“I think this is the place,” decided Miss Elting, halting, pointing down a narrow lane that extended through a field of stunted bushes and brush. The gate that had once shut off this byway from the main road lay broken at one side of it and a ridge of grass had grown knee high in the middle of the lane. It was a lane that had once led down to a cider mill that now lay a heap of ruins.
“It ith thpooky-looking,” observed Tommy.
“Jane is here,” exclaimed Harriet. “I see her car tracks, but I don’t see her car.”
“No; the car has come out onto the highway and gone on,” Miss Elting declared. “Jane must have driven to the next town to get something. We will go down that lane.”
Harriet dropped some grass in the road, marking a trail into the byway to notify Jane that they had arrived. They then made their way down the lane. The girls were tired and footsore. Walking in the road had been more wearisome than tramping over the hills and fields, perhaps because the former was less interesting and more monotonous. It was therefore a welcome sight when they espied the tent that they called home, even though it was a now weather-beaten and dingy-looking piece of canvas. But Jane was nowhere in sight. Neither was her car.
“Where can Jane be?” exclaimed Margery.
“Perhaps this will explain matters,” replied Miss Elting, taking down a sheet of writing paper that had been pinned to the flap of the tent. “Ah! Jane says she has gone on to the town of Granite to meet her father, from whom she got a letter this morning. She says she may not be back until late, and that we shall find the melons in the bushes to the west of the tent.”
“I don’t want any of those old melons,” pouted Margery.
“I do,” retorted Tommy. “I’ll eat all I can get.”
“At least, we have a right to eat them now that we have paid for them,” smiled the guardian. “The first thing to do will be to heat some water and bathe. We are all very dusty. Tommy, you and Margery take your baths first. In the meantime we will build the fire and get the supper going. This is going to be a pleasant camp. I wonder if we shall see our friends, the boys, this evening?”