ound Clover Cottage, was perfectly
pardonable.

The motor girls had just returned from a delightful afternoon ride
along the shore road at Lookout Beach. Bess and Belle Robinson,
otherwise Elizabeth and Isabel, the twins, were in their little
car--the _Flyaway_--and Cora Kimball was driving her fine,
four-cylinder touring affair, both machines having just pulled up in
front of Clover Cottage, the summer home of the Robinsons.

"Did the boys say they would come directly from the post-office?" asked
Belle, as she eyed the back fence suspiciously.

"Yes, they had to drop some mail in the box. We won't attempt to go in
until they come. At any rate, I have a little something to do to the
_Whirlwind_," and Cora pulled off her gloves, and started to get a
wrench out of the tool box.

"I'll get busy, too," declared Bess. "It will look better in case our
friend happens to come around the corner."

"No danger," and Cora glanced up from the tool box. "I fancy that
gentleman is not of the type that runs into facts."

"Do you think he is a burglar?" asked Belle.

"Well, I wouldn't say just that. But he certainly is not
straightforward. And that is a bad sign," replied Cora.

"And not a person in the house to help us," sighed Belle. "Oh, I don't
see why mamma----"

"Now, Belle Robinson!" interrupted her sister. "You know perfectly
well that mamma had to take Nellie and Rose over to Drifton. They have
to get ready for school."

"Mamma fusses a lot over those two girls," continued Belle. "It seems
to me a lucky thing they happened to run away--our way."

This remark was lost upon Bess and Cora. Bess was intent upon
something--nothing definite--about the _Flyaway_, while Cora was
working assiduously trying to adjust a leaky valve.

The prospect of dark coming on with no one but themselves about the
cottage, and the late appearance of the strange man, kept each one busy
thinking. Presently Belle exclaimed:

"Oh, here come the boys!" and without waiting for the young men to turn
the corner, which marked the end of the Clover Cottage grounds, she ran
along with the news.

Jack Kimball, Cora's brother, Walter Pennington, his chum, and Ed
Foster, the friend of both, sauntered along.

"I suppose Belle will say we had a bandit," remarked Cora, with a
laugh, "but to tell the truth, Bess, I did not like the fellow's
looks." She closed the engine bonnet and hurried to the sidewalk.

"Neither did I," replied Bess