The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake Part 29

"Oh, Will writes that he and Frank are coming up to camp on the island near us."

"That will be fine!" exclaimed Betty. "When will they get here?"

"Allen can't come up until the week-end," went on Grace. "He has to take some kind of bar examinations. For the-- high jump, I think."

"Silly!" reproved Betty, with a blush.

"But Will told me to tell you specially that Allen is coming," went on Grace. "They can stay a few days."

"It will be fine," cried Mollie. "Any news about the papers, Grace?"

"Not a word, and no trace of Prince."

"That is queer," said Betty. "But we will live in hopes-- that Dodo will be all right, and that the papers will be found."

"Indeed we will," sighed Grace. Mr. Lagg was bowing and smiling behind his counter while the girls were reading their letters.

"What will it be? What will it be? What will it be to-day?

Be pleased to leave an order, before you go away!"

"Really, I don't believe we need a thing," answered Mollie, in answer to this poetical effusion. "We might have---- "

"Some more olives," interrupted Grace. "They are so handy to eat, if you wake up in the night, and can't sleep."

"Shades of Morpheus preserve us!" laughed Mollie. "Olives!"

"Does the ghost keep you awake?" asked the storekeeper.

"Not-- not lately!" answered Betty, truthfully.

"The ghost! The ghost! with clanking chains, It comes out only when-- it rains!"

Thus Amy antic.i.p.ated Mr. Lagg.

"Very good-- very good!" he commended. "I must write that down. Hank Lefferton was over setting eel pots on the island last night, and he said he seen it."

"The ghost?" faltered Betty.

"Yep. Chains and all."

"Well, we didn't," said Aunt Kate, decidedly. "Come along, girls."

They had written some souvenir cards, which they mailed, and again they went sailing about Rainbow Lake.

Several days pa.s.sed. The girls went on little trips, on picnics, cruised about and spent delightful hours in the woods. They thoroughly enjoyed the camp, and the "ghost" did not annoy them. Mollie waited anxiously for news from home, but none came.

Then the boys arrived, with their camping paraphernalia, and in such bubbling good spirits that the girls were infected with them, for they had become rather lonesome of late.

The boys pitched their tent near that of the girls, and many meals were eaten in common. Then one night it happened!

It was late, and after a jolly session-- a marshmallow roast, to be exact-- they had all retired. No one remained awake now, for the girls had become used to their surroundings, and the boys-- Allen included, for he had come up-- were sound sleepers.

There was a crash of underbrush, a series of snorts-- no other word describes them-- and the screaming girls, hastening to their tent flaps, cried:

"The ghost! The ghost!"

"Get after it, fellows!" called Will, as he recognized his sister's voice. "We'll lay this chap-- whoever he is!"

There was a vision of something white, again that rattling of chains, and a plunge into the lake. Then all was still.

CHAPTER XXII

WHAT MOLLIE FOUND

"Did you get-- it?"

Betty hesitated a moment over the question.

Will, Frank and Allen stood just outside the tent of the girls. They had come back from a hurried race after the white object that had again disturbed the slumbers of the campers.

"We only had a glimpse of it," answered Will. "Then it seemed to melt into the water."

"But it was big," said Frank.

"And made lots of noise," added Allen.

"That's just the way it acted before," declared Mollie.

In dressing gowns, warmly wrapped up, and in slippers, the girls were talking through the opened flap of the tent to Grace's brother and his chums.

"Can you imagine what it may be?" asked Aunt Kate. She had been making chocolate-- a seemingly never-failing remedy for night alarms.

"Haven't the least idea," answered Will, "unless it's someone trying to play a so-called practical joke."

"I'd like to get hold of the player," announced Allen. "I'd run him off---- "

"Off the scale," interrupted Betty, with a laugh.

"That's it," conceded Allen. "Are you girls all right?"

"All but our nerves," answered Grace.

The boys made a search in the gloom, but found nothing, and once more quiet settled down. Nor were they disturbed again that night. In the morning they laughed.

"Oh, but it's hot!" exclaimed Mollie during the forenoon, when the question of dinner was being discussed. "I think we might go for a swim. There's a nice sandy beach at the side of our dock."

"Let's!" proposed Grace. The boys had gone off fishing.

Soon the girls were splashing around in the lake, making a pretty picture in their becoming bathing suits, of which they had more use than they had antic.i.p.ated.