“A little,” she confessed. “Wouldn’t you be—if you were I?”
“I might be,” he admitted. “But we’ll get at the bottom of this for you, and catch those youngsters.”
“If we only could be sure they were boys,” Belle murmured.
“Who else could it be?” asked Jack.
“Ask us something easier,” suggested Paul. “Go ahead upstairs, girls, and see if anything is missing.”
This advice was acted upon, and when the place was aglow with lights Cora and her chums took “an account of stock,” as Jack said.
“Well, any of your ‘war paint’ missing?” he demanded of his sister when she came down.
“Only a few little trinkets,” she said, “ribbons and things like that. If it were not impossible, I should say girls had a hand in this.”
“It isn’t impossible,” declared Walter. “Girls can do almost anything nowadays. But it isn’t likely. Some boys are just as fond of bright things as are girls, and probably these youngsters hope to make neckties of your ribbons.”
“Well, what are we going to do about it?” asked Jack, when they had sat discussing the curious happening for some time.