“Dear me,” whispered Nancy, “I had forgotten what a weird old place this was. It might be the entrance to a tomb.”
“Halo-o-o!” called a boyish voice, and a tall, overgrown lad appeared coming up the lane from the direction of the beach, followed by a much smaller youth, who was so absorbed with whittling a little boat that he did not even look up when the girls answered the call.
“Don’t make so much noise, Ben,” said Elinor, when they had climbed through the hedge and congregated together in the lane. “This is just an investigating party. We are not to take any risks.”
“There seems to be nobody around,” replied Ben. “We saw an automobile go past a little while ago with two men in it and some big boxes in the back. It was almost stuck in the sand. I wonder it could get along at all. It looked like a big, red lobster.”
“Red?” cried the girls in one voice.
“I never saw anything redder in my life,” put in Charlie.
“You must be mistaken about the men, then,” said Elinor decisively. “Because Billie Campbell owns it and was running it herself a little while ago.”
“Well, we were not close enough to get a good look, but Billie Campbell appeared to be two men at that distance. But come along, girls. It is getting late and we had better not lose any more time. Now, what is it we are looking for? Butler bundles and boxes?”
“I don’t think they can be called Butler bundles,” replied Elinor, “since my family is to be wiped out of existence if it interferes with the bundles, whatever they are.”
The boys and girls who were thoroughly enjoying the fun and mystery of the expedition now advanced on tiptoe to the ghostly looking house, like a party of conspirators in a play.