Margaret Penrose

“ Cora jumped up so suddenly that she disturbed Bess who was leaning against her.
“That’s it! That’s it!” Cora cried. “I wonder we didn’t think of it before. That surely is it!”
“What is?” eagerly demanded Belle. “You are talking in riddles.”
“This whole affair is a riddle, girls!” exclaimed Cora. “But what Hazel said gave me an idea. That cement wall seems solid, but it can’t be. If it were no one could pass. So it must be made to look solid to deceive those not in the secret. Probably it is a balanced stone like the ones you read of in stories of the cave dwellers. ”

“ Old Jason will get even! I’ll let the girls out of the cave, and tell them the whole story! I’ll let the girls out of the secret room in the cave!”
Jack had been in two minds whether to advance and speak to the old man, or follow the fleeing ones, but as he heard these words he knew something else now called for his attention.
“The girls in the cave!” he murmured. “It must be Cora and the others he means. They must have gone into the cave while we were in town. I’ve got to rescue them. Let the men go! I must help the girls.”
Catching up his lantern, Jack dashed back into the dark cavern. ”

“ Cora trained it on the bank. Looking through the rain-covered windows of the cabin the girls, and their boy guests, saw a water-soaked bank, covered with bushes and rushes. It was dusk now.
“That doesn’t look like Riverhead,” commented Jack.
“More like river-end,” said Paul. “Where in the world are we?”
“Don’t ask me!” exclaimed Cora, a trifle nervously. “I’m sure I did the best I could in the mist.”
“Of course you did, Sis,” said her brother soothingly. “It isn’t any one’s fault. We’re all right. ”

“ Then there’s that—oh, what do they call that light which comes from rotting wood?”
“You mean ignis fatuus?” asked Belle.
“Yes; that’s it. Will-o’-the-wisp some folks term it. It comes from phosphorus. It may have been that.”
They went on a little farther, and suddenly a light shone through the woods, while a dull rumble and roar, increasing in intensity, came to the ears of all.
“What’s that?” asked Jack.
“Camp Surprise,” announced the driver. “That’s the waterfall you hear. Here we be!” he called in louder tones, as an approaching lantern flashed through the dark forest. ”

“ Every one in the room was sure the noise had come from under the floor.
“But how could it?” asked Walter. “There’s no cellar to the bungalow; is there?”
“None that I ever heard of,” said Mr. Floyd. “I didn’t live here when the bungalow was built, but I’ve always understood it had no cellar.”
“It hasn’t,” Cora affirmed. “At least none that you can find. There are no cellar stairs and the place seems to rest on piles.”
“But the noise came from down there,” and Jack pointed to the floor. “The only way to find out is to take up the boards. May we, Mr. Floyd?” ”

“ While Cora and her chums were prisoners of the old man and his imbecile son.
Walter and Paul reached the outer end of the cave without incident, and just without the wooden shack found Cora’s car standing unguarded and well-laden with packages and some small bits of machinery.
“Caught with the goods!” chuckled Paul. “This game is coming right into our hands now. What shall we do?”
“Drive the car as near to the bungalow as we can,” decided Walter. “The girls will be anxious about us, anyhow. We can leave the car with Mr. Floyd and then come back to Jack.” ”

“ Jack looked out to see the two men he and his chums had observed before, with a third one, start for the wooded slope of the mountain. Then he saw the old man and the half-witted helper.
“Wait—wait for me!” pleaded the aged one. “I can’t run fast, I’m all crippled with rheumatism! Wait!”
“We can’t wait. Look out for yourself,” one man flung back unfeelingly over his shoulder. “It’s every one for himself.” ”

“ Human legs, even those of an ambitious youth, are no match for an automobile. But as Jack slackened his pace he saw something which caused him to run forward again. For a bundle had been dropped from Cora’s car, and the men did not stop to pick it up. ”

“ Floyd, as she went to the upper story with the girls.
“Do you mean to say they actually have upset the things in the bedrooms?” asked Belle.
“Sometimes,” replied the caretaker. “Though that hasn’t happened of late.”
“Oh, dear!” sighed the slim girl. “I did hope we would be safe from them up here.”
“Oh, they never come—that is, things never happen—when any one is in the house,” Mrs. Floyd hastened to add. “It’s always when the place is left to itself.”
“Then the—er—well, call it ghost, for want of a better name,” said Jack—“then the ghost must keep watch to know when we go out.” ”

“ Cora said, “for if the noise had been in our bungalow the boys couldn’t have heard it in theirs.”
“I don’t see how they could,” Belle agreed.
“But, all the same, I’m going to have some way of calling to Jack and the others without screaming our lungs out,” declared Cora. “It’s only right to be able to summon them if we want them. One of us might become ill, and they’d have to go for the doctor. I’d rather call Jack than Mr. Floyd.” ”

“ Queer how mothers can let them.”
“Probably the mother didn’t know a thing about it,” said Bess, who had discovered that she was the sole cause of the needless alarm in regard to the horn’s blast. “One can’t be always on the lookout.”
“Don’t start a discussion,” begged Cora, as a backward glance showed some signs of Belle’s stirring up sufficiently to refute her sister’s remarks. “It’s too hot.”
“It is when you slow down,” observed Bess. “But the breeze is perfectly fascinating when you keep the car moving, Cora.” ”

“ We haven’t gone off it.”
“That’s so,” chimed in Paul. “We’re still on the path, and it must lead somewhere.”
“Perhaps it’s a cow-path,” suggested Bess. “It’s narrow enough for one.” 132
“Well, even a cow-path leads somewhere,” said Hazel. “We’ll end up at a stable.”
“Or a dairy,” added Jack. “Some bread and milk won’t go bad if we miss our supper.”
“Oh, we won’t miss it,” declared Walter. “We’re bound to end up somewhere, and even if we come out a mile or more from our camp. And if we see a house, we can hire a farmer to drive us over, if we’re too tired to walk.” ”

“ There are counterweights, just as in a window, which makes the heaviest rock move easily. I’m sure that’s what is in the passage—a balanced rock doorway. And there won’t be any need of tearing the wall down at all!”
“It sounds like a detective story,” commented Bess.
“It may turn out to be one before we’re through,” Cora said.
“Oh, dear! Why don’t those boys hurry back?” cried Belle for perhaps the tenth time. “Let’s go out and look down the road to see if they are coming.”
The girls went out, too anxious and too eager to sit still, but they had no sight of Jack and his chums. ”

“ It is an African gentleman of color who makes the woodpile his habitation.”
“That’s right,” admitted Walter. “I never was very good at dates anyhow.”
“Fig paste is more to your liking. Have a chocolate,” urged Bess.
“We want you along to bear testimony when we have routed out the mischief-makers,” said Cora, after the laughter had subsided. “Your bungalow is near ours, and we can call to you to come and hold the disturbers when we capture them.”
“Is that what you’re going to do?” asked Jack.
“Certainly,” returned Belle, as if the girls had never hesitated. ”

“ But sometimes we had to work on a rush order when you were on hand.”
“Then is when we heard the noise,” said Jack.
“But who upset the furniture, and took our things?” asked Cora. 241
“Oh, that was Bombee,” said the old man. “I could not always watch him, and he would slip away, open the secret door of the passage and get up into the bungalow through the floor. He is very mischievous, but gentle. He likes to upset chairs and tables. He used to do that trick, among others, in a theatre where he used to show as a human ape. He didn’t look unlike an ape, you see.” ”

“ To it they brought their machinery and began issuing tickets, Jason, aided by the half-witted Bombee, doing the printing, while the others distributed the product. It was the rumble and clank of the gasoline engine and presses that made the queer trembling sounds heard by the girls and boys. The rocky cave acted as a sort of telephone, or sound box, and sometimes the noises would be louder than others. The fact that the engine stood on a strata of rock upon which the bungalow was constructed accounted for the trembling and vibration of the building. ”

“ I’m getting tired of it anyhow. Being a criminal doesn’t pay. I’ll give up. Come on back and I’ll let out the girls. I’m sorry I locked them in, but I thought there was a chance to escape. I didn’t hurt them.”
“Girls! What girls?” gasped Walter.
“Well, I guess likely they’re of your party—from the bungalow,” said the old man, from whom all the spirit of rage and fighting seemed to have gone. “They’re in the secret room of the cave. Come on, Bombee, we’ll let them out.”
Wondering what it all meant, Walter and Paul followed the old man back into the cave. ”

“ Once the tickets were printed, they had to distribute them over a wide territory. Boys, I think we’ve discovered a daring band of ticket-counterfeiters.”
“But where do they do their work—their printing?” asked Walter.
“Why not in the cave?” asked Jack. “It would be the most natural place around here.”
“What’s the matter with looking in that shack where the auto came from?” asked Paul, nodding back toward the field against a hill in which the shed was built.
“I was going to suggest that,” Jack went on. “Perhaps that is another entrance to the same cave Cora found. ”

“ Cora said. “You can trace my car in the dust, Jack, by the tire-marks. There’s a big patch, where it was vulcanized. It’s on the right forward wheel, and it makes a mark like a big Z. Look for it.”
“I will, Sis. But there isn’t much chance. Too many cars pass along this road to let the dust-marks of any particular one stay in sight long. But we’ll do the best we can.”
Jack backed and turned his car around, and was soon off down the road in a clatter of exhausts, while the three girls went back to Ye Olde Spinning Wheel. ”

“ Why should those men run away just because we hailed them? They don’t know us—that is, they haven’t any reason to suppose we represent the girl whose auto was taken. They have never seen us.”
“And they didn’t have a chance to get a good look at Cora and the other girls, even supposing they are the thieves who took the auto. According to what Belle says, the men didn’t once look around as they got into the car and drove off.
“Though they must have been hanging around the Spinning Wheel for some time to have disposed of the tickets,” said Walter. ”

“ Up in the mountains are a number of camps, cottages, bungalows—what you like—which belong to a development company. The bungalows and camps are rented, furnished, to whoever wants them. Camp Surprise, where we shall have a good-sized bungalow to live in, is one of the best of these resorts. It is about five miles in from the Towanda river, which is what the Chelton is called up state, and it was going up the river that I planned to use the motor boat. ”

“ 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 girls don’t exactly need any beauty sleep,” and she beamed at the four pretty faces that smiled back at her, “but you must have been tired after your trip. I don’t in the least mind.”
“You’ll find us quite energetic after this,” predicted Belle. “That is all but my sister, and you see she is——”
“Belle Robinson! If you talk about me that way I’ll—I’ll—— Oh! why do you all poke fun at me?” and Bess seemed quite distressed.
“I won’t any more,” promised Belle. “She is trying to ‘reduce’” she added to Mrs. Floyd, “so let her do all the work she wants to. We shan’t stop her.” ”

“ The girls had not left it all to the authorities to find the missing automobile. They had made diligent inquiries themselves on all roads leading out of Chelton and in the vicinity of the tea room. Nor had the boys been idle. Paul Hastings arrived in town on business connected with the automobile concern by which he was employed, and he, Jack and Walter, made it their business to scurry around in Jack’s car, looking for clews.
But the slender ones they found proved unavailing. Automobiles are all too common to attract attention unless there is something unusual about them. ”

“ That crash, however, seemed to be the culmination of the outburst, for from then on the rain began to slacken, and the thunder died away in muttered rumblings and the lightning became paler and paler until it was only a faint, shimmering light. ”

“ Though not far removed from one another the dwelling places were off by themselves, giving a seclusion so often demanded by those who go to summer resorts.
At present, as the season had hardly opened, there were no other visitors at Camp Surprise, though many were expected later in July and August. Camp Surprise was not the real name of the place, which was called by the development company, Mountain View. But Camp Surprise had been applied because of the queer happenings, as has been intimated, though so far our friends had seen no occasion for such appellation. ”

“ He wouldn’t know we were in the tea room until he came up close, and then there wouldn’t have been time to run his car back.”
“You can’t tell what they would do,” said Cora. “Come on, we’ll walk as far as the turn in the road, and see what’s down there.”
“Hadn’t you better report your loss to the proprietor of the tea room?” suggested Belle. “He might send a man out to look for the machine.”
“I don’t want to make too much fuss if it was Jack and Walter,” Cora objected. “Let’s take a look ourselves first.”
The girls hurried down the road, all their drowsiness gone now. ”