"We're listening, Bobby! Do tell us what it is," cried the twins in unison.
"The shell is gone!" cried Bobby.
"Gone where?"
"What shell?"
"Our new shell. And if I knew where it was gone I wouldn't be telling you about how it was stolen, for it would be an old story then," said Bobby, panting.
"You don't mean to say that the new shell has been taken out of the boathouse—and a watchman there?"
"That's what I mean. It's gone," said Bobby, solemnly. "Mike, the watchman, doesn't know when it was taken. One of the big doors was forced open and our beautiful shell has disappeared. There are two launches out searching the lake for it."
"But who would have done such a thing?" cried Dorothy.
"And what could be their object?" demanded her sister.
"Ask me an easier one," said the grocery-man's daughter. "I only know it's gone, and the intention evidently is to make us Central High girls lose the race."