"Well, aren"t they? Moving chairs about?"
"Is that what happened-or happens?" asked Bess.
"So I understand," returned Cora. "Mr. and Mrs. Floyd don"t use the main bungalow, keeping to their own rooms. But they wrote mother that, of late, there have been some queer goings on. They said they would go out, leaving the rooms in perfect order, only to find them all upset on their return. Chairs would be misplaced, tables that had been in the middle of the room would be shoved back against the wall. Dishes would be taken out of the closets, and--"
"Tramps!" interrupted Belle.
"What?" cried Cora, rather startled by the suddenness of the e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n.
"I mean tramps got in and did it."
"No, I don"t think so," and Cora spoke slowly. "For, though the dishes were taken from the pantry, there was no food missing. Tramps would take food."
"Is this all that happened?" Bess demanded.
"Well, once something was taken," Cora said. "A party had the bungalow, and when they left at the end of their stay, they forgot to take some of their silver with them. Then came one of the upsetting periods, and the furniture was misplaced and the silver taken."
Belle and Bess looked at their chum, then the former said slowly:
"I-I don"t believe we want to go to Camp Surprise, Cora."
CHAPTER V-COUNTERFEIT TICKETS
Cora laughed melodiously. Belle and Bess looked at her with just a shade of indignation in their eyes.
"I didn"t think you"d be such-such, well, I won"t say cowards," Cora voiced, when the gale of merriment had pa.s.sed. "But I think, Belle, that you would rise above the occasion, even if Bess--"
"Now what is there she can do that I can"t?" demanded the plump twin truculently. "I guess if it"s a question of bravery, I"m as willing as she is to go to Camp Surprise."
"I thought you"d be," Cora observed.
"But is it a question of bravery?" asked Belle.
"What else?" her sister demanded.
"Well, from the way in which Cora told it, I should think it would need some members of the Society for Psychic Research to get to the bottom of all those queer manifestations. Cora Kimball!" Belle suddenly exclaimed, sitting up in her chair. "You haven"t been hoaxing us; have you? This isn"t a joke; is it? I mean all those things really did happen; didn"t they?"
"My! what a lot of questions to set off at once," objected Cora. "But I can answer them all by saying that I have given the story to you just as it came to me. As far as I know, it"s no joke, and the way the furniture behaved, or rather, was made to act, is strictly true."
"And you are still going to Camp Surprise?" asked Bess.
"Certainly. Why not?"
"Well-er-that is-- Oh! of course I know there"s no such thing as a ghost," said Belle. "But, at the same time, even if those things happened by human agencies-as naturally they did-it might make it very unpleasant for us up there."
"Nonsense!" cried Cora. "It will make it all the more interesting. Think of the fun we can have, organizing ghost-detecting parties, sitting up until all hours of the night, daring the boys to sit with us. And then, after all, finding out it is only the tricks of some alleged fun-loving person, or perhaps boys of the neighborhood."
"Do you really think so, Cora?" Belle asked.
"Why, yes."
"I don"t know," murmured Bess, thoughtfully.
"Come! Where has all the bravery of the Motor Girls vanished to?"
demanded Cora with a silvery laugh. "We didn"t act thus timidly when we solved the secret of the red oar on Crystal Bay. And perhaps--"
"Cora"s right!" interrupted Belle.
"She generally is," contributed Bess.
"There"s a secret here, and we will solve it!" her sister went on. "I didn"t look at it that way before, but I see it now. We mustn"t be driven away, or kept from going just because of these rumors. We"ll go to Camp Surprise and surprise those who are making such a fuss there. I wonder some one hasn"t done it long ago."
"Just what I was about to remark," came from Cora. "I"m glad to see that your natural courage has come back. I thought it would. We haven"t been together on various quests for nothing. Now we"ll prove ourselves true Motor Girls, and get at the bottom of these surprising happenings. You won"t back out?"
"Never!" affirmed Bess.
"Cross my heart!" laughed her sister, with the old, familiar, childish gesture of emphasizing a statement.
"Then it"s all settled. Now let"s go home. Jack and Walter said they were going over to Meadport to-day to see if any word had been received there of my missing auto. They may have returned with some news."
"Why was Meadport regarded so favorably?" asked Bess.
"Well, a constable there sent word to our police that there had been a number of petty robberies committed in the neighborhood. A number of thefts would take place in one night, and so far apart that the only probable theory was that the thieves used an auto. Jack thought my dear car might be used for such base purposes, so he and Wally went over there to-day."
"Let us hope they have good news," said Belle, as with her sister and Cora she entered the Robinson automobile and headed back for Cheerful Chelton.
"Nothing doing," announced Jack, as his sister and her chums came in sight of the Kimball home, and saw him with Walter, sitting on the broad, shady piazza. "Absolutely nothing transpiring, as the poet saith."
"College hasn"t improved your slang any," observed Bess.
"No, I guess I"ll have to take a P. G. course to accomplish that. I am a bit rusty. Wally, suppose you give them a sample."
"Spare us," murmured Cora. "Was there really no news, Jack?"
"Not an atom, or even a molecule. Which is smaller, Wally? I forget."
"Same here. Anyhow they hadn"t caught those Meadport thieves, so whether they have your auto or not, Cora, my dear, remains yet to be proved."
The young people talked on, the conversation reverting naturally to Camp Surprise.
"What do you think it all means, Jack?" asked Bess.
"Kids playing tricks," declared Jack tersely. "So it didn"t scare you girls out from going?"