"Oh, I"m used to it now," she declared. "You can"t hurt my feelings.
I"ll be glad to sit on one of the boxes."
The wagon contained several crates, and these were utilized as seats, Hazel and Belle, as the "thinnest gals," sitting on the seat with Mr.
Ware.
He drove them to within a half mile of their own camp and they were soon at the bungalow, just as Mr. and Mrs. Floyd were getting anxious about their charges, and were talking of going in search of them.
"What happened to you?" Mrs. Floyd inquired.
"Lost," explained Jack, sententiously.
The adventures of the day were gone over again at a joint supper, the boys being invited in by the girls.
"You aren"t doing any housekeeping at all," Cora complained to Jack, afterward.
"What"s the use when you girls are such good cooks?" he asked with a laugh. "We"re thinking of hiring a chef, anyhow, and then we"ll reciprocate and give you a good feed."
A trip down the mountain stream to where it widened into a lake was the plan for the next day, and an early start was made, Mrs. Floyd and her husband stating that they had to go to town to do some shopping, and would not be back before night. They started before the young folks left, and the girls locked their bungalow as they came out.
Nothing of moment occurred on the trip to the little lake, if the fact that Jack fell in up to his knees, while trying to get some pond lilies for Hazel be excepted.
"Well, I wonder if anything happened while we were away?" asked Cora of Walter, as they neared their camp on the return trip.
"Why do you suggest that?" he queried.
"Oh, I don"t just know. I have a funny sort of feeling "in my bones," as mother used to say."
Cora had the key and opened the door. The boys were coming in, as they usually did, and stood waiting for the girls to enter.
As Jack"s sister threw back the door she gave one look in the living room, and exclaimed:
"It"s here!"
"What?" asked Walter, quickly.
"The surprise! Look!"
CHAPTER XIX-WHERE"S MY LIGHT?
Crowding up behind Cora, the others peered over her shoulders. The setting sun, streaming in through the windows, revealed a strange sight in the big living room. Several chairs were overturned, a large couch that had been against the wall was out in the middle of the floor, a table that had been piled with magazines and books was turned on its side, and turned upside down on the overturned table was perched a chair, as though children had been playing some simple game, like stagecoach or steamboat, with the table and chair to represent make-believe articles of locomotion.
For a moment surprise and wonder held them all dumb, then Jack burst out with:
"Say! who did this monkey-business, anyhow?"
"Monkey-business?" repeated Cora.
"It"s the surprise!" exclaimed Belle, and her voice was not quite steady. "We"ve been expecting this. The ghosts have paid one of their visits. Oh dear!"
"Don"t be silly!" exclaimed Bess, who, perhaps because her nerves were better protected, did not give way to emotion so readily as did her thinner sister. "Isn"t this just what we"ve been looking for-and hoping for?"
"Hoping for?" asked Paul. "Well, I must say it"s a queer sort of hope!"
"Oh, I don"t mean that, exactly," Bess went on. "But we knew something like this was bound to happen, and this is the first manifestation."
"No, not exactly the first," Cora said.
"What do you mean?" asked Bess. "Isn"t this the first time anything has been upset in our bungalow?"
"Yes, but it isn"t the first manifestation," Cora went on. "Shall we tell, Belle?" she asked.
"Yes," nodded the slim Robinson girl.
"Though how you can connect the queer noise with what has taken place here I don"t see," put in Walter who had been looking curiously about the upset room, which none of them had ventured yet to enter.
"What! Does he know about it, too?" asked Belle.
Cora nodded. "He heard it, and thought at first it was thunder."
"Say, what"s this all about?" demanded Jack. "Are you hiding part of the secret from us, Sis?"
"Well, in a way-yes."
"That isn"t fair. If there"s a secret here we ought to share it. And if you girls are going to keep things to yourselves we fellows will pack up and leave, and--"
"Don"t dare desert us!" cried Belle. "I won"t stay here a minute after the boys go; will you, Cora?"
"Well, I like to have them here, of course," answered Jack"s sister.
"But if we talk that way about them they"ll get an exaggerated idea of their importance, and there"ll be no way of enforcing discipline. So if they want to go let them, and we"ll solve this mystery ourselves."
"I think we"re making a mountain out of a molehill," declared Walter. "I don"t see any great mystery here. A few chairs and a table are upset.
It"s the most natural thing in the world."
"Natural? How do you make that out?" asked Bess.
"Why, Mrs. Floyd has been sweeping and dusting in here, and she has moved the chairs about. They always do it at our house. And say! some days it"s as much as your life is worth to try to navigate through the misplaced furniture. You need a harbor pilot and a searchlight, to say nothing of a chart and an automobile road map. That"s all that"s happened here. Mrs. Floyd has been doing a little house-cleaning."
"So that"s your explanation of it; is it?" asked Cora. "Then how do you account for the fact that Mrs. Floyd and her husband have been away all day?"
She pointed toward the road and the others saw the two caretakers in Mr.
Floyd"s light wagon approaching the bungalow. They were returning from their day"s shopping trip, as was evident by the number of bundles in the vehicle.
"I think you"ll find that Mrs. Floyd hasn"t done any house-cleaning to-day," said Cora. "You can"t account for the surprise that way."