Part 7 (1/2)
”Of course not!” declared Bess indignantly. A look pa.s.sed from her to Cora, from Cora to Belle-and that was all.
”That's right!” chimed in Walter. ”Don't let a little thing like that scare you away. We'll get at the bottom of this mystery.”
”When do you plan to go?” asked Cora of her brother.
”As soon as Wally can get his new suit that he's ordered from that n.o.bby tailor.”
”Don't you believe him,” cried Walter, thumping his chum on the back.
”I'm as ready as he is. He's waiting for one of those sport s.h.i.+rts--”
”Go on! I wouldn't wear one!”
”Well, make up your minds, and we'll all go together,” urged Cora. ”We can go up in the motor boat as far as possible, and take buckboards the rest of the way. We'd like to have you boys on hand when we begin the investigation of Camp Surprise.”
”Oh, ho! Afraid?” laughed Walter. ”I thought there was a mouse in the woodpile somewhere, Jack, my boy!”
”Nothing of the sort!” came from Cora. ”Besides, you're thinking of the mouse and the lion. 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.
”Well, it would be a pity to disappoint you,” Walter declared. ”We'll go when they do, Jack. But-whisper-they'll be more than a week yet. I know girls.”
”You only _think_ you do,” mocked Cora. ”We'll be ready before you are.”
Then they began to talk seriously and plan for their summer outing. It was not the first time they had been away together, the boys and girls often going to the same resort and occupying adjacent bungalows or cottages. In this way they divided such work as there was, and multiplied the possible good times.
Mrs. Kimball was to go to the Thousand Islands with her sister, which left Jack and Cora free to do as they pleased. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson would, as usual, occupy their seash.o.r.e cottage, but Bess and Belle would not join them there until later in the season, going first to Camp Surprise with Cora.
”Well, now it's all settled,” declared Cora, after a season of talk.
”We'll go to Camp Surprise two weeks from to-day. I'll tell mother, and have her write to Mrs. Floyd to have everything in readiness.”
”Even the ghosts?” demanded Walter.
”Even the ghosts,” agreed Cora, accepting the implied challenge.
”Good!” cried Jack.
A few days after this the three girls, all of whom belonged to a church home mission society, went to take some medicine and food to an old woman who was one that the society looked after. This dependent lived some distance out of Cheerful Chelton, and the Robinson twins brought their car in which to carry the baskets of food.
They had done their little errand of mercy and on the way back Cora proposed that they stop at Ye Olde Spinning Wheel for some tea or ice cream, as the girls preferred.