"Leave it to us," said Billy Long, grandly. "We'll comb this island with a fine tooth comb----"

"You don't suppose we girls are going to let you fellows do it all, do you?" demanded Laura. "Of course we shall help, Short and Long."

"Aw! you'll tear your frocks and scratch yourself on the vines, and stub your toes and fall down, and make a mess generally," declared Short and Long, loftily. "Better stay here in camp and do your squealing."

"Well! I like that!" quoth Jess, making a dive for the short boy. She was considerably bigger than he, and catching him from the rear she wound her long arms about him and so held him tight.

"Take that back, Short and Long," she commanded, "or I shall hold you prisoner."

Short and Long found he could not get away from Jess, and finally stopped struggling. "I didn't know you thought so much of me, Jess,"

he said, grinning. "But it embarra.s.ses me dreadfully, to have you hug me in public."

"Why!" laughed the big girl, "I'd think no more of hugging you, than I would your brother, Tommy--and _he's_ a dear!"

"You'd think so if you had that kid around all the time," grunted Short and Long, as Jess finally allowed him to wriggle loose. "I think he's more of a terror than he is a dear."

"He takes it from you, then," laughed Bobby.

"Yep," said Lance, grinning, "it runs in Billy's family to be a cut-up--like wooden legs!"

"What's Tommy been doing now?" asked Dorothy Lockwood.

"Why, he is great chums with the kid next door, and they got into mischief of some kind the other day. The other kid's mother told them that if they did such things 'the bad man would get them.' 'Who's the bad man, Tommy?' our Sue asked him, and Tommy says:

"'Don't know. You'll hafter ask Charlie's mother. She's well acquainted with him.'"

"Come on, now!" exclaimed Lance. "Who's going to take the _d.u.c.h.ess_ and go to Elberon Crossing for this bill of goods? We can't all go hunting for robbers."

"I shall stay here to help defend the girls, doncher know," stated Purt, swaggering about the camp. "But any of you fellows can take my boat."

"Spoken like a n.o.bleman, Purt!" declared Chet, laughing. "Come on, now! Let's arrange how we shall sweep the island, from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e."

But first it was agreed that Lance and Reddy should go with the _d.u.c.h.ess_ for the new supply of food for the girls. They set off at once.

The island was a quarter of a mile across at its widest point. Even if the whole party entered on the search they would have difficulty in making so strong a human barrier across the isle that a fugitive in the covert could not escape through the line.

But Chet occasionally had a bright idea as well as his sister. He sent Short and Long--who could climb like a squirrel--to the top of a tall tree on the knoll. From that height he could see every opening in the wood, to the upper point of the island--which was nearly two miles long.

"Now we'll all go and beat up the brush and see if we can start anything bigger than a rabbit," Chet declared. "Spread out and try to push through the woods as straight as possible."

"We girls, too?" cried Nellie.

"Be a sport, Nell, and come along," urged Jess Morse. "We'll be in sight and call of each other all the time."

Which was true enough, as they soon discovered. Lil said it was her turn to help do the camp work. And of course neither Mrs. Morse nor Liz could go.

"Don't you think," Purt asked, seriously, "that one of us ought to remain here and defend--er--the camp?"

"Sure," said Chet, quickly. "We'll leave Art, if you say so. He rather admires Lil, too, Purt."

This made the dude keep still; but he _did_ dislike this "manhunt" in the thick brush of Acorn Island.

After they had gone half a mile or so, and found nothing--not even a trace of anybody else having camped on the island--they all took the situation more cheerfully. They believed whoever had stolen the girls'

food had already departed.

"Some of these fancy city fishermen, like enough," Chet declared, when they all came together at the western point of the island. "See yonder! there are two men in a boat, fishing, now."

"If they were the robbers they would not boldly anchor off there," his sister said.

"True enough, Laura," said Bobby. "I believe that whoever stole from us, is far away now. And everybody who comes to the lake knows that it is forbidden to camp on Acorn Island. The guides all know it."

"How about what Liz says about the man she saw last evening?" demanded Jess. "She says he was a man she knew in Albany."

"She had been talking to me about him," laughed Laura, "and I guess he was in her mind. Why should such a man come and rob our camp?"

"Well! it's a mystery," Chet said. "But I reckon you'll not be bothered again; the island seems empty save for ourselves."

But later they thought that they might have been a little more careful in searching the upper end of Acorn Island.

CHAPTER XIV

"MORE FUN THAN A LITTLE"

The girls were tired enough when they got back from the search; and it being an hour before dinner, Mrs. Morse advised them all to retire to the sleeping tent and lie down.

However, it was too sultry for that, and they chose to put on bathing suits and take a second dip to cool off. The boys had their bathing suits, too, and the party had twenty minutes of fun in the lake, with Mrs. Morse sitting on a rock in the shade and enjoying the pranks.

Lil's bathing suit was very resplendent, and so was Purt's. They were so much better dressed than anybody else that Bobby declared she was ashamed to be seen in their company--so she dove under the water.

The cut-up had the power of remaining beneath the surface a long time, and she crawled on the bottom to where Lil and Purt stood, waist deep in the water, without being observed.

Suddenly Purt yelled, dropped Lil's hand, and grabbed at the calf of his right leg. "A crab's got me!" he bawled.

"A crab in fresh water?" jeered Billy Long. "That's a new one!"

"It's one of those horrid snapping turtles!" shrieked Lil, and started for the sh.o.r.e. Not quickly enough, however, to escape Bobby's thumb and finger.

"It's that horrid Bobby Hargrew!" gasped Lil, seeing the black-eyed one shoot up from beneath, and take a long breath.

"Aw, Miss Hargrew!" begged Purt. "Don't bother us so. It's weally too bad of you."

"Then act human!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Bobby. "Don't you two stand around as though you were fashion pictures in the magazines. Duck under and get your hair wet! You'll both get a sunstroke," and in pa.s.sing them she managed to tip Lil right over backward--and that beautiful bathing suit never _did_ look as well after it was all wet!

They had dinner before Lance and Reddy returned from their errand. It had already been agreed that the boys should stay all day at Acorn Island and not return to their own camp until after supper.