The Motor Girls at Camp Surprise; Or, The Cave in the Mountains

by Margaret Penrose

  CHAPTER XX--MORE HAPPENINGS

  Walter considered the matter rather judicially before answering. Then hegave as his decision:

  "No, I can't say that I do. It is, perhaps, only a coincidence that yourautomobile and your flashlight should have been taken. I dare say thathad it been a light belonging to any one else it would have disappearedjust the same."

  "You mean that they--the mysterious They--would have taken the light, nomatter to whom it belonged?" asked Jack.

  "Exactly! It was a case of wanting a light and taking it."

  "But how did they get in to take it?" asked Paul. "There's no sign ofanything having been broken; is there--no doors or windows?"

  "We didn't look," Cora said.

  "Then that's what we'd better do," Jack suggested.

  But an examination did not show that any means had been used to force apassage from without. The windows were provided with screens whichfastened from within in such a way that force would have to be exertedto slip them. And this had not been done. Nor had the door been tamperedwith.

  "There's only one way to account for it," said Walter, "and that is onthe theory that the Surprisers, Ghosts, They--whatever you choose to callthem--used skeleton keys. And they must be professional burglars, or theywould have made noise enough to have aroused you girls. You didn't hearanything; did you?"

  Not one had heard a sound.

  "But if they were professional thieves wouldn't they have takensomething else besides a flashlight?" asked Jack. "There's plenty ofother things they might have picked up."

  This was true enough, for the girls had left many of their more or lessvaluable belongings downstairs. But none of them had been taken.

  "Perhaps they just needed Cora's light to help them in some of theirother surprise visits," suggested Bess. "Isn't it most delightfullymystifying?"

  "I don't know that I find it especially so," retorted Belle, with aquick glance over her shoulder. "It's getting on my nerves."

  "Well, you can quit and go away when you want to," suggested her sister.

  "Never!" cried Cora. "We're not going to desert in the face of danger;are we, Belle?"

  The slim twin hesitated a moment, and then answered, but not verydecidedly:

  "No."

  "I knew you wouldn't," said Jack's sister. "We Motor Girls aren'tcowards."

  "We give you credit for that," declared Walter.

  In spite of the brave front of Cora and her chums, the happenings atCamp Surprise were getting on their nerves. The boys, true to theirpromise, began to plan to do their own cooking; but in view of the factthat the oftener they were in the girls' bungalow the better Cora andher chums liked it, it was decided to have the boys take all their mealswith the girls. Jack, Walter and Paul would merely sleep in the smallerbuilding, where they were in close call by means of the telephone.

  For the next two days nothing happened. No more articles were missed,and the furniture remained where it was put. Then came two or three dayswhen our friends were off on long picnics, remaining all day, leavingMr. and Mrs. Floyd in charge. Nor on these occasions did anythinghappen. The bungalow was as peaceful when they returned as when theyleft.

  "I guess it's all over," said Cora, when nearly a week had passed, andthere had been no more manifestations. "It was a flashlight they werelooking for all the while, and, now that they have it, they aresatisfied."

  "It might be," admitted Belle. "I hope it is."

  There were happy days in the mountains. Sometimes the young folks wouldwander far afield or through the woods, taking their lunches and stayingall day. Again they would go berrying or fishing. And they did not getlost again, for the boys became familiar with the lay of the land. Cora,too, as well as Belle and Bess, got her bearings, and knew how to findthe back paths.

  Fishing formed a pastime that all enjoyed, for the streams and ponds inMountain View were private property, and had not been depleted of theirfinny inhabitants. So fish formed many a dainty dish for the table.

  It was one day when Mr. Floyd had gone in to town, and Mrs. Floyd haddeparted to one of the more distant bungalows to get it in readiness foroccupancy, that Cora and her friends again went on a little trip to thesmall lake which once before they had visited.

  "And make sure everything is well locked," Belle advised, as theystarted away, boys and girls together.

  Windows and doors were seen to, though no one had more than a faintsuspicion that any unbidden visitors would call. They got back ratherearly in the afternoon, for a thunder shower was threatening, and asJack opened the door and looked in the living room, he called out:

  "All serene. They haven't been here this time."

  "That's good," said Belle. "I guess we've broken the hoodoo."

  But when Cora and Hazel went upstairs there came simultaneous cries ofsurprise from them.

  "Oh, Cora!" cried Hazel. "Look at my room!"

  "And look at mine!" Cora added.

  "What's the matter?" asked Jack from below.

  "Everything!" answered his sister. "They've been up here, Jack!"

  "Who?"

  "The Surprise, of course. Our rooms are all upset."

  "Is anything taken?" asked Jack, who, with the others, came up to lookat the strange evidences left by the mysterious visitors.

  "We can't tell yet," said Cora. "Oh dear! what does it all mean?"

  No one answered for a moment, but Belle and Bess looked half-fearfullyabout, as though even then they might be standing in the presence ofsome unseen creature.