features. "I'll tell you what we'll do. You stay here,
+Paul, until further notice. If Cora comes back, you have an easy trail
+from here to the mill. There's a telephone there, and of course you'd
+call up Kill Kare at once with the good news. Walter and I will go back
+with Bess and Belle to the mill. Then Walter can drive the girls to Kill
+Kare in one of the cars, leave them with Aunt Betty, and bring Joel back
+with him to the mill. I'll get all the men that I can at the mill to join
+in the search. Those lumberjacks know the woods thoroughly. Then, too,
+I'll telephone to all the neighboring towns and camps and call for
+volunteers. We'll comb these woods all day and all night until we find
+her."
+
+He and Walter hurried off with the girls, leaving Paul behind. They
+reached the sawmill in record time, and leaving Jack there to explain the
+situation and carry out the plans agreed upon, Walter drove the girls
+home.
+
+It had been thought at first that it would be well to leave Aunt Betty in
+ignorance of the affair, in order to spare her misery. But on second
+thought this idea had been dismissed. It would not be fair to her, in a
+matter of such moment, to treat her as a child, even with the best of
+motives. Besides it was morally certain that the girls would not be able
+to conceal their grief from her, no matter how hard they tried.
+
+She was waiting for them as they drove up and greeted them with her usual
+kindly smile.
+
+"Where are the others?" she inquired. "And what on earth is the matter
+with you two girls?" she added in quick alarm as she saw their eyes red
+and swollen with weeping.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, Aunt Betty," said Walter, as lightly as he could. "The
+girls are a little worried because Cora strayed off a little way into the
+woods and we haven't found her. But she can't have gone very far, and
+we'll find her and have her back to Kill Kare in a jiffy. Jack and Paul
+are looking for her now, and I'm going back to help them."
+
+Aunt Betty gave a frightened exclamation and put her hand to her heart.
+
+"Cora lost!" she ejaculated. "And in those awful woods! Oh, why did you
+let her get away from you? The poor darling girl!"
+
+"We boys ought to be kicked from here to Jericho for letting her out of
+our sight," said Walter in savage self-reproach. "But the mischief's done
+now, and we've got to remedy it as best we can. You take care of the
+girls, Aunt Betty, while I go and hunt up Joel. I'm going to take him
+back with me."
+
+He hurried away, leaving the three to condole with each other. He was
+lucky enough to find Joel in the barn, and hastily explained the state of
+affairs.
+
+The big backwoodsman was thoroughly alarmed. Better than any one else at
+Kill Kare, he knew the dangers that threatened any tyro that ventured
+into that wilderness. There had been cases within his own knowledge where
+hapless wanderers had perished, even while the woods were alive with
+searching parties.
+
+He put his hunting knife in his belt, grasped his rifle and hurried back
+with Walter to the sawmill.
+
+Meanwhile, Jack told his story to the foreman, and received his instant
+sympathy and promise to help. He called for volunteers, and a number of
+the men who were working in the mill responded promptly. Some of them had
+already started out when Walter arrived, and others quickly followed.
+
+Baxter too was stirred by the story and came out of his shell of
+reticence. He volunteered to take charge of the telephoning, leaving Jack
+to go out with the searching parties.
+
+"I know personally the authorities in the nearest towns," he said, "and
+they'll be glad to oblige me in this. You're too excited and on edge to
+stay here, and I don't wonder. You go ahead and look for your sister and
+leave this to me. Before long I'll have a dozen parties out on the
+trail."
+
+Jack gladly availed himself of the offer, and, in company with Walter and
+Joel, hurried with feverish haste up the hillside and plunged into the
+woods.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+                           HELP FROM THE SKY
+
+
+It was full day when Cora awoke.
+
+For a moment she looked around her, dazed. Then, as she realized where
+she was, she sprang from the rope mattress to the floor. All the events
+of the previous day rushed over her mind like a flood.
+
+She was greatly rested and refreshed, although her muscles ached from
+contact with the rude mattress on which she had slept.
+
+A sickening sense of her position sought to take possession of her, but
+she resolutely thrust it back. She would not begin this new day by being
+a coward.
+
+She looked at her watch, but in the excitement of the day before she had
+forgotten to wind it, and it had stopped. She set it at a guess, and held
+it up to her ear a moment before she returned it to its place. Its lively
+ticking seemed to say: "Cheer up! cheer up! cheer up!"
+
+She threw open the door and stepped outside. The sun had risen and was
+flooding the wilderness with glory. The cool morning air was delicious
+with the odor of the pines. She drank it in in great draughts, and it put
+new life and hope into her.
+
+There was no sign of a stream anywhere near, and her ablutions had to be
+scanty. She found a little pool of water in a slight depression, and was
+able to wash her face and hands. She did not dare to drink of the
+standing water, but its external use refreshed her. Then she thought of
+breakfast.
+
+It seemed a grim joke to call it that, when her whole food supply
+consisted of a soup cube and a chocolate tablet. But she hunted around in
+the vicinity of the cabin, and found some blackberry bushes that were
+fairly well laden. She picked the berries with great care, for she knew
+how fond snakes were of such localities, and she had a lively memory of
+the encounter with the rattlesnake the day before.
+
+The berries and the chocolate tablet furnished her morning meal. It was
+not a substantial or satisfying one, and it required considerable
+self-control not to supplement it with the remaining soup cube. But after
+looking at it longingly, she put it back in her pocket. A time might come
+when it would be worth a king's ransom to her.
+
+And now that she had eaten, Cora bent all her thoughts on the problem of
+escape.
+
+What ought she to do? Ought she to leave the cabin that had proved an ark
+of safety and try once more to find her way through the trackless woods?
+Suppose night came on again, and she still found herself not only in the
+woods but far from the cabin.
+
+Or would it be wiser to stay right where she was until her friends should
+find her? She knew perfectly well how desperately they were hunting for
+her. Her heart ached as she realized the agony they were suffering. She
+could see the wild distress on the features of Jack and the other boys,
+the tear-stained faces of Bess and Belle. She knew that by this time they
+would have raised a hue and cry that would set scores of people searching
+for her. Would they not have as good a chance of finding her where she
+was as anywhere else in the woods? In fact, would not some of the
+lumberjacks know of this lonely cabin in the forest, and think perhaps
+that she had sought refuge there?
+
+To stay where she was meant inaction, the hardest thing in the world for
+her just then. She would have nothing to do but to think, and she would
+eat her heart out with anxiety.
+
+On the other hand, she faced the perils of the woods if she left the
+shelter of the cabin. Bears and panthers roamed the forest in the daytime
+as well as at night. Lynxes and wildcats, too, though less dangerous,
+were not to be despised, and there was the ever-present danger of snakes.
+
+While she was pondering the best plan to pursue, she heard the humming of
+a motor.
+
+She jumped to her feet in wild delight. Could that be the motor of a car
+with people searching for her? It must be. What else could it be?
+
+But the next instant she realized, with a sinking of the heart, that no
+car could possibly penetrate those tangled woods.
+
+Still the strident buzz persisted. It was a motor. She was too familiar
+with the sound to be mistaken.
+
+She sprang to her feet, and as she did so a branch caught in the veil
+that was wound round her hat. She reached up to disentangle it, and her
+eyes rested on a tiny spot in the sky that was not a cloud, and that was
+momentarily growing larger.
+
+Then she understood.
+
+The motor was that of an aeroplane!
+
+She ran to a more open spot where she could get a better view.
+
+The aircraft was flying at a height of perhaps a thousand feet, and was
+moving at a high rate of speed. Nearer and nearer it came from out of the
+west, while Cora watched it with fascinated eyes.
+
+Here was something that spoke of the great world that she seemed to have
+left behind. It was a link that brought her once more, if only for a
+moment, in contact with civilization.
+
+And up there on a precarious perch, a mere atom in the blue immensity of
+the sky, was the aviator. How Cora envied him! No forest held _him_ in
+its iron clutch. He was free as the bird whom he resembled in his flight.
+He could choose what path he would. He was free while she was a prisoner.
+Perhaps he was flying now straight toward friends and home and love. His
+roving eyes could perhaps at that moment see Camp Kill Kare, which she
+perhaps might never see again.
+
+She dashed the tears from her eyes and looked again.
+
+Now the aviator was flying lower. And his speed had perceptibly lessened.
+What did it mean? Was he seeking a more favorable current of air? Was he
+in doubt as to his course?
+
+Louder and louder grew the buzz of the motor, and lower and lower came
+the plane. Like a giant bird, it was now describing great circles, and
+with every one its distance from the earth was lessened.
+
+Cora's heart seemed as though it would leap out of her body. There was no
+doubt now of the aviator's intention. He was looking for a place to
+descend!
+
+But where? If he came down anywhere near where she was standing, he would
+be caught in the trees. But somewhere there must be an open spot that his
+keen eyes had descried, and it was there that he intended to make a
+landing.
+
+Cora ran in the direction indicated by the plane.
+
+She had gone perhaps two hundred yards, when she came to a large plateau
+which bore marks of having been swept at some time by a fire. So fierce
+had been the conflagration that trees and undergrowth alike had been
+burned to ashes in the holocaust. Even the stumps had crumbled into
+ashes, and there were several places in the wide expanse where a skillful
+aviator could make a landing without danger of injuring his machine.
+
+As Cora came out into the open she saw that the choice had already been
+made. There was one long, graceful swoop, and then the giant flyer
+settled on the ground with scarcely a jar, ran for fifty feet or so on
+its wheels and stopped.
+
+The aviator climbed out, rather painfully, as though cramped from long
+sitting. He rubbed his legs and flung his arms about vigorously as though
+to restore the circulation. Then he took some tools from a box under the
+seat and began to make some repairs in the motor.
+
+His back was toward Cora, and the latter was running across the field to
+him when she suddenly stopped.
+
+Who knew what this man might be? She was alone in this wilderness. Could
+she trust him?
+
+But her hesitation was only momentary. Most men were chivalrous.
+
+The aviator was on his knees as she approached. He heard her coming and
+sprang to his feet, very visibly startled.
+
+"I didn't mean to startle you," panted Cora, with an attempt to smile. "I
+saw you come down here and I ran over as fast as I could. I had to see
+you, because I'm lost out here in the woods, and I was sure you would
+help me."
+
+He was of medium height. The garments in which he was wrapped to protect
+him from the intense cold of the upper air made it impossible to tell
+whether his form was large or slender.
+
+"You poor child!" exclaimed the stranger in great surprise and sympathy.
+"Don't be afraid to tell me all about it," he said. "Look!"
+
+He took off his hat, and Cora's startled eyes saw two large braids of
+hair coiled tightly about his head.
+
+_The aviator was a woman!_
+
+The next moment she had her arms about Cora, and the latter was sobbing
+as though her heart would break.
+
+"There, there, my dear," said the newcomer, patting Cora's disheveled
+hair, "go ahead and cry all you want to. It will do you good, and I know
+just how you feel. But you're all right now."
+
+The revulsion from despair to joy had been so great that it was some
+minutes before Cora recovered her self-control.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed at last, as she smiled radiantly through her tears,
+"I'm so happy that I can hardly bear it! Surely God has sent you to me."
+
+"I believe so," smiled the other, who herself was a mere girl, not much
+older than Cora herself. "But now go ahead and tell me just how you came
+to be lost."
+
+She listened with the greatest sympathy and interest while Cora narrated
+all that had happened to her since the day before.
+
+Then in her turn she explained that she was making a cross-country flight
+from Chicago to New York. She was bent on beating the best record ever
+made for the distance by either man or woman, and was in a fair way to do
+it.
+
+"My engine began working badly a little while ago," she explained. "The
+ignition was balky and I thought I'd better come down and fix it before
+it got worse."
+
+Cora looked at her with admiration, and expressed it warmly.
+
+"I don't see how you dare to take such risks," she said. "It must take a
+tremendous amount of courage."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said the other modestly. "But there's a lot of
+satisfaction in beating the men at their own game," she added
+mischievously.
+
+"We women all owe you a lot for doing it," laughed Cora happily. "It does
+the men good to have some of the conceit taken out of them. But just the
+same I startled you when I appeared so suddenly at your side," she added,
+with a spark of mischief in her eyes.
+
+"Yes," admitted the other. "I didn't know that I was within miles of
+anybody at all you see."
+
+"I'm sorry," murmured Cora, but the sportive look remained on her face.
+
+"Well, now, I'll just put the finishing touch on the engine and then I'll
+be ready," said the aviatrix, who had introduced herself as Ruth Moore.
+"And you shall go with me."
+
+"Me! With you?" gasped Cora.
+
+"Yes. Why not? My machine has an extra seat. And you want to get out of
+this wilderness."
+
+Miss Moore set to work, Cora assisting her, and the aircraft was soon
+ready to continue its flight.
+
+"I never thought I'd be taking my first ride in an aircraft under such
+conditions," remarked Cora as her companion strapped her in.
+
+"You're sure you won't be afraid?" asked Miss Moore, looking at her
+searchingly.
+
+"I'm so happy at getting away from these awful woods that I'm not afraid
+of anything," replied Cora. "Then, too, I'm used to motor cars and motor
+boats, and that ought to help me in keeping my nerve. You needn't be
+afraid. I won't make any fuss."
+
+"You're a girl after my own heart," laughed Miss Moore, as she adjusted
+herself in her seat. "Sit perfectly still now and leave everything to
+me."
+
+She touched a lever and the aeroplane ran along a few yards and then
+soared skyward.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+                            A JOYFUL REUNION
+
+
+Cora gasped as the aircraft mounted into the sky and she saw the earth
+falling away from her. It was the newest and greatest thrill in her
+experience.
+
+Her first sensation was that of detachment. She seemed to be floating in
+a sea of ether. Everything was impalpable, intangible. It seemed to be
+her astral body that was moving through space. All that was material
+seemed to have been thrown aside like a cast-off garment.
+
+Her next impression was that of silence. All earthly noises had been
+stilled. The song of birds, the rustling of leaves that had made the
+forest vocal had died away. It seemed as though the world had been
+suddenly stricken dumb. The only sound was that of the motor with its
+monotonous hum.
+
+"Like it?" called out Miss Moore, looking at her with a smile.
+
+"Do I?" replied Cora. "It's just heavenly!"
+
+The aviatrix gazed at her with approval. She had found a kindred spirit.
+
+"You're a thoroughbred," she said. "Many girls would be frightened to
+death. They'd be begging me to descend."
+
+"No danger of my doing that," laughed Cora. "I could go on like this
+forever, if I were not so anxious to get back to my friends."
+
+They were flying now at a height of five hundred feet, and the air,
+despite the August sun, was cold. Miss Moore had given Cora a coat and a
+pair of gloves from her kit, however, so that she was fairly well
+protected.
+
+"What a glorious view!" exclaimed Cora ecstatically, as the vast panorama
+of field and forest unrolled itself as far as the eye could see. "Oh, how
+I envy you!"
+
+Miss Moore smiled.
+
+"It _is_ beautiful," she assented. "But I'm kept so busy with listening
+to my engine and shaping my course that I don't have as much time to
+enjoy it as I would like to. That's one of the advantages of being a
+passenger. But look around now, and see if you can recognize your camp.
+I'll make a landing as near to it as I can."
+
+Cora looked eagerly about.
+
+"There's the sawmill!" she exclaimed. "And there's the road that leads
+from there to Kill Kare," she added. "All you have to do is to follow
+that road south for a few miles, and we'll come to the house. And there's
+a big cleared space around it that will make a splendid landing place for
+the aeroplane."
+
+Miss Moore turned in the indicated direction, and followed the road that
+Cora had pointed out.
+
+"I can never thank you enough for rescuing me as you have," said Cora,
+her voice broken with emotion.
+
+"It's made me almost as happy as it has you," returned Miss Moore. "It
+will be one of the pleasantest memories of my life."
+
+"But it's delayed you on your trip, hasn't it?"
+
+"Suppose it has?" replied Miss Moore. "Do you suppose I would have
+hesitated on that account to bring you home? But set your mind at rest on
+that score. I was an hour or more ahead of my schedule anyway. You see,"
+she added gaily, "we girls can give the men a handicap and yet beat them
+out."
+
+Cora laughed gleefully.
+
+"Of course we can!" she exclaimed. "But oh, Miss Moore, there's dear old
+Kill Kare now! See, over there among the trees."
+
+"I see it," was the reply, as Miss Moore's practised eye looked out for
+the landing place.
+
+She touched a lever and began to descend in a sweeping curve.
+
+When Jack and Walter, together with Joel, reached the picnic ground, they
+found that Paul had not been idle. He had been searching for Cora in ever
+widening circles during every moment of their absence, but a glance at
+his disconsolate face showed that he had learned nothing.
+
+Some of the workers from the mill had already scattered in the woods,
+going in different directions. Other volunteers came straggling in until
+the number had reached a score. Joel, because of his knowledge of the
+woods, was put in general charge of the search.
+
+Anticipating that Cora might not be found before dark closed in, torches
+were prepared in large numbers and distributed among the men. It was
+arranged that the place where they now were should be the general
+rendezvous, at which all the searching parties would report, and to which
+Cora should be brought as soon as found.
+
+Most of the men had either rifles or revolvers, and a copious supply of
+ammunition was furnished by the foreman of the mill. Joel had brought
+from the barn a number of skyrockets that had been left over from the
+previous Fourth of July celebration, and it was arranged that one of
+these should be set off every hour through the night. By following the
+course of this and marking the direction from which it came, the
+searching parties could keep the location of the camp in mind. It was
+hoped also that Cora might see them and thereby be guided in the right
+direction.
+
+Paul had driven back to Kill Kare, and had secured unlimited food and
+coffee for the refreshment of the searchers, in case the hunt was
+prolonged.
+
+All through the waning afternoon the search continued. And with the
+coming of night it doubled in intensity. Fresh parties took the place of
+exhausted ones that came straggling back. The woods were alive with
+torches.
+
+It seemed certain that, with so many hunters, success ought to have been
+almost certain. But Joel knew that twenty times that number might search
+in that vast wilderness without running across the one they sought. At
+best it was a gamble, with the odds against them.
+
+Morning came and found the boys fairly dropping with fatigue and torn
+with grief and disappointment. Jack was almost out of his mind with
+reflecting on his sister's plight.
+
+"We'll drive back to Kill Kare and telegraph for bloodhounds," he said.
+"Joel says that there are a couple he knows of at the county seat. If
+they're sent on the early train to the nearest town they ought to get
+here by noon. We'll put them to work at once, and see what they can do."
+
+They left Joel in charge of the search, and drove back gloomily to Camp
+Kill Kare.
+
+There was plenty of "care" there that morning. Neither Aunt Betty nor the
+girls had been able to sleep. The thought of Cora out in the wilderness
+all through that long night had driven them fairly frantic.
+
+And their hearts sank still further when the boys came back to report
+their failure.
+
+"We ought to telegraph to your mother at once," declared Aunt Betty,
+wringing her hands.
+
+"It would almost kill mother to get a telegram like that," said Jack
+moodily. "It wouldn't do any good, and in the meantime Cora may be found.
+We'll wait, anyway, until after we've tried the bloodhounds."
+
+They ate briefly and scantily of breakfast, for none of them had any
+heart for food. Then they went outside to make ready for their trip to
+the rendezvous.
+
+The boys were piling into the car when Belle gave a sudden exclamation
+and pointed upward.
+
+"There's an aeroplane!" she cried.
+
+They followed her gaze and saw the aircraft coming toward them at a rapid
+rate.
+
+As they looked, they saw that it was beginning to slacken speed and at
+the same time was coming closer to earth.
+
+"Looks as though it were going to land somewhere about here," remarked
+Jack. "Perhaps it's having trouble."
+
+As it drew closer they could see that there were two people in it.
+
+"And one of them's a woman!" cried Walter, as he noted the fluttering of
+a skirt.
+
+"She's waving at us!" exclaimed Belle excitedly. Then her voice rose to a
+scream.
+
+"It's Cora! It's Cora!"
+
+"Cora!" shrieked Bess.
+
+"Cora!" echoed Aunt Betty.
+
+As for the boys, they gave one look and tumbled out of the automobile,
+yelling, shouting, thumping each other on the back. The girls sobbed and
+laughed, and hugged Aunt Betty and each other. None of them had the least
+idea of what they were doing or saying, and none of them cared. They were
+fairly mad with joy.
+
+They ran out under the plane as it circled around looking for its
+landing. And when it settled down as gracefully as a swan and finally
+stopped, there was a wild rush for it, and the next second Cora was
+unstrapped, dragged from her seat and was being devoured with hugs and
+kisses.
+
+It was all incoherent and frantic and broken, as great revulsions of
+feeling have a way of being. It was impossible to find words adequate to
+their delight, and it is safe to say that at that moment there was no
+happier group of people than that which wept and laughed on the lawn at
+Camp Kill Kare.
+
+The aviatrix sat looking on through all this tumult with a happy smile.
+
+As soon as Cora could extricate herself from the arms that clung about
+her as though they never intended to let her go, she turned to her
+deliverer.
+
+"You see what you have done for me," she laughed through her tears.
+
+"They certainly seem glad to see you," was the response.
+
+They all crowded around and showered her rescuer with thanks, as Cora
+introduced them. They were astounded to find that it was to a woman that
+Cora owed her safety. Most of them had heard her name in connection with
+flying exploits, and they were earnest in their compliments and
+congratulations.
+
+When a few minutes later Miss Moore resumed her flight, every eye
+remained fixed on the plane until at last it melted into space. Then they
+resumed their rejoicings over the wanderer who had been so strangely
+brought back from the wilderness.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+                         GOOD NEWS TRAVELS FAST
+
+
+A perfect delirium of happiness reigned at Kill Kare that morning. From
+being an abode of deep gloom, it had suddenly been transformed into a
+corner of Paradise.
+
+For Cora was back again! Here she was, a little trembly about the mouth,
+a little teary about the eyes, her hands and arms bearing the marks of
+scratches where they had come in contact with thorns, her garments torn
+from pushing her way through the underbrush, but with no damage that a
+warm bath and a good breakfast and a long sleep would not repair.
+
+They brought her in triumph into the house and seated her at the
+breakfast table that they had just deserted, while Aunt Betty and the
+maid hurried about to prepare her something hot and comforting.
+
+"I ought to go to my room first and freshen up and change my clothes,"
+the girl objected, her purely feminine instincts coming to the fore, now
+that she was once more in touch with civilization. "I must look a perfect
+fright."
+
+"Just at this moment you are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen,"
+declared her brother fervently.
+
+"That's what!" confirmed Walter. "We've been wanting to see you so badly
+that now we can't bear to take our eyes off you."
+
+"You're not going to get out of our sight again in a hurry," maintained
+Paul.
+
+As for Bess and Belle, their voices broke so when they tried to speak
+that they had to content themselves with pats and hugs.
+
+As for Aunt Betty, she went around hardly knowing, as she declared,
+whether she was awake or dreaming, while she laughed and cried at the
+same time.
+
+"Such a hideous nightmare as this has been!" ejaculated Jack, as he
+hugged his sister for the twentieth time.
+
+"You must be nearly starved to death, you poor darling!" exclaimed Bess.
+
+"Haven't you had anything to eat since yesterday noon?" asked Belle.
+
+"Not enough to give me indigestion," laughed Cora--she could laugh now,
+though a few hours before she had thought she could never laugh again. "A
+soup cube and a chocolate tablet can hardly be called overfeeding, though
+I did have a few blackberries to help out. But even at that I have some
+provisions left," and she took the remaining soup cube out of her pocket.
+
+Bess pounced upon it.
+
+"One of the two I slipped into your pocket for a joke yesterday morning!"
+she exclaimed.
+
+"It was a very lucky joke for me," smiled Cora. "I'm going to have this
+one framed as a memento of my escape."
+
+There was something more nourishing and abundant before her now, and she
+did it full justice, while the others looked on happily.
+
+Then, when she had partially satisfied her hunger, questions poured in
+upon her in a flood, and she had to narrate all the details of her
+experience from the moment she had been beguiled by the shamming mother
+bird to the never-to-be-forgotten moment when she had heard the humming
+of the aircraft motor in the sky.
+
+"If help ever came from heaven it did that time!" she said tremulously,
+and they all agreed with her most fervently.
+
+"And, oh, girls," she said to Bess and Belle, "if you only knew how I
+felt when she spoke, and, almost at the same moment, I saw those two
+braids on the aviator's head and realized that I was talking to a woman!"
+
+"We know," the girls assured her soothingly.
+
+"She's a dandy!" exclaimed Jack emphatically.
+
+"You bet she is!" declared Walter.
+
+"She's as plucky as they make 'em," said Paul. "I only hope she beats the
+record."
+
+"I'd like to be there at Governor's Island to greet her when she comes
+down," said Jack.
+
+"Even if she puts the men in the shade by beating their time?" asked Bess
+mischievously.
+
+"Even so," said Jack stoutly.
+
+"Cora's got the start on all of us now," laughed Bess. "We're only motor
+girls but now she's an aviator girl."
+
+"Weren't you frightened just a tiny bit when you felt yourself going up
+in the air?" asked Belle.
+
+"Not a bit," replied Cora. "Possibly I might have been if the
+circumstances had been different. But I was so delighted to get away from
+those dreadful woods that nothing else mattered. I think I'd have ridden
+on a lion's back, if he'd promised to bring me home."
+
+The girls took charge of Cora now, and although the boys remonstrated,
+she was borne away to her room to rest and bathe and change her clothes.
+
+"And now," said Jack, drawing a long breath, "it's up to us to get busy
+and call off the searching parties. I suppose I ought to have done it the
+moment Cora landed, but for the life of me I couldn't tear myself away."
+
+"You're excusable," laughed Walter. "But you stay right at home, old man,
+with your sister. Paul and I will get on the job and attend to
+everything."
+
+Jack protested, but they would take no denial. They jumped into the car
+and whizzed down to the sawmill.
+
+They found the foreman and Baxter deep in consultation. The latter saw at
+once from the boys' faces that they had good news, and hurried to meet
+them.
+
+"We've got her!" cried Walter.
+
+"Safe and sound at Kill Kare," added Paul.
+
+"You don't say!" exclaimed the foreman with a broad smile.
+
+"Bully!" cried Baxter in great relief.
+
+"Where did you find her?" asked the foreman.
+
+"We didn't find her at all," grinned Paul. "She found us."
+
+"Came back by the sky route," chuckled Walter.
+
+Then, as they saw the mystified looks, they hastened to explain.
+
+"That aeroplane!" exclaimed Baxter. "We were watching it fly over here a
+little while ago."
+
+"It was too far up for us to see that there were two in it," remarked the
+foreman. "Well, I guess Miss Kimball can claim that she's the only person
+that has ever been brought out of the woods in any such way as that."
+
+"And by a woman aviator, too," observed Baxter. "I've never had much
+faith in women taking up flying, but I'm glad now they have. It beats the
+Dutch what the women are doing these days."
+
+"They'll make us men take to cover if we don't watch out," laughed
+Walter. "But now we've got to hustle and call off the men who are beating
+the woods. We can't thank you folks enough for all you have done for us."
+
+"We'd like to leave some money with you to pay the men for their trouble
+and time," added Paul.
+
+"Not a cent," said the foreman decidedly. "Their wages go on just the
+same, and they'd only feel hurt if you offered it. It's just a case of
+common humanity, and they've all been glad to volunteer."
+
+"Well, anyway," said Paul, "we'll have a big open air spread on the lawn
+at Kill Kare to celebrate Miss Kimball's safe return, and we want all the
+sawmill crew up there to the last man."
+
+"That's different," grinned the foreman. "They'll all come to that. But
+you're taking a pretty big contract if you undertake to give a spread to
+my lumberjacks."
+
+"You can't frighten us," laughed Walter. "We'll fill them up to the
+chin."
+
+Baxter undertook to telephone the news to all those whom he had
+previously called upon for help, and the boys, leaving their car at the
+mill, hastened to the rendezvous in the forest.
+
+Joel was in charge, and a number of weary searchers who had dragged
+themselves in were sitting about, munching sandwiches and drinking
+coffee.
+
+The boys whooped out a yodel as soon as they came in sight, and waved
+their hats.
+
+The men jumped to their feet, and Joel came running out to meet the
+bearers of good news.
+
+"Thank the good Lord!" he exclaimed, as he saw their jubilant faces. "I
+don't need to ask what's happened. You've found 'er."
+
+"We've got her," beamed Paul.
+
+"An' wuzn't she hurt none?" asked Joel.
+
+"Nothing but a few scratches."
+
+The men crowded round with eager questions, and their delight was
+unbounded, for none knew better than they what risks Cora had run in
+those trackless woods.
+
+One of the men volunteered to stay behind and notify the other searchers
+as they should come in, and then, with hearts light as thistledown, the
+boys and Joel retraced their steps to the mill, jumped into the car and
+"burned up" the road on the way to Kill Kare.
+
+They had gone perhaps half the distance when they saw a figure on the
+side of the road that somehow seemed familiar.
+
+They slowed up a little as the man approached, and then Paul gave a low
+whistle.
+
+"It's that old pirate that took the gypsy girl away from us the other
+morning!" he ejaculated.
+
+"So it is," replied Walter, as he took a closer look. "I wonder what the
+old rascal is doing around here."
+
+"Up to no good, I'll be bound," remarked Joel, his old antipathy toward
+the vagrant people asserting itself.
+
+"I've a good mind to speak to him," said Paul, who was driving, as he
+slowed up a little.
+
+"What's the use?" replied Walter. "You won't get anything out of him that
+he doesn't want to tell you. And that'll be mighty little, or I miss my
+guess."
+
+The gypsy had looked up as the car approached, and it was apparent that
+he had recognized the boys, for the same scowl came over his face that
+they had seen on the first occasion of meeting.
+
+"Hello, friend," said Paul, as the car stopped close beside the gypsy.
+
+The man looked at him sullenly, but did not respond.
+
+"Is your camp anywhere around here?" asked Walter.
+
+The man shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"No understand," he said blankly.
+
+They tried again with the same result, and as there was evidently no
+chance of getting an answer, they drove on.
+
+"If we'd promised to give him a five dollar bill, he'd have understood
+all right," laughed Walter.
+
+"I'll bet he's prospecting around to find a good location for the camp,"
+observed Paul.
+
+"It's time then to put double locks on houses and barns," growled Joel.
+"I'd hoped thet I'd never see hide nur hair uv them light-fingered
+varmints ag'in."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+                           AN UNINVITED GUEST
+
+
+Cora was not visible when the party drove up to the bungalow, for Aunt
+Betty and the girls had put her to bed, with strict injunctions that she
+should stay there for the rest of the day. She had objected at first, but
+at last had yielded. And to tell the truth, she was not sorry to yield to
+their gentle compulsion, for although she was little the worse physically
+from her adventure, she had been under a terrific nervous strain that had
+taxed her heavily.
+
+But she appeared at supper time, fresh and radiant, her eyes sparkling
+and her spirits high.
+
+"I declare it's almost worth being lost for the sake of being made so
+much of when one gets back," she declared, with a loving look round at
+the circle of friends, who could scarcely take their eyes off her.
+
+"Why shouldn't we make much of one who comes to us straight from the
+skies?" said Walter.
+
+"There's one less angel up there now," added Paul.
+
+"But don't let me catch you running away again, sis," said Jack, with
+mock severity. "We'll forgive you this time, but once is plenty. I don't
+know but what I ought to put a ball and chain on you as it is."
+
+"You needn't worry," answered Cora. "I'm cured. I'll stick to the rest of
+you now closer than your shadows."
+
+"By the way," remarked Walter, as he passed his plate, "we met an old
+friend of yours on our way back from the mill this morning."
+
+"Who was that?" asked Cora with interest.
+
+"Give you three guesses," teased Paul.
+
+She ventured several names and then gave it up.
+
+"It was that dark-skinned gypsy who interfered the other morning, when
+you girls were going to have your fortunes told," said Walter.
+
+Cora was all interest in an instant.
+
+"And did you see the girl?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"She wasn't along," replied Paul. "The man was all by his lonesome."
+
+"A regular brigand he was, too," commented Walter. "I'd hate to meet him
+at night in a dark alley."
+
+"We tried to talk to him," explained Paul, "but he shut up like a clam.
+Pretended he couldn't understand."
+
+"The rest of the gypsies can't be far off," observed Belle.
+
+"Wouldn't it be fine if they camped somewhere in this neighborhood?" said
+Bess.
+
+"I wish they would," replied Cora. "I'm crazy to have another talk with
+that gypsy girl."
+
+"I'm afraid Joel doesn't share your sentiments," laughed Walter. "To
+speak of gypsy to him is like waving a red rag at a bull."
+
+"They're not very likely to settle down here," declared Jack. "They
+usually pitch their tents somewhere in the vicinity of a town, so that
+they can have plenty of visitors. The nearest place to this spot they'd
+be likely to fix on is Wilton. That's quite a good-sized town, and
+there's a big summer hotel there. But that's as much as four miles away."
+
+"What's distance to us as long as we have the cars?" said Cora. "For that
+matter, it wouldn't be too far to walk. I wish you boys would keep your
+eyes and ears open and let us know if you find out anything about them."
+
+They promised readily, but several days passed without any scrap of news
+from the wandering tribe.
+
+One other bit of news, however, gave them unqualified pleasure. They
+learned from a paper that Jack secured on a trip to a neighboring town
+that Miss Moore had safely landed at Governor's Island and had broken all
+records for a cross-country flight.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad!" exclaimed Cora, clapping her hands. "I've been
+worrying ever since that morning for fear I'd caused her to lose, and I
+know how much her mind was set on winning."
+
+And forthwith she dispatched a telegram, care of the Aero Club, that
+read:
+
+  "Your grateful passenger sends warmest love and congratulations."
+
+And it may well be guessed that few of the messages that overwhelmed Miss
+Moore on the completion of her wonderful feat brought her more real
+satisfaction than this.
+
+"I'm pining away for a trip on the lake," announced Belle, one beautiful
+morning a few days later.
+
+"Let's picnic up at the farther end of the lake," said Cora. "I noticed
+the loveliest spot for an outing the last time we were up there."
+
+"Your wish is our command," said Jack with exaggerated courtesy. "I'd
+have suggested it before, if I hadn't thought you girls might feel a wee
+bit nervous about the _Water Sprite_ after the narrow escape we had last
+time. But we've spent a good deal of time in fixing her up since then,
+and now she's perfectly safe."
+
+"We're not a bit afraid," was the unanimous verdict of the girls.
+
+"And let's get a few fish on the way," said Walter. "There's nothing that
+tastes better than a fish fry under the trees. And I know a way of
+broiling them on oak twigs that will make you think you're eating
+ambrosia. I'll be chef and Jack and Paul can clean the fish."
+
+"Such a chance!" exclaimed Paul. "You'll do your share of the cleaning,
+and don't you forget it!"
+
+"You'd better catch the fish before you fall to scrapping over them,"
+remarked Cora.
+
+"You boys go ahead and get your bait," commanded Belle, "while we get on
+our boating suits."
+
+"We fellows seem to be unanimously elected to do all the work," remarked
+Jack. "I suppose you girls will want us to put the worms on the hooks for
+you, too."
+
+"Likely enough," admitted Bess.
+
+"Worms, little boys?" sniffed Belle.
+
+"Bent pins, too, for hooks," suggested Cora.
+
+"Worms make a perfectly satisfactory bait, and don't you forget it!"
+declared Walter.
+
+"Bet the fish swallow those worms so greedily our arms will ache pulling
+them in so fast," added Jack.
+
+While the boys prepared the fishing tackle and dug the bait, Aunt Betty
+saw to it that an ample lunch was prepared, and by the time the girls
+came down, dressed for the trip, everything was in readiness.
+
+They made their way down to the shore of the lake, and a cry of surprise
+and delight broke from the lips of the girls when they caught sight of
+the motor boat.
+
+For it was a new, a rejuvenated, _Water Sprite_ that met their eyes. She
+had been dowdy and disreputable when she had taken them out on the first
+trip. But the boys had made several surreptitious trips to the nearest
+town, and had come back laden with sundry cans of paint and varnish.
+
+They had worked like troopers, painting the boat from stem to stern,
+varnishing the deck and the interior of the cabin, and cleaning every bit
+of the brass work until it shone like gold.
+
+The _Water Sprite_ was a perfect picture now, as she floated gracefully
+at the end of the little pier, her ivory white coat of paint contrasting
+beautifully with the rich brown of the deck tints and her name showing in
+gold letters on her stern.
+
+"Isn't she a darling?" exclaimed Bess ecstatically.
+
+"She's a dream!" asseverated Belle.
+
+"So that's what you boys have been up to on these mysterious trips of
+yours, is it?" asked Cora, shaking her finger at them.
+
+"Caught with the goods," grinned Jack.
+
+"Guilty, with extenuating circumstances," admitted Walter.
+
+"We throw ourselves on the mercy of the court," laughed Paul.
+
+"You see," explained Jack, "it didn't seem the right thing to us that
+such pretty girls should sail in such a shabby boat."
+
+"Well, all I have to say is that you boys are perfect darlings to go to
+all this trouble for us," declared Bess emphatically.
+
+"It looks like
+
+  "'An ivory shallop, silken-sailed,'"
+
+quoted Belle.
+
+"Except that there are no sails," laughed Cora. "But the ivory part is
+all right. Really, girls, it looks almost too pretty to use. Talk about
+Cleopatra's barge!"
+
+"There was only one queen on that, while we have three," grinned Walter.
+"But come along, girls. I want you to catch those fish, so I can show you
+what a peach of a cook I am."
+
+The girls went on board in high glee, Paul cast off the moorings, Jack
+started the engine to chugging, and Walter this time took charge of the
+wheel.
+
+The _Water Sprite_ darted off proudly, as though conscious she was
+looking her best. The boys had not been content with mere decoration, but
+had made a thorough job of fixing the hull as well, and this time there
+was no danger of wet feet.
+
+They went down the lake some distance, and then Jack stopped the engine,
+and the _Water Sprite_ floated about lazily, while they baited the hooks
+and threw out the lines.
+
+"I've got a bite," said Jack suddenly.
+
+"Does it hurt?" asked Walter solicitously.
+
+Bess giggled, and the others joined in when Jack hauled up a lot of
+dripping weeds.
+
+"Old Izaak Walton had nothing on you as a fisherman," chaffed Paul.
+
+But the laugh was on him a moment later, when a voracious pickerel made
+off with his hook and sinker, and he ruefully pulled up his broken line.
+
+Cora was the first to score, landing a big flopping perch to an
+accompaniment of little squeals from Bess and Belle.
+
+From that time on the luck was good, and before long they had a number of
+perch and pickerel, together with enough bass to supply all they needed
+for an abundant dinner.
+
+"I guess we're pretty well fixed now," said Jack, as he eyed the pile of
+fish. "What do you say now to hustling along and giving Walter a chance
+to make good on that frying proposition? I think he's bragging, if you
+ask me."
+
+"You do, eh?" retorted Walter. "If you clean the fish as well as I cook
+them there'll be nothing left to ask for."
+
+They started up the boat again, and before long were near the end of the
+lake. They went along slowly, trying to find the special place that Cora
+had referred to.
+
+"There it is!" she exclaimed at length. "See! Right in that little cove."
+
+She pointed to a little indentation in the shore where the trees had
+thinned out so as to leave an open space carpeted with velvety, springing
+turf. Near by, a tiny promontory extended into the water, and here it was
+deep enough for the _Water Sprite_ to float without touching bottom.
+
+"What a lovely spot!" exclaimed Belle.
+
+"A little bit of Eden," seconded her sister.
+
+"And a dandy place to land," commented Jack. "We can fasten a rope to
+that tree and step ashore without having to wade."
+
+The boys helped the girls ashore, and followed them, bringing along their
+catch.
+
+While the girls emptied the contents of the lunch basket and spread the
+good things about in a shady spot, Walter gathered some wood, dug a hole
+in the ground and lighted a roaring fire. As the flames died down he
+carefully raked the embers into the hole, until he had a small furnace
+that gave forth an intense heat.
+
+Then he prepared a skillet of oak twigs dexterously twisted together, and
+was ready. Jack and Paul in the meantime had been cleaning the fish.
+
+"Hurry up, you common laborers," ordered Walter in a lordly tone. "Don't
+keep an artist waiting."
+
+A fish-head whizzed past his ear and he hastily sought refuge behind a
+tree.
+
+"Bad shooting," he taunted.
+
+"Good enough to make you duck," retorted Jack.
+
+"While these rough-necks are disturbing the peace," drawled Walter, "it
+might be a good idea to get some of those blackberries up there. They'll
+come in handy for dessert."
+
+He pointed to a group of bushes about a hundred feet distant.
+
+"I'll go," volunteered Belle, rising to her feet. "You girls go on
+getting things ready. This lunch basket is empty now and I'll take it
+along for the berries."
+
+She started to pick busily, while Walter, taking the fish that had been
+cleaned, began to broil them over the fire.
+
+A delicious, tantalizing savor rose from the oak skillets, and promised
+to justify all that Walter had claimed for his cooking.
+
+"Hurry up, Belle!" called Cora. "Walter's nearly finished now, and we're
+all ravenous."
+
+"I'll be with you in a minute," sang out Belle, "but there's one big bush
+here that's just dying to be picked."
+
+She moved toward it, but stopped in fright as she heard a grunt and snort
+on the other side of the bush.
+
+The next instant she found herself looking into the eyes of a big black
+bear!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX
+                          THE GREEDY MARAUDER
+
+
+For a moment Belle stood paralyzed with fright.
+
+The bear gazed at her unwinkingly, and his hair began to rise slowly on
+his head as he gave vent to a savage growl.
+
+Then Belle screamed wildly, dropped her basket, which was half full of
+berries, and ran towards the other members of the party, who had risen
+and rushed to meet her.
+
+"What is it?" they cried in chorus.
+
+"A bear!" shrieked Belle, pointing to the thicket. "Oh, run, run!"
+
+And at this moment the bear emphasized the wisdom of this advice by
+shambling into full sight.
+
+The boys each possessed themselves of the arm of one of the girls and
+hurried them to the boat. They put them aboard, rapidly untied the rope
+that held the _Water Sprite_, and themselves jumped in.
+
+Then with a united push they sent the _Water Sprite_ away from the bank,
+Jack started the engine going faster than he ever had before, and in a
+moment more they were fifty feet out on the lake.
+
+Then only did they dare to draw breath.
+
+It was perhaps lucky for them that Belle had dropped her basket right in
+the path of the bear. The piles of luscious fruit that had rolled out
+proved a temptation too strong to resist. He nuzzled into them
+luxuriously, and when he raised his head his nose looked as though it
+were dripping with paint.
+
+They had a good view of him now, and they shuddered as they saw what a
+large and shaggy specimen he was. The bear looked at them too and snarled
+as if with disappointment at their escape.
+
+"Beauty, isn't he?" demanded Paul.
+
+"Looks like a nightmare to me," observed Walter.
+
+"How lucky that Belle saw him first and gave warning," said Cora. "It
+would have been nice, wouldn't it, to have been sitting at lunch and have
+looked up to see him standing beside us?"
+
+"I know what it means now to have your tongue cleave to the roof of your
+mouth," said Belle, who was pale and shaken. "I thought I never would be
+able to scream."
+
+The bear resumed his shambling gait and meandered leisurely down to the
+pile of fish.
+
+"The robber!" groaned Walter. "He'll clean up the pile. To think I've
+been cooking for that old reprobate!"
+
+"You ought to take it as a compliment," said Jack. "Just see how the old
+thief is wading into them."
+
+The fish were indeed disappearing with magical rapidity.
+
+"He's a magician," said Jack. "He's making mutton of fish."
+
+"It's well enough to joke," murmured Bess. "But what will we do if he
+eats all the rest of our lunch?"
+
+"We'll have to grin and bear it," said Paul, whose disposition to pun
+could not be overcome.
+
+"Perhaps he'll be satisfied with the fish and leave the rest of the food
+alone," remarked Cora hopefully.
+
+"You're a cheerful optimist," replied her brother. "You don't know much
+about a bear's appetite. Besides, he must be awfully hungry, otherwise he
+would run away--bears usually do."
+
+"Oh, if I only had a rifle here!" said Paul.
+
+"A dynamite bomb would be good enough for me," growled Walter.
+
+"Haven't we anything on board we can soak him with?" groaned Jack.
+
+"Nothing much, except some loose bolts and nuts in the locker," answered
+Cora, "and they wouldn't do any good, except perhaps to aggravate him."
+
+"It might get his mind off the rest of the lunch, anyway," replied her
+brother. "Let's get a handful, fellows, and bombard the old brigand."
+
+They were all smarting for revenge, and they equipped themselves with the
+missiles and began to throw. Several of them hit the bear, but he paid no
+attention.
+
+"We're too far off," said Walter. "The force of the bolts is spent before
+they get to him. Back up a little closer to the shore, Jack, and we'll
+have a better chance."
+
+"Do you think we'd better?" asked Belle. "He might get stirred up and
+come after us. Bears are good swimmers, you know."
+
+"He couldn't catch a motor boat in a thousand years," replied Jack. "If
+it were a rowboat now, it might be different."
+
+He backed up until the boat was within ten feet of the shore. Walter
+threw a bolt with such accurate aim that it caught the bear right on the
+end of his nose.
+
+He reared up with an ugly roar, and his little eyes shot flames of fire
+at his adversaries.
+
+He offered a fair mark as he stood erect, and Jack had an inspiration.
+Hanging over the side of the _Water Sprite_ was one of the
+life-preservers, the round type, a circle with a very large opening in
+the center, so that it could be easily slipped over the head.
+
+Jack snatched it up and threw it with the motion of a quoit-thrower. It
+covered the short intervening distance and went over the bear's head,
+settling on his neck and looking for all the world like a gigantic ruff.
+It gave the animal a most grotesque appearance, and the spectators roared
+with laughter.
+
+It was easier for it to go on than it was for the bear to get it off, and
+his antics were comical as he rubbed his head against the trees and,
+failing in that, took his paws to it. He succeeded at last, but his
+naturally surly nature had not been improved by the operation, and the
+instant the life-preserver was dislodged, he rushed to the edge of the
+shore and plunged into the water.
+
+The action was so sudden that the party was taken by surprise. The girls
+screamed, and the boys had to do some quick work to get the _Water
+Sprite_ under way. They succeeded, however, and once the engine was
+going, it was an easy matter to keep out of the bear's reach, although
+for so clumsy a creature he swam with amazing swiftness.
+
+They could have distanced him without trouble, but with deliberate
+purpose Jack kept just far enough ahead of him to encourage him in
+thinking that he might overtake his quarry. In this way, he drew him down
+along the shore of the lake for more than half a mile. By that time,
+Bruin's ardor had cooled and his strength began to fail. He gave a
+wrathful snort and made for the shore.
+
+The instant he did so, Jack turned the boat about and made all speed back
+to the place where they had been surprised.
+
+"Now's our chance, fellows," he said. "We can get there long before the
+bear does, even if he makes a bee line for it as soon as he gets to
+shore. I'll hold her bow against the bank, while you jump out and gather
+up the provisions and bring them on board. That thief may have got our
+fish, but he won't have the laugh on us altogether."
+
+It was very quick work that Paul and Walter did, for they had no mind to
+be caught there when the bear should make his way back, as they had no
+doubt he would. They regained the life preserver, which was so scratched
+and torn that it was no longer good for its original purpose, but they
+wanted it as a memento of the adventure.
+
+As the bear had not had time to meddle with the food laid out by the
+girls, they were not so badly off after all, although it was exasperating
+to have to go without the fish, whose appetizing aroma was still in the
+air.
+
+"Just when they were done to a turn, too," said Walter gloomily. "I wish
+the old rascal had choked on the bones."
+
+Having recovered everything else, even to Aunt Betty's lunch basket, the
+picnic party pushed out some distance, and ate their lunch with an
+appetite that was the keener for their enforced waiting.
+
+They were sure that Bruin's instinct would lead him straight back to the
+succulent repast that had been so rudely interrupted, and they were
+right, for a few minutes later he came loping along and plunged into the
+remnants of his fish dinner. He glared out over the water at his enemies,
+but his one experience had been sufficient, and he made no further
+attempt to take after them. He sniffed around disappointedly at the place
+where the other eatables had stood, and then lumbered away into the
+woods.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI
+                           THE DRIFTING BOAT
+
+
+"There's gratitude for you," observed Jack. "We've given that bear a
+perfectly good dinner--even cooked it for him--and the only thanks we get
+is an attempt to kill us."
+
+"Oh, well," said Paul, "we must forgive the old fellow. Bear and forbear,
+you know."
+
+"You wouldn't think it was so funny," remarked Cora, "if he'd gotten away
+with the rest of the lunch, as well as the fish."
+
+"Even then we needn't have gone hungry," returned Paul soberly. "The
+forest preserves are all around us."
+
+"Even in the cities, one needn't starve if he has a sweet tooth," added
+Walter. "He always has the subway jams."
+
+"I declare," said Cora, "it's a pity the bear didn't get you boys after
+all."
+
+"_We_ may get _him_ yet," said Walter. "I'm not willing to let those fish
+of mine go unavenged. Perhaps we can get some guns from Joel and round
+this old fellow up. It certainly would do me a lot of good to have his
+skin for a rug."
+
+"He may have his own ideas about that," replied Bess. "You'd better let
+well enough alone."
+
+"I see we're not the only ones on the lake," remarked Cora, pointing to a
+small boat about a mile away.
+
+"Some fellow out fishing in a rowboat," pronounced Jack, after a moment's
+examination. "Let's go down that way and see what luck he's having."
+
+"He doesn't seem to be fishing," observed Belle, as the _Water Sprite_
+turned in the direction of the rowboat. "In fact, he seems trying to
+attract our attention. There, he's waving at us. Let's hurry. Perhaps
+he's in trouble."
+
+Jack sent the _Water Sprite_ flying at full speed, and the distance
+between the boats rapidly narrowed.
+
+"Upon my word!" cried Belle, "I believe it's Mr. Morley."
+
+"So it is," acquiesced Cora.
+
+"I don't see any oars in his boat," said Paul.
+
+"Looks as though he were adrift," remarked Walter.
+
+When he was within a few yards, Jack shut off the engine, and the _Water
+Sprite_ drifted lazily down alongside the rowboat.
+
+It was indeed the botanist, and he smiled cordially, if a little
+sheepishly, as they shouted greetings to him.
+
+"I'm mighty glad to see you young people," he returned. "I rather thought
+it was your boat, but she looks so gay in her new coat that I wasn't sure
+of it."
+
+"Where are your oars?" asked Jack.
+
+"Thereby hangs a tale," smiled Mr. Morley.
+
+"Come aboard and tell us all about it," replied Cora. "We'll fasten your
+boat to the stern and pull it along."
+
+Mr. Morley climbed on board, helped by willing hands, and Walter secured
+the rowboat by a rope round a cleat in the stern.
+
+"It's a simple story," laughed Mr. Morley. "Indeed, simple is the only
+word that properly expresses it. The fact is that I rowed over to the
+other side of the lake to find some specimens that I had reason to think
+were growing there. I got them all right and rowed back to the island. I
+put the oars out of the boat on the dock, and was going to get out
+myself, when something peculiar about one of the specimens attracted my
+attention, and I sat down in the boat to examine it more closely. I got
+so engrossed in it that I forgot everything else. Then suddenly I woke up
+to the fact that the boat had drifted away from the dock, and I was in
+the middle of the lake without oars. I was trying to paddle with my
+hands, but wasn't accomplishing much, when your boat came in sight. I'm
+always glad to see you young folks, but I don't mind admitting that I'm
+especially glad to see you to-day."
+
+"And we are to see you," returned Cora warmly. "How lucky it was that we
+made up our mind to spend to-day on the lake."
+
+"We'll take you right over to your island," said Jack.
+
+"It's awfully good of you," returned Mr. Morley. "I hope it won't
+interfere with any other plans you may have made."
+
+"Not a bit," answered Cora. "As a matter of fact, I was going to ask Jack
+to stop at the island before we went home to-night. I wanted to scold you
+for not having come over to see us at Kill Kare, as you promised."
+
+"I ought to be scolded," admitted Mr. Morley. "It hasn't been, however,
+because I didn't want to come. But I've had a very painful and difficult
+problem that I've felt I must solve and that has taken up all my time.
+But I shall certainly give myself the pleasure of calling before long.
+
+"But you have had some very stirring adventures of your own since I saw
+you last, I understand," he continued. "What's this I hear about your
+being lost in the woods and rescued by an aeroplane, Miss Kimball?"
+
+"It's true enough," smiled Cora, and she gave him some of the details.
+"But how did you come to hear anything about it?" she asked curiously.
+
+"I was talking with Mr. Baxter recently and he told me about it," replied
+Mr. Morley.
+
+"Mr. Baxter!" exclaimed Cora in surprise. "We know him very well and he
+was very kind and helpful while the search was going on. But I didn't
+know that you were acquainted with him."
+
+"He's doing some special work for me," Mr. Morley explained, "and we
+often have occasion to consult together. He's a very clever man in his
+particular line."
+
+Cora would have given the world to ask just then what Mr. Baxter's line
+of work was, but she felt that she might be prying. She waited
+expectantly, hoping that the botanist would mention it of his own accord,
+but he did not, and they were soon talking of other things.
+
+Of course they told him of their adventure with the bear, and he laughed
+heartily at the way the brute had made away with their fish dinner.
+
+"If he didn't leave you enough," he said heartily, "I'd be very glad to
+have you come up to the cabin with me and let me knock you up a meal."
+
+"Oh, we had plenty without the fish," laughed Cora. "But thank you just
+the same. And by the way, we're going to have an outdoor spread on the
+lawn at Kill Kare before long, in recognition of the kindness of those
+who tried to bring the prodigal daughter out of the wilderness. I expect
+that your friend Mr. Baxter will be there, and I'd dearly love to have
+you come, too."
+
+"When you've fixed on the exact date, let me know, and I certainly will,"
+replied Mr. Morley. "But here we are now, and there are the oars lying on
+the dock as a proof of my foolishness," he added with a laugh.
+
+"You've put me under a great obligation," he said in parting. "I might
+have drifted along the greater part of the day, and perhaps the night,
+before I touched shore somewhere."
+
+"One good turn deserves another," returned Jack, "and we haven't
+forgotten how royally you helped us on the day the _Water Sprite_ got
+into trouble."
+
+They waved to him as the boat drew away and shaped its course for Kill
+Kare.
+
+"It's mighty lucky we came along, just the same," observed Belle.
+"Suppose, by any chance, he had drifted ashore and found our friend the
+bear waiting for him."
+
+"And he without any oars in his boat," added Bess, with a little shudder.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII
+                             THE GYPSY CAMP
+
+
+Cora sat in a brown study as the boat hummed its way to the home landing.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts, fair lady," said Walter, as he lounged lazily
+on the cushions.
+
+"Why," said Cora, "I was wondering what were the special business
+relations between Mr. Morley and Mr. Baxter."
+
+"Hard to tell," replied Walter lightly. "Perhaps Mr. Baxter is an author
+or an illustrator, and they're getting up a book together on botany, or
+something of the kind."
+
+"I hardly think it's that," put in Jack. "I told you before that I
+thought he was a detective, and something that he said when Cora was lost
+makes me believe it all the more. He said that he knew the authorities in
+some of the towns, and they'd be glad to oblige him. That sounds to me
+more like a detective than an author talking."
+
+"It does for a fact," agreed Paul. "But what do you suppose a detective
+and Mr. Morley have in common?"
+
+"Mr. Morley said that Mr. Baxter was doing some special work for him and
+that he was very clever," said Cora.
+
+"Mr. Morley may have been robbed, and he may be trying to trace the
+robbers," suggested Belle.
+
+"If it were only that, there wouldn't be much romance or interest about
+it," mused Cora. "But I have an idea it's something more intimate and
+personal than that."
+
+"It seems to me that a robbery is a pretty personal and intimate thing,"
+laughed Walter.
+
+"Cora means that there's a heart interest somewhere in Mr. Morley's
+life," put in Bess, "but of course you boys are too sordid to understand
+anything like that."
+
+As they passed the barn on their way to the bungalow they met Joel, who
+had just put up his horse. He seemed a bit out of sorts, and as this was
+unusual for him, it attracted their attention.
+
+"What's the matter, Joel?" asked Jack.
+
+"Nuthin' much," answered Joel. "But I jest heerd thet them pesky gypsies
+hez pitched their camp over near Wilton, an' it's kinda rubbed my fur the
+wrong way. I won't hev an easy minute till I know they've packed up their
+kits an' hit the trail again."
+
+"The gypsies!" exclaimed Cora. "I wonder if it is the same camp we saw
+before."
+
+"I suppose that's likely," returned Jack. "There isn't usually more than
+one camp in the same part of the country. They spread out pretty thin and
+keep apart. Besides, this fits in with the old pirate we saw the other
+day. He was prospecting, all right, and he picked out the vicinity of
+Wilton because he saw good graft in the town and the big hotel."
+
+"Are you sure the news is straight?" asked Paul. "How did you hear about
+it?"
+
+"Thet Baxter feller wuz drivin' by, an' he told me," replied Joel. "Wuss
+news I've heerd in a dog's age."
+
+But if the news disgruntled Joel, it gave immense satisfaction to the
+rest of the party, especially the girls. They restrained their
+jubilation, however, until they got beyond Joel's hearing.
+
+"Isn't it darling!" exclaimed Cora. "Now we'll have a chance to see that
+gypsy girl again!"
+
+"All the good it will do you," jeered Walter. "That old horse thief will
+be on the job again, and keep her from talking with you. For some reason
+he seems to have it in for us."
+
+"Let's drive over to-morrow," suggested Bess.
+
+"I'd like nothing better," agreed her sister.
+
+"Let's give Joel a pleasure and take him along," put in Walter with a
+wicked grin.
+
+"It would make him froth at the mouth just to look at them," laughed
+Jack. "I guess in the interest of the public peace we'd better keep Joel
+as far away from them as possible."
+
+"I'm just going to make that girl talk!" declared Cora emphatically.
+
+"Not a very hard thing as a rule," chaffed Walter. "The difficulty is
+usually to keep the girls from talking. But these gypsies are a canny
+lot. For some reason or other they're suspicious of us, and they'll keep
+their eyes on us as long as we're in camp."
+
+"Let's go in disguise," laughed Paul. "I'll make up as a clown."
+
+"That wouldn't be any disguise," jabbed Bess.
+
+"That ought to hold you for a while, old man," laughed Jack. "But let's
+go in to supper. I'm ravenous. We'll have plenty of time to think of the
+gypsies later on."
+
+The next day was bright and clear, and shortly after lunch the cars were
+brought out and the party of young people started for Wilton.
+
+There was a fairly good road most of the way, but there were patches that
+led through the woods that were rather rough, and over these the cars had
+to move more slowly.
+
+"Suppose that bear of ours should turn up now," suggested Walter, as they
+passed through an especially dense portion of the forest.
+
+"Don't speak of it," shivered Bess, looking fearfully on either side.
+"What on earth would we do?"
+
+"Run for it, I guess," replied Paul laconically. "He'd have to be pretty
+fast to overtake us."
+
+"But suppose he jumped out in front of us," said Belle.
+
+"Then we'd have to put on full speed ahead and bump him," laughed Jack.
+"He'd be as surprised as the bull that tried to throw the locomotive off
+the track."
+
+"And about as badly mussed up, I imagine," added Walter.
+
+But at the same time he reflected that it might have been just as well to
+have brought Joel's rifle along, and in his secret heart he was relieved
+when the cars got out again on the open road.
+
+They slowed up a little as they drew near Wilton, and scanned narrowly
+both sides of the road.
+
+"There it is!" exclaimed Bess eagerly, pointing to a large opening in the
+woods a little to the right.
+
+"So it is," acquiesced Belle. "I can see the vans through the trees."
+
+"And we're not the only visitors, either," remarked Jack, as they caught
+sight of a number of well dressed people walking about the camp.
+
+"So much the better," replied Cora. "We won't be so conspicuous, and the
+gypsies will be so busy with the crowd that they'll take no special
+notice of us."
+
+They left their cars under the shade of some trees and mingled with the
+throng.
+
+"I give them credit for having picked out a good place," remarked Jack.
+
+"They seem to be doing a land-office business," observed Walter.
+
+"I don't see that old fellow around that has such a grudge against us,"
+said Paul.
+
+"Probably off somewhere cheating some farmer in a horse trade," grinned
+Jack.
+
+They passed a group of rather fast-looking young men, who were talking
+and laughing loudly, and Bess suddenly plucked Cora by the sleeve.
+
+"Don't look now," she murmured, "but after we get behind that clump of
+trees, take a look at that crowd we've just passed. There's an old
+acquaintance of yours there."
+
+Cora did as directed and gave a start of surprise.
+
+"Why," she exclaimed, "it's the man who tried to steal my purse!"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+                            A TANGLED SKEIN
+
+
+Belle followed Cora's gaze.
+
+"Sure enough," she ejaculated, "it's that man Higby!"
+
+"What do you suppose he's doing here?" wondered Cora.
+
+"I suppose he's off on his vacation," hazarded Bess. "Likely enough he's
+stopping at one of the boarding houses in Wilton."
+
+"You girls seem to be hypnotized," laughed Jack. "We'll get jealous if
+you keep looking at those chaps any longer."
+
+"Do you see that man over there?" asked Cora, indicating Higby.
+
+"The fellow with the rainbow tie?" asked Jack. "Yes, I see him. What of
+him?"
+
+"That's the man who tried to scrape acquaintance with us, and nearly got
+my purse later on."
+
+"I'd like to pick a quarrel with him and punch his head," said Jack
+savagely.
+
+"You won't do anything of the kind, Jack Kimball," warned Cora.
+
+"So that's our hated rival, is it?" asked Paul, looking at the young man
+with some amusement.
+
+"I'll have his heart's blood," hissed Walter tragically.
+
+"It's very queer," mused Cora. "Don't you remember, girls, how the gypsy
+girl nearly fainted when Bess happened to mention Higby's name? And here
+he is now in the same camp with her."
+
+"I'd like to be near by when they meet," remarked Belle.
+
+"Still looking for a mystery," chaffed Walter. "It beats all how you
+girls can pounce on trifles and make a mountain out of them."
+
+"Give them an ounce of fact and they'll get a ton of romance," agreed
+Paul.
+
+"We're not asking for your approval," retorted Cora. "This is a case that
+requires brains and naturally you boys are all at sea."
+
+"I don't see that you've reached harbor anywhere," drawled Jack.
+
+"Not yet," admitted Cora, "but that doesn't say we won't. I wonder where
+that girl can be," she continued, as she looked searchingly around.
+
+"Perhaps they've sent her over to Wilton to tell fortunes there,"
+suggested Paul. "These gypsies don't wait for business to come to them.
+They hunt it up."
+
+"Oh, I hope not!" exclaimed Cora. "The only reason I cared to come over
+here was to see her."
+
+But although they loitered about the place for another hour or two, they
+saw no trace of the gypsy girl.
+
+They were agreeably surprised, however, to run across Mr. Baxter, with
+whom their relations had grown cordial since he had exerted himself so
+strenuously in the search for Cora. But despite the pleasant footing on
+which they stood, there was still that baffling sense of reticence that
+enveloped him in everything concerning himself.
+
+"Come over to get your fortune told?" asked Jack with a grin.
+
+"Not exactly," smiled Mr. Baxter, "though I'm always in the market for
+exact information."
+
+"I hope you don't mean to imply that there's anything phony about the
+dope they hand out here," laughed Walter.
+
+"We saw your friend, Mr. Morley, yesterday," remarked Cora.
+
+Mr. Baxter shot a sharp look at her.
+
+"Is that so?" he inquired. "How did you happen to know we were
+acquainted?"
+
+"He told me so himself," returned Cora promptly.
+
+"Well, that ought to be pretty good authority," replied Mr. Baxter.
+
+But he showed no disposition to pursue the subject, as Cora had wished he
+would, and the conversation turned into other channels.
+
+Mr. Baxter excused himself shortly, and the party strolled on. The girls
+bought bits of bead and embroidered work from the women, and had their
+fortunes told twice, spinning out the time in the hope that they would
+meet the girl they sought. But she did not appear, and at last they made
+their way to the cars, sorely disappointed.
+
+They had gone only a little way when Bess exclaimed:
+
+"Look! There's some one behind those bushes."
+
+The others looked, but could see nothing.
+
+"You're dreaming, I guess," remarked her sister.
+
+"Nothing of the kind!" replied Bess indignantly. "I have eyes. And it was
+a woman, too. I caught a glimpse of her skirts."
+
+"Well, suppose it is," observed Jack nonchalantly. "She has a right to be
+there if she wants to. The woods are free."
+
+"I wish you'd get down and see," pleaded Cora.
+
+"Oh, very well," replied Jack resignedly. "Since you girls are determined
+to butt in, I suppose I'll have to be the goat."
+
+He got down from the car, but at that moment the bushes parted, and a
+girl stepped out into the road. She was gaily dressed and had a
+tambourine in her hand.
+
+But there was no suggestion of gaiety in her face, which was distressed
+and bore traces of recent tears.
+
+Cora uttered an exclamation of surprise and pleasure.
+
+"Why," she cried, "it's the gypsy girl!"
+
+The girl looked up and tried to smile, but it was a forlorn attempt.
+
+The girls stepped down from the car and gathered about her. The boys
+would have followed, but Cora interposed.
+
+"You boys drive on a little way and wait for us," she directed. "We'll be
+with you in a few minutes."
+
+The boys looked at each other and laughed, but they obeyed. Then Cora
+turned to the girl.
+
+"You seem to be in trouble of some kind," she said gently. "I wonder if
+we couldn't help you?"
+
+The gypsy hesitated.
+
+"Don't be afraid," urged Cora. "We're all girls together here, and we'll
+do anything we can to help you if you'll only let us."
+
+The girl started to speak in her gypsy patter, and here Cora hazarded a
+bold stroke.
+
+"Don't talk that way," she said with a winning smile. "I'm sure you can
+use as good English as we can if you want to."
+
+The shot went home, and the girl flushed under the tan that bronzed her
+cheeks.
+
+"I don't know why you think that," she said in a low voice.
+
+"It was from something you said the other day when you were off your
+guard," replied Cora. "Of course I don't want to meddle with your
+affairs, but I do want that we should be friends. My name is Cora and
+this is Bess and this Belle. What is your name?"
+
+"They call me Nina," replied the girl, who was visibly melting under the
+charm of Cora's personality.
+
+"Now won't you tell us just what the matter is?" continued Cora. "I can
+see that you have been crying."
+
+"I was frightened," answered the girl.
+
+"Do the gypsies treat you badly?" asked Cora.
+
+"No," replied Nina. "They're rough sometimes, but they're kindly at
+heart. But there was some one over at the camp to-day that I haven't seen
+for a long time, and that I hoped I never would see. I'm afraid of him.
+He didn't see me, but I saw him, and I ran away to hide in the woods till
+he should be gone."
+
+The girls looked at each other, and the same name came to the minds of
+all three.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIV
+                        THE KNOCKING AT MIDNIGHT
+
+
+"I think I know his name," said Cora quietly.
+
+The girl looked at her in surprise.
+
+"How can you know?" she asked.
+
+"Because you nearly fainted the other day when you heard it mentioned,"
+returned Cora, "and we saw that same man over at the camp to-day. His
+name is Higby."
+
+The girl started violently, but whether she would have admitted it they
+did not know, for just at that moment a call came from the depths of the
+woods:
+
+"Nina, Nina!"
+
+"My people are looking for me!" exclaimed Nina. "It wouldn't do for them
+to find me here talking with you. They're suspicious of everybody. I'll
+have to go."
+
+"But we must see you again," said Cora. "We simply must. Can't you come
+over to our place and have a long talk with us? We live at Camp Kill
+Kare, only about four miles from here." And she hastily gave the needed
+directions for finding the way.
+
+Again the cry arose from the woods, but nearer this time.
+
+"Nina, Nina!"
+
+"Perhaps I will come," said Nina hurriedly. "But you had better not come
+over to the camp again. If they suspect anything they will shut me up in
+one of the vans until they go away. Good-bye," and she scurried away into
+the woods.
+
+The girls looked after her regretfully and then climbed into their car
+and drove ahead to where the boys were waiting for them with more or less
+patience.
+
+"Well, how did you amateur sleuths make out?" asked Jack, as they drew
+alongside.
+
+"Foiled again, judging from their faces," observed Paul.
+
+"The committee reports progress and asks to be continued," chimed in
+Walter in his best parliamentary manner.
+
+"I thought only women were curious," said Belle scathingly.
+
+"You boys drive on," directed Bess. "This is a matter for us girls to
+settle."
+
+"We're clearly in the second-fiddle class," grumbled Jack, as he threw in
+the clutch and took the lead.
+
+"Wasn't it the most exasperating thing?" observed Bess, as the girls
+settled down for a "comfy" talk. "Just as we were on the very point of
+finding out perhaps about that Higby, she had to go."
+
+"Goodness knows when we'll see her again, if ever," sighed Belle
+pessimistically.
+
+"I'm glad she has the Kill Kare address anyway," replied Cora. "She may
+come over to see us. But if she doesn't, I'll find out some way of
+getting in touch with her again."
+
+"Well, as Walter said, the committee has made some progress anyway," said
+Bess.
+
+"I don't see where," put in her sister. "We don't really know any more of
+her story than we did before."
+
+"Not of the real story, perhaps," admitted Cora, "but we know some things
+now, where formerly we only suspected them. We know, for instance, that
+Higby is the man she's afraid of. She didn't actually admit it, though I
+think she was about to, but his being there to-day and her hiding make it
+practically certain. It just couldn't be a mere coincidence.
+
+"Then too," Cora continued, "we know that she can speak perfect English
+when she wants to. And she has the accent of an educated girl."
+
+"But that doesn't prove she isn't a gypsy," said Belle. "I've heard
+sometimes of gypsy fathers, especially the chiefs of tribes, sending
+their daughters to good schools. I suppose at the time they intend to
+keep them away from gypsy surroundings altogether. But then the wild
+feeling in their blood comes out and they drift back to the camp life
+again."
+
+"I know that happens sometimes," agreed Cora thoughtfully, "but it's very
+rare, and all the chances are against it's being true in this particular
+case. And then, too, the blue eyes the girl has show that she isn't of
+gypsy birth."
+
+"But even if that is true," objected Belle, "I don't see what good we can
+do the girl by getting mixed up in this. If she's with the gypsies, she
+may be there of her own accord. She seems to be treated well enough. She
+didn't say anything about wanting to get away from them."
+
+"She hasn't had time to tell us very much yet," answered Cora. "But we're
+letting the boys get too far ahead of us," and she put more speed into
+her car and soon caught up with them.
+
+The next day the rain came down in torrents. It beat in a perfect deluge
+on roof and windows, and even swept in on the big capacious porch, so
+that outdoor life of any kind was out of the question.
+
+But it could not dampen the high spirits of the party at Camp Kill Kare.
+They had been so constantly on the go that the little interval of forced
+inactivity was not after all unwelcome. The girls were able to catch up
+with neglected bits of sewing. Then there was the library stocked with
+choice books, and one of the girls read aloud while the others worked.
+
+The boys ensconced themselves in the barn with Joel, where the old
+backwoodsman regaled them with stories of his adventures in the earlier
+days when he had been one of the most noted guides in the Adirondack
+region.
+
+After supper a big wood fire blazed on the open hearth and took the edge
+from the damp chill that sought to invade the house. The girls furnished
+music, and boys and girls together sang songs until they were tired.
+
+The girls had been asleep for an hour or more when Cora was awakened by a
+knocking on the front door.
+
+"Who on earth can that be at this hour of the night?" she wondered, as
+she raised herself on her elbow to listen.
+
+The knocking continued, and as nobody else seemed awake to answer it,
+Cora slipped out of bed, donned a kimono, and softly woke Bess and Belle.
+
+"What is it?" asked Belle drowsily.
+
+"Go away and let me sleep," murmured Bess, turning over on her pillow.
+
+"There's somebody knocking at the front door," explained Cora. "I'm going
+down to see who it is, and I want you girls to go with me."
+
+"It may be a burglar!" exclaimed Belle.
+
+"You might get hurt!" protested Bess, wide awake now.
+
+"Nonsense!" laughed Cora. "Burglars don't usually announce their coming
+by knocking at the door. Besides, I'll find out who it is before I open.
+Slip on your kimonos and come along."
+
+They obeyed, not without some inward shrinking.
+
+"Don't you think you ought to wake the boys?" asked Belle, hesitating on
+the landing.
+
+"I couldn't do that without waking the whole house, Aunt Betty and all,"
+answered Cora. "Besides, the boys would have the laugh on us and try to
+patronize us. We don't want to be looked on as a lot of cowards."
+
+Both of the sisters seemed to be perfectly willing just at that moment to
+be included in that ignominious category, but they were accustomed to
+follow where Cora led, and they went down the stairs, their slippered
+feet making no noise.
+
+The knocking still continued, though it seemed weaker than at first.
+
+Cora, with her lighted bedroom candle in her hand, softly approached the
+door, which was secured by a double lock and also by a heavy chain.
+
+"Who is there?" she asked.
+
+"Please let me in," came in a woman's voice from outside.
+
+"Who are you?" Cora repeated.
+
+"Nina," was the answer. "Oh, please let me in!"
+
+Cora unfastened the chain and turned the key, and as she opened the door
+the gypsy girl staggered into the bungalow.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV
+                            FALSELY ACCUSED
+
+
+The Motor Girls caught the gypsy girl as she was about to fall and seated
+her in a chair.
+
+"You poor, poor thing!" exclaimed Cora.
+
+"Out in this pouring rain!" ejaculated Belle.
+
+"And drenched to the skin!" added Bess.
+
+The newcomer presented a pitiable appearance. Her gaudy apparel was torn
+and bedraggled, her wet hair clung about her face, and she was gasping
+with exhaustion.
+
+"I had to come!" she panted. "I was afraid!"
+
+Cora had formed her plans with quick decision.
+
+"We must keep this to ourselves for to-night, girls," she said in a low
+voice. "She'd be miserable and embarrassed if the boys should come down.
+We'll tell them all about it to-morrow. The first thing to do is to get
+her up in our rooms and give her some dry clothes. Then we'll get her
+something to eat and drink and put her to bed. She can tell us her story
+later."
+
+"Oh, you are so good!" exclaimed the gypsy girl, covering her face with
+her hands.
+
+As quietly as they could, they helped her up the stairs and rummaged in
+their closets for towels and clothes. Then they all set to work, and in a
+little while the newcomer was dry and warmly dressed in civilized
+garments.
+
+She was of about the same size as Cora and Belle, and they had no trouble
+in fitting her out. Bess would have been equally willing to contribute
+some of her belongings, but her "plumpness" forbade.
+
+It was astonishing to see the difference wrought in Nina by the
+assumption of the garments of ordinary life. She looked in them, as Belle
+remarked, "to the manner born," and when they had dressed her hair in the
+way they wore their own, there was little trace of the gypsy left, except
+her bronzed complexion.
+
+She gave a little cry of feminine delight as they made her look at
+herself in the mirror.
+
+"Oh, it's so long since I wore clothes like these!" she murmured.
+
+"And now," said Cora, as she gazed with pleasure on the transformation
+that had been wrought, "we'll all go down to the kitchen and see what we
+can get in the way of something to eat."
+
+They stole downstairs and the girls ransacked the larder. They found
+plenty of cold meat and bread and preserves. Belle got out a chafing dish
+and scrambled some eggs, and Cora brewed a pot of fragrant coffee. Bess
+set the table and they all gathered about it and ate heartily.
+
+The girls thrilled with the romance of it all. The drenching storm, the
+midnight hour, the gypsy visitor, the feeling that they were involved in
+a mystery made them tingle. Then, too, the knowledge that all this was
+taking place while the other occupants of the house were unconscious of
+it gave a touch of the surreptitious and the clandestine that was not
+without its charm.
+
+The gypsy girl of course was somewhat self-conscious, as she could not
+help being under the peculiar circumstances, but the girls noticed that
+her table manners were good, and they were more and more confirmed in
+their conviction that she was not what her dress and surroundings had
+made her appear.
+
+She spoke mostly in monosyllables and only when addressed, and every once
+in a while they could see the look of anxiety and fear come into her eyes
+that they had noted the day before.
+
+"Well," said Cora at last, when they had finished sipping their coffee,
+"I guess we'd better get up to bed. You need a good night's rest," she
+continued, addressing their guest, "and we'll fix you up a bed in our
+rooms. In the morning you will be in better shape to tell us all you care
+to."
+
+"But you ought to know all about me before you do that," replied Nina.
+"It isn't fair to you. Perhaps after you have heard why I came you may
+regret taking me in."
+
+"We'll never be sorry for that," declared Cora emphatically; "and I feel
+sure you've never done anything you ought to be ashamed of."
+
+Nina's face glowed with gratitude at the generous speech.
+
+"Oh, I never have!" she cried. "But I've been accused of doing it, and
+that sometimes in the eyes of the world amounts to nearly the same
+thing."
+
+She had dropped all pretence to gypsy speech now, and spoke like any
+other American girl of good breeding and education.
+
+"I think I'll tell you now," she cried impulsively. "That is, if you're
+not too tired to hear it?"
+
+"Not a bit," answered Cora, who was inwardly delighted.
+
+"I'm just dying to hear it, to tell the truth," said Bess frankly.
+
+"So am I," echoed her sister.
+
+"You are right," began Nina, "in thinking that I am not a gypsy. I am an
+American girl and I was born in this State. And my name isn't Nina
+either. But it will have to do for the present, because until this matter
+is cleared up, I don't want to tell my real name.
+
+"My mother and father died when I was quite young, and I went to live
+with an uncle. He was an unusual man, and though no doubt he was fond of
+me in a way, our natures were too different for us to get along well
+together. I was hot tempered and hasty and we often quarreled. It was
+after an exceedingly bitter quarrel that I made up my mind that I would
+run away from home and earn my own living.
+
+"I got a position in a department store, with just enough pay to keep
+body and soul together. Again and again I was tempted to go back and make
+things up with my uncle. But that silly pride of mine kept me from doing
+it. Oh, how I wish I had!
+
+"There had been a number of thefts in the store, and the manager was
+furious. He told all the employees that the next one who was caught would
+be sent to jail. Up to that time he had usually been content with
+discharging them.
+
+"One day I was called to his office and accused of having picked up a
+lady's purse that had been laid on a counter. A man who was employed in
+the store said that he had seen me take it.
+
+"I was frightened nearly to death, for I had never even seen the purse.
+But it was found lying under my counter, as though I had hidden it there.
+I cried and begged and protested, but it did no good."
+
+"You poor child!" exclaimed Cora, deeply affected.
+
+"The manager must have been a brute!" cried Bess indignantly.
+
+"I suppose he thought I was really guilty," said Nina, "and he was
+exasperated by the many other thefts. I thought I should go mad. He took
+up the telephone to call for a policeman, and in that minute when his
+back was turned I slipped out of the door down the stairs and into the
+street.
+
+"Some way I got into the outskirts of the town, where I found a camp of
+gypsies. I don't remember much after that. I suppose I must have
+collapsed. But they took me in and nursed me, and when I came to
+consciousness again some days afterward, I found that the caravan had
+moved on and was in a strange town a good way off from Roxbury."
+
+"Roxbury!" exclaimed Cora.
+
+"That's where I had been employed," went on Nina. "When I found myself
+lying in a gypsy van, with an old woman taking care of me, I did a lot of
+hard thinking. With the gypsies I was safe. Nobody would think of looking
+for me there. But anywhere else I was likely to be arrested at any
+minute. And I would rather have died than gone to jail.
+
+"So I stayed on with them and learned to tell fortunes. I didn't know
+what else to do, and gradually I got used to it. But I've never been
+really happy there. And I've watched everybody who came to the camp, for
+fear he might be an officer."
+
+Cora reached over and took the girl's hand comfortingly in her own.
+
+Quick tears evoked by the sympathetic action sprang to Nina's eyes, but
+she brushed them away and went on:
+
+"I never met anybody I really knew until yesterday. Then I saw a man whom
+I had known in Roxbury. That's the reason you found me hiding in the
+woods. I was relieved when I went back to find that he had gone.
+
+"But to-day he came upon me unawares, and he knew me through all my gypsy
+disguise. He threatened to expose me, to hand me over to the police. I
+was wild with fright. You had been kind to me and I thought of you. I
+waited to-night till the camp was asleep, and then I slipped out. And
+here I am."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVI
+                             COUNCIL OF WAR
+
+
+The girl had told her story in such a simple and straightforward way
+that, combined with the candor in her eyes, it carried conviction to the
+sympathetic hearts of her hearers. And their eyes were moist as they
+listened to the pelting of the rain and thought of the fugitive making
+her way through the lonely woods, her footsteps dogged with terror.
+
+She sat looking from the eyes of one to the other, and was comforted by
+what she saw there.
+
+"You poor, dear girl!" cried Cora, springing up and giving her an
+impulsive hug. "You've had an awful time of it, but we're going to do our
+best to straighten things out and make you forget your troubles."
+
+"Of course we know who the rascal was that threatened you," said Bess.
+"It was that man Higby."
+
+"He was the one," admitted Nina.
+
+"You say that he used to know you in Roxbury," put in Belle. "Was he
+employed in the same store with you?"
+
+"Not only that," returned Nina, "but _he was the man who said that he saw
+me take the purse!_"
+
+"He, of all men!" exclaimed Bess. "When I saw him in the very act of
+slipping back Cora's purse after he had taken it!"
+
+"But why should he have tried to put the theft on you rather than anybody
+else?" asked Belle.
+
+"I think he had a grudge against me," answered Nina. "He had been too
+familiar in his manner toward me, and I resented it. He was angry and
+told me that I would be sorry. But I don't think that would have been
+enough to make him go as far as he did. He worked in the same part of the
+store that I did, and I have thought since that perhaps he took the purse
+himself. Then, when the search for it was coming close to him, he got
+scared, and slipped it under my counter so that the blame would fall on
+me."
+
+"A cur like that oughtn't to be allowed to live!" cried Bess in hot
+indignation.
+
+"Of course, I don't _know_ that he stole it," qualified Nina; "but his
+eagerness to put the matter on some one else makes me think he might have
+done so. And even if he isn't a thief, he knew that he was telling a
+falsehood when he said he saw me take it."
+
+"But why should he threaten you now?" asked Belle. "The whole matter has
+blown over long ago as far as he's concerned, and he's in no further
+danger. I can understand how the coward might have lied in a moment of
+fright to save his own skin. But why should he be cold-blooded enough to
+keep on persecuting you now?"
+
+"He's got some purpose in view," replied Nina, "and he wants to make me
+help him by threatening to expose me if I don't. I don't know what it is,
+but from what I know of him I'm sure it's something wrong. He said he'd
+see me again tomorrow and tell me his plan. I told him I wouldn't have
+anything to do with him or his plans, but he only grinned and said he
+guessed I'd rather help him than go to jail. I ran away from him then,
+and later on I made up my mind to come here."
+
+"You did just exactly right," declared Cora. "We'll take care of you
+until everything is made all right. But you'll have to keep close to the
+house, so that nobody besides ourselves will know you're here."
+
+"How about the gypsies?" asked Belle. "Won't they make a search for you?"
+
+"I suppose they will," answered Nina. "You see," she said with a little
+pitiful smile, "they regard me as one of their assets. I make a good deal
+of money for them from the visitors to the camp. But apart from that,
+some of them are really fond of me, and I feel the same way toward them.
+They took me in when I was in extremity, and in their way they have been
+kind. I never want to go back if I can help it, but I will always have a
+feeling of gratitude and affection for them."
+
+"And so you ought," returned Cora. "But all the same your natural place
+is with your own people, and you mustn't have your life spoiled. We'll
+set things in motion the first thing to-morrow morning--or rather this
+morning," she smiled, as she looked at her watch. "Good gracious, girls,
+it's after two now! We simply must get to bed."
+
+They put out the light and stole upstairs, where, after bestowing Nina
+comfortably, they were soon sound asleep.
+
+But Cora was astir early, for she wanted to forestall the appearance of
+Nina at the breakfast table by notifying Aunt Betty and the boys of all
+that had happened in the night.
+
+"A miracle!" cried Jack, as he came down the stairs three steps at a
+time, followed by Paul and Walter. "Cora is up before the rest of us!"
+
+  "Fair goddess of the rosy-fingered dawn,"
+
+quoted Walter.
+
+"You boys stop your nonsense now and listen to me," smiled Cora. "I've
+got something very important to talk over with you."
+
+"The new fall styles, perhaps," chaffed Walter.
+
+"It's about the gypsy girl," began Cora.
+
+"The gypsy girl!" exclaimed Jack, pressing his hand to his brow. "Where
+have I heard that name before?"
+
+"She's upstairs sleeping," said Cora simply.
+
+The effect was electric. The young men dropped their foolery at once.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Jack, staring at her.
+
+"You're joking!" cried Walter.
+
+"How did she get here?" queried Paul.
+
+"She came last night about twelve o'clock," replied Cora, quietly
+enjoying the shock she had given. "I heard her knocking at the door, and
+got up and let her in."
+
+"But why didn't you call us?" asked Jack.
+
+"I didn't want to rouse the house," Cora answered. "I made sure that it
+was a woman before I opened the door."
+
+"But that might have been a trap," reproved Walter. "She might have had
+confederates with her who would have forced their way in as soon as the
+door was opened."
+
+"I didn't think of that," admitted Cora. "I knew it was Nina--that's the
+name she goes by--and I took her in. The poor thing was drenched from
+head to foot and was nearly frightened to death. We gave her dry clothes
+and something to eat and put her to bed."
+
+And then to the boys and to Aunt Betty, who had entered while they were
+talking, Cora told in detail what she had learned of the gypsy girl's
+story.
+
+The others listened intently, breaking in frequently with questions. Aunt
+Betty was full of sympathy, though a little dubious about this new
+element brought into the life of Kill Kare.
+
+The sympathies, too, of the boys were aroused, though their feelings took
+the form of bitter indignation against Higby. They would have jumped at
+the chance to form a vigilance committee and thrash him within an inch of
+his life, if it could have been done without disagreeable publicity for
+the girls.
+
+As to the mystery itself, they were not as keenly interested as the girls
+were in solving it. They had a masculine hatred of seeming to pry, and
+they foresaw a whole lot of possible complications in the presence of the
+newcomer. But after all, their chivalry was aroused by the girl's plight,
+and they cheerfully promised to do all they could to get her out of it.
+
+"On general principles I object to Kill Kare's becoming an orphan
+asylum," laughed Jack. "But you can count on us, sis, to take off our
+coats and work like beavers to set things right. Eh, fellows?"
+
+"You bet!" replied Walter in his somewhat slangy manner.
+
+"Watch our smoke," prophesied Paul, and grinned broadly.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII
+                            A NARROW ESCAPE
+
+
+Cora, greatly relieved now that things had been explained to the rest of
+the household, went upstairs to find that the other girls were up and
+nearly dressed.
+
+Nina presented a very different picture from that of the night before. No
+one looking at her would think that she was different from any other girl
+who might be staying as a guest at Kill Kare. In a pretty white dress
+that Belle lent her, she looked charming.
+
+She was naturally diffident and nervous at the prospect of meeting Aunt
+Betty and the boys. But their good breeding and kindness of heart
+smoothed over all difficulties. They laughed and jested at the table as
+usual, including her at times in the conversation, but taking care not to
+make her feel conspicuous. By the time the meal was over, they had
+succeeded very materially in putting her at ease.
+
+For the benefit of the servants, it was given out that Nina was a friend
+who had arrived rather late the night before, and might stay at Kill Kare
+for some time.
+
+"Let's hope that Joel doesn't get wise," remarked Jack, when he was alone
+with his chums. "I can imagine the old boy throwing a fit if he learns
+that we're harboring anybody connected with the gypsies. He loves them as
+much as a miser loves a tax collector."
+
+"I don't think he'll catch on," replied Walter; "but if he does we'll
+tell him that our keeping her here is making the gypsies sore. That'll
+square things with him."
+
+"I think it would be a good thing for one of us to run over to the gypsy
+camp to-day, to see if that Higby is hanging around," suggested Paul. "We
+might get a line on where he's staying and how long he's likely to be in
+the neighborhood. And then, too, we might be able to see whether Nina's
+absence has raised much of a stir in the camp."
+
+"I'd like to get my hands on that Higby's throat," growled Jack. "Of all
+the unspeakable cads, he's the limit."
+
+"He sure is," agreed Paul. "But we'll have to put on the soft pedal if we
+hope to find out anything. I'll try to strike up an acquaintance with
+him, ask him for a match, or something like that. He's a shallow rascal,
+and it ought to be easy to worm something out of him."
+
+"All right, Mr. Detective," laughed Jack. "Suppose you take that part of
+the work on you. In the meantime, I'll write a letter to Tom Willis, an
+old college pal of mine and Walter's, who lives in Roxbury, and ask him
+to make some discreet inquiries about that matter of the theft. Tom's a
+good old scout and he'll be glad to do anything he can for us. I want to
+find out whether a warrant was actually issued for the girl. If it
+wasn't, the girl is all right, and Higby can't make good on his threats.
+If it was, we'll have to get a lawyer, and try to have it quashed."
+
+"How are you going to find out whether a warrant was issued for her, if
+you don't know her name?" asked Walter.
+
+"That's so," replied Jack, a little dashed. "I'll go and have a talk with
+Cora. Maybe she can get the girl to tell her."
+
+As a result of his hurried conference, Cora spoke to Nina.
+
+"Jack wants to look up that old matter at Roxbury, Nina, and he can't do
+it unless he knows the date and also your name," she explained. "We don't
+want to pry, but you can see yourself that we can't do much if we go
+groping round in the dark."
+
+"It happened a year ago last May," replied Nina, "and the name to look
+for is Helen Holman. It isn't my real name, but it was one that I chose
+to take when I was afraid my uncle would be hunting for me."
+
+"And you don't feel quite ready yet to tell me your real name?" inquired
+Cora kindly.
+
+"Please don't ask me yet," pleaded Nina. "When once I know that there's
+no danger of disgracing it, I'll be glad to tell you."
+
+Cora did not press her, but returned to Jack with the information he
+wanted.
+
+"Thank you, sis," he said. "By the way, are you girls planning to use
+your car to-day? If not, Paul would like to drive over to the gypsy camp
+in it. Walter and I want to take my car over to the garage in town to-day
+to have a few repairs made. These roads have played the mischief with the
+tires. Besides, I want to lay in a stock of gasoline. I noticed this
+morning it was running low."
+
+"We won't want to use my car to-day, and Paul's perfectly welcome to it,"
+replied his sister. "And if you're going over to Milford I wish you'd
+bring back some things we're short of for the spread. You know that comes
+off to-morrow night. I'll give you a list of the things we want."
+
+"Sure thing," replied Jack.
+
+But an hour later, when he and Walter drove off, his mind was so full of
+the measures he meant to take in behalf of Nina that he forgot all about
+Cora's list.
+
+She herself did not remember it until Jack had been gone for an hour or
+more. And by that time Paul had driven off in her car to the gypsy camp.
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" exclaimed Cora in deep vexation, "how could I have been so
+careless? We just can't get along without those things."
+
+"Just for a lark let's go over to Milford ourselves," suggested Bess.
+
+"And walk?" asked her sister.
+
+"Why not?" said Bess. "I haven't done as much walking as I ought to
+lately, and it's a great thing to help me reduce. Besides, I don't
+believe it is more than four miles, and it's a splendid day for walking."
+
+"We might follow the railroad through the cut," said Cora. "That takes
+off some of the distance. Come ahead, girls, and let's do it. We'll
+probably get there before the repairs are finished on the car, and we'll
+give the boys a surprise party."
+
+Belle agreed after a little more urging, and the girls put on their hats
+and sallied forth, leaving Nina in charge of Aunt Betty, with strict
+injunctions not to show herself at any of the windows.
+
+At a distance of a mile and a half from Kill Kare ran a single track,
+narrow-gauge railroad that served a number of tiny towns scattered
+through that region. It was a leisurely, go-as-you-please affair, and, as
+a railroad, was considerable of a joke. The rolling stock consisted of a
+couple of locomotives that had seen better days and a string of
+dilapidated cars that had been discarded on other roads. Time schedules
+were honored in the breach rather than in the observance, and one or two
+trains a day each way wheezed along at their own sweet will.
+
+But it served as a short cut to Milford, and the girls chose to go by way
+of it on that account, and also because it ran through a sort of gorge
+that cut off the hot rays of the sun.
+
+But if it was delightful overhead, as much could not be said for the
+walking underfoot. The ties were split and irregular, and the slag that
+lay between them was trying to the feet.
+
+"I feel sorry for any stranded actors who ever have to walk these ties,"
+complained Belle.
+
+"I think it's smoother on the outside of the track than where you're
+walking," suggested Cora. "Suppose you try it."
+
+There was a switch in the track just at that point, and as Belle tried to
+step over the rail as Cora had suggested, her foot slipped and was caught
+in the frog.
+
+She would have fallen to her knees if Cora had not caught and steadied
+her.
+
+"Did you hurt yourself?" asked Bess.
+
+"Only scraped my ankle a little," answered her sister. "But I may have
+ruined a perfectly good shoe."
+
+She tried to pull her foot from the frog, but found that she could not.
+
+"Pull a little harder," urged Cora.
+
+Belle tried again, but with no success.
+
+"The sole seems to be caught in a spike or something," she explained.
+
+Bess gave a little scream.
+
+"Oh, hurry, hurry," she cried. "Suppose a train should come along!"
+
+And just at that instant they heard a long shrill whistle from up the
+track.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVIII
+                                WAYLAID
+
+
+A scream broke from all the girls, and Belle nearly fainted.
+
+They could not see more than a hundred feet up the track, for at that
+point the road curved round a bluff. But they could see a column of smoke
+rising high in the air and the humming of the rails grew steadily louder.
+
+Cora was pale as death, but she rose to the emergency and took command.
+
+"Run up the track as fast as you can, Bess," she directed, "and wave your
+hands to the engineer to stop."
+
+Bess was off at once and Cora turned to Belle.
+
+"We have plenty of time, dear," she said soothingly, "if you do exactly
+as I say. Keep your foot perfectly still while I unlace your shoe."
+
+By a great effort of will, Belle did as she was told, leaning her hand
+for support on Cora's shoulder as the latter knelt at her feet.
+
+Bess rushed madly up the track and around the curve, and her eyes dilated
+with horror as she saw the train, now only a few rods away.
+
+She screamed wildly and waved her hands frantically.
+
+Her voice could not be heard above the rattle of the train, but
+fortunately her signals were seen and the engineer shut off the steam and
+put on the brakes.
+
+With a great hissing and clamor the train swung round the curve and bore
+down upon the girls.
+
+Cora had been working desperately, but her fingers seemed to fumble with
+the laces as though she were in a nightmare. But she steadied herself and
+finished her task. Then she sprang to her feet and pulled with all her
+might, Belle aiding her, and the foot slipped from the shoe, while the
+girls fell back against the side of the gorge, well clear of the track.
+
+The train had slowed rapidly, but when it came to a full stop it was not
+more than twelve feet from the abandoned shoe.
+
+The engineer and fireman jumped down and rushed forward. A glance at the
+shoe told the whole story.
+
+"That was a narrow escape, ladies," remarked the grizzled engineer. "It's
+lucky I saw those signals. I hope that you're not hurt."
+
+"More scared than hurt," answered Cora.
+
+"I don't wonder you were scared," he replied; "but you were mighty plucky
+just the same. Lots of girls would have lost their heads and just
+screamed or fainted. I'll get this shoe out of the frog for you."
+
+He handed the shoe to Belle, and he and the fireman clambered back in the
+cab. The train was a freight, for which the girls were grateful, as they
+were spared the embarrassment of a trainful of passengers crowding
+around.
+
+They rested a little after the train moved on, for the strain, though
+brief, had been very great. Then Belle resumed her shoe.
+
+"Don't you think you had better go straight home?" asked Bess
+solicitously.
+
+"Oh, I guess not," replied Belle, who was getting back some of her color.
+"Besides, we're much nearer to Milford now than we are to Kill Kare."
+
+"Perhaps we had better go on," judged Cora. "The boys will bring us back
+in the car, and if we should miss them, we'll hire a rig of some kind to
+get home in."
+
+"I guess Bess will need it more than any of the rest of us," said Belle.
+
+"I never ran so fast in my life," answered Bess. "If exercise is all that
+is needed for reducing, I ought to have lost pounds," and she smiled,
+although the smile was tremulous.
+
+They were lucky to find the boys still waiting at the garage, and the
+surprise of the latter at their appearance was only equalled by their
+consternation at the danger Belle had run.
+
+"You girls need a guardian," said Jack severely, "and Walter and I elect
+ourselves unanimously for that position."
+
+"It's a mighty hard job," sighed Walter. "Our hair will be gray before
+our time."
+
+"Don't tell Aunt Betty about this adventure," warned Jack. "She must be
+on the verge of nervous prostration already, and this would just about
+cap the climax."
+
+They made the purchases for which Cora had come, and drove rapidly back
+to Kill Kare.
+
+They found that Paul had returned some time before.
+
+"Did you find out anything?" asked Cora eagerly, as she stepped from the
+car.
+
+"Not such an awful lot," answered Paul. "The gypsy camp was certainly
+stirred up about something--little knots everywhere jabbering away in
+that outlandish lingo of theirs. Didn't seem as keen on grafting from
+visitors as usual. I suppose of course that Nina was the storm center.
+They're pretty badly roiled, I imagine."
+
+"But how about Higby?" asked Bess.
+
+"I saw him, too," replied Paul. "Jostled against him, excused myself in
+my well known irresistible manner, and got into conversation with him.
+He's staying over at Wilton on a two weeks' vacation. He's used up nearly
+a week of it now. Doesn't seem to be very keen about going back, though.
+Knocks his job to beat the band. I guess he's sore on the management."
+
+"Probably the real reason is that they're sore on him," said Jack.
+
+"I noticed the manager looked at him very suspiciously the day that Cora
+lost her purse," observed Belle.
+
+"Perhaps he's near the end of his rope and knows it," said Paul. "He was
+quite anxious to know how far we were here from the Canadian line. He may
+be getting ready to emigrate."
+
+"He'd be a great loss to the United States," sniffed Bess contemptuously.
+
+"We could probably stagger along without him," drawled Walter.
+
+"Did he have anything to say about Nina?" asked Bess.
+
+"Only in an offhand way," returned Paul. "He remarked that there seemed
+to be a great hullabaloo among the gypsies, and that he understood one of
+the girls was missing. But I noticed that he kept looking sharply all
+around as though he was hoping to see some one."
+
+"Well, there's just one thing to do," remarked Cora, "and that is to keep
+Nina close inside the house until the coast is clear. Higby will be gone
+in another week, and the gypsies never stay long in one place. And in the
+meantime we may get word from Roxbury that will tell us what the next
+step must be."
+
+The following night was the one set for the celebration of Cora's safe
+return, and the weather was all that could be asked for. The spread
+itself was a great success. The girls had decorated the lawn with strings
+of Chinese lanterns on lines that swung from tree to tree, and the tables
+were abundantly spread with food that both in quantity and quality roused
+the enthusiastic appreciation of the men from the sawmill, who composed
+the major portion of the guests. Mr. Morley made a little speech and Mr.
+Baxter came out of his shell long enough to offer a witty toast to Cora
+and the other girls. The boys sang some rollicking college ditties, and
+the phonograph, brought out on the porch, discoursed such music as was
+not commonly heard in that remote region. It was a jolly, sparkling
+evening that they all enjoyed, and it was late when the gathering
+dispersed with three rousing cheers for their hosts.
+
+The days flew swiftly by until a week had passed. Nina had fallen readily
+into the life at Kill Kare and the girls had become greatly attached to
+her.
+
+The danger that threatened her seemed to be vanishing. The gypsies, after
+unavailing search and inquiries that had reached as far as the bungalow,
+had departed. Paul had motored over to Wilton and found that Higby had
+left the place where he had been boarding, and the presumption was that
+he had returned to Roxbury.
+
+Under these circumstances the restrictions that had held Nina to the
+house seemed unnecessary. Besides, she felt the confinement more on
+account of the outdoor life to which she had been accustomed.
+
+Soon she ventured into the woods round about, though seldom going far
+from the house. But as her sense of security increased, she occasionally
+went farther. And one afternoon, when her temerity had taken her far
+beyond her usual limit, she turned a bend in the path and came face to
+face with--Higby!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIX
+                                THE PLOT
+
+
+The girl screamed and tried to run, but Higby was too quick for her and
+seized her roughly by the arm.
+
+"No, you don't!" he cried. "You're not going to get away from me as
+easily as all that, after I've been watching you for days. You've got to
+listen to what I have to say."
+
+"Let me go!" cried the girl, pulling away from him.
+
+"Go where?" he leered. "To jail? You'll go there mighty quick if I care
+to have you go. All I have to do is to notify the police at Roxbury and
+you'll be behind the bars in forty-eight hours."
+
+The girl turned white as the awful vision that had haunted her for a year
+past seemed to be assuming form and substance. She had no doubt that he
+could do as he threatened.
+
+"What do you want with me?" she asked in a trembling voice.
+
+"Now you're getting a little more sensible," he remarked. "Sit down on
+that bank and I'll tell you what I want.
+
+"Those folks you're staying with are pretty well off, aren't they?" he
+inquired.
+
+"How do you know where I'm staying?" she asked.
+
+"That's my affair," he said brusquely. "I know you're staying at a place
+they call Camp Kill Kare. Quite a change from the gypsy camp," he
+sneered. "You're flying high these days. But that's neither here nor
+there. Those boys and girls there seem to have plenty of money. There'd
+be quite a haul there in the way of cash and watches and diamond rings
+and other jewelry, I suppose."
+
+She grasped his meaning and drew away from him in horror.
+
+"You don't mean to say that you're thinking of robbing the house!" she
+exclaimed.
+
+"You're pretty squeamish for a jailbird," he sneered.
+
+"I'm not a jailbird!" she cried passionately. "I never did a dishonest
+thing in my life!"
+
+"They say differently at Roxbury," he taunted.
+
+"Yes!" she blazed out. "But why? Because you told a falsehood about me!
+You know you didn't see me steal that purse!"
+
+"Let's cut this short," he said impatiently. "I'll put the whole thing in
+a few words. I'm not going back to Roxbury. I need money, and need it
+bad! Those folks at Kill Kare have plenty of it, or what can be turned
+into money, and I want you to help me get it."
+
+"I never will!" she cried defiantly.
+
+"It's either that or jail," he said menacingly. "And I know that you
+won't choose jail when you come to think it over. I'll give you a day to
+make up your mind. You be here at this same time to-morrow, or it will be
+the worse for you."
+
+She pleaded with him to renounce his purpose and leave her in peace, but
+he laughed at her and went away with a parting threat.
+
+Nina retraced her steps to the house in a state of great agitation. She
+felt sure that Higby was in desperate earnest and would denounce her to
+the authorities if she should fail to do his bidding. But she would have
+died before helping him to rob her benefactors.
+
+What resource then was left? Flight! Once more to become a fugitive--to
+live under the ban of the law--to fear any moment the touch of an
+officer's hand upon her shoulder.
+
+The castle of dreams that she had been building in the last few happy
+days seemed ready to dissolve in mist.
+
+She tried to assume her usual cheerful manner when she entered the house,
+but the girls noticed at once that she was pale and anxious.
+
+"What's the matter, Nina?" asked Bess. "You're as white as though you'd
+seen a ghost?"
+
+"I hope you haven't run across any of the gypsies!" exclaimed Cora, in
+quick apprehension.
+
+"Nothing like that," Nina asserted.
+
+"Nor Higby?" asked Belle.
+
+Nina faltered, and at this the others jumped to their feet in great
+excitement.
+
+"Do you mean to say that that cur is lurking around here yet?" demanded
+Cora.
+
+Nina broke down then, and told them all the details of her meeting with
+Higby.
+
+The girls were aghast at the plan to rob the house.
+
+"He's getting along fast," remarked Belle bitterly. "He's graduating from
+the sneak thief to the burglar class."
+
+"I wonder what we ought to do," said Bess. "It's too bad the boys are
+away to-day. I suppose the police ought to be told about it."
+
+"There's nothing yet to tell," said Cora. "He'd simply deny that he ever
+suggested anything of the kind to Nina. It would be only her word against
+his, and she has no witnesses. Besides, for revenge, he'd blurt out all
+about that Roxbury matter."
+
+At this moment the maid announced a visitor, and Nina vanished as Mr.
+Baxter entered the room and greeted the girls cordially.
+
+"Sort of an Adamless Eden here, I see," he laughed, as he noted the
+absence of the boys.
+
+"Yes," smiled Cora, "they're out for a spin to-day by themselves. But I
+expect that they'll be back before long."
+
+"I'm rather sorry they're not here," said Mr. Baxter, "as I wanted to
+talk over a matter in which you're all interested. I refer to the young
+lady who has been staying with you for the last week or two."
+
+For a moment the sickening fear came to Cora that Mr. Baxter might be an
+emissary from the Roxbury authorities.
+
+"Well, what about her?" she asked warily. "She's a dear friend of mine
+who is paying me a little visit."
+
+"But not a very old friend," said Mr. Baxter quietly, "since two weeks
+ago she was telling fortunes in a gypsy camp."
+
+A cry broke from the lips of the girls, and they looked at each other in
+great trepidation.
+
+"Now, now," said their visitor with a genial smile, "she hasn't the
+slightest thing to fear from me. In fact, I think I'm going to prove one
+of the best friends she has."
+
+"Oh," breathed Cora in relief, "I hope you will! The poor girl is sadly
+in need of all the help she can get."
+
+"I have been looking for her for a long time past," said Mr. Baxter. "At
+least I feel reasonably sure that she's the girl I'm after. And my only
+object in finding her is to restore her to the home and relative that she
+ran away from in a fit of youthful anger. I suspected that I had found
+her in Nina the gypsy girl. But now that I have seen her dressed in
+civilized clothes and compared her with the pictures in my possession, I
+feel practically sure of it. Still, I won't know positively until I bring
+her and my client face to face."
+
+"O," cried Cora, "is your client----"
+
+"There, there!" Mr. Baxter checked her. "No names, please. If I am right
+in my identification you'll know all about it before long."
+
+"I think I can name him now," smiled Cora.
+
+"Never jump at conclusions," advised Mr. Baxter. "But what I called for
+especially to-day was to warn you that your house was to be robbed."
+
+"So we heard only a few minutes ago," replied Cora. "Thank you very much
+for the warning, though."
+
+"So she told you?" remarked Mr. Baxter with a gratified smile. "That's
+good. I am glad that she has defied that fellow's threats. I was
+concealed near by and heard the whole conversation."
+
+"What do you think we ought to do?" asked Cora.
+
+"I think," replied Mr. Baxter, "that the girl had better meet Higby
+to-morrow and pretend to fall in with his plans. I will be on hand and
+hear all he says. In the conversation that goes on between them, Higby
+may say something that reveals her innocence and his guilt in that
+Roxbury affair.
+
+"She can arrange to let him into the house at night, which is evidently
+the part he wants her to play in the theft. We'll be waiting for him when
+he comes, and we'll give Mr. Higby the surprise of his life."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX
+                            BROUGHT TOGETHER
+
+
+The plan met with the hearty approbation of the girls, and they accepted
+it, subject to the approval of the boys.
+
+And when the latter reached Kill Kare and learned what was afoot, they
+agreed to it enthusiastically. They all felt toward Higby as they would
+toward a particularly noxious reptile. And this latest attempt to make
+the victim of his falsehoods a criminal brought their feeling of
+detestation to the highest pitch.
+
+"Oh, won't it do me good to get a whack at him!" gloated Jack.
+
+"He'll be as safe with me as if he were on a battlefield," remarked
+Walter.
+
+"We'll fix him!" declared Paul.
+
+Nina had been told that Mr. Baxter had overheard the conversation with
+Higby, but had been given no hint that the detective was looking for her
+to restore her to her home.
+
+At the appointed time on the following day, she met Higby, whose face
+lighted up with an evil smile as he saw her appear.
+
+"Thought better of it, did you?" he remarked jeeringly. "I knew mighty
+well you would."
+
+"It's vile of you to make me do a thing like this," protested Nina.
+
+"You weren't so particular at Roxbury," he taunted.
+
+"Why do you harp on that?" she cried furiously. "You know I didn't steal
+that purse. I believe you did it yourself."
+
+"Suppose I did?" he grinned mockingly, in a way that was itself a half
+admission. "I deserve credit for being smart enough to make somebody else
+the goat. But let's get down to business. I want you to tell me all about
+the way the rooms are laid out and where the cash and jewelry are kept."
+
+She gave him an idea of the plan of the bungalow, and promised to leave a
+door open from the back leading into the kitchen. He was to come a little
+after midnight.
+
+That afternoon and evening, life took its ordinary course at Kill Kare,
+as far as external signs were concerned. They knew that Higby was
+probably watching the house from the shelter of the adjoining woods,
+ready to take flight at anything which might indicate the betrayal of his
+plans.
+
+Not that he anticipated betrayal. He was confident that the deadly fear
+that Nina had of jail would keep her his accomplice, even though an
+unwilling one. But one could never be too careful when engaged upon such
+a venture as his.
+
+He noted the girls sitting on the porch with their sewing, or picking
+flowers in the garden, saw the boys go motoring and return, heard the
+party singing songs after supper on the steps of the veranda. There was
+nothing to excite suspicion in the slightest degree and he exulted as he
+thought of the rich haul he expected to make.
+
+His jubilation would have been less keen, however, had he noted the care
+with which Joel loaded his favorite revolver and had he seen three men
+who slipped into Kill Kare under cover of the darkness.
+
+One of the three was an officer who had been brought over from Milford to
+make the expected arrest. The other two were Mr. Morley and Mr. Baxter.
+
+The botanist had been told of the robbery that had been planned, and had
+been invited to be "in at the death." But he had not received the
+slightest hint of the presence of Nina in the house. The detective did
+not care to risk a possible disappointment. Then, too, he had a sense of
+the dramatic, and schooled himself to wait.
+
+As for Nina herself, she kept carefully out of view, as she always did
+when there were visitors at Kill Kare.
+
+Eleven o'clock was the usual hour of retiring at the bungalow, and no
+deviation from the custom occurred on that night. A few minutes after
+eleven the lights were out, and Kill Kare seemed to be peacefully
+sleeping.
+
+The door at the rear had been left unlocked, as arranged. The members of
+the party, all fully dressed, waited in different rooms the outcome of
+the drama.
+
+"He'll probably stop in the dining room to look over the silver,"
+remarked the officer, Thompson by name, to Mr. Baxter. "Do you think we'd
+better nab him then?"
+
+"Don't be in too much of a hurry," advised Baxter. "He'll probably look
+for his biggest haul in the sleeping rooms upstairs. Give him plenty of
+rope and let him hang himself. Besides, the farther he gets into the
+heart of the house, the harder it will be for him to escape in case any
+of our plans go wrong."
+
+The girls were seated in the dark in their own rooms, their hearts
+beating fast with excitement.
+
+"I suppose we'll be only lookers on," remarked Bess in a low tone. "The
+men will do all the work."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that," replied Cora. "We may come in somewhere."
+
+"What was it you put in that cedar chest you're sitting on?" asked Belle
+curiously.
+
+"I'll tell you later," replied Cora. "And, girls, stay right where you
+are, whatever happens."
+
+In the dark she busied herself with something at the entrance of the
+room.
+
+Shortly after midnight, Higby slipped in through the rear door. He had
+taken off his shoes and was in his stocking feet.
+
+It was pitch dark within, and he moved with such feline stealthiness that
+he had reached and stolen up the stairs before the watchers were sure
+that he was not one of themselves.
+
+The jewelry of the girls was the chief object that he had in view, and he
+went to their rooms first. But as he stepped inside, he tripped over a
+wire that extended from one side of the door to the other, at the height
+of a foot, and fell headlong with a crash that jarred the house.
+
+Cora reached into a chest, and clutching an acetylene lamp that was
+already lighted, turned its blinding glare right into Higby's eyes.
+
+"Don't dare to move!" she commanded.
+
+Higby, not knowing how many weapons were turned upon him, and unable to
+see anything in that pitiless blaze, lay perfectly still. The next
+instant he was in the grasp of the men and boys, who handled him none too
+gently and jerked him to his feet.
+
+"Trapped by a woman!" he growled, as he saw the wire over which he had
+fallen and the lamp that Cora still held.
+
+"You're trapped all right," declared Thompson, as he snapped a pair of
+handcuffs on his wrists.
+
+"And in for a good long term in the State Prison," added Mr. Baxter. "We
+have you dead to rights, Higby, and you haven't a show in the world. But
+you may be able to have some years cut from your term if you help now to
+undo a wrong."
+
+"What is it?" muttered Higby, his craven soul clutching at straws.
+
+"That theft at Roxbury that you charged Helen Holman with committing,"
+Baxter reminded him. "You stole that purse yourself, didn't you? Speak up
+now. Nothing but the truth will help you."
+
+"Yes," admitted Higby, sheepishly.
+
+"I thought as much," remarked Baxter. "Take him away, Thompson."
+
+There was a wild hubbub after the officer had driven away to Milford with
+his prisoner. All the boys and girls were laughing and talking at once.
+
+"Who is this Helen Holman you were talking of?" asked Mr. Morley.
+
+A sudden hush fell on Cora and the others, as they listened for Mr.
+Baxter's answer.
+
+"A girl that has lately been leading the life of a gypsy," replied Mr.
+Baxter. "She's a very interesting character. Miss Kimball," he continued,
+turning to Cora, "will you ask Miss Holman to step here for a moment?"
+
+Cora darted into the adjoining room, and returned an instant later
+leading Nina.
+
+She and Mr. Morley looked casually at each other. A startled look leaped
+into the eyes of each. There was a gasping cry, and the next instant she
+was in his arms, sobbing as though her heart would break, while he held
+her tight as though he never intended to let her go.
+
+"Alice!"
+
+"Uncle!"
+
+The girls were sobbing openly, while Mr. Baxter blew his nose vigorously,
+and even the eyes of the rollicking boys were momentarily dimmed.
+
+Mutual explanations followed, together with mutual requests for
+forgiveness. Both had reaped the bitter fruit of hasty tempers, and had
+been made to realize during their separation how really dear they were to
+each other. The reconciliation was complete, and the Motor Girls were
+delighted beyond measure at the part they had played in bringing it
+about.
+
+During the remainder of her stay at Kill Kare, Alice Morley grew more and
+more deeply attached to the girls to whom she owed so much, and when she
+finally went back with her uncle to Saxton, it was with the promise that
+she would soon make a long visit to them at their homes in Chelton.
+
+"Dear old Chelton!" remarked Belle, as, shortly after the departure of
+Alice, they themselves turned their faces homeward. "How glad I'll be to
+get back."
+
+"Yes," agreed Cora. "But you must admit that we've never spent such a
+glorious outing as this one at Camp Kill Kare."
+
+And with this delightful memory as their cherished possession, we bid
+farewell to the Motor Girls.
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+                          Transcriber's Notes
+
+
+--Silently corrected several palpable typos in spelling and punctuation
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Motor Girls in the Mountains, by
+Margaret Penrose
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