"We heard a noise in the cave. Maybe it's a bear, an' if it is Freddie can take his popgun the next time we go there. Can't you, Freddie?"
"Dear me!" laughed Nan. "What's it all about?"
Then the two small twins told more slowly what had happened to them, and Nan and Bert told their small brother and sister that, coming back from their little trip, they had found Mrs. Bobbsey much worried because she could not find Flossie and Freddie.
"Then it began to rain," said Nan, "and we were all as worried as could be. We looked at our boats, and when we found they were tied at the dock we didn't think you were out on the water. Then when it stopped raining Bert and I started out to find you and so did Sam, though he went a different way."
"And we called and called to you," said Bert. "Didn't you hear us shouting?"
"Maybe that was the noise we heard in the cave," said Freddie to his sister.
"What about this cave?" asked Bert. "Tell us where it is."
Then, riding back to camp in the goat wagon, the two small twins told again of the big hole in which they had taken refuge from the storm.
"I'd like to see that," Bert said. "We'll go there to-morrow."
"We can walk there, or Whisker can take us," said Freddie. "And then we can come home in the boat, but you'll have to take some oars, Bert."