"Was it a ghost?" asked Walter.
"It wasn"t anything," Cora hastened to say. "Look, see that curl of smoke. Isn"t it just like a great big ostrich plume? What a hat it would require to carry it! A giant"s hat."
"Lady giant you mean," said Walter. "But look here, Cora, you are keeping something from me."
"Not at all."
Her manner was light, but Walter was a good guesser.
"Yes, you are!" he insisted. "Something did happen, Cora. Go on, tell a fellow."
"Nothing really happened, Walter."
"Then you heard something."
"How did you know?" she asked with a start.
"I thought I"d catch you. Come now. Own up. You didn"t have that toy telephone strung to our bungalow just on general principles. Did you hear something, Cora?"
She looked around to make sure none of the others were listening. Then she told Walter of the queer noise, enjoining him to secrecy, however.
"So that"s what it was," he said. "I thought it was thunder myself, but if you heard it in your bungalow it couldn"t have been."
"And it was in our bungalow," Cora said. "Seemingly away down in the cellar, or sub-cellar, if they have such a thing."
"Not as deep as that, I guess, Cora. But it was a queer rumbly noise, though how I could hear it, when it was under your bungalow I can"t imagine."
"Unless it came from the waterfall."
"How could it come from the waterfall?" Walter asked.
"I don"t know," said Cora. "But there might be some sort of hollow rock-blowing stones I believe they are called-and when air is forced into the hollow, by the action of the water, it might give a roaring sound, and vibrate the earth."
Walter considered a moment.
"It"s worth looking into," he said. "I won"t say anything, but the first chance I get I"ll have a peep at the fall. I think I can get behind the water curtain."
"Oh, Walter! don"t take any risks."
"I won"t, Cora. But come on. The others will wonder what we find to talk about and look at here. Not that I wouldn"t want to stay talking a great deal longer, but, well--"
"I understand," and she smiled.
"We"re going berrying," cried Bess, as Walter and Cora came up to join the others. "That is, unless you two want to stand there on the edge of "Lovers" Leap" and think sad thoughts."
"Is that place called Lovers" Leap?" asked Cora.
"Well, it might be if any lovers ever jumped off there. Do you want to go berrying?"
"Surely," said Cora, and Walter nodded a.s.sent.
The berry hunt was not very successful, though a few early ones were found. However, it served as an incentive to call the young folks farther afield and up the mountainside, and they found new beauties of nature at every step.
"This is the nicest place I was ever in," declared Hazel.
"I like it, too, almost as well as any place we ever picked out for our vacation," said Belle. "My hair doesn"t get so slimpsy as at the beach."
"We"re getting beautifully tanned, instead of the lobster-red I always turn at the sh.o.r.e," said plump Bess.
"Say, hadn"t we better begin to think of turning back?" asked Cora, after a while, when the few berries that had been gathered had been eaten, though Jack begged that they be saved for a pie.
"Yes, it"s getting late," said Paul, looking at his watch. "And we have a few miles to go."
"I should say they were a few!" chimed in Walter. "Seven at the least back to Camp Surprise."
"Don"t say that!" begged Bess. "You"ll have to carry me."
"All right. We"ll make a litter of poles and drape you over it in the most artistic fashion," said Paul. "Do you prefer to be carried head or feet first?"
"Feet, of course. Riding backwards always makes me car-ill."
"It"s down hill, that"s one consolation," came from Jack. "Well, come on. All ready! Hike!" and he marched off, swinging a long stick he had picked up to use Alpine-stock fashion.
There was a patch of woodland to go through, a fairly good path traversing it. The party of young people went along, talking and laughing, occasionally breaking into song as one or another started a familiar melody.
"Say, Jack," remarked Cora at length, "aren"t these woods pretty long?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean oughtn"t we to be out of them by this time? Are you sure you"re going the right way?"
"Well, I never was here before," said Jack, "but I set our course by compa.s.s," and he indicated the little instrument on his watch chain.
"We started to walk due west," he said, "up the mountain. Now we are going east, as you can see, because the setting sun is at our backs. So we are going toward camp."
"But we swung off to the right as we came up the mountain," Cora went on.
"Exactly, a sort of northwest course," agreed Jack. "And now we are heading southeast, which is exactly the reverse. Look for yourself, Sis."
He held out the compa.s.s, the tiny needle vibrating as the instrument rested in his hand. Cora was enough of a navigator to see that Jack was right.
"Well, the only thing to do is to keep on," she said. "But I should think, by this time, we"d be somewhere near the camp."
"Oh, not yet!" declared Jack. "We"ve got miles and miles yet to go!"
"You horrid creature!" cried Bess. "Oh, my feet!"
"This is the best exercise for reducing you could have," laughed Paul.
"Come on, I"ll race you."