"I have often read about it, but I never thought I would be fortunate enough to actually see it," said Amy, clasping her hands behind her head, and gazing out at the blue of an azure sky.
The four girls were seated on the steps of the veranda talking, talking over the events of the day before and speculating as to the future.
"Well, it scared me nearly to death," said Grace, who was curled up on the lower step, with a cushion brought from the house acting as head rest. "I declare when I saw them drag her up on the bank, Betty, I thought that she was dead. She looked so drawn and white, and——"
"Well, you couldn't expect her to look particularly rosy and happy, after all she had been through," Mollie remarked. "If I had been doused under water as long as that poor girl was I would not only have looked dead, I'd have been it."
"Oh, I don't know," Grace retorted lazily."If I'm not mistaken it would take a good deal to stop that tongue of yours, Mollie."
"Speak for yourself," Mollie was beginning angrily, when Betty entered into the conversation. She had been dreamily studying the shimmering ripples the soft wind had stirred upon the surface of the water.
"Some day," she began in a sing-song voice, her eyes still fixed on the distance, "I'm just going to let you two go on to the bitter finish. I shouldn't wonder if you will be like the two cats of Kilkenny. You remember what they did, don't you?"
"No, what?" asked Mollie, and Grace added: "We might just as well know where our bad tempers are going to land us. What did they do, Betty?"
"They fought and they fit and they scratched and they bit," chanted Betty, "till instead of two cats there weren't any."
"I guess we had better take warning while there is still time, Grace," said Mollie, with a little laugh. And so for the time being at least peace was restored.
"But when do you suppose Anita and her brother will come to see us?" asked Amy. "I do hope it won't be very long."
"I think Amy likes Conway," said Grace, thenturning to Betty she asked meaningly: "Do you, by any chance, believe in love at first sight?"
"Oh, I think it can be done," Betty answered, her eyes twinkling with fun as she looked at Amy's flushed face. "At least, I do believe in strong attractions at the first meeting. Perhaps that is all Amy has felt just yet."
"Oh, girls!" implored Amy, in an agony of bashfulness, "I don't like Conway Benton one bit more than any of the rest of you, and you know it. I think it is mean for you to tease."
"Oh, Amy, dear, it is only fun," cried Betty, throwing an arm about her friend. "We don't really think that you have been smitten with a stranger's charms. Stillstrangerthings have happened."
"I don't agree with you," said Amy, and they wisely forbore to pursue the subject.
"Oh, but didn't that fish taste good last night?" said Mollie, coming down to every-day matters. "I never ate anything like it in all my life."
"That's because we caught it ourselves," said Grace, unconsciously voicing a common trait in human nature.
"Let's take fish out of the conversation for a little while," Betty suggested, "and talk about something romantic."
"For instance?" Grace inquired, with uplifted eyebrows.
"The gypsies," Betty answered. "Ever since the other night I've been wondering if there was anything in what that old store-keeper said."
"I hope not," said Amy, with a shudder. "I am more afraid of them than anything else in the world, I think."
"I don't see why," Mollie reflected. "Probably they are a great deal more afraid of us."
"Well, all gypsies are akin, they say; so maybe we could find out something about Mr. Ford's Beauty and about Mrs. Billette's silver," returned Betty.
"Oh, don't talk about that," cried Mollie. "It fairly makes me sick, for I'm sure we shall never hear of the things again."
"I wonder when the boys are going to try to ford to the islands?" said Grace. "The tide's getting low now."
"Hello! where is everybody?" it was Will's voice calling from the woods. "We are going for a paddle—who wants to come along?"
"Ask us," called Betty. "We were just hoping you'd come to life."
"Ah, the voice of the siren," called Will, over his shoulder. "Come on, fellows, let's break up this galaxy of beauty."
The boys sauntered up to the group of girls, and sprawled upon the steps wherever there was room.
"Wherehaveyou kept yourselves all morning?" Mollie inquired, as Frank drew a bur from her white skirt. "If you hadn't come pretty soon, we were going over to look for you."
"Oh, just around clearing up," Frank replied, with a vague little gesture. "If we had known how much you wanted to see us, we would have left some things undone."
"You needn't have hurried on my account," Grace drawled. "I don't know when I have ever felt happier than I did before you came. Oh, Roy, do look out, you are sitting on my dress."
Roy rose with alacrity. "Gee! a fellow can't do anything around here without getting sat on," he complained.
"It seems to me it was Grace's dress that was being sat on that time, not you," Betty remarked, with a glint of mischief in her eyes. "I wonder if anybody else has ever noticed," she went on, "the funny habit all you boys have of blaming somebody else for blaming you."
"You're away too deep for me, Betty," Roy protested with a shake of his head. "That must be a mighty funny habit."
"To change the subject," said Allen, rising andstretching his arms far above his head, as if to make sure his muscles were still in good condition, "who wants to share a nice little canoe with me? Your aunt sure knew what she was doing, Mollie."
"We would all like to go, I know," said Betty, with a doubtful glance at the fast sinking sun. "Only I am afraid it is pretty near dinner time."
"Well, I tell you what we'll do," said Frank, with sudden inspiration. "We'll postpone our canoeing trip till to-night. There is going to be a fine moon."
"What difference does that make?" Grace asked severely. "I think we had better go now, and have a fire this evening."
"Oh, Grace, don't be a kill-joy," said her brother. "It is going to be too wonderful a night to spend indoors."
"Well, if Mrs. Irving says so," she began, and they all knew it was settled.
"Have dinner early, will you?" Roy urged, taking out his watch. "It is a quarter past five now. Can you be ready to start by six?"
"Oh, long before," Mollie assured him, rising hurriedly, and starting toward the house, while the others followed her example.
Then after a whispered consultation with thegirls at the door, she turned and threw the boys a merry glance.
"If you are very good," she said, "we will let you eat with us to-night."
"Fine!" cried Allen. "And biscuits, Betty?"
"Biscuits," she answered.
They were hilarious all during the meal. In the first place, everything was delicious, and in the second, everybody was in the best of spirits.
Afterward they cleared away the dishes in no time, and the four girls, Mrs. Irving having refused to be of the party, ran upstairs to get the light wraps that were always needed at night. The boys met them outside as they rushed down laughing and breathless, and ready for a good time.
"I hope it doesn't take the moon till twelve o'clock to show itself," said Will, as they made their way down the walk and on to the float where the canoes were attached. "Mrs. Irving says that we are to be back by ten o'clock at the latest."
"That will give us plenty of time," Frank answered. "Don't you remember we saw it a little after seven last night?"
"It's lucky these canoes are eighteen feet long," said Allen, as he unfastened the rope. "Otherwise we would have to take turns paddling."
"Who's going to do the work first?" asked Betty. Then she added: "I love to paddle."
"If nobody has any objection," said Allen, "you shall. Grace, you drop into the middle with Frank, until it comes your turn to do the work. Betty may like it, but I must say I'd rather watch you people slave."
"All right, we'll go fifty-fifty with you," Frank agreed cheerily. "Here, Grace, step in the middle—that's the way. Now we are all settled. Let her go, Captain."
Allen swung himself into the stern, and deftly pushed the canoe clear of the swaying float. "All right," he sang out. "Left hand or right, Betty? It makes no difference to me. Now for the moon."
"Look out, Allen, you are getting poetical," warned Betty, as she dipped her paddle into the clear water. "Many a man has reached for the moon, only to find that he had plucked some green cheese."
"Are you sure it wasn't limburger?" asked Frank, mildly for so strong a subject.
"Ugh, don't!" cried Grace. "How I hate even the name of the horrid stuff!"
"And on a night like this, too," said Betty. "Can't we talk about something less odoriferous?"
"Remember you started it," said Frank defensively.
"Yes, I know, but what I spoke of is such a wee little cousin to——"
"Is that the dipper up there, Frank?" Grace asked, in haste to change the subject. "Somehow it doesn't look natural."
Frank squinted aloft. "That's our same old friend," he said. "By the way, speaking of dippers, I am getting thirsty."
"Well, I can't give you a drink, but I can feed you. Have a chocolate?" cried Grace.
"Oh, Grace!" protested Betty, "you never brought chocolates along?"
"To be sure I did. Why not?"
"You are hopeless," laughed Frank.
"Look at that shooting star," said Betty, pointing with her paddle. "Oh, that was a beauty!"
"Did you wish on it?" asked Grace eagerly.
"I didn't know I had to. Goodness, did I throw away an opportunity?" Betty's tone was dismayed.
"Why, of course," said Grace, with an air of superiority. "It's bad luck if you don't."
"All right, I won't let the next one escape," Betty promised.
And so they went on and on, enjoying theshadowy stillness of the night, and later revelling in the silver radiance of the moonlight.
It was not until they started on their journey side by side with the other canoe that Allen broached a subject that had been almost entirely forgotten in the excitement of the last few days.
"Say, when are you and Frank going to practice for the big race, Betty?" he asked. "I am mighty anxious to see it."
"To-morrow morning, I guess," said Betty, then added suddenly: "I don't see why Frank and I should furnish all the fun. Why don't you all join in? It would be ever so much more exciting."
"That's a good idea," said Allen. "I'll do it if the rest are willing. How about it, Grace?"
"I'm willing," she replied. "Oh, I have a bright idea!"
"Shoot!" said Frank inelegantly.
"Suppose we take our lunch," she went on enthusiastically, "and have a regular old-fashioned picnic in the woods beyond the camp."
"Grace, you are a marvel," cried Betty. "I can't think of anything I'd like better. Swimming in the morning and a party in the afternoon! Oh, every day is more wonderful than the last!"
The sunbeams danced across the shimmering water and into the room where the Outdoor Girls lay sleeping. They made patches on the floors and ceiling, and showered Mollie's face with golden darts.
She moved restlessly and raised her hand as though to ward off this invader of her dreams, muttering softly, "Oh—don't——" Gradually she passed from sleeping to waking and, realizing the cause of the disturbance, sat up in bed with a start.
"Oh, the world's on fire with sunshine! What a day to swim! Now, as soon as I can rouse these sleeping beauties, I'll proceed to get breakfast."
"Oh, A—my!" she called aloud, giving the bed such a thump that Amy's eyes sprung wide open on the instant—wide and startled. "Are you going to sleep for-ever? Oh, I'm hungry!" with which words she sprang out of bed and began dressing hastily.
For once Amy seemed to agree with her chum, for the moonlight sail of the night before with only Grace's candies to nibble on had left them ravenous.
"All right," she said, sitting up and looking toward the bed in the far corner of the big room. "Betty and Grace are just yawning themselves awake. We ought to beat them dressed easily."
"We don't care," came Betty's sleepy voice. "Whoever gets down first has to get the breakfast, you know."
Even this did not daunt Mollie. She did not mind getting breakfast at all. In her own words, "she could smell the good things that much longer." So now her only answer was: "Sleepy-head," uttered in a severe tone.
"I don't care," came the defiant answer, "it's mighty nice to feel sleepy sometimes," and Betty stretched luxuriously.
"Oh, dear!" said Grace irritably, "it seems to me life is one long succession of getting ups and going to beds."
"The last isn't as hard as the first, is it, Gracy?" Mollie teased.
"Probably if youcouldsleep, you wouldn't want to," replied Grace.
"Oh, if any one would only give you thechance!" and Betty gave Grace an affectionate little shake. "Some time we won't call you, Grace," she laughed. "I'd like to find out just how long you could sleep, if you were left to yourself."
"Goodness, I wouldn't like to chance it," said Mollie, slipping a middy over her head. "I am afraid we would have to carry her home at the end of the summer—a sleeping beauty still."
"Or a still sleeping beauty," Betty suggested. "That would be more to the point."
"Suits me exactly," Grace drawled, "as long as the prince is handsome enough."
"Always the prince," groaned Mollie, giving Grace up in despair—then added, as she opened the door preparatory to flight: "Frank is quite good looking. Come on, Amy!"
"I don't see what that has to do with it!" Grace retorted; but only a sharp click of the door and a little derisive laugh in the hall outside answered her. "Oh, well," she added, sitting up and regarding Betty reproachfully as if that young person were responsible, "I suppose I have got to get up."
"Of course, and make yourself charming for the prince," said Betty, pinning a rose at exactly the right angle in her soft white waist. "You don't have to be asleepingbeauty to find him, you know," she added sagely.
"You seem to know a lot about it," said Grace, regarding her friend soberly. "I shouldn't wonder if you had found him, Betty."
Betty turned sharply to see if she were joking, then the soft color flooded her face. "Nonsense!" she said, but her tone was not convincing.
"Yes, you have," said Grace, not to be put off. "I can tell by the way you look at him, and the way he looks at you and oh—and—a hundred little things." She waved her hand vaguely.
"Oh, Gracy, don't be foolish," said Betty, recovering her usual composure. "If you don't look outI'llbegin to get personal. You needn't think you are the only one that has eyes."
"Oh, well," said, Grace, flushing in her turn. "If you are going to begin that—— Oh, Betty, just smell the bacon! Please hand me that shoe, quick!"
"Oh!" cried Betty, and drew back as a small stone flung by some one below hurtled through the open window and fell to the floor at her feet. "Look! It has something tied to it," she cried, and, stooping, picked it up.
"Bring it here," called Grace excitedly. "Oh, this is romantic! Betty, let me see it, quick!"
"Wait a minute, I haven't seen it myself yet," said Betty, as she unfolded the tiny slip of paper attached to the stone. "Well, of all the——"
Grace looked over her shoulder and this is what the two girls read:
"When are you coming out? The water's fine."
"When are you coming out? The water's fine."
With one accord they rushed to the window through which the message had come and leaned far out. But look as they might in every direction, there was no sight nor sound of human beings. The grounds about the house and even the woods seemed deserted.
The girls drew back in, looked at each other in perplexity, then their gaze instinctively traveled to the note still held in Betty's hand.
"Well," Grace announced, "it seems that we have here a key to some mystery——"
"Mystery nothing!" Betty interrupted disrespectfully. "We know who wrote this—there is no mistaking Roy's scrawl. The senders have decamped—that's all."
"Speak of princes——" said Grace, as they went out arm in arm.
"And they are sure to turn up," Betty finished merrily.
Mollie's breakfast was good. And the young folks ate with the healthy appetites of youth. Mrs. Irving left the table early to get herselfready to go over to the summer colony where she had promised to spend the day with friends who were summering there. The girls had scarcely finished their breakfast when the boys broke in upon them.
"You girls eat too much," Frank complained, when the first greetings were over. "Now, if you only had our dainty little appetites——"
"The best way to treat some people," put in Mollie significantly, "is to pay no attention to them or their remarks."
"Is she speaking to me or at me?" Frank inquired good-humoredly.
"Oh, it is just a general slam at the sex," laughed Allen, who had not taken his eyes from Betty and the pink rose. "We ought to be hardened by this time."
"Yes, you are terribly ill-treated, aren't you?"
Betty sympathized and remarked: "It is truly a case for the S. P. C. A.—I mean the S. P. C. C.," she corrected hastily, while the girls laughed merrily and the boys looked injured.
"That's the worst yet, Betty," Will reproached her. "You needn't make out you didn't mean it, either—we know better."
"Oh, all right," said Betty, her eyes twinkling. "Have it your own way."
"To change the subject," Roy broke in, "whatare you girls all togged up for—didn't you get my message?"
"Of course," said Grace. "You nearly put Betty's eyes out with it."
"Sorry," said Roy, with a quick glance at Betty's nearly injured eyes, which had never looked brighter than at that instant. "They look pretty good to me. But that brings me back to my first query—why are you girls all dressed up?"
"Well, you know we could hardly wear our bathing suits down to breakfast. Imagine a lot of sea nymphs boiling eggs and frying bacon!" ejaculated Mollie.
"Besides," Betty argued, "it's just as much trouble to put ugly things on as it is pretty ones——"
"And they don't look as nice," Frank finished.
"Exactly!" said Betty. "And now if you will excuse us we'll put on our suits, and show you boys how to swim. Come on, girls!"
"You can't be too quick to suit me," Allen called after them.
Mollie made a little face at him from the doorway. "Anxious to meet your Water-loo?" she mocked impishly, and before he could answer had followed the girls up the stairway.
The boys raced back to camp to prepare themselves for the swim, and a few minutes later met the girls coming from the house.
"You see you didn't have to wait," said Amy. "We are as anxious as you to get into the water this morning. Oh, I can almost feel it!"
"Let's run," suggested Mollie. "Somehow to-day I can't be sedate. I'll race everybody to the bank."
THEY RAN OUT INTO THE TEPID WATER.THEY RAN OUT INTO THE TEPID WATER.
The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island.Page 158
She broke into a run, and the others followed—bringing up at the edge of the water a moment later, breathless but glowing. This time no one hesitated, not even Amy. They ran out into the tepid water, then plunged in, swimming with strong, even, steady strokes.
It had been decided that all were to take part in the race—consequently all were bent on losing not one moment of practice. They swam, off and on, for the whole morning—occasionally throwing themselves upon the mossy bank, to rest and get their breath, then going at it again with renewed vigor and resolve.
It was only when the position of the sun and acute pangs of hunger warned them that it was long past their luncheon hour, that they decided it was time to turn their attention to other things.
"I left the basket back at the house," said Mollie, when they had come to this conclusion. "Ithought probably we would like to get dressed before we ate."
"Oh, why?" Will protested. "It's a scorching hot day, and we'll probably want to go in for a swim later on, anyway."
"Why not slip a skirt and middy over our bathing suits?" Betty suggested. "By the time we reach the house, our suits will be dry. Mine is almost, now."
"Good!" said Grace. "We'll feel more respectable, and if we do want to go in for a swim later it won't be any trouble at all to take them off."
So it was decided, and they all tramped off through the woods, laughing, merry, and friends with the world.
Upon reaching the house the Outdoor Girls ran upstairs while the boys went back to camp to get some things they thought they might need. A few moments later the girls rejoined them.
"Where shall we go?" Roy, who was leading the van, paused and looked behind him. "Let's take some different part of the wood—some place we haven't explored yet."
"If there is any," Allen agreed.
"There is some place, for we have not yet found the gypsies Mollie's old store-keeper told her about," put in Betty.
"Very well, then, trot ahead, Roy, we'll follow you."
"All right, but don't blame me if we are lost."
"Oh, if there is any danger of that," said Amy, pulling away and looking back longingly, "perhaps we better stick to what we know."
"Oh, Roy is only talking to hear himself talk," Will assured her. "It isn't possible to get lost onthis island, even if you wanted to. All we would have to do would be to follow the shore and sooner or later we'd be bound to come upon 'The Shadows.'"
Amy saw the reason in this and was reassured. "All right," she said; "but it wouldn't be very much fun to get lost."
"Why not?" demanded Will, and she looked at him in surprise.
"Well, would it?" she asked wonderingly.
"It would be the greatest little lark ever," he said so decidedly that Amy blushed. "We'd have some excitement for a little while, anyway."
When they had walked a little farther into the woods Roy stopped again, and, pointing before him, called out: "We have found just the place, people—it's Arcadia itself."
They crowded about him, gazing in the direction he had pointed out. It was a wonderful island, this—where you were always stumbling into some little glade or woodland bower made especially for you. Surely this tiny garden spot of nature was even more alluring than the famous fishing pool, and the girls pushed forward eagerly.
"That big flat stone over there will be just the very thing to spread the eatables out on," said Grace, "and I guess we can all manage to get around it, too."
"Of course we can," said Mollie enthusiastically. "It's exactly the right height. Oh, every thing is perfect!"
"If you girls will only stop raving long enough to get us something to eat," said Will plaintively, "you'll be doing some good in the world. Gee, but I'm hungry!"
"Poor boy," said Betty, with ready sympathy, "I know just exactly how you feel, because I'm nearly dead myself. Hand over the basket, Allen, please, and I'll spread the cloth."
"You bet I will!" said Allen readily. "I'll help you fix things."
"Look out for him, Betty," Roy cautioned. "He's got his eye on the good things."
"What good does that do?" sighed Allen. "I'd rather have my teeth on them."
"So say we all of us," laughed Frank. "Can't I help, too, Betty?"
"Of course—all of you," the Little Captain agreed, magnanimously. "Come on, girls—stop admiring the view and help with these things."
"Oh! will we?" criedMollie, and all made a rush for the baskets. "What's first? You've got the table cloth? Well, then the napkins next and the sandwiches—and the biscuits, and—oh, boys, you never could guess——" Mollie sat back on her heels and regarded them laughingly. "Thinkof the thing you want most in the world," she said. "That's it!"
"There are lots of things I want," Frank began, but Roy interrupted him.
"There is only one thing in the world that is better than anything else," he said.
"And that?" the others queried breathlessly.
"Plum pudding!" He pronounced the two words with the reverence due them.
Grace stared at him in amazement. "How did you know?" she stammered. "It's almost uncanny."
"Not at all," said Roy, with a superior air. "It's perfectly simple—I smelled it."
"Oh, so that was the blithe and savory odor that assailed our nostrils a short time ago," said Frank. "But my hopes never soared to the heights of plum pudding."
"And here is the hard sauce," said Mollie, passing it around from one to the other as though it had been a precious jewel. "Amy made it—all of powdered sugar—with perhaps a little egg and butter thrown in—and I know it is delicious."
"You had better put that out of sight till we get through eating other things, Mollie," Betty cautioned. "The boys will be starting at the wrong end of the meal."
"Yes, and spoil their appetites," Amy added, while Mollie removed the temptation.
However, from the way the good things disappeared, there seemed no reason for Amy's fears—appetites like those were proof even against plum pudding.
At last the picnickers stretched themselves, replete and happy, upon the soft grass, to discuss a further course of action.
"What shall we do next?" asked Betty, after a somewhat lengthy pause. "Are we going to take a walk or swim some more or just stay here?"
"You've got the right idea," Roy commended.
"Which?" she asked, with uplifted eyebrows. "I suggested three things."
"The last of course," he answered, plucking a piece of long grass and beginning to chew the end of it. "I don't know what you put in that plum pudding, but it has made me everlastingly sleepy. I'd like to take a nice long nap;" and a prodigious yawn gave truth to his words.
"How interesting," Grace mocked. "Mrs. Irving warned Mollie that it might have such an effect—in fact, she said it was too hearty for hot weather. Behold we have the proof of her words."
"For goodness' sake, Roy, brace up!" criedWill, in a stage whisper. "Can't you see what you are doing? If you keep this up they won't give us any more. Brace up!"
Seeing the wisdom of this, Roy did his best to "brace up," but the girls only laughed at him.
"We are sleepy, too," Amy confessed, "so we won't tell. Besides, don't you supposewelike plum pudding?"
"Good!" said Roy, leaning back against the tree with a relieved sigh. "Now we can act naturally."
However, the Outdoor Girls and their boy chums were too active to remain quiet long, even after plum pudding. Allen was the first to become restless, and the others soon caught it from him. He rose, went through some gymnastic exercises, then looked about him curiously. "I wonder if there are any more places like this hereabout?" he said. "Does anybody want to take a little tramp and find out? You look about as energetic as a bunch of turtles. Come on, let's do something."
"Why do something when we can get lots more fun out of doing nothing?" asked Roy lazily. "What wouldst have us do?"
"I just told you," Allen's tone showed disgust. "Isn't there one among you with any pepat all? How about you, Betty? You're usually the one to start things."
Betty looked up at him with a slow, tantalizing little smile. "That's why I am letting you take the lead this time," she purred. "I thought I'd wait and see who'd make the first move."
"And I am going to force the second move," and before she could guess what he was going to do, he leaned over, caught her two hands in his and pulled her to her feet. "Now, you are going to take a little walk with me, young lady. If the rest of this lazy crowd don't want to come along, they know what they can do!"
The Little Captain blinked at him uncertainty. "You might tell me what you are going to do," she complained. "Look, Allen—you hurt me!"
He regarded the brown little hand, held up for his inspection, anxiously. "I don't see anything," he said. "But if I hurt it I am sorry," and he stroked the place that should have been red.
"If you are going, why don't you go?" Grace demanded, then added meaningly: "I guess theyareglad we are lazy."
"Please don't make any insinuations," said Betty, her nose in the air, but Allen sent a laughing shot back at them before they disappeared into the denser wood.
"You can eat another plum pudding if you like," he said.
Frank chuckled audibly. "Wise old chap—Allen," he remarked.
"I wish we could take his advice," mourned Amy. "If you boys hadn't been such pigs, we might have had some pudding left."
"Oh, why didn't you make more?" was Will's uncivil comment.
For a long time Allen and Betty wandered through the woods, seeing nothing and hearing nothing but the usual sights and sounds of the forest—and seemingly quite content to go on in that way forever.
It was Allen who first broke the silence. "I wish you would tell me what you are thinking about so hard, Betty. It must be very interesting, because you haven't said a word to me since we left that lazy crowd back there. 'Fess up!"
Betty flushed faintly. "You should never ask what a person thinks about on a beautiful summer, day when she is wandering through the woodland with—with——"
"Whom?" Allen prompted softly. "Go on, Betty, finish the story."
"Can't," she smiled up at him roguishly. "It's one of those 'to be continued.'"
He caught her hand, but she drew it away quickly. "Allen, what's this?" she cried.
She had accidentally brushed aside some brambles that had caught on her dress, and there close beside them, so near that she could thrust her hand into the opening, yawned the cavernous black mouth of a cave.
Allen drew her aside quickly. "Don't go near it," he commanded, in a tone that made Betty look at him in surprise. "I'm suspicious of these caves until I have investigated them myself. I am going to have a look, Betty. You stay where you are."
But the Little Captain had not been so named for nothing. She seized Allen's arm, and drew him back from the opening.
"Allen, if you go in there, I'm going, too," she cried, her eyes blazing. "Do you suppose I'm going to stand here, and see you get eaten up by a—a——"
"A what?" said Allen, putting his hands on her shoulders and laughing down at her.
"Well, whatever there is in the cave," she finished lamely. "Anyway, I'm going in with you."
"Betty, do be reasonable," he pleaded, but she flared up at that.
"Do you know, Allen, there is nothing a girl hates more than to have a boy ask her to be reasonable, when she knows she is? Anyway," her voice lowered and she pleaded her turn. "Anyway, it's lots worse to see anybody get hurt, anybody that you like, that is, than it is to get hurt yourself."
"You little soldier," Allen murmured. "But can't you see, Betty, that I am here to protect you from danger if there is any—not let you run right into it?"
"Then there is no reason why you should, either," she said obstinately.
"Will it make you feel any better if we get the others?" Allen asked, just a little exasperated, for he liked mysteries and hated to leave them unsolved. "We can get to them in five minutes if we run."
"Yes, that will be better," Betty agreed, seizing the suggestion eagerly. "But do you think we can find the cave again?"
"Easily," said Allen. "You see, we are pretty near the water right here and that bent old tree at the edge of the lake—see what I mean?—well, that's right on the line with the mouth of the cave. I guess it will be easy enough to find."
So it was settled, and they raced back hand in hand to the spot where they had left their friends, eager to tell the news.
"So here you are," cried Mollie, at sight of therunaways. "We thought you were never coming back."
Allen wasted no time, but told his story in the fewest words possible. They were all tremendously excited, and followed the two adventurers eagerly as they led the way along the shores of the lake.
"Are you sure you can find it again?" Grace was asking when Amy seized her arm and pointed out over the water.
"Look!" she cried. "Gypsies!"
"Gypsies?" Betty echoed. "Where?"
"Can't you see?" returned Amy. "They are fording just as that old man said they could. Oh, what are we going to do?"
The boys had been gazing with interest toward the little group of wanderers, but at Amy's cry they were aroused to sudden action.
"Get to a place where we can see, and not be seen," said Frank. "I'd like to watch this thing through."
"They are coming right this way, too," said Grace, delightfully afraid. "Oh, what have they got on their backs?"
"Looks like loot of some sort," Will volunteered, peering forth from his tree trunk. "Say, this promises to be a lark, fellows."
"We'd better get back a little farther, if we don't want them to run right into us," Roy suggested. "They are headed this way."
The watchers retreated still farther into thewoods until they came to a dense overgrowth of foliage which effectually screened them from prying eyes.
"This is just the thing," Roy exulted. "I tell you we are running in luck to-day."
"I am glad you think so," said Amy. "If one of those gypsies discovered us, I am afraid we wouldn't live long."
"Well, they are not going to," said Roy, overhearing the last remark. "Don't be a wet blanket, Amy. Anyway, just because they are gypsies they needn't be murderers."
"I'm not a——" Amy was beginning, when Allen hissed a sharp warning. "Keep still, everybody," he said. "They are not a hundred yards away!"
After that silence reigned, broken only occasionally by a nervous whisper from one of the girls as they watched the approach of the enemy—or so they regarded them—with breathless interest.
There were about twenty in the group, of which the majority were men. As they came nearer, the girls and boys could see how greatly their ages varied. Some were old men with white hair and flowing beards, while others were young striplings scarcely out of boyhood. Their clothes were many hued and picturesque, while each onecarried on his back a huge bundle. They traveled along the bank, speaking in a low mellow tone, a language which the Outdoor Girls and the boys had never heard before.
Grace crowded close to Betty, and the Little Captain squeezed her arm reassuringly. "I kind of like them," she whispered. "They look so interesting. They look like bandits or——"
Frank's hand closed abruptly over her mouth—for low as her tone had been the gypsies were near enough now to hear the slightest whisper.
On, on came the little procession so near that the girls, by stretching out their hands, could almost have touched them. They scarcely dared to breathe.
The gypsies moved on for a short distance, then gathered about something the nature of which the girls and boys could not discern. In his curiosity, Allen forgot caution and rising from the protection of the bushes he tip-toed over to a more advantageous lookout. In a moment he was back again on his knees beside the crouching group crying in an excited manner: "It's our cave—the cave Betty and I discovered—they are going into it. Say, I wish we had gone in when we had the chance!"
"I don't," said Mollie, "they might have foundyou there and knifed you in the back or something."
"Especially something," mocked Roy. But Mollie was too excited to hear him.
"Look!" Grace cried. "Now that they are all inside, you wouldn't know that there was any opening there at all."
"Itistough to have to sit outside and look at nothing," Roy began.
"Don't look at me when you say that," complained Mollie, with a little grimace.
"When we ought to be in there capturing the thieves—if that is what they are," he finished.
"I'd bet on it," said Frank. "All gypsies are born robbers. Just the same, I wouldn't mind having some of their loot."
"Frank!" Grace exclaimed, in a shocked voice. "You know you wouldn't like anything of the sort."
"Why not?" he said, his eyes twinkling, for teasing Grace was one of his greatest delights. "I wouldn't go in anybody's house and deliberately steal anything, but if somebody is kind enough to do it for me——"
"It will do you as much good as it will them, eh, Frank?" finished Will, companion in crime.
"I think you are just talking to hear yourselves talk," Grace commented, and Betty heartily approved. "That's the most sensible thing I ever heard you say, Grace."
"I'm getting stiff sitting on my heels," Mollie complained. "I wish those old gypsies would go home where they belong, and let us get up."
"Seventh inning," said Frank. "All get up and stretch."
Willingly they followed his example, but no sooner had they risen to their feet than they were sent scuttling back again like rabbits into a burrow. The bushes were pushed aside and an aged gypsy stepped forth from the opening. With a little gasp of excitement the girls realized that he was without his heavy pack. Whatever it was they had brought evidently had been left behind in the cave. One by one they emerged until their number was complete. The last of the little band, a lad apparently no more than sixteen years old, replaced the screening bushes very carefully across the mouth of their hiding place. Then they turned, and retraced their steps, still speaking that strange melodious tongue of theirs, until they had reached the shore and departed the way they had come. It was not till then that the watchers ventured to speak above a whisper.
"Now for the cave and what it contains!" cried Will, and started for the spot the gypsies had so lately occupied.
The girls and boys followed him, the former excited yet half fearful.
"Do you think we had better?" asked Amy, as Will pushed aside the curtain of foliage and peered inside. "It's getting dark, and besides the gypsies might come back. Please don't, Will."
"Do you mean to say that you girls want us to go home without seeing what is in there?" asked Frank incredulously. "It can't be done, Amy."
Nevertheless, the boys hesitated before the entrance to this mysterious hole. After all, it was getting dark and the very blackness of the place was forbidding.
"If we only had some matches," said Roy uncertainly. "It wouldn't do us much good to go stumbling around in the dark."
"And I presume Mrs. Irving is back and will be terribly worried," Mollie added, seizing upon the most effective argument she could think of. "She told us to be home before dark."
"Yes, and we can come here to-morrow, anyway," Amy added. "What do you think about it, Betty?"
"Well, I am just crazy to see what the gypsies left there," the Little Captain answered, "but I do think it's a little late now to begin exploring. It isn't as if this were our last day on the island."
"I think Betty is right, fellows." It was Roy who spoke. "Mrs. Irving left the girls in our care and she won't do it again in a hurry if we don't get them home pretty soon."
"That's so, of course," Allen admitted reluctantly. "Just the same, it's a crime to leave a discovery like this without getting to the bottom of it."
"But we can come to-morrow," Betty pleaded. "It isn't as if——"
"Oh, I know all about that," he interrupted. "But we probably can't find the place to-morrow."
"Well, we will have to take our chances on that," cried Mollie, tapping her foot impatiently. "The rest of you may stay here all night if you want to, but I'm going back to 'The Shadows.'"
"Hold on a minute, Mollie, can't you?" said Will. "I wish it weren't so late, but since it is, I suppose we shall have to act accordingly. Who's got the lunch basket?"
"Frank had, the last time I saw it," said Amy, looking about her at the gathering shadows uneasily. "Oh, please let's hurry."
"I forgot all about the basket," Frank confessed. "I think I left it over there behind the bushes."
Allen went with him to find it, while the girls stood huddled together, wishing themselves backat the bungalow. Mystery is wonderful in the glaring sun of noon-day, but in the chill dusk of evening, with a damp mist rising and touching all the land with clammy fingers—at such a time it is not so alluring. All they wanted was home and a fire and a chance to talk things over.
Allen and Frank, carrying the basket between them, soon rejoined those who were waiting at the cave, and they started along the shores of the lake, keeping a sharp lookout for anything that looked like a gypsy.
However, they reached home at last without encountering anything more formidable than their own shadows.
"But Iwouldlike to know what they had in those bags," sighed Betty, as the boys took leave of them. "Can we go back the first thing in the morning, Allen?"
"We can't go too soon to suit me," Allen agreed. "But aren't you going to let us fellows come over to-night to talk things over?"
"Of course," said Mollie, "and we'll have a fire."
"That sounds good," said Roy. "We won't keep you waiting."
Then the girls went in to relieve Mrs. Irving's anxiety and to tell her the wonders they had witnessed that afternoon.
Before the cheerful glow of the fire, the young people talked long that night, while Mrs. Irving listened with interest. Her eyes sparkled at the description of the cave and the gypsy troupe and once she broke in with:
"You needn't think you are going to leave me behind when such exciting things are happening. After this, I am going to be on the spot with the rest of you."
"I wish you would," Mollie answered. "We thought you didn't care to go along."
"Ask me in the morning," she said.
And now the morning had come at last. Betty had lain awake most of the night, too excited to sleep and impatiently awaiting the first streak of dawn.
Now it had come after a wait that had seemed interminable and she slipped silently out of bed, determined not to awaken the sleeping girls. But before she had time to move half way across the room, Grace hailed her.
"Hello, Betty!" she called, "I'm glad you are up—I haven't been able to sleep for the longest while. What are you going to do?"
"Get dressed, I suppose," Betty answered. "I simply couldn't lie in bed any longer."
"Guess I will, too," said Grace; and that being the first time she had ever agreed with Betty on that subject, the latter looked at her in surprise.
"You must be all worked up, Gracy," she commented, "to be willing to get up at this time in the morning. I don't think it can be six o'clock, at the very latest."
"Well, anything is better than lying in bed awake," yawned Grace, sitting up in bed and curving her arms behind her head with that slow, instinctive grace that was part of her. "Look at Mollie staring at us for all the world like a little night-owl," she added.
"Thanks," said Mollie dryly. "I feel highly complimented, I'm sure. I'd hate to tell you what you look like."
"Don't," said Grace. "What I don't know won't hurt me."
"Let's all agree that you both look as bad as you can," said Betty crossly, for the strain of a sleepless night was beginning to tell. "It would be a relief to know the worst, anyway."
"Oh, for goodness' sake, Betty, don't youbegin to disturb the peace, too," Amy broke in sleepily. "It was bad enough before with Grace and Mollie always at swords' points, but if you begin it, I don't know what I shall do."
Amy's despair was so comical that the girls had to laugh in spite of themselves. As if at a signal, the sun broke through the heavy mist that had risen over night and flooded the room with golden beams. Somehow the world suddenly seemed a better and a happier place to live in, and the girls' spirits rose like mercury.
"Do you suppose Mrs. Irving will really want to go?" Amy asked, as they finished dressing. "She seemed eager enough last night, but she may have changed her mind by this time."
"I don't think so," said Betty. "She is as game as we are for things like that."
"Yes, and she is feeling better now," said gentle little Amy.
The boys called for them bright and early. It seemed that they, also, had spent a rather restless night, and were glad of the sunshine and warmth of the morning.
The party started off in high spirits to find the cave and solve its mysteries. Mrs. Irving was with them, for, as Betty had said, she was a game little person and in for a good time whenever one could be found.
"Suppose we can't find the place?" it was Grace who voiced the thought that had been secretly troubling them all. "Betty just found it by accident yesterday."
"Don't cross bridges till you come to them, Grace," Frank admonished her. "We'll find it, all right, if we have to cover every square inch of the island."
"I vote that we let Allen and Betty take the lead," Roy suggested. "They know more about it than we do—or at least they ought to."
"What's that?" asked Betty, who had been deep in a conversation with Amy. "Who's talking about me now?"
"They are shifting the responsibility to our shoulders, that's all," Allen explained. "Roy says because we found the cave in the first place, it's sort of up to us not to disappoint them now."
"You may be sure we'll do our best," said the Little Captain, with her whimsical smile, "since we'd be disappointing ourselves at the same time."
"Wasn't it somewhere about here, Allen?" asked Mollie, pointing into the woods. "The place looks familiar."
"I don't think so," said Allen, puzzled. "Betty and I noticed a big tree that was almost directly on a line with the cave, but I don't see it to-day. I wonder——"
"It's a little farther ahead, I think, Allen," Betty volunteered, trying to force conviction into her tone. "I'm sure we haven't passed it."
"Well, I'm not," said Mollie, abruptly. "I'm positive I saw the bushes where we hid yesterday quite a distance down the road."
"Well, why on earth didn't you say so," Grace demanded, "instead of letting us wander on ahead?"
"Well, I wasn't sure," Mollie retorted. "And besides, I thought Betty and Allen knew what they were doing——"
"Sh-h!" warned Mrs. Irving. "There's nothing to get excited about. We all want to find the cave, and we are all going to do our best to find it. Remember, we are equally interested."
"Well, but it's very strange that we can't locate that tree," said the Little Captain, a troubled frown on her forehead. "Allen and I were so particular about it yesterday."
"Well, we surely won't accomplish anything by standing here," said Will, a shade impatiently. "Let's travel ahead a little—it seems to me it was farther on."
So they started again, troubled and perplexed and scanning every step of the way. Half an hour later they halted for another conference. The tree was nowhere to be found—neither wasthe cave. It seemed as if their adventure of the day before had been a dream which had faded and vanished into thin air with the advent of the morning.
"Every place we look at seems to be it, and then it isn't," wailed Amy.
"That's fine English, I must say," Will teased. "Where did you go to school?"
"Oh, for goodness' sake, let her English alone, Will!" Grace admonished. "It isn'tthatwe're interested in just at present. Oh, where has the old thing gone to?"
"I guess it never was," Roy replied gloomily. "We just imagined it."
"Imagined it!" sniffed Betty. "If I thought I had an imagination like that I'd write books or something."
"I wish I knew what the something stood for," said Frank, laughing at her. "It must be good."
"I imagine it would be," said Betty, laughing back at him, "if I only knew myself."
"Stop fooling, you two, and help us think of something," Mollie demanded. "We can't stand here and admire the view all day."
"What would you suggest?" Frank asked politely. "We are willing to give weighty consideration to anything you say."
Mollie looked weakly about her for support."Grace, can't you do anything with him?" she pleaded. "He does nothing but talk nonsense all day long."
"And just after he's paid you a compliment," Grace drawled. "I wonder you call that nonsense."
Mollie had opened her mouth for a stinging rejoinder, but before she could voice it there came a disturbance from a new and unexpected quarter. The bushes parted and two figures emerged—a young man and a girl.
Astonishment held the little group motionless, but the strangers, or so they appeared, stepped forward impulsively.
"It's no wonder you don't remember me," said the girl impulsively, "since I was dressed very differently when you last saw me. I am Anita Benton—the girl you rescued the other day."
As usual, Betty was the first to find her voice. "Oh, weareglad to see you!" she said warmly. "We were wondering when you and your brother were coming to pay us that promised visit."
"Oh, we would have been here long ago, but, you see, I was rather, well—shaken up," Anita explained, with a merry little laugh that made the girls warm to her at once. "Conway could hardly wait to come to tell you all how gratefulhe was—and is," she added, with a quaint little sideways glance in the direction of her tall brother.
"Anita's right. I almost came alone when I found she was inconsiderate enough to get sick," said Conway, who had been regarding the scene with lively interest. "You see, I never knew before what it was to almost lose a small sister."
"He speaks as if he had any number of them," cried Anita, gaily; and one could see at a glance the perfect understanding and union between the two. "But, really, this is the very first day I have been able to walk any distance at all, so Con and I thought we'd take advantage of it."
"Well, we are mighty glad you did," said Roy heartily, and Mollie glanced at him sideways. "I wonder if you two could help us solve a riddle," he added. "We had just about given it up for a bad job when you came along."
"What is it?" asked the girl eagerly. "I love riddles."
"Don't let him get your hopes raised," Betty warned. "It isn't a riddle at all. The thing is, we found a cave yesterday, and to-day it has simply vanished, disappeared, gone up in smoke."
"A cave?" said Conway, interestedly. "A cave around here? Why, I never heard of any."
"Well, we are beginning to think thatwedreamed it," said Allen, pessimistically. "The only strange thing about it is that we all should dream the same thing."
"But please tell me what you mean," begged Anita. "Caves are even better than riddles. Why did you say you dreamed it?"
There could be no escaping this emphatic young person—that they realized—so Allen started to explain. When he had finished the two visitors were almost, if not quite, as excited as the Outdoor Girls and their boy chums had been.
"You think it was somewhere about here, don't you?" Anita asked. "It ought to be easy enough to find."
"That's what we thought before we started," said Grace, "but after you have been hunting for an hour or two you begin to realize your mistake. I vote we do something else."
"Grace! And leave the cave?" Amy cried, amazed at her friend's lack of romantic fervor.
"Why not?" said Grace. "It won't run away. Besides, I guess everybody's forgotten this is the day we set for the race."
They stared at one another dumbfounded. It was as Grace had said—this was the day they had decided on for the race and they had forgotten all about it. Had ever such a thing happenedbefore in the annals of history? If so, they could not remember it.
"A race?" demanded Anita. "What race?"
Betty looked at her dazedly. "What race?" she repeated. "Why,therace, of course. Oh, I beg your pardon—I forgot you didn't know. The fact is, we have been planning a swimming race for—oh, ever so long—and now this gypsy-cave business put it clear out of our heads. Oh! how could we have forgotten it?"
"Well, it isn't too late yet," said Will, practically. "That is, if you aren't too set on finding this elusive cave to do anything else."
"Oh, that's safe enough where it is," said Allen. "If we can't find it, it's a pretty safe bet that nobody else can."
"I vote we get into our bathing suits just as fast as we can," said Frank. "That is, if our visitors don't mind seeing a crazy race," he added, half-apologetically; for he remembered his manners just in the nick of time.
"There's nothing we would like better," Conway assured him heartily. "And I don't think it will be crazy, either, from the way you fellows demonstrated your swimming ability the other day."
"Oh, it would be all right if we fellows could be in it alone," said Roy, wickedly. "But, yousee, the girls have a mistaken idea they can swim, too, and so, just to encourage them, we have let them in on it."
"Let them in on it, indeed!" sniffed Betty. "If I remember correctly, we were the first to propose the race. That doesn't look as if we were particularly afraid of getting beaten."
"Sheer nerve, that's all," said Frank, snapping his fingers with an air of superiority.
"We don't need to talk," said Mollie; "we willshowyou what we can do."
"All right, we're from Missouri," Will announced, cheerily. "All we want is to be shown."
By this time they were well on their way to the bungalow, and now the subject of the cave was overshadowed by the excitement of the approaching race.
As the young people neared "The Shadows" their excitement grew, and when at last they reached the house the girls fairly flew up the stairs, dragging Anita with them, Conway going with the boys, of course.
"Don't you want a suit?" Betty inquired of her visitor, pausing in the act of slipping her skirt over her head. "I brought an old one in case of emergency that I think would fit you."
Anita shook her head. "Thanks just thesame," she said. "But the doctor says I mustn't think of swimming for some time."
"It's pretty hard luck," said Mollie, sympathetically, "to have to stay out of the water on days like this. Say, girls, do you think we have a chance in the world of even keeping up with the boys?" she asked, anxious, now that the moment of the test had come.
"Why, of course we can," said Betty, pretending a confidence she did not feel. "Especially if the boys give us the heavy handicap we agreed on. I didn't want them to, but I guess it may come in handy."
"Well, are you ready?" cried Mollie, jumping up. "I am. Come on, girls, let's show them something!" and she was off down the stairs with the others close behind.