"Oh, we would have been here long ago, but, you see, I was rather, well—shaken up," Anita explained, with a merry little laugh that made the girls warm to her at once. "Conway could hardly wait to come to tell you all how grateful he was—and is," she added, with a quaint little sideways glance in the direction of her tall brother.
"Anita's right. I almost came alone when I found she was inconsiderate enough to get sick," said Conway, who had been regarding the scene with lively interest. "You see, I never knew before what it was to almost lose a small sister."
"He speaks as if he had any number of them," cried Anita, gaily; and one could see at a glance the perfect understanding and union between the two. "But, really, this is the very first day I have been able to walk any distance at all, so Con and I thought we'd take advantage of it."
"Well, we are mighty glad you did," said Roy heartily, and Mollie glanced at him sideways. "I wonder if you two could help us solve a riddle," he added. "We had just about given it up for a bad job when you came along."
"What is it?" asked the girl eagerly. "I love riddles."
"Don't let him get your hopes raised," Betty warned. "It isn't a riddle at all. The thing is, we found a cave yesterday, and to-day it has simply vanished, disappeared, gone up in smoke."
"A cave?" said Conway, interestedly. "A cave around here? Why, I never heard of any."
"Well, we are beginning to think that we dreamed it," said Allen, pessimistically. "The only strange thing about it is that we all should dream the same thing."
"But please tell me what you mean," begged Anita. "Caves are even better than riddles. Why did you say you dreamed it?"
There could be no escaping this emphatic young person—that they realized—so Allen started to explain. When he had finished the two visitors were almost, if not quite, as excited as the Outdoor Girls and their boy chums had been.