“oh, stop the car, miss alling, please!” cried jessie, on impulse, and automatically miss alling responded.
the car slowed to a standstill before the store upon the porch of which amy had seen the strange girl.
“she is gone, worst luck!” cried amy, as she opened the car door and leaped to the ground. “did you see the look she gave me, jess?” she added, as her chum followed her and together they approached the store. “just one long stare, and then the disappearing act.”
“oh, hush,” cautioned jessie, as she laid a hand upon the crazily-swung screen door at the entrance to the store. “she may be just inside, and we don’t want her to know we are talking about her.”
but the strange girl was not within, as jessie and amy soon found out, and a guarded questioning of the languid storekeeper brought forth no information as to her whereabouts.
there was a door at the rear of the store, and to this amy ran, opening it and peering out into the littered yard. jessie followed more slowly, for she had no desire to arouse either the curiosity or the suspicion of the sleepy-eyed storekeeper.
back of the small cleared space that served for a back yard and which was crammed with old packing boxes and rubbish of all kinds, was a vegetable garden and beyond that, the woods. if the strange girl had fled in this direction there would be scant chance of finding her.
disappointed, the girls turned away and jessie stopped to buy a box of crackers and some sorry-looking candy from the man behind the counter, who seemed as if about to be shocked into wakefulness by their peculiar actions.
“there was a stairway going up from the back of that store. i saw it,” amy said in a low tone to her chum, as they returned to their curious companions. “if that isn’t the way that girl disappeared, then i am no good as a detective.”
“we could hardly have gone up those stairs without being arrested for housebreaking,” jessie argued reasonably, but amy shook her head.
“i would be almost willing to risk spending a night in the county jail for the pleasure of talking to that girl again,” she said.
nell and the three boys greeted them with curious questions when they returned and listened with interest when they told of their fruitless search for the girl who had passed the counterfeit bill.
darry was obviously excited and upset, and asked them so many questions that amy finally snapped out at him with:
“for goodness’ sake, darry, we have told you all we know about four times over. now, if you want to find out anything else, you will have to turn sleuth yourself.”
“i intend to,” retorted darry, with decision adding, as he turned toward the store: “excuse me for a few minutes, folks. i have a consuming curiosity to talk with the owner of this place.”
the girls and boys looked after him until he had disappeared within the store, then exchanged curious glances.
“darry sure seems all ‘het up’ over this girl,” remarked burd, with a chuckle. “never knew him to take so much interest in a stranger before.”
“maybe he is in with the gang of counterfeiters,” suggested fol, grinning, “and is afraid this mysterious young thing may give him away.”
“here comes darry now. let him speak for himself,” said amy.
but darry seemed to have no intention of speaking for himself or for any one else. he looked as black as a thundercloud as he flung down the steps, and had hardly a word to say in answer to their eager questions.
“i found out a good many things that don’t help me any,” he said, taking burd and fol by the arm and heading them back toward the roadster. “let’s get started. something tells me we are wasting more time than is necessary.”
the only one who agreed with him was miss alling. mildly interested in the account of the counterfeit bill and the girl who had passed it, aunt emma was much more vitally concerned with the passage of time and that stretch of mountain road that they would have to cover at the end of their journey.
so as darry herded the boys into the roadster she stepped on the starter and jessie and amy had no alternative but to climb hastily into the car before she released the brake and threw in the clutch.
amy looked regretfully at the blank face of the store as they moved away.
“i have an idea there are just slathers of mystery surrounding that girl, jess,” she said, in a low tone. “i hate to go away and leave it all unsolved.”
“perhaps we can come back here some day before long,” remarked jessie, absently. her mind was busy with the problem of darry and his strange behavior. “gibbonsville can’t be such a very long drive from forest lodge.”
“humph, by the time we get back here that girl will have had a dozen chances to escape.”
“provided she wants to escape,” said jessie, thoughtfully, and her chum looked at her in surprise.
“why, of course she wants to escape! isn’t she a counterfeiter?”
“i don’t know that and neither do you,” retorted jessie, to the further mystification of her friend.
“but she gave me a counterfeit bill!” amy protested, with exasperation. “you saw her do it.”
“that doesn’t prove that she was dishonest,” returned jessie, earnestly, “any more than it’s proof that you are dishonest because you happen to have a counterfeit bill in your possession.”
“what are you two girls fighting about?” asked nell, half-turning in her seat. “i feel as though i were missing all the fun.”
“we aren’t fighting,” laughed amy. “we are only calling each other names.”
“as though that weren’t the same thing!” retorted nell. after a moment she added, curiously: “what do you suppose made darry act the way he did? does he know that girl, amy?”
“don’t ask me! did you ever hear of a brother telling his sister anything?” returned amy, in an aggrieved tone that betrayed the fact that she, like jessie, had attempted to “pump” darry on the subject of the strange girl and failed. “i suppose, like belle ringold, he thinks me a mere child and not worthy of his confidences,” she added flippantly.
as they climbed farther up into the hills and the scenery became wilder and more picturesque, miss alling became expansive, recounting stories of people who lived in that locality and telling amusing anecdotes of her own experiences that kept the girls in gales of merriment.
it seemed only a short time to them before they turned off the main highway and entered the rough and narrow mountain road. in spite of the discomfort of that last part of the journey, the girls thoroughly enjoyed it.
aunt emma, intent upon her driving, relapsed once more into silence. indeed, there were some spots along that road where she needed every atom of skill she possessed. at one point the narrow road hugged close to the side of the mountain while to the left of them the ground dropped sharply downward, disclosing a ravine some hundred feet in depth.
“good it isn’t raining,” said amy, as the car crawled cautiously along the perilous strip of road. “one skid, and we would be but a dim, faint memory. look behind you, will you, jess, dear, and see if the boys are still right side up?”
jessie obeyed and reported that darry was being cautious for once in his life.
at last they descended from the narrow road to one that led straight through the heart of the forest. ahead of them through the trees the girls presently caught a glimpse of rippling water.
“lake towako,” announced nell, joyfully. “doesn’t it look pretty?”
“it is pretty,” said miss alling, with conviction. “and my lodge commands a view of the prettiest part of it. there is the house to the right of us. thank fortune we reached it before dark.”
the girls saw a long, low, rambling building with many windows and an air of rusticity that was delightfully in keeping with the surroundings.
the front windows commanded a full view of the lake, which was charming with its irregular shore line and picturesque, verdure-clad islands.
a small dock jutted out into the water, and close by were racks bearing several bright-colored canoes. beside the dock, bobbing gently on the serene water, were two rowboats.
“i can see where we don’t spend much time on land,” said amy, as miss alling turned in back of the lodge and silenced the motor. “i feel the call of those canoes already.”
“lake towako will be here to-morrow, and so will the canoes,” aunt emma reminded her, smiling. “i imagine we shall have enough to do to-night just to put the rooms in order. i wired phrosy to come down here, but the deserted condition of the house leads me to believe that phrosy has failed me.”
“who is phrosy?” jessie asked, but at that moment the door at the rear of the house opened and the entire breadth of the doorway was blocked by a towering black figure.
“phrosy, why didn’t you come out to meet us?” asked her mistress, severely. “i thought you had not come.”
“ah begs yo’ pardon, miss alling, i sho’ does,” said the big black woman in a rich and mellow voice. “but ah done think you was de ghosts fo’ sure.”
“ghosts!” cried the girls, and phrosy turned her solemn visage upon them.
“dey comes f’om dat swamp,” she said, and pointed with a shaking finger. “dey does, as sho’ as ah lives.”
