One after another the girls drifted lazily downstairs to the dainty
breakfast Mrs. Floyd had prepared for them.
"I just couldn't bear to get up," confessed Bess, "though I knew it was
a perfectly glorious day outside."
"It is wonderful," declared Cora.
"How do you know? Have you been out?" asked Hazel, with a questioning
look at Cora's negligee.
"Peeped from the window--Jack called to me," explained his sister.
"I was _so_ tired," said Belle. "I thought I never would get enough
sleep. I wouldn't have gotten up if a ghost had called me."
"Jack was a bit disappointed that we didn't call on them for help,"
remarked Cora, and she detailed her brother's morning salutation.
"I think it's all perfect nonsense," declared Belle. "Of course I don't
mean you, Cora," she said, "for you only told us what you heard. But I
don't believe a thing will happen."
"I hope nothing unpleasant does," remarked Bess, tucking back a
rebellious lock of her pretty hair, and glancing at her pink nails which
she kept, as Jack taunted her, "in a state of faultless repair."
"Did you sleep well?" asked Mrs. Floyd, coming in with more coffee.
"Fine," answered Cora. "And please don't think we are going to impose on
you in this way every morning. We came up to help with the work, and
we're going to do it. But this morning----"
"I know, my dear. You girls don't exactly need any beauty sleep," and
she beamed at the four pretty faces that smiled back at her, "but you
must have been tired after your trip. I don't in the least mind."
"You'll find us quite energetic after this," predicted Belle. "That is
all but my sister, and you see she is----"
"Belle Robinson! If you talk about me that way I'll--I'll---- Oh! why do
you all poke fun at me?" and Bess seemed quite distressed.
"I won't any more," promised Belle. "She is trying to 'reduce'" she
added to Mrs. Floyd, "so let her do all the work she wants to. We shan't
stop her."
"What's the program to-day?" asked Hazel, as the girls finished their
coffee. "It is perfectly glorious outside. From my window I can see part
of the fall. It's beautiful. I could sit and look at it forever."
"And not want anybody to share the view?" asked Cora, pinching her
blushing cheek.
"The witness refuses to answer," mocked Belle. "But we mustn't dawdle
here all day. Let's go and get dressed, and by then----"
There came a knock at the door.
"May we come in?" asked Walter.
"We--want--our--breakfast!" bawled Jack and Paul.
"Mercy no! Don't let them in!" cried Bess, beating a precipitate
retreat.
"We--are--coming!" chanted Walter.
"Stay out a minute," ordered Cora. "Don't be afraid, the door's locked,"
she added to her companions. "We've just finished," she went on in
louder tones. "Hurry with your breakfasts, and then prepare to give us a
good time."
"Your majesty's wishes shall be obeyed," declared Paul, and as the girls
went upstairs to put on more conventional garments, the boys hurried in,
bubbling over with good spirits, greeting Mrs. Floyd effusively, and
preparing to devour everything in sight, which not very remarkable feat
(for them) they nearly accomplished.
"Did that waterfall bother you?" asked Jack, of his chums.
"Kept me awake a little," admitted Walter. "Sounded a bit like the surf
at first, and I dreamed I was down at Crystal Bay again."
"We sure had a swell time down there," said Jack.
"I like the mountains better," confessed Paul. "This place suits me."
"It will be all right," Jack said. "Now then, let's see what's doing."
"Fishing for mine," declared Walter. "That pool below the fall looks
good to me."
The others also voted to try their luck as disciples of Izaak Walton,
and presently, with rods and lines, having dug some worms where Mr.
Floyd showed them a place, they were patiently waiting on the bank of
the stream that flowed away from the waterfall.
Camp Surprise was situated amid one of the wildest and most desolate
parts of the mountains west of Chelton. It was remarkable, in a way,
that such a lonesome place could be found so close to such a number of
large and thriving towns and villages. But it was this wildness and
isolation that gave it the peculiar charm, and which had led the land
company to establish a number of camps and bungalows in the vicinity.
So rugged and diversified was the scenery, that, with the exception of
the two bungalows occupied respectively by the boys and girls, no other
two buildings were in sight of each other. Though not far removed from
one another the dwelling places were off by themselves, giving a
seclusion so often demanded by those who go to summer resorts.
At present, as the season had hardly opened, there were no other
visitors at Camp Surprise, though many were expected later in July and
August. Camp Surprise was not the real name of the place, which was
called by the development company, Mountain View. But Camp Surprise had
been applied because of the queer happenings, as has been intimated,
though so far our friends had seen no occasion for such appellation.
The waterfall and the stream which flowed from it divided practically in
half the area of land owned by the Mountain View Company. Having its
origin some miles back in the mountains, the stream was augmented by
brooks, creeks and other streams until, on reaching Camp Surprise, it
had become almost a river.
Flowing along peacefully, through green meadows, or down the slope of
some rocky hill, the river came suddenly to a great cleft in the hills,
and down this it plunged in a most beautiful fall, from a height of
about fifty feet, and perhaps a hundred feet in breadth.
At the foot of the fall was a deep pool, worn in the limestone rocks by
the erosion of the falling water, and there the white foam boiled and
bubbled in a miniature whirlpool and rapids until the stream slipped
farther on down the side of the mountain, in a series of little
cascades, in which were, so it was said, many fishes.
The boys had selected as their spot a quiet one, where a sort of eddy,
or back-water, made a quiet pool that looked, as Jack said, "like a
regular bachelor apartment for fish."
"Keep still! Don't move!" called Belle, as she and her chums, now with
all their "war paint on," as Walter hinted, approached the three young
men.
"What is it--the ghost or the furniture mover?" asked Walter.
"I just want to get a picture," Belle explained, snapping her camera.
"You look so respectable to what you do ordinarily."
"Just for that you shan't hold my hand!" declared Paul.
"Don't come any nearer," warned Walter. "I think I have a bite. Yes!
He's on!" he cried as the tip of his pole bent, and a moment later he
hauled out a flashing beauty.
"Oh, I want to catch one!" cried Cora, who was as ardent a lover of
outdoor sports as any of her boy friends.
"You may take my pole," offered Paul, as Walter unhooked his fish.
"Oh, no, I don't want to deprive you," Cora objected.
"I'll sit near and watch you--have all the fun and let you do the work,"
he retorted. And the boys and girls were soon together on the bank.
Luck was fairly good, and presently enough fish had been caught for a
"good mess," as Mr. Floyd observed when he came past.
"We'll cook them for you," offered Belle. "Won't we, girls?"
"Do you know how?" asked Jack.
"Listen to him!" mocked Bess.
As Mr. Floyd and his wife had to go to one of the more distant
bungalows, to see about some repairs, and as they would be gone most of
the day, Cora and her chums agreed to be the housekeepers and to let the
boys share the lunch with them.
"Which isn't such a concession after all," Jack said, "seeing as how we
caught the fish."
"I caught one myself," Cora declared.
"With Paul's pole, so that doesn't count," retorted her brother quickly.
They had a jolly time at lunch and spent the afternoon roaming about the
mountainside. The girls took pictures of the fall, which was really a
beauty-spot, and some of the prints were afterward enlarged, and they
made most charming pictures.
"There's the hotel," said Paul, as they came out on a ledge of rock, and
looked down in a valley. "That's where I'm going to have some tango
tea."
"To-night?" asked Jack. "I'm with you if you go."
"Count me in," added Walter. "I haven't had a good dance, not since----"
"The one with me," cut in Cora, for she and Walter were good partners.
"Right--oh, little one!" he cried. "Shall we all go down to-night?"
The hotel was about a mile from the Mountain View property, and was
quite a well-known hostelry, though the season was not yet in full
swing.
"Some other night," suggested Cora. "We haven't really gotten settled
yet, and we don't know what time Mrs. Floyd will come back. Besides, do
they let any others than guests and their friends dance?"
"Oh, I guess so," said Walter. "We'll find out. But if you don't want to
go to-night we'll wait."
This was agreed to, and the rest of the day was spent on the part of the
girls in getting their rooms in order, putting away their dresses and
arranging for supper, for they were going to do much of their own work
in camp, Mrs. Floyd being more of a chaperon and general manager than
housekeeper or cook.
The boys said they would shift for themselves.
"Aren't you going to get your suppers?" asked Cora of her brother, as
she saw him and his two chums going down the road about five o'clock in
the afternoon.
"Later," he answered. "We're going for the mail now. It gets in about
this time, and Walter is expecting a letter."
"No more than you are!" was the quick retort.
"Bring us all one!" called Bess. "Does the mail really come up here?"
It did, twice a day it developed, coming to the little village of
Mountain View, which was about a mile from Camp Surprise.
"Maybe there'll be some word about your car, Cora," said her brother.
"That's too good to hope for, Jack."
There was a letter for Cora from her mother, but there was no news of
the car. And as there were epistles also for Bess, Belle and Hazel, the
boys took great credit to themselves for having fulfilled the commands
of the girls.
"And we think we ought to be rewarded, too," said Walter.
"What form ought the reward to take?" Cora asked.
"The form of supper," was the quick answer. "We don't feel like pitching
in and opening a tin of corned beef just now. Feed us to-night, and
we'll rustle the grub for ourselves after this."
"Well, in view of the fact that you've been so nice to us, we will.
Shan't we, girls?" asked Cora.
"Yes!" came in an unhesitating chorus; and once more the boys ate
bounteously with no effort on their part.
Mrs. Floyd and her husband returned about eight o'clock, to find the
young people playing games in the big living room, and having a jolly
time.
They planned an excursion for the next day, to include a stop at the
hotel to ask about dance privileges, and then, this having been arranged
for, good nights were said.
Cora, whose room adjoined that of Belle, was awakened some time in the
night by a touch on her arm.
"Yes! What is it?" she asked, sitting up quickly, and reaching for the
little electric flashlight she always had under her pillow. "Oh, it's
you," and she revealed Belle's face. "What's the matter--are you ill?"
"No, but listen! Did you hear that--that noise?"