"Our house will be quieter, at any rate," Iola agreed. "It'll be a relief when you're gone, Chet."
"That's a sister for you! Frank, you and Joe are lucky. You have no sisters."
"I don't know about that," replied Frank. "If we had sisters like Callie and Iola we wouldn't have any kick."
Chet and his sister, in spite of all their good-natured banter, got along very well together. So, with much laughter and good wishes, the friends parted, and the Hardy boys went home to finish their packing.
Next morning found the four boys bowling along a country road leading out of Bayport, on the first stage of their journey to the caves on the coast. Greatly to their disappointment, Tony Prito had been unable to come with them, as his father needed him. Biff Hooper and Chet rode together. Frank and Joe, of course, had each his own motorcycle.
It was an ideal summer morning, cool and bright. The boys carried their blankets and cooking utensils, but they had agreed it would be best not to carry too many provisions, as food could be purchased along the way as it was needed.
"This won't be our first experience searching through caves," called out Frank, who was in the lead of the little procession.
"It will be old stuff to you chaps," answered Biff. "I sure wish I had been with you when you were going through the caves below the Shore Road."
He referred to the experience of the Hardy boys when they were in search of the automobiles that thieves had hidden in secret caves beneath the cliffs along the Shore Road above Barmet Bay.
"By the way," said Chet, "did you know that one of that gang of rascals escaped from jail the other day?"