“Yes, I do.”
“Do it. I guess it won’t kill us. There can’t be any one there now.”
Somewhat stealthily the girls crept around on the shelf and peered into the cave. The same big rocks or stones which they had noticed at the entrance before were there, piled in an apparently natural way, and the interior was strewn with rubbish. Isabel leaned over the rocks and turned her large flashlight slowly around and up and down.
“It’s awfully shallow, but there might be an opening behind those big slabs piled in the corner. The little opening in the middle might be crawled through. I’ll try it when we all come up to investigate.”
“Yes, and get stuck, perhaps, in the middle of it!”
“No; I’ll bring a long stick and feel ahead, besides I’ll have my flashlight and won’t crawl in anywhere that I can’t back out.”
“You aren’t afraid of anything, are you, Isabel!” Betty spoke somewhat admiringly, though she was often moved to protest against some of Isabel’s enterprises. Betty herself was not inclined to take risks, yet she was in no sense a weak girl and in a real crisis kept her self-control.
“Not much, I guess,” replied Isabel to Betty’s question. “The boys have seen to that. If ever I was scarey they laughed me out of it. Billy and I had all sorts of adventures, lots worse than this. But I really try not to be reckless, Betty. Father put a stop to some of the training the boys were trying to give me.” Isabel laughed at the thought of her early days at home.
“Dick ought to have trained me a little, I suspect, but you see he is so much older than I. He calls me ‘Mouse’ or ‘Peaches’ and never teased me any more than Father or Mother did.”
“Isn’t it funny that you and Lilian have brothers with the same name?”