"I only want to go home to Crystal Bay, and to my mother," said Freda, and she briefly explained the circ.u.mstances.

"Well, it's too bad, but I'm afraid you can't get back to Crystal Bay to-night," declared the hackman. "The last train has gone."

"The last train gone!" gasped Freda. "Oh, what am I to do?"

"Now don't you worry a mite," replied d.i.c.k. "I'll just take you home to my wife, and she'll look after you. Don't you worry," and, after some persuasion he prevailed on Freda to go in his ramshackle rig to his home, where she was kindly received by his wife.

"I'll go back to the station to meet the express that sometimes stops at the Junction," explained d.i.c.k, "and, Miss, if there come any inquiries for you I'll tell where you are. But you'll have to stay with us till mornin', I reckon."

Freda's mind was easier now, but she could not imagine what had been the object of the strange woman, nor why she had sent the telegram.

Meanwhile, back in the bungalow, there was much alarm when Freda was missed. And when her mother came home safely, and found her daughter gone, she almost collapsed.

"Where can she have gone?" she wailed.

Hasty inquiries were made, and one of the boatmen told of having seen Freda start out through the woods, and meet the station messenger boy.

After that it was easy to trace her.

Mr. Burke told of the 'phone message, and of having seen Freda board the train for the Junction.

And then a new difficulty arose. There was no train to the Junction that night; but Mrs. Lewis was in such a state that nothing short of a visit to the place would satisfy her. There was no telephone available then, the Junction station being closed.

Cora solved the trouble.

"We can go to Hartford in our boat," she said, "and from there it is only a short trip to the Junction. We could hire an auto."

This was done. In the _Chelton_, the motor girls and the boys went to Hartford, making good time in getting there. A neighbor came over to the bungalow to stay with Mrs. Lewis, who grew more alarmed as the night deepened.

The trip by auto, which was taken only by Jack, Cora and the chauffeur, was marked by the mishap of a blown-out tire, but that was all. When the Junction was finally reached, there, true to his promise, was the hackman, and to Cora's excited inquiries he gave rea.s.suring answers.

Yes, Freda was all right, and safe at his house. He directed Jack and Cora there, and soon all were reunited. Then explanations were offered, Freda's fears about her mother were quieted, and the trip back to Hartford made, where the motor boat party was anxiously waiting.

"And now for the bungalow!" sighed Cora, as she took her place at the familiar wheel. A little later it was reached, and mother and daughter were together again telling their stories, and speculating much about Freda's strange message and the mysterious woman. But the puzzle could not be solved.

CHAPTER XVI

A BAD CASE OF NERVES

"Would the boys have anything in their camp, do you suppose?" asked Bess, with a long sigh.

"Anything for what?" asked Lottie, as she looked surrept.i.tiously into the mirror of her vanity box. Lottie was always worried about the effect of late hours.

"Is it something to eat?" asked Marita in her timid way. "If you want that, Bess, I'll go over and help you carry it."

"Gracious, I hope we don't need anything in the food line," said Cora.

"I thought we stocked up with enough to last the rest of the week."

"I want something for my nerves," went on Bess. "They're on the ragged edge, and I jump at every sound."

"And no wonder," agreed Belle, as she went over to a hammock suspended between two trees. "Get something for mine, while you're at it, Bess.

I think they use bromide, or something like that. But I doubt if the boys would have any. They don't seem to have a nerve in their bodies, though goodness knows they're 'nervy' enough at other times. Pardon the colloquialism," she murmured as she sank back.

It was the morning after Freda's return, and the night had been rather a troubled one. No one in the girls' camp felt much like eating breakfast, though they managed to nibble at a bit of toast and drink some coffee.

The alarm about Freda had giver the motor girls the keenest anxiety, and while Jack and the boys tried to make Freda and the girls believe the woman and the telephone message had been a joke, it looked to be too serious a matter to be lightly pa.s.sed off.

The odd woman who had met Freda at the country junction had shown, by her questions, that she knew much about the disputed property. And her manner had been, in a way, rather threatening. It was too unusual to have been accidental, at any rate.

But Freda had reached home in safety. The motor girls were glad of that, but they were all suffering from a bad case of nerves, though, so far, Bess and Belle had been the only ones to admit it openly.

"I wouldn't take any of that bromide, if I were you, Bess," said Cora, as she straightened out some of the things in the living room. The usually homelike apartment had taken on a most woebegone appearance since the previous night. Everyone had left everything just where she had happened to let it fall.

"But I've got to do something!" declared the plump twin. "My hand shakes--see, I can't hold it still," and in proof she held it out.

"It does shake," spoke Marita, in an awed whisper. "Maybe she had better have a doctor."

"Doctor! Nonsense!" laughed Belle. "Her hand trembles because she had her arm up so long this morning, trying to do her hair up that new way. Sit down, Bess, and you'll be all right in a few minutes."

"But I can't sit still, that's the trouble. I'm so nervous!" and Bess hastily arose from a chair in which she had seated herself, and began pacing up and down the broad bungalow porch.

"I have an idea!" exclaimed Cora.

"Don't let it die of lonesomeness," suggested Belle, with a laugh.

"Think up another and have a pair of ideas."

"I will," replied Cora, promptly. "I think if we go out for a little spin in the boat it will do us all good. It's a lovely day--too lovely to let our nerves get the best of us. What do you say?"

"I'll do anything rather than sit here and think of what might have happened," sighed Bess.

"Oh, you're taking it entirely too seriously," put in Lottie, as she used a buffer on her already pink and polished nails. "What could have happened?"

"Why, they might have taken Freda away!"

"Who would?"

"Those persons--men or women--or both--who are trying to get possession of the Lewis property. And, in a way, we might have been involved," went on Bess.

"I don't see how," observed Cora.

"Why, we've given advice to Freda and her mother, and if things went wrong some persons might say we had an object in it."

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Belle. "You've surely got a case of nerves, all right. Come on, let's do as Cora says and take a trip on the water."

She got out of the hammock--Belle could accomplish this difficult feat more gracefully than anyone else, Cora always said.

Then they all went down to the little dock where the _Chelton_ was tied, and Cora, with a quickness born of long experience, ascertained that there was plenty of gasoline and oil in the craft. She tested the vibrator and found the current good, though at times, when not suffering from a fit of stubbornness, the engine had been known to start with the magneto. But it was not safe to depend on it.