“Don’t you think it might advertise that we’ve discovered this tunnel? Especially if the ghost should happen to see us using his boat.”
“Of course, I didn’t stop to think. Oh, Penny if only we knew the identity of this person who annoys the household!”
“It shouldn’t be so hard to learn it now,” Penny declared in satisfaction. “At night we’ll station ourselves here by the mouth of the tunnel and watch.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if it should turn out to be Max Laponi,” Rosanna remarked. “He never seems to be in his room at night.”
Penny offered no response.
Fearing that their long absence from the house might have aroused suspicion, the girls hurriedly left the scene. They found a trail which wound along the base of the cliff and which presently took them toward the house on the hill.
As they passed the Eckert cabin they saw the old man cleaning fish by the back door. They greeted him perfunctorily and would have walked on had he not seemed in a mood to talk.
“Out early this morning, aren’t you?” he questioned.
“Yes, we were down by the lake,” Penny answered.
“You must have crawled out of bed before the sun was up. I’ve been cleaning fish here all morning and I didn’t see you go past.”