"Tomorrow or next day. She has to take some special 'exams.' I am sorry that girl is so ambitious. It always interferes with her vacation."

"Hazel will make her mark some day, if she does not spoil it all by having someone make it for her--on a flat stone. But honestly Bess, I do hope she will come up before the others. Next to you and Belle I count more on Hazel Hastings than on anyone else in our party."

"And not a little on her brother Paul?" and Bess laughed in her teasing way. "Now Cora, Paul Hastings is acknowledged to be the most useful boy in all the Chelton set. He can fix an auto, fix an electric bell, fix an alarm clock--"

"And no doubt could overhaul a motor boat," finished Cora, as she turned the Petrel toward land. "Well, this is Far Island, and I am sure the boys headed this way. Let's shout."

Putting her hands to her mouth, funnel fashion, Cora sent out the shrill yodel known to all of the motor girls and motor boys. Bess took up the refrain; but there was no answer.

"If they were ash.o.r.e wouldn't their boat be about?" asked Bess. "We can see all this side of the island, but you said it was too rocky to land on the other sh.o.r.e."

Cora looked about. Yes, one edge was all sandy and the other rocks.

If the boys had come ash.o.r.e they must have done so from the north side.

"My, what a lot of boats!" exclaimed Bess. "Cora, just see that flock," and she pointed to a distant flotilla of various craft across the lake.

"Yes, and so many canoes, we could hardly tell the boys in that throng. Do you suppose they are in that parade?"

"Oh, no. They had only bathing suits on, and that really looks like some fleet," replied Bess. "Yes, see there is their club banner.

My! I had no idea that Cedar Lake boasted of such style."

"We may expect water picnics every day now," said Cora. "But just see that old man in the rowboat towing that pretty canoe. Do you suppose he has it for hire?"

"Likely. But how would anyone hire it out here? Why not from sh.o.r.e?" questioned Bess.

"Well, perhaps he is taking it to the dock," and Cora allowed her boat to touch the island sh.o.r.e. "At any rate if we are to find the boys we had better be at it, for I want to start back before that throng of boats gets in my way. I feel sure enough, but I like room."

Both girls stepped ash.o.r.e as Cora caught the boat hook in the strong root of a tree and pulled the craft in. Then she shouted again.

"Jack! Jack!" she called. "Isn't it lonely here," she said suddenly, realizing that while she had expected the boys to be on the island, they might have gone to any of the other bits of land.

"Yes," said Bess. "I never felt so far away from everything before.

On an island it is so different from being on real sh.o.r.e!"

"Yes, it is farther out," and Cora laughed at the description.

"Bess, I guess I was mistaken. The boys do not seem to be here."

"Then do let's go back," pleaded Bess. "I am actually afraid."

"Of what? Not those 'jug-er-umms.' Just hear them. You would think the frogs were trying to drive us away from their territory."

"I always did hate the noise they make," declared Bess. "It sounds like a dead, dark night. Why do they croak in the daytime?"

"Night is coming," Cora explained, "and besides, it is so quiet here they do not have to wait for nightfall. But listen! Didn't you hear those dry leaves rustle?"

"Oh Cora, come!" and Bess pulled at her friend's skirt. "It may be a great--snake."

Cora stood and listened. "No," she said, "that was no snake. It sounded like something running."

"Come on, Cora dear," begged Bess, so that Cora was obliged to agree. "See, all the boats have gone the other way. And if anything happened we might just as well be on this desert island as on that desert water."

They had not ventured far into the wood, so that it was but a few steps back to the boat. Cora loosened the bow line and presently the engine was chugging away.

"Oh," sighed Bess, "I felt as if something dreadful was going to happen. Ever since those gypsies took you, Cora, I am actually afraid of everything in the country. It did seem safe on the water, but in those woods--"

"Now, Bess dear, you are to forget all about the gypsies. I have almost done so--that is, I have forgotten all the unpleasant part.

Of course, I occasionally hear from Helka. Do you want to steer, Bess?"

"I would rather not," confessed Bess, "for I am actually trembling.

Where do you suppose the boys could have gone?"

"Haven't the least idea, and we have no more time to speculate.

There! Didn't you hear a strange noise on the island? I declare, that store man must be right. Those islands are haunted!"

"Wasn't that a queer noise! Oh! I am so glad we are safe in our boat," and Bess breathed a sigh of relief. "I would have died if that noise happened while we were there."

"But I should like to know what it is, and I will never be satisfied until I find out," declared Cora. "That was neither bird nor beast--it was human."

But the motor boat, girls headed straight for sh.o.r.e--the sun seemed falling into the lake as they reached the camp to be welcomed by Belle. The story of the trip to the island and the disappearance of the boys was quickly told.

CHAPTER III

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BOYS

"What can have happened to the boys?" murmured Belle. "I am afraid they are drowned."

"All of them?" and Cora could not repress a smile. "It would take a very large sized whale to gobble them all at once, and surely they could not all have been seized with swimming cramps at the same moment. No, Belle, I have no such fear. But I am going right out to investigate. I know Jack would never stay away if he could get here, especially when he knew this would be your first evening at the lake. Why, the boys were just wild to try my boat," and she threw her motor cape over her shoulders. "Come on girls, down to the steamer landing. There may have been some accident."

Belle and Bess were ready instantly. Indeed the twins seemed more alarmed than did Cora, but then they were not used to brothers, and did not realize how many things may happen and may not happen, to detain young men on a summer day or even a summer night.

"Oh dear!" sighed Belle, "I have always dreaded the water. I did promise mamma and Bess to conquer my nervousness and not make folks miserable, but now just see how things happen to upset me," and she was almost in tears.

"Nothing has happened yet, Belle dear," said Cora kindly, "and we hope nothing will happen. You see your great mistake comes from what Jack calls the 'sympathy bug.' You worry about people before you know they are in trouble. I feel certain the boys will be found safe and sound, but at the same time I would not be so foolhardy as to trust to dumb luck."

"You are a philosopher, Cora," answered the nervous girl, her tone showing that she meant to compliment her chum.

"No, merely logical," corrected Cora, as they walked along. "You know what marks I always get in logic."

"But it all comes from health," put in Bess. "Mother says Belle would be just as sensible as I am if she were as strong."

"Sensible as you are?" and Cora laughed. Bess had such a candid way of acknowledging her own good points. "Why, we have never noticed it, Bess."

"Oh, you know what I mean. I simply mean that I do not fuss," and Bess let her cheeks glow at least two shades deeper.