“Say, what’s this all about?” demanded Jack. “Are you hiding part of the secret from us, Sis?”
“That isn’t fair. If there’s a secret here we ought to share it. And if you girls are going to keep things to yourselves we fellows will pack up and leave, and——”
“Don’t dare desert us!” cried Belle. “I won’t stay here a minute after the boys go; will you, Cora?”
“Well, I like to have them here, of course,” answered Jack’s sister. “But if we talk that way about them they’ll get an exaggerated idea of their importance, and there’ll be no way of enforcing discipline. So if they want to go let them, and we’ll solve this mystery ourselves.”
“I think we’re making a mountain out of a molehill,” declared Walter. “I don’t see any great mystery here. A few chairs and a table are upset. It’s the most natural thing in the world.”
“Natural? How do you make that out?” asked Bess.
“Why, Mrs. Floyd has been sweeping and dusting in here, and she has moved the chairs about. They always do it at our house. And say! some days it’s as much as your life is worth to try to navigate through the misplaced furniture. You need a harbor pilot and a searchlight, to say nothing of a chart and an automobile road map. That’s all that’s happened here. Mrs. Floyd has been doing a little house-cleaning.”
“So that’s your explanation of it; is it?” asked Cora. “Then how do you account for the fact that Mrs. Floyd and her husband have been away all day?”
She pointed toward the road and the others saw the two caretakers in Mr. Floyd’s light wagon approaching the bungalow. They were returning from their day’s shopping trip, as was evident by the number of bundles in the vehicle.