Part 30 (1/2)

”Did you not say that our equipment was perfectly safe here?” demanded Miss Elting, turning sharply on the guide.

”I--I thought it was, Miss.”

”Then how do you explain this?” she asked with a comprehensive wave of the hand.

”I don't explain it. I swum! I don't know what to think about it. I wish I could get my hands on the scoundrel.”

Miss Elting sat down to think. ”It is plain that we have been followed into the mountains. The man whom Hazel saw at the 'Slide' undoubtedly is the one who has been causing us all the trouble. He may have been hovering about us all the time, we knowing nothing about it. I am afraid we aren't very clever, girls. We have allowed our enemy to outwit us.”

”I don't believe he has, Miss Elting,” replied Harriet. ”If so, he has been watching us from a distance. We surely should have discovered if the man had come close to our camp.”

”It must have been the man that Hazel saw, and I believe he was the one who dropped the green goggles,” was Harriet's emphatic declaration. ”I wonder what his grievance is?”

”All our stuff gone; we'll have to go back, won't we?” mourned Margery.

”We have our luggage, but that is some distance from here,” replied the guardian. ”How long will it take us to get to our supplies, Mr. Grubb?”

”A day, or a day and a half, I reckon.”

”Then we had better go for them to-morrow morning. We can do nothing more this evening. But--what are we to do for food?”

”We have a little. We have some coffee and a spoonful of rice. That's enough. We can live another twenty-four hours or so on that. I'll fix up something now. Maybe there's something in a cache back of the hut.

I'll see.” To their delight, Ja.n.u.s returned, not long after that, with a small sack of flour and one of corn meal. It did not take the girls long to start a fire in the small cook stove. They threw open the windows, the ”Shelter” warming up very quickly.

The girls began work at once, Ja.n.u.s showing them how to make the kind of corn cakes that are popular with the mountain guides in the White Mountain range. All the time Harriet Burrell was thinking intently over their situation and the loss of the supplies. She was considering the perplexing problems from different viewpoints, with a view toward solving them.

”What did the thief do with our supplies?” she demanded, turning to the guide.

”Probably took them away with him. That's the way thieves usually do.

Otherwise, what's the use in stealing?”

”I don't think so, sir. I do not believe this thief took the stuff because he wanted it, but rather to make you trouble.”

”Maybe, maybe. It's all the same thing.”

”Oh, no, sir; it isn't, not if he did not carry the stuff away with him. If he did not carry it away with him, what could he have done with it?” She regarded Mr. Grubb inquiringly.

”I swum! I don't know,” declared Ja.n.u.s, looking deeply puzzled.

”Nor do I, but I propose to find out. Is there such a thing as a lantern here, Mr. Grubb?”

He shook his head. ”Better leave off everything else till we get some food. There's the coffee pot on the steps outside, where I put it, but the cream is all gone. We'll have to drink our coffee black.”

”Yeth, and thtay awake all night,” averred Tommy. ”But we don't care.

We are used to thtaying awake all night, aren't we, Jane?”

”Yes, darlin', we are,” agreed Jane brightly. ”But I'm wis.h.i.+ng I might lay violent hands on the rogue who took our belongings. Where is that Mr. Sheriff for whom you sent to come and catch our friend of the green goggles and the black whiskers, Mr. Grubb?”

”He'll be along in good time,” replied the guide, stroking his own whiskers while regarding with squinting eyes the progress of the supper under the deft fingers of the Meadow-Brook Girls. ”Here! Let me do that. I reckon I can be finis.h.i.+ng the supper while you young ladies get ready. There's a barrel of rain water just back of the hut where you can wash. You look as though you needed it--no offense intended.”

A merry laugh greeted the words of Ja.n.u.s Grubb. The girls agreed that they _did_ need it. Their clothing was not in very good condition, either, but nothing could be done with the garments until they reached a spot where they could change them for fresh apparel. The girls ran out laughing, and a moment later were heard splas.h.i.+ng in the rain barrel. They came in with dripping faces to get their towels, then, running out again, rubbed their faces until their cheeks glowed underneath their tan. Tommy's freckles were now more p.r.o.nounced than ever, but her usually pale face wore a healthy look and her eyes were bright and sparkling.