“Apparently, it stayed here quite a while last night before turning around and pulling out,” he added.
“What would a truck be doing down here late at night?” Judy speculated.
“I wouldn’t know,” Bart answered with a shrug. “Interesting question though.”
He started off down the path which led to Calico Cave. Before vanishing from view amid the bushes, he paused to fling over his shoulder: “Don’t try to follow me, even if I’m not back in a few minutes. Wait in the milk wagon.”
Ten minutes elapsed, then fifteen and twenty. Eagerly the girls began to watch the path for their friend to reappear.
The rising sun beat down harder and harder on the milk wagon, causing Judy and Ardeth increasing discomfort. They became restless.
“It’s taking Bart an awfully long time,” Ardeth remarked uneasily. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have asked him to get a bat for me. If anything should happen—”
“He’ll be along soon,” Judy said. “I think I hear him coming now.”
She was right, for a moment later, the young milkman emerged from the tunnel of branches at the trail’s exit.
“Did you get one?” Ardeth cried eagerly.