Chapter XX: More Happenings

Walter considered the matter rather judicially before answering. Then he gave as his decision:

"No, I can't say that I do. It is, perhaps, only a coincidence that your automobile and your flashlight should have been taken. I dare say that had it been a light belonging to any one else it would have disappeared just the same."

"You mean that they--the mysterious They--would have taken the light, no matter to whom it belonged?" asked Jack.

"Exactly! It was a case of wanting a light and taking it."

"But how did they get in to take it?" asked Paul. "There's no sign of anything having been broken; is there--no doors or windows?"

"We didn't look," Cora said.

"Then that's what we'd better do," Jack suggested.

But an examination did not show that any means had been used to force a passage from without. The windows were provided with screens which fastened from within in such a way that force would have to be exerted to slip them. And this had not been done. Nor had the door been tampered with.

"There's only one way to account for it," said Walter, "and that is on the theory that the Surprisers, Ghosts, They--whatever you choose to call them--used skeleton keys. And they must be professional burglars, or they would have made noise enough to have aroused you girls. You didn't hear anything; did you?"

Not one had heard a sound.

"But if they were professional thieves wouldn't they have taken something else besides a flashlight?" asked Jack. "There's plenty of other things they might have picked up."

This was true enough, for the girls had left many of their more or less valuable belongings downstairs. But none of them had been taken.

"Perhaps they just needed Cora's light to help them in some of their other surprise visits," suggested Bess. "Isn't it most delightfully mystifying?"

"I don't know that I find it especially so," retorted Belle, with a quick glance over her shoulder. "It's getting on my nerves."

"Well, you can quit and go away when you want to," suggested her sister.

"Never!" cried Cora. "We're not going to desert in the face of danger; are we, Belle?"

The slim twin hesitated a moment, and then answered, but not very decidedly:

"No."

"I knew you wouldn't," said Jack's sister. "We Motor Girls aren't cowards."

"We give you credit for that," declared Walter.

In spite of the brave front of Cora and her chums, the happenings at Camp Surprise were getting on their nerves. The boys, true to their promise, began to plan to do their own cooking; but in view of the fact that the oftener they were in the girls' bungalow the better Cora and her chums liked it, it was decided to have the boys take all their meals with the girls. Jack, Walter and Paul would merely sleep in the smaller building, where they were in close call by means of the telephone.

For the next two days nothing happened. No more articles were missed, and the furniture remained where it was put. Then came two or three days when our friends were off on long picnics, remaining all day, leaving Mr. and Mrs. Floyd in charge. Nor on these occasions did anything happen. The bungalow was as peaceful when they returned as when they left.

"I guess it's all over," said Cora, when nearly a week had passed, and there had been no more manifestations. "It was a flashlight they were looking for all the while, and, now that they have it, they are satisfied."

"It might be," admitted Belle. "I hope it is."

There were happy days in the mountains. Sometimes the young folks would wander far afield or through the woods, taking their lunches and staying all day. Again they would go berrying or fishing. And they did not get lost again, for the boys became familiar with the lay of the land. Cora, too, as well as Belle and Bess, got her bearings, and knew how to find the back paths.

Fishing formed a pastime that all enjoyed, for the streams and ponds in Mountain View were private property, and had not been depleted of their finny inhabitants. So fish formed many a dainty dish for the table.

It was one day when Mr. Floyd had gone in to town, and Mrs. Floyd had departed to one of the more distant bungalows to get it in readiness for occupancy, that Cora and her friends again went on a little trip to the small lake which once before they had visited.

"And make sure everything is well locked," Belle advised, as they started away, boys and girls together.

Windows and doors were seen to, though no one had more than a faint suspicion that any unbidden visitors would call. They got back rather early in the afternoon, for a thunder shower was threatening, and as Jack opened the door and looked in the living room, he called out:

"All serene. They haven't been here this time."

"That's good," said Belle. "I guess we've broken the hoodoo."

But when Cora and Hazel went upstairs there came simultaneous cries of surprise from them.

"Oh, Cora!" cried Hazel. "Look at my room!"

"And look at mine!" Cora added.

"What's the matter?" asked Jack from below.

"Everything!" answered his sister. "They've been up here, Jack!"

"Who?"

"The Surprise, of course. Our rooms are all upset."

"Is anything taken?" asked Jack, who, with the others, came up to look at the strange evidences left by the mysterious visitors.

"We can't tell yet," said Cora. "Oh dear! what does it all mean?"

No one answered for a moment, but Belle and Bess looked half-fearfully about, as though even then they might be standing in the presence of some unseen creature.