It was one day when Mr. Floyd had gone in to town, and Mrs. Floyd had departed to one of the more distant bungalows to get it in readiness for occupancy, that Cora and her friends again went on a little trip to the small lake which once before they had visited.

"And make sure everything is well locked," Belle advised, as they started away, boys and girls together.

Windows and doors were seen to, though no one had more than a faint suspicion that any unbidden visitors would call. They got back rather early in the afternoon, for a thunder shower was threatening, and as Jack opened the door and looked in the living room, he called out:

"All serene. They haven't been here this time."

"That's good," said Belle. "I guess we've broken the hoodoo."

But when Cora and Hazel went upstairs there came simultaneous cries of surprise from them.

"Oh, Cora!" cried Hazel. "Look at my room!"

"And look at mine!" Cora added.

"What's the matter?" asked Jack from below.

"Everything!" answered his sister. "They've been up here, Jack!"

"Who?"

"The Surprise, of course. Our rooms are all upset."

"Is anything taken?" asked Jack, who, with the others, came up to look at the strange evidences left by the mysterious visitors.

"We can't tell yet," said Cora. "Oh dear! what does it all mean?"

No one answered for a moment, but Belle and Bess looked half-fearfully about, as though even then they might be standing in the presence of some unseen creature.

CHAPTER XXI-A DANCING LIGHT

"This is getting to be the limit of patience!" exclaimed Jack a bit wrathfully, as he looked at the disordered rooms. "Why can't we do something?"

"We could, if we knew what to do," said Walter. "But you can't fight nothing with something."

"It is very intangible," said Cora. "Oh, all my pretty things scattered about!"

"Look and see if anything is taken," suggested Paul. "If we can find out what is missing-I mean the character of the things-we can get a better line on who might have taken them. So far, the flashlight indicates regular burglars."

For a time the girls were so put out, and so nervous over what had happened, that they could not ascertain what, if anything, was missing.

Then Cora began to reckon up her belongings, and found that a number of articles had been taken. Hazel found the same misfortune had visited her.

"There are lots of my things gone," said Cora.

"What?" asked Walter, producing pencil and paper. "Let's get at this systematically."

"Oh, well, there are lots of things you-you wouldn't understand about,"

said Cora, blushing slightly.

"That's true enough," Walter admitted with a smile. "You are not on the witness stand, so you needn't mention face powder, nose rings--"

"Well, I like that!" cried Cora. "As if we used face powder!"

"Just for that he will have to eat at the second table," p.r.o.nounced Hazel.

"Come on!" challenged Jack, laughing. "Get down to business. What sort of things are missing, Cora?"

"Girls' things, of course," said his sister. "We didn't have much else up here."

And that, it developed, was what was missing. Trinkets, some toilet articles, including a silver-mounted set belonging to Cora which Jack had given her the previous Christmas, were gone. Hazel lost a silver-backed mirror and a box full of bright ribbons.

"Well, this beats me!" said Walter with a puzzled air, as he looked at the list he had made. "They took some things they may possibly dispose of at a p.a.w.nshop, but why grown men burglars should want hair ribbons, or neck ribbons, or whatever ribbons they are, gets me."

"What makes you think they were men?" asked Belle.

"Who else would it be?"

"Well, we first had a theory that the upsetting might have been done by boys," said Cora.

"Yes, that theory would fit, under certain circ.u.mstances," agreed Walter. "So would the taking of the flashlight. Almost any boy would have been glad to get that. But what boy would take a lot of pretty ribbons, even though he were enough of a criminal to know that he might be able to dispose of the silver-mounted toilet articles? It doesn't jibe."

In the main, they were forced to agree with Walter.

"Well, the fact remains that we have had another visit from the unknowns," concluded Walter, "and what are we going to do about it?"

For a moment no one knew what to say. And then, as brains were busy with the mystery, several schemes were offered.

"Put some animal traps about and catch the intruders," said Jack.

"One of us stay and watch, while the others go away," was Paul's contribution.

"Sprinkle talc.u.m powder on the floor, and then we can track them by the marks," offered Hazel.

"Not such a bad idea," declared Jack, as the others laughed. "It has been known to work."

"Call in the police," came from Bess.

"Pooh!" scoffed Cora. "If they couldn't get back my automobile they can't find mysterious thieves who enter through locked doors or windows, and vanish into thin air with their ill-gotten gains."

"Let-let's go home!" faltered Belle.

"Nonsense!" cried Cora. "We'll stick it out. It is just getting interesting."